by Chinky420 » Fri Aug 29, 2008 1:43 pm
follow the link in midias' post.
don't buy an ebay intake....buy the CP-e (or the injen if you want to save money)
the exhaust side of the engine is the weaker side (as opposed to the intake side)
for starters, since you just got your car, you should:
1) change the spark plugs/wires
2) change the oil (if it wasn't changed for the buyer)
3) check other fluids (i.e. transmission, brake, etc)
4) clean out your throttle body (with TB cleaner, check the tutorial section)
this will get you a little personal time with your car, and will give you an idea of how she is running.
cheap upgrades include:
groung wire kit (either homemade or off ebay, should cost less than $50)
intake (injen costs less than $200)
rear sway bar (PM reggie, username: NVD1S i think...he works for toyota in st. louis and get them for like, $150).
don't worry about an ECU upgrade/chip. the only time you're going to need to worry about that is when/if you go supercharged/turbo'd with a buttload of boost (in which case, jet will reprogram your ecu chip, but it's like >400 dollars, i think). a previous member had his chip reprogrammed, but only after he had dropped like, over $10,000 into his solara (silverlicious).
when it comes down to it, it's costly to modify a solara.....we don't drive your typical vanilla flavored civics (of which there's a SH!TLOAD of aftermarket support), so as a result, we have to pay extra for quality products. if you want to be able to drop 40 for an intake, and then 150 for an exhaust, and another 120 for headers...then buy a honda. otherwise, be prepared to invest some serious cash.
and don't knock the supercharger. it's the cheapest/safest way to add >40 whp at once. NO2 may be cheaper, but the odds of blowing up your engine go up exponentially. turbo kits are not around for the 1mz (v6), so if you wanted to boost that way, it's going to cost more than a s/c setup (plus you would probably have to build up the internals to run more than 6psi anyway...and 6psi on a turbo is almost a waste).
if you're really serious about spending money upgrading your solara to go fast (i.e. track aspirations), then you're gonna want to do a manual trans swap, get the jpp full exhaust system, a supercharger, an upgraded supercharger pulley, all suspension upgrades (struts, springs, sway bars), the CP-e intake, and also the support work for the supercharger (upgraded engine internals, upgrade 190lph walbro fuel pump, bigger fuel injectors).....sounds expensive? yeah, it is.
