Level One Upgrades- waste of money?

[Ferarri2007]

Hi guys! I've been thinking of getting a intake-header-exhaust upgrade. It's the so-called level one upgrade for the purposes of souping up my Lancer. I saw mixed reviews, with many saying it's a waste of money. This site shamelessreviews.com , in particular is opionated against it
Your thoughts?

[mazdamazda]

IF done right it isn't a waste of money IMO.

The problem is that a LOT of people would "upgrade" their vehicles in the wrong manner.

For example the air intake. Most would opt to buy the cheapest open-type filter out there without consideration for its placement to minimize hot air absorption. The problem is that these el-cheapo filters are so poorly made that they let in small dirt particles. Then there's the matter of properly servicing them, there's a dedicated cleaner & recharge oil for these filters but I've read that a some uses a regular detergent to clean them and use motor oil to lube them again. :shocked2:

[mbeige]

Are the headers going to be a larger diameter to free up the flow? If so, you'll need to port-match the exhaust ports so the flow will be continuous. If you want to get a larger intake, same thing to do so that the turbulence inside is minimized.

Like M2 said, do it properly.

[Si 06]

For intake get the original K&N drop in because the CAI is metal and will soak up the heat e di na cold air intake yon unless balutin mo ng insulation to keep the heat out. Fernan sa Speedlab halos lahat inaalok sa akin but Gono in Autoplus exhaust system lang. Punta ka dun sa hindi ka lolokohin

[ssaloon]

it also depends on the base engine you will be upgrading. if you're gonna slap IHE on a 1.3L carb car, VERY minimal ang gain. it's best to save for an engine swap, wherein the cost is not that far off from a mandrel bent IHE setup. no offense to 1.3L car owners.

[vinj]

As aforementioned there are a lot of factors and one factor also is "how restrictive is your stock system"? In the case of the Sentra GA16 engines, the basic bolt-ons (w/ local crush bent headers at that) have been proven on the dyno to give around 10 wheel hp (+/-)....

Research first and ask around for the best i/h/e set-up within your budget; cross-check with other owners with the same ride.

[empy]

depends on your expectations. as others have said, 10-20 hp gain is reasonable for an economy car with a fairly restrictive stock breathing system.

decent gain, but if you're expecting a huge improvement you'll be very disappointed, especially since quality parts are not cheap...

[niky]

For a 1.3 or 1.5, not really worth it. You'll be spending a lot of money to make the engine a bit more responsive, but not very quick.

For a 1.6, you can definitely feel the difference, but it's honestly not very big, and the cost of a full IHE upgrade (done properly) is close to that of a turbo kit.

For a Honda B16A or a 2.0 engine, it's a good idea, but again, don't expect a night and day difference.

If you value responsiveness and don't have the time or confidence to build a proper turbo kit, go ahead and do a full IHE, but research what you're doing... like others have said, it's really easy to mess up.

EDIT:

Vehicle Level One Upgrades

race vehicles

How we all love faster, more fuel efficient cars!

Drive a beat up Toyota Altis? Or Perhaps a Honda Fit? No matter how pedestrian these cars are, it feels great to tweak them up for a minor performance boost.

Which is what I did two months ago to my 2006 Honda Fit.

I gave this baby the Level One Upgrade which consists of

Upgraded Headers
Upgraded Free Flow Mufflers
Iridium Sparkplugs by Denso
High Tension Wires
K&N filter
Grounding Wires
Kaizen Voltage Stabilization Kit

Know what happened?

I ended up hundreds of dollars poorer and none the richer in terms of engine performance or fuel efficiency.

That’s right: I wasted cash.

Emptied the tank 4 times and measured mpg each time. It never changed Same banana. Fuel efficiency is not affected by this ‘level one upgrade’ as the car afficionadoes like to call it.

How about speed? Power? All that Jazz?

Zilch. My quarter mile times never improved after multiple tests done over many days. It’s the same as the depressing quartermile tests done on stock form.

This leads me to the conclusion:

You want power? Skip the mythical level one upgrade. Slap on a turbo intercooler or supercharger.
You want economy? Try the acetone-gas mixture. Now this really worked for me in another car (a Skyline). I found a 30% increase in mpg with this 50 cent upgrade!

There are some problems with this review.

Upgraded Headers
Upgraded Free Flow Mufflers
Iridium Sparkplugs by Denso
High Tension Wires
K&N filter
Grounding Wires
Kaizen Voltage Stabilization Kit

It's possible any power gained from one or another of these modifications was lost due to inefficiencies in the others.

Merely changing your plugs to Iridium won't gain power or fuel economy. In fact, changing to plugs with the wrong tip design will lose power.

Grounding Wires and a Voltage Stabilizer will not net any power on a brand new vehicle unless you dyno-tune it.

And he doesn't state the type of IHE upgrades performed. If they're mismatched, or even if he merely left the stock cats in, they probably didn't do much at all.

[vinj]

HT wires on a Jazz/Fit? Isnt this engine already distributorless? (no HT wires available for such right as the ignition wiring is different?).

[deedee]

agree with everyone as far as what engine is being upgraded.it also depends on what kind of HP you want to gain cause honestly...intake,header and exhaust will cost alot for a very minimal gain in HP but if your looking on more upgrades then those 3 are a good start.
i actually look at intake,headers,exhaust and chip to be a more complete level one upgrade.chips and/or handheld's will give you more HP gain when added with intake,headers and exhaust.(depending on engine)

[niky]

There are aftermarket ignition wires available for distributorless systems... but they're very short, don't do much, and are mostly pointless except from a cosmetic point of view.

I'm completing my Level One upgrades merely for reasons of efficiency and response... not for "mega" power.