Best mods for money and performance

[Hellz]

while i "FELT" a performance increase when i installed my K&N CAI, i dont know what actual gains i got from it.

for biger improvments, i would recommend long tube headers AND full exhuast replacement. i think you would be looking at somewhere around 50 HP gain..

do a corvette servo in the tranny should wake it up a little and improve shifting. think the servo is like $20 to $50 bucks, and you can do with the tranny still installed.

i have a Diablo Predator U7193 tuner. while i cant say i feel alot of gains from it, it is useful when changing speedo, and tires.

for the lift portion... you can spend the $3k to get a lift, and have it installed... then an extra 2k to 3k on tires alone ( not including rims ),

or

just buy 37 inch tires ( 2 to 3K) and green keys and crank your torsion bars for the extra few inchs.

if you go the lift route, your wheel wells will look very very empty with just 35 inch tires in there, and 37 inch tires only slightly improve it. if you go lift.. go with atleast 39 inch tires, if not 40's.

now, with that said, you will be spending more money on the front end.
tie rods, pitman, idler, upper, lower ball joints, and finally hubs.

i would say right now, stop trying to improve MPG. msot mods you will do, they will lower your MPG. you didnt say what year your H2 is, but if you have on 06+, that will help you tons for MPG wise because it is a 6 spd instead of the 4 spd on the older H2's. if you continue your driving habits, it will limit how much MPG you lose, but accept the fact that you will lose some.

so to re-cap, my advice for mods are:

37 inch tires - 2 to 3k
tuner to change tires and perk up tranny and engine - $300 to 600
green torsion keys- $ 200 ish
corvette servo - $20 to 30
long tube headers- $800
catback exhaust - $1600 - Borla

you will lose some performance going to 37 inch tires... to make up for it, you can regear from your stock 4.10 to 4.56 or 4.88's

regear to 4.56 or 4.88 - $1800 for parts and labor.


you sound like your mechanically inclined, so once parts start wearing down (hubs, idler arm, ball joints and such) you can save alot of $$ by installing yourself. alot of it is fairly simple to install.

im no mechanic, i just consider myself good at understanding how **** works, and isntalled everything in my sig minus the gears.

now... if you are really wanting pure HP power.. skip the supercharger/turbo all together. why spend 5k on the SC and another 2k on install when you can easily buy a big block ( 427 or 454) for the same amount, with a few extra $$$ for tranny and install and do the H2 right. you will have more HP then what any SC could offer, and that is just stock without any mods. from there, the same mods listed above will have a greater impact on HP gains.

granted, not sure where your MPG will be after doing something like that, but i would imagine about 8 to 12 mpg. give or most likely take a few MPG.

IMHO i wouldnt consider a SC as any kind of option for the H2.
after all the costs of the SC, you will still need to buy a new tranny ( maybe not right away, but not too long afterwards) you gain about 125 Hp from it, which will put you in the 450 hp range. you will need a good CAI still, exhaust, custom tune, and your are very limited afterwards. pretty much any further engine mods wont gain you anything.. so why spend all that $$ to just hit the limits, where as an engine swap will open up many more options to you fromt he get go, all the while any mods improve your HP gains.

there is a guy here who did a 502 swap. im sure if your imterested, you can find the thread here somewhere.


FYI... unless you buy a HP tuner with credits, any ( i could be wrong) tuner that you buy up to $600 range will only tune 1 car. thats not saying you cant buy credits for the tuner, but off the shelf, only 1 car. if you know HP tuner software, that may be the route to go starting at $600 +.