Okay before any of you guys go on about me not driving the car - I was out and about for around 5 hours yesterday!!!

Let me set the scene, one of my good friends has an S3 (210bhp) which I've had the pleasure of drving against many a time. From a standing start, I destroy him and from a roll he is much stronger but again I pull away train lengths after 60.

Yesterday morning he phones me and tells me that he has had a a diverter valve fitted to the turbo - this makes the turbo work more efficiently and keeps him in the power band after each subsequent gear change.

Anyway, moving onto the few runs we did.

From a roll at around 30 mph...

After 3 honks, we plant the throttle, with me getting a jump on him but then staying the same for that one gear, but as soon as I switch up to 3rd, I start pulling again - not as hard as previously but still pretty good.

Second run, I deliberately put the car in third gear at about 2500rpm. I could hear his turbo spooling and expected him to walk away...three honks and we're off. We were side by side up until 6000rpm and then the S started leaving the S3 once again. This demonstrated the power that I had gained in the low end as you all know that racing out of VTEC is a big no no.

The manifold has most defintely given an improvement throughout the whole rev range - during VTEC the car just goes ballistic!

One thing to note is that the Amuse exhaust note has changed somewhat - everytime I apply the throttle, I can hear a whooshing sound - mainly due to the thinner material used on the J's and also not having any heat shields.

The engine torque damper is also great but it is not a must. It does improve shifting as there are less vibrations in the gear stick especially over rough roadsand during hard cornering but once again I wouldn't recommend it as a must mod.

The engine strut bar - I noticed that the car is a lot stiffer during hard cornering but again I would recommend the lower brace for more impact.

The added torque from the J's was a bit disconcerting at first as I would lose traction on upshifts and also when exiting corners - just have to be a little smoother with the loud pedal!!!

Anyway, I hope you found this as an interesting read - I'm out now for another drive!!!

Oh nearly forgot - tried to tussle with a Boxster S (new version) but he wasn't having any of it VTEC'd past him through a tunnel!!!

 

Nice one

I guess the sun must be shining if you're on the road without a single dark cloud in sight !!!

Bharat

 

How've you mapped the car for the J's manifold?

-Brian.

 

Brian - running with stock ECU for the moment. I am certain I will see a lot more gains with a decent ECU (J's, Mugen or AMuse) but I am still a bit unsure at the moment.

BTW, the whooshing noise during acceleration is normal right? I've checked the manifold for leaks and everything seems fine.

 

nice write up
Nice to see you driving it as well

 

Nice write up AB. I am not sure if the Mugen ECU would be appropriate for your setup though, too much pick & mix

 

I'd suggest putting a wideband O2 sensor on the car to check everything's okay. There's a chance you're running lean enough to be worrying. Certainly whatever you do, do not just swap a Mugen, or Amuse ECU onto the setup you're running. The Mugen ECU [/I]would[I] run too lean if used without any changes.

Can't really comment on the sound. You do get more noise from thinner walled manifolds, but to say whether that was what you've got or not I'd have to hear the car.

-Brian.

 

What sort of changes need to be made when the car is running lean?

 

[QUOTE]The Mugen ECU [/I]would[I] run too lean if used without any changes.

I was thinking of buying the Mugen N1 Ecu to install on my JDM 2000 model.

I don't have any modification... Will this hurt the engine.

 

I think I know what Brian is talking about (now he's got us worrie) , here's a quote from the Jedi Master himself;

"There are some Mugen S2000 daily drivers in the US/Japan - no problems reported so far, but the cooling systems have been uprated. (Which is recommended for using the Mugen ECU.) "

I think/hope this is all he is talking about.

Brian, I believe these mods to be the Mugen rad cap, rad fan switch and thermostat. Is that all thats needed or are we asking for trouble?