what to do with $800?
 

okay, i drive a 1996 Pontiac Trans Am A4... the car is basically stock. i have the free ram-air mod done, gutted cats, and a cut-out on my car and that's it. i still need to do the rest of the free mods, but i haven't seen anything that has them listed...

i'm going to have $800 to spend on my car coming up pretty soon, and i'm trying to think of the best way to spend it. my initial idea was to get a 160 t-stat, K&N FIPK, TransGo Shift Kit, and 3.73's. then, the idea was presented to me to get the TCI 3500 Stall w/ Shift Kit, K&N FIPK, air foil, and 160 t-stat.

i'm looking to get the best ET drop possible in my car with the money i have. i think doing the K&N FIPK is an obvious choice for one of the mods cuz i haven't gotten a CAI yet, and it's a good starting mod. i'm just curious as to what will make my car the best that it can be for that amount of money. i know the second idea will make my car a beast off the line, but i wonder if it won't expose my traction problems as well.

any info you guys have would be real beneficial. thanx.

- jay

Re: what to do with $800?
 

i'm going to have $800 to spend on my car coming up pretty soon, and i'm trying to think of the best way to spend it. my initial idea was to get a 160 t-stat, K&N FIPK, TransGo Shift Kit, and 3.73's. then, the idea was presented to me to get the TCI 3500 Stall w/ Shift Kit, K&N FIPK, air foil, and 160 t-stat.


what you said above is a good way to spend your money, start there first

lol which one was better, the first or the second? the guy who gave me the second idea, said that one would drop more off my ET.

- jay

if you can afford the tc, gears, fipk, stat, thats what i would do, from the choices you gave

Definatley do that, you will notice a huge SOTP difference with the CAI combined with the cutout and gutted cats. As for the other mods im not sure cause i drive a M6 but the Air foil is a (debatable) mod and waste of money. You will also NOT notice a difference with the 160 stat without the tuning to come with it. But if you get the gears then when you order the PCM forless tuning you can get him to throw the tuning for the 160 stat on there with the tuning you will need for the gears. I think all the tuning for the stat does is tell your fans to kick on at a lower temp but im not too sure about that so dont hold me too it. Hope that helps and good luck!!!!!!!!!! :thumb:


Chris

having a a4 myself just look at my mods listed below, the tc and the gears are a must, money well spent there, then the rest of your mods whatever you choose can work off of that

stall
 

Get a stall converter you will be running 8.8 in the eighth easy and a fipk, trust me, my freinds 93 camaro noticed a big diffrence, put it this way my freinds lancer runs an 8.7 he runs an 8.8 easy.:eek:

gears/conveter/CAI

best starting mods for an A4 IMO

Can we say....TRACTION. Gears and a TC would be nice, but without traction your screwed. When I put in my 3.73's, I was running semi-bald 275's out back and after about 4500rpms in 1st I just spun bad. Now that I have the 315 nitto drag radials I can launch hard outta the hole and keep the rubber on the ground and not spinning between gears too much. I say get either gears or a TC and get some drag radials.

Id say a good set of LT Headers.....

wow... great so far, let's keep the info rolling in lol.

it seems like pretty much everyone agrees that on an A4, i've already got the best mod plan mapped out. the only problem is we're talking about putting more things into the car than i'm going to have the money for right now...

the guy told me he could get me the TCI 3200 or 3500 stall w/ shift kit for like $625... which means prolly between $650 and $675 after shipping. now that part would be fine, except in addition to that, since it's going to make the tranny slip more, i'm also going to have to buy a tranny cooler. a B&M tranny cooler is going to run me roughly $75 after shipping. so, say i buy the stall/shift kit combo and the cooler... i'm looking at $725-$750. with only $50 left over... i no longer have enuff for gears, K&N FIPK, 160 t-stat... and definitely not for rubber. i'd prefer to hold off on rubber till i get my new rims after income tax next year. not really looking forward to replacing these tires cuz it's useless for me to do that when in january/early february i'll be replacing my rims with a taller, wider rim.

i realize i'll have traction issues for a while lol... but i think with whatever i do, for at least a temporary amount of time ( don't necessarily have to wait till income tax next year to replace the rims/tires ) i'll deal with the increase in power, and decrease in traction. given the competition around my city, i doubt i'll be in the hole too much anyhow. i grab pretty well as is IMO... i spin a bit, but not hard and i can take off without even getting more than a slight squeal if i do it right.

the only thing i don't like about the stall/shift kit/cooler combo is that it leaves me without the ability to get the FIPK. if i could do all of the above, i'd be happy. if i could add gears onto that, damn, now we're talking. but seems to me all of those things together are going to be a bit more than i have access to at the moment. plus, any type of tuning that i might have to do for any of those mods will cost me extra... and that again depletes what i have the cash for...

keep the ideas and whatnot coming. thanx guys.

- jay

I'd go with some jet hot headers and FIPK. Most people get exhaust/cai before gears/stall so I don't know why people are saying to get that.

GIVE YOUR $800 TO ME!! No for real I'd go with a stall and some stickies.

Here's a thought. Gears vs. Stall. Stall will mainly only help you out of the hole, while gears will help you everywhere. If you have 2.73's then you probably know about the big bog area around 40mph. What gears do you currently have? You probably don't want a stall and 2.73's. If you have 2.73's you could just get a rear end out of a m6 car for like $300 and then have 3.42 gears, plus still have your rear to either sell or as a back up. You then could get a used FIPK for about $125. So now your up to $425. That leaves $375, which you could get the rest of the free/really cheap mods and either some roller rockers, which is usually worth about 10 to 15 hp, or some suspension mods. Don't overlook your suspension. Get some LCA's, and still have money left over.

well, let's consider the alternatives... as opposed to diving in deep and throwing on a stall/shift kit/cooler...

let's say i pick up a set of MAC mid-lengths w/ off-road y-pipe ($475)... add on a set of new plugs and wires w/ wire re-routing kit ($100)... and a used K&N FIPK ($125)... i'm sitting at $700 spent, but not quite the ET improvement of the other idea. now with the last $100, i'm sure i could snatch up a TransGo Shift Kit, and knock off max of .1 in the quarter but at least gain much better shifts.

of course, i could go another route. get a set of lowering springs, LCA's, SFC's, and a torque arm... and, if i'm lucky, still have enuff left over to pull in a K&N FIPK and/or a shift kit.

i could go a ton of ways. i think headers/wires & plugs/FIPK/shift kit sounds good to get a start on. but, then again, the stall and the gears are a must for my A4. i'm already running 3.23's... lucky me, i got the best gears possible factory in my A4. i'd like to throw in the 3.73's, but i'm not sure that i want to spend that much just on one mod. it's like $170 for the gears, $200 for the install, and even more for the tuning :shock: :no:

- jay