March 2022 | Exhaust
After messing with just about every other part of the car it was time to finally add some power. The first part was creating a different exhaust. There weren't many options to pick from and I didn't really like any of whether they were too expensive or didn't like the sound, so I had a custom exhaust made. I ended up with what was essentially a 3-inch straight pipe with a single vibrant resonator.
With the stock headers, it sounded really nice and surprisingly refined sounding and honestly a little boring-sounding on the top end. So much so that I was worried that the headers wouldn't make it sound "spicy" enough for my liking. Boy was I wrong about that.
Stock Headers with Exhaust
The next mod was headers. I ordered a cheap set from Alibaba or Aliexpress and was initially sent the wrong version, but got the correct ones the second time around. Install wasn't too bad except for a couple of bolts that were just about impossible to get to.
I was not ready for what it sounded like. With the headers on, the car is obnoxiously loud. And since I have my car half gutted everything rattles so if I drive with the windows up, the exhaust rattles EVERYTHING. The drone is about as terrible as you would expect it to be but man does it sound good at wot. Power gains were noticeable but did not feel as big as people made it out to be but maybe that's due to to the elevation I'm at (6000ft+) or the fact that the car still had the factory tune.
Catless headers with Exhaust
https://youtube.com/shorts/5tJgCAUkiYc
April 2022 | MILVS, N54 Intake manifold and Tune
Installing the MILVS was one of the only mods I was a little worried about installing since I'd never messed with anything internal to an engine but ended up being far easier than expected to install. Getting to them was a different story. Getting the valve cover both on and off was way more of a pain in the ass than I could ever imagine. Getting the bolts in and out was fine, but finding a way to finagle the actual cover on and off was terrible. Everything kept getting in the way. After finishing everything turned out fine and the car felt exactly as it did when I started since I still had no tune.
Next was the n54 Intake manifold and tune. Thanks to the great guide
Biginboca made the swap was pretty straightforward, and since I was using the injen intake, I didn't have to make any modifications to that.
Now at the time, I ordered a tune from stagefp but they were having issues with their supplier so I had to send them my ECU, but it was pretty simple to do, and had no issues once I got it back.
Once I had the manifold and tune on is when the car truly felt like it had a lot more power, and revving out to 7500 felt great especially since it was still making power there. I could really feel the additional torque down low from what I'm assuming is the MILVS when I'm just crusing since I can be cruising in the higher gears and find myself not needing to downshift to pass
someone, where I probably would before. Additionally, the n54 intake manifold made the car feel smoother and almost sounded like it reduced some of the drone I had. Also, I asked bob to put a burble tune above 5k rpm and was expecting some popcorn or something of the sort, but with the exhaust, it sounds like literal gunshots and pops a 3-foot flame out the back. I know it's not for everyone, and I'll probably ask him to take it off in the future, but I wanted to give it a shot (pun intended).
Backfires
https://youtube.com/shorts/jfWGVscP_BI
Overall I'm very satisfied with the additional power, and would certainly say all of these mods are worth the money and effort.