It's build time, and I need your help.

[oddball]

My name's Garrett, and I live in New Orleans. Oddball ('03 3.0 Pearl White LS) is my first car, and I've been patiently waiting to upgrade a bunch of stuff. I got him after freshman year of college and joined TGC almost immediately; I've read threads here and there but nothing in depth. Well now I've graduated and have a job, so it's go time. This is both a build thread and a questions thread for me, so all help is appreciated.

A little background: I definitely know more than the average person about cars, but less than average TGC member. I'm a mechanical engineer so I have no problems taking apart/creating things. I've done the free stuff: painted the grill, smoked the tails, cleared the corners, a few others. I also have a JVC bluetooth stereo in, and some other minor stuff.

Here's what I'm interested in upgrading shorter term:
Rotors
Calipers
Brake pads
CAI or SRI
Headlights

I'd love to hear your opinions/suggestions, comments/feedback on any of it.
I'm most interested in the CAI/SRI benefits/drawbacks (yeah, I read the other threads) and a more concise list of my options for headlights.


Thanks in advance,
Garrett

[Black8GV6]

For the rotors and pads you can get from one of TGC vendors, R1Concepts, PM them for a discount code, They have blank rotors or you can get the drilled and slotted ones. Plenty of brake pads too. I have their rotors and some Hawk HPS pads from them and loving them so far.

Calipers, you can upgrade to to Brembos from the EVO but I just kept my stock calipers and they work fine. Really depends on your needs/wants. Don't know much about the caliper options, someone else can chime in.

CAI or SRI, depends on your weather, if it rains alot like here in FLA I would just get a SRI, I have had a AEM SRI for 8 years now and no problems. I think the SRI is cheaper too.

Headlights you can get JDM ( a few different variances), or black projectors from ebay, or retrofit your stock ones to HID (theres a nice tutorial on it)

[tamim13]

Just to add to that, if you plan to get Brembo calipers or a Big Brake Kit, you will need to upgrade you rims to more than 17" for clearance, if I remember right. If you want to keep your stock calipers, you can just buy a rebuild kit from the dealer (about $20 each) and replace all the seals and gaskets.

[dimushor]

good luck with your build

[oakrdrs187]

On the caliper note. You have single piston calipers up front you can gor to any parts store and get 99 v6 calipers and brackets and matching rotors and pads ofcourse. They will have a better bite since they are dual piston.

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[oddball]

Aight,

For CAI: I'm in NOLA so it doesn't rain too much, but there can be standing water. I've heard the issue with the CAI is that sometimes water seeps into the filter if it's sitting too low. How does that happen, is there a way to prevent it?
For headlights: I've heard there's a gap with the JDM lights, and that the eBay lights can be crappy. Experience with that?

[oddball]

Cool, I might hold off until I switch rims a little while down the road... heeding tamim's advice.
Out of curiosity, if you get dual piston cylinders, do you have to buy/reroute an extra fluid line, or does the original line feed into a hole that pumps both pistons?

[oddball]

good luck with your build

thanks man

[oddball]

So I've made a few design choices about Oddball's future, but I still need some input. One at a time though.

1. From everyone's combined experience, what's the best CAI choice, and what's my best buying option?

[dknight3]

ebay.

[Galantman03]

i had an aem for the 2003 elcipse. i could change it between sri and cai

[oddball]

Is there any benefit to buying the piping of a new CAI? Or is all the change in the filter?
And if I just get an aftermarket filter will the OEM plastic piping even be able to support the filter?
Lastly, who has suggestions for a MAF sensor adapter.

More holistically though, I'm mainly in this for the aesthetics (sound, then look). I'm not willing to reduce power or whathaveyou but I don't mind if it doesn't change.

[Black8GV6]

There is a video on youtube where an UK tv show, I think, did the comparisions between just putting an aftermarket cone filter like an AEM on the factory pipe versus a designed new aftermarket pipe with filter. What they found was there was no horsepower gain with adding an after market filter on the stock pipe, just added sound. There was however horsepower gain on the aftermarket pipe with filter. The test was done on a nissan r33 or r32.

[M-Rod]

In all reality, the only thing you'll gain with any intake modification to a stock 3.0 is added noise. I've gone through plenty of intake setups (plenum and piping) in my years of experimenting with the N/A V6. I could list all 10 or so, but no noticeable gain was ever accomplished. Personally, because of that, I'm going to stick to my custom-pieced intake.

[oddball]

Dope, thanks.

@M-Rod What custom pieces is your intake comprised of? And how does it sound? And more importantly, how much did it cost?

[greddy]

Get yourself a nice k&n drop in filter and that's it.

[DTP]

With the dual piston set up, you just swap the calipers. You can put SS brake lines jn, but I didn't.

They definitely add a nice bite.


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[M-Rod]

Dope, thanks.

@M-Rod What custom pieces is your intake comprised of? And how does it sound? And more importantly, how much did it cost?

3" piping and silicone couplers. Cost me nothing since they were leftover parts from a friend's turbo build. Overall cost would be in the 30-40 dollar range plus the cost of a filter. Whatever you do, make sure you use a dry filter. By all means, do not use an oiled air filter. Our cars utilize the karman vortex maf which is a sensitive unit. Anything that runs the risk of damaging it, isn't worth the risk.

[oddball]

Get yourself a nice k&n drop in filter and that's it.

Assuming by "drop in" you mean a filter that sits in the box, how would that be different than stock? Doesn't a lot of the sound come from the openness of being free-floating in the engine bay.

[oddball]

So what I'm hearing is: to get the sound I want, get a fancy filter and don't worry about the piping right now. And make sure the MAF is stable.

Any dissenting opinions before I do this?