ok, so now i have my new intake installed... what should I do next to help beef up my balt?

theres a few things i wanna do for appearance, but i need suggestions on what to do for performance (an making the engine bay look badass like the intake already did!)

 

Not much else performance wise you can do that will pretty up the engine bay... Maybe a strut brace, MRZ has a really nice one. After that its all cosmetic, powdercoated valve covers look nice, and MRZ offers lots of engine bay dressup stuff...

Performance wise: Springs, Header/Downpipe (ZZP FTW) and a Catback, Short-throw, tune... Then put baby on the bottle

 

haha awesome. are the stock headers and downpipe that bad? because i dont see those as making much of a difference unless the OEM parts are ****...

though I could completely see them being ****, since when I removed my airbox today to install my K&R intake, I saw that the original system is supplied air through 2 or 3 holes no bigger then 2cm in diameter i couldnt believe my eyes.

i was thinking of grabbing a flowmaster muffler too...

 

I'm not a huge fan of chambered mufflers (like Flowmaster) on 4 cylinder engines........it just doesn't sound right.......they're more of a V8 thing.

 

well as far as mods goes work your way up from the ground is my train of thought

Tires first things...... these are the bad boys which
Springs/struts/shocks <-- not many options..
Sways and STB
intake
exhaust

 

Your in the same situation as me, not much we can do besides exhaust, header/downpipe, intake, and springs. I'm getting a tune from psykosteve hopefully in a month or two. Oh yeah, what kind of intake did you end up getting? I'm debating between a K&N Short Ram or AEM Cold Air Intake, dunno which one would benefit me more =/ I have flow master on my car and it sounds nice, a really deep tone, seems to decrease the car sounding like a ricer haha, so I do recommend it to you. Magnaflow i heard is pretty bad ass as well.


But yeah, besides that stuff, not much we can do unless you're planning to get a turbo in the long run.

 

i ended up with the k&n sri. and i love it, its awesome. in every way. and im thinking flowmaster because two of my buddies have them and they sounds great (but are on v8s) i dunno, every other muffler i see on a balt on youtube seems to make the car sound like a crotch rocket

and what kind of performance increase can i get from new headers?

 

Yeah, Flowmaster is good, it makes my balt have a deep tone, but it still is a bit ricey =/ I do recommend flow master though, and the headers should give around 10-15hp increase from what i know, I'm still new to the race world so someone can correct me. Still debating between the intake you have or an AEM CAI =/

 

The header itself would only gain you a few hp.....it's the complete system (header, downpipe, catback) that makes the 10-15 crank hp difference.

 

i seriously recommend the K&N, its awesome beefy, and heat shielded. and if you ever plan on using a ram air hood, the K&N will get the benefit of that more then any other (Exept the gmpp). and it looks sweet!