2001 MR2 Best Performance Exhaust and Cold Air Intake

[Ace]

I bought a 2001 MR2 spyder with 45k on it and I am looking to up the torque on it. I am told that higher torque is what I need for faster acceleration. I am thinking of the easiest and cheapest ways to do this as the exhaust and air intake. Suggestions? I don't care at all about the looks of the exhaust or intake. I just care about the price and performance. Also somebody had said to switch to all synthetic fluid. I use Mobil 1 for motor oil. What other fluids could I change to get less friction and get more power? Any good places to find deals for this stuff? Lot of questions I know but man there are some smart people on these forums with vast information on this stuff.
Thanks in advance!!!

[supunna_picta]

There are no cheap bolt-ons that give any appreciable performance increases for this car. Let this idea sink in.

CAI isn't going to give you any notable gains and these are expensive anyhow so this should be the last mod. Maybe at best plug in the TRD air filter into the stock air box if you feel like you want to have done something.

The next cheapest option is a muffler, probably a Team Moon single due to weight. If you want more power then lose the stock cat and headers in place of something like PPE or Che's headers. These up the price however - but are going be the easiest and probably least expensive mod for the most power (and usually a lot less weight).

Fluids are going to help with the longevity of the working parts with proper maintenance - you will not put in Synthetic fluid and feel HP on your next drive, sorry.

If you're handy - this set up sounded perfect with stock headers and cat, was cheap, light weight and increased power.

DIY Muffler Mod - Homebrew pics and sound clip

[GENESIS]

don't bother with bolt on i/h/e that will just move up your power band and give you cool noises and you might even probably loss a little low-end torque,if your looking for torque that you can actually feel than you have to increase displacement or compression,increase volumetric efficiency by pressurizing the combustion chamber and thats supercharging or turbocharging and you will get more out of your money in terms of hp per dollar.or do some minor weight reduction. gas consumption will be better,it will be easier on your rotors and help resist brake failure when racing,better handling and every 100ibs you loose is a tenth of a second off your acceleration time and its free! and if that's not enough get a lighter 15 inch rims like the enkei rpf1 which is 10ibs per rims,It will be easier for your motor to run because of less rotational mass also less unsprung weight equals to better handling.

[Mateo Largo]

I agree with these guys that there are no cheap easy ways to make dramatic gains in these cars; HOWEVER, if you are realistic in what you want... you can make some nice noises and enough power for this fun little chassis to do what it was designed for only better. Most people initially go the intake/header/exhaust upgrade path. I'm running a Che's header and Lotus-style exhaust along with an AEM intake. The Che's stuff is extremely reasonable in price and you can probably install yourself--and it sounds great (AND YOU CAN LOSE THE PRECATS!!!). Intakes, yes they are pretty expensive--and don't do much on their own; HOWEVER, they allow you to get a little more out of tuning and engine management. I'm not sure my AEM intake is doing anything more than say a Top Secret setup, but it certainly moves more air than stock.

I installed a Unichip. I know that a lot of people a skeptical, but I'm sold--it changes the attitude of our eoconomy engine a bit (they show dynos with significant gains--+/- 20 hp when used with other mods). They are expensive, but when used with some breathing mods they give this little car as much grunt as most of us are looking for. I'm going to drop in some Crower Stage 1 cams and then do the custom Unichip tuning (I've seen before/after dynos where people are getting +10-12 HP and +10-12 ft.lbs. with these cams). I'll post a dyno soon. I'd like people to see that a 1zz will create reasonable power without forced induction.

People will always preach that you should turbo it--but that is not for everyone. Check the boards for quality used stuff, and shop a little, and you can upgrade your header and exhaust and add an intake for $500-$600.

Absolutely do some bracing. Tires. Most important: Gut the precats now!

[supunna_picta]

Originally Posted by Mateo Largo

I installed a Unichip. I know that a lot of people a skeptical, but I'm sold--it changes the attitude of our eoconomy engine a bit (they show dynos with significant gains--+/- 20 hp when used with other mods). They are expensive, but when used with some breathing mods they give this little car as much grunt as most of us are looking for. I'm going to drop in some Crower Stage 1 cams and then do the custom Unichip tuning (I've seen before/after dynos where people are getting +10-12 HP and +10-12 ft.lbs. with these cams). I'll post a dyno soon. I'd like people to see that a 1zz will create reasonable power without forced induction.

After doing the I/H/E I was on the fence for buying a Unichip or the Camcon and decided not to due to lack of support in my area. Thanks for posting up your opinion - perhaps when I move to the 'big city' I'll look back into it. Did you have yours fine-tuned after purchase, or stay with their pre-mapped chip? I think it's sort of the last basic bolt on option before cracking the engine open or FI.

[GENESIS]

Originally Posted by Ace

I bought a 2001 MR2 spyder with 45k on it and I am looking to up the torque on it. I am told that higher torque is what I need for faster acceleration. I am thinking of the easiest and cheapest ways to do this as the exhaust and air intake. Suggestions? I don't care at all about the looks of the exhaust or intake. I just care about the price and performance. Also somebody had said to switch to all synthetic fluid. I use Mobil 1 for motor oil. What other fluids could I change to get less friction and get more power? Any good places to find deals for this stuff? Lot of questions I know but man there are some smart people on these forums with vast information on this stuff.
Thanks in advance!!!

Turbo is not for everyone if money is not a problem and all motor power is the absolute poison you want than that's cool too i tried the all motor route a couple of years back on my miata and boy throttle modulation is second to none.you can start off with a basic intake then bore out the throttle bodyto match the intake manifold,from there if you have have time take the head off and portmatch the intake manifold to the head i should take like 8hrs i suggest buying another mr2 head and working on after you learn a bit about porting of course,then shave the head almost to the limit but leave enough
metal for another resurface in the future,with the head shave it should help increase a tiny bit of compression,then port the exhaust side to match the aftermarket headers,now that you ported your head and have aftermarket headers then you can now take full advantage with aftermarket cams that you will need.after all that all motor mods get yourself a standalone ecu and get it tuned by a good dyno tuner but before that get a light weight flywheel to help increase throttle response since all of your mods are for high end.

the point of this is if you want to do the all motor route you cant just put intake/headers/exhaust .the reason why you cant feel an intake mod to its fullest coz you have to compensate the bottleneck between the intake and headers,the flow is probably being bottleneck by the throttle body then from the throttle body to the intake manifold, from the manifold to the head flow. when it comes to all motor power its all about increasing efficiency,all these mods that i mention may not give you anything by itself but put them all together they do allot off damage, my stock miata 1.6 was 115hp at the flywheel 91hp at the rear wheel ,with all the mods that i mentioned done to my miata tuned i was averaging 127-28 hp at the rear wheels.not bad it was fun taking it to 8k even 9krpm it cost allot money but im a huge fan of all motor,turbo,and supercharged.if you did this to your mr2 you will get much bigger results because of displacement and variable timing ,i hope this info
helps you with your ideas.

Genesis,

[Mateo Largo]

Hey Supunna,

I'm still running the pre-mapped chip--tuned for I/H/E and 93 octane (before anyone goes off about wasting money using 93, that's really a big part of the strategy with the chip is that it advances the timing to utilize the better fuel). I'm going to do check out Japtrix up in Lake Worth, FL and get the Chip tuned on the dyno, but I'm holding out until I'm pretty well done with everything first--I'm really interested in the stage 1 Crower cams... and I've been considering some porting...

If you shop carefully you can buy a new chip for close to $500. I've seen a few used for $350-$400 (check back on Spyderchat.com: The Online Community for Toyota MR2 Spyder Enthusiasts!). If you need 200 whp eventually, save your money--this is a waste of your cash--you'll need forced induction and neither Unichip nor Camcon is going along for the ride. If you want to add an extra 10 poines on something that will allow your car to run just as dependably, and your goals are like mine (+/- 150 whp), well this might be a part of the solution.

Good luck, Matt

[Ace]

[QUOTE=supunna_picta;437324]The next cheapest option is a muffler, probably a Team Moon single due to weight. If you want more power then lose the stock cat and headers in place of something like PPE or Che's headers. These up the price however - but are going be the easiest and probably least expensive mod for the most power (and usually a lot less weight).

So this setup will give me a some more power? I'm hearing two sides of this. If this can be done say for somewhere in the $500 category (I work at a dealership and can have a mechanic help me out with the installation). If I "gut the precats" will I still pass emission testing (we have this in my area)

[Mateo Largo]

An exhaust alone is not going to change your world--BEST case scenario is an extra 4-5 hp (two is probably more accurate), but it will sound nice If I were you I would do a little searching for a used exhaust (again, Spyderchat.com: The Online Community for Toyota MR2 Spyder Enthusiasts!), and install that sucker yourself. Make sure you invest in a can of PB Blaster and a breaker bar and arm yourself with a bunch of new nuts and bolts. You may even have to cut off a bolt or two from the heat shielding (there are some how-to articles for all this on Spyderchat). Anyway, jump in there! Save yourself some money, learn along the way, you'll love the car even more if you make it so.

If you gut the precats and leave the main cat in place you should still pass the sniffer--it would be a good idea to have it wamed up before testing so that the catalytic converter is functioning optimally. Those precats scare the hell out of me--I replaced my exhaust manifold with Che's headers while the little suckers were still all together...but you never know when one of them is going to fall apart--it's a well-documented issue for MY 2000-2002. Do those while you are doing the exhaust, or get a cheap Che's header and keep the stocker in case you have to go see the emmission's man.

Without forced induction this car will never be really "fast". But it is a rewarding driver's car and on the right road with the right mods it might be the "quickest" car I've ever driven.

[supunna_picta]

Originally Posted by Ace

So this setup will give me a some more power? I'm hearing two sides of this. If this can be done say for somewhere in the $500 category (I work at a dealership and can have a mechanic help me out with the installation). If I "gut the precats" will I still pass emission testing (we have this in my area)

I was basing all of my suggestions off of price and ease to install. ML is right in that you are going to get minimal gains from these types of mods but really, they're the very few available things that could be considered easy and cheap that give some improvement. Always try to drop the weight of your car - that seems to be the best mod for this car!

For a better idea I have the following in price and estimated (very rough) horsepower gain.

Intake - $70 (knockoff of AEM) - 0hp, maybe 1 or 2 w/mods below
PPE Exhaust Header and high flow cat - $600 - 8hp
Carson tuned muffler - $600 - 2-4hp maybe more or less

I installed all of those myself, the weight saved was pretty significant but I can't remember the numbers now. You can go cheaper but the hp gains are roughly the same I'm sure. I made some decisions about what I purchased based on company support, quality, weight and sound.

I hear that people still pass emissions with the main cat alone but I haven't had to take my car in ever so someone else needs to answer to that.

GL and let us know what items you decide to go with!