Ya know, I love this car. Unfortunately it is starting to remind me of my old 93 Ford Probe GT; being that quality aftermarket parts are hard to come by.
SRD doesn't make an intake for the 1st gen, only 2nd gen. So that leaves Blitz (you want how much for that filter ), Injen (probably what I'll go with), or hack apart an AEM from a Honda.

But yesterday I found what is possibly the only company that makes a header for our car.
www.xerd.com



I called up Titan Motorsports to get some feedback from them. What they told me was that Xerd does make high quality parts; however it takes about 3-4 weeks to get the order delivered.

So, if you guys want a review, I should have one in 3 months or so, maybe sooner. I just finished paying for a JDM Integra Type R motor for my Si, so right now I am a little broke But since this is really the family car, forced induction is out....for now anyway.
I am looking at the Injen intake, Xerd header, and either Borla or Carson exhaust for starters.
And of course there will be a before and after dyno plot to see if there is any power genereated from these 3 parts.

Opinions, Questions ?? Bring em on.

-Ken-

 

well since you said that forced induction is out "for now" if you get this header for what 400-500 or so dunno the price on that particular one. And then you decide to go forced induction you will have wasted the money on a header cause you'll need a new one. I don't think you will get the performance you are looking for versus the money you will spend on the header. You have to remember that this is a pretty nicely tweaks engine from the factory, headers and exhaust will not give you similar gains as you would get on a camaro v8 or a mustang.

 

OK, while the company's claim of ~17 HP or so is hard to swallow, doesn't every little bit count??
Short of FI or motor swaps, won't the basic I/H/E mods add up to something?? At the very least it will sound better. I accept the fact that the gains will be minimal, and I can live with that. But this is the family's daily driver and it must remain reliable. And I am nowhere ready to drop 4K or more on a turbo kit for at least a year. I am sure that there are quite a few owners out there that have done something similar. I really would like to hear your opinions.

The jump from basic NA mods to full-out turbo is, in my mind, a big jump. And there doesn't seem to be be much in between those 2 extremes.

-Ken-

 

Yea that seems to be the problem, there isn't much in between that even makes a difference. I have a cold air intake and just mufflers on my car, not a cat-back. Although it does make some difference on the top end I did it mostly for the sound and I think the sound just gives you the illusion of speed. Good luck though you'll never know if you don't try.

 

At risk of opening a can of worms, has anyone looked into or tried the ECU reprogramming route (like Jet Stage 1 or 2) or other add-in modules to help take advantage of improved Airflow and breathing upgrades by tuning timing and fuel mapping?

 

I think your best bet into messing with the computer is with an s-afc or something along those lines. Jet chips are available for the gs300 first gen but all they do is remove speed limiter and rev limiter. The s-afc if tuned properly and with bolt on mods may make a little bit of difference. But if you go that route the safc is pretty expensive byitself and thats not counting the dyno time involved to tune it. I don't know if it would be worth the effort.

 

the headers will give you at least 10hp.........
if you have exhaust and custom piping, even better breathing for the car!!!

having the resonators off will give you more hp but the car wud be really loud...and youwont like it.
the headers are like 499...........am i correct? not a bad price for lexus.
not sure though if the car will pass smog with the headers...

 

Yeah, the headers aren't expensive at all. But I will definately retain some sort of resonator in the exhaust system. After all, this isn't my Civic Si, it's a Lexus.
As far as emissions, I see that while it has o2 sensor ports, it probably wouldn't pass the visual at the minimum. But I live in Florida where we have no checks.

 

Anyword on the headers? I was browsing www.horsepowerfreaks.com and saw them on there.

-Destin

 

cool stuff.

 

dang, this thread is wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.............................old.

 

Huh? Karin'sGS3 started this thread May 12, 04. Thats only like 2 months ago.

-Destin

 

oh, really? i thought this was discussed years ago...............??...
my bad.........

 

I have had a lot of success in my 93 GS300 with bolt-ons (HKS exhaust, HKS intake, removal of fan clutch, SAFC2). I gained a ton of responsiveness thru the power band. I wish I had dyno'd the car before starting the mods, but I did get one run at the dragstrip when it was just bought.. (206k miles) and dead stock. 17.9@78mph. Since the bolt-ons, and before actually dyno tuning the SAFC2, I went back to the track and ran 16.38@86mph..and on 18" rims no less. That is a gain of 1.6 seconds and 8mph.. huge improvement for bolt-ons. I say that if you are considering just leaving the car NA, then give the headers a shot.. you can always sell themn on good 'ol Ebay if you want to go the Turbo/SC route.

The next best "bolt-on" I'll be trying at the track this week. Nitrous. Based on the dyno #s I may be looking at dropping another 1.5 second thru the 1/4 and may hit 95mph.

 

Hey Ken,

Its been one year and I'm wondering if you ever came across to getting it. thanks