Need direction in moding my 92 LSL.
 

Well, I have been introduced to the wonderful world of the SVX and don't think I will be turning back any time soon. Throughout my car owning life I have owned and modded Civics and DSM's so the world of the flat six is a whole new game to me. So here is my question... What modifications are safe to do while giving me the most gain? And realize that I am on a budget that is pretty tight right now. I have done some research and am thinking of picking up the stage 1 ECU from ecutune as a first step. The second step would be running a 50 to 75 shot of nitrous for forced induction because I really don't have money for the supercharger setup and the turbo set up seems to be pretty innefficiant. *SP* So, would my first two proposed steps be a good use of money on a budget and also would it be a safe mod for my car? To answere the question if my car is mechanicly sound, it is. I bought the car from an older gentalmen that owned the car from the show room on and has kept all service records from the time that it was bought to the time he sold it to me. All service was done by the dealership including a new automatic tranny under 15k ago. Guide me oh wise ones... Show me the correct and safe way to mod my car. My overall goal is to run into the 13's or even the 12's if its able to be done safely considering this is my daily driver. Let me know all suggestions but please don't direct me to blow my motor. I love this car too much.:D Let me know your thoughts.

Dylan

how many miles are on your car? Have you taken care of all the routine maintanence first? If not then that is your first step.

If you are absolutely sure everything is sound take it to the track or dyno first while it's stock to get a few base numbers to improve upon. Otherwise you'll never know how far you've progressed.

If you are a mod freak like some of us, skip all the BS and go straight for a manual tranny swap. In practice thus far it has dropped a full second or so from 1/4 times and evades all the problems the auto might have. The auto you have now can probably be sold easily if it's been rebuilt recently.

Other than that it really depends on what kind of car you want.

Everything you eventually do will be expensive so prioritize what's important to you.

Handling?
Reliability?
Looks?
All out power?
Overall driveability?

its gonna take a pretty decent budget to make a high 13 sec SVX. I spent over 10k on my last ebony and only ran a 14.5

Tom

Heres one. Slap on a Type R badge and just say it has 100 more horsepower. Everyone outside this forum will believe it.

..just kidding..

yous is a 92..Im pretty sure you can do the ecu crush mod for free.
Also,just how tight is your budget? If it is going to take you a while to get parts money, you might want to invest in a tranny cooler, shift kit, and stage one.(if applicable) thatll prettymuch keep the transmission from exploding while you get some money set aside.
All in all, welcome to the forum boards, and good luck meeting your goal:)

Or, you can put a great stereo in it, and use all of the extra money you save to drive it on a cross country trip. :) That way you can use it like it was meant to be driven. ;) :) Grand Touring Car.

If you're gonna do forced induction or nitrous, it's a better idea to go with the ecutune stage 2 chip. It has more power than stage 1 and allows you to put those mods on it. Get it with the Nissan Mass air flow sensor, you need that to release the potential out of your SVX. It's all an extra $400 over the stage 1, but you will need it if you're going for more performance.

Check out my siggy for cheap mods and read my 4.44's coming soon thread in general babble for some ideas.;)

I agree with the guys here, This car is not built to win drag races nor be a jet. Its just too big boned for it . But you will see that driving it at high speeds(like 100) over a period of time (like 20 minutes) will be more enjoyable than a pocket rocket. Hence the way it was designed was like the euro sport cars for touring. I had civics and intergras which were fast a quarter mile but were just a pain to drive more than 5 miles at 85. This car and the accord V6 were fun at high speeds. And my svx is still stock. (until summer).

Most of the mods you will see are minimal gains compare to the price value $ to HP mechanically wise. But I.C.E. and other gadget goodies can enhance your driving experience.

Svx Mods
 

Well, by the sounds of it the 13 second SVX is not in the works because my budget is way too tight. Hell, I just saved enough for the stage 1 ECU from ECU tune but my total focuse is on school right now so that will give you an idea of just where my budget is. :mad: But on the pluss side the lack of money will allow me to learn a lot more about the car and do the modifications correctly instead of doing it quickly and blowing up the motor or tranny.

Several questions:
1. I have to stay with the auto set up because my left leg is too weak to deal with a clutch on a consistant basis so what is the most reliable tranny mod I can do for my auto tranny? Someone had mentioned doing a stage one tranny kit but I have on idea what that would intale and also doing a tranny cooler?
2. What should my first power mod be? Doing the ECU tune stage 1 or mabye 2, air intake, exaust?
3. This summer I have a rim and drop plan in the works... What would be the best springs to use in order to do the lowering to maintain ride comfort and get the effect I am looking for?
4. My short term goal is to lower the power ban a little lower so it excelerates like it dose now above 4500 rpm. Keep this in mind when giving me advice and thank you for taking your time to guide me. Hopefully I will be able to make it out to several meets this summer. The school load should be a little lighter and there for I will have more time. My best to all.

Dylan

1-Do the transmission cooler before anything else. Search the site.The topic has been discussed at great length. Small has a pressure sensor that firms up the autos shifts, so they do not create as much heat and supposedly reduces wear.
2-No "power mod" I've done has given me noticable effects but the EcuTune stage 1. That has to be the least serious/extreme of the proven power mods. Having stage 2 would keep your future mods a little more adaptable and eliminate the SVXs one mighty handicap.
3-Mychailo, a member here has, among other things, custom springs you can order. You can specify the details and have it made to order. Dayle sells his own brand of drop springs. The overall consensus is you'll want to replace the aging struts at the same time you do the drop. Whatever you do, don't cut and use the stock springs.
4-Widening the torque curve so accelleration at lower rpms is comparible to accelleration at higher rpms is not going to happen. Drop lots of weight out of the car and use 4.44 gears and maybe that will do it. Add a slew of torque releasing engine mods and you can get the feeling.
The SVX really hauls up in the power band though, and is something of a dog off the line as it was meant to be.

I'm keeping mine stock and saving for a better platform to mod.. something where $10k will take you from 13's to 11's instead of 15's to 14's :)

that is solid sense Ricochet. I just love my car, and I love doing new and fun things to it too much to spend money on any other car:)

Tom

Stage 1
 

If you cant afford the stage 2 yet, dont shy away from stage one. You can still use save money if you buy the stage 2 later by using the same circuit board -$100. I put mine in 2 weeks ago and raced my wife in her svx...smoked her:D

Svx Mods
 

Thanks guys... This gives me a deffinate direction to go and now I know I wont be waisting money on things I don't really need. Ricochet, if your looking for that type of platform go buy a 90 to 94 DSM, (Eclipse GST GSX, Talon TSI, Lazer RS-T). Stay away from the second generation of the DSM which is 95 to 99. The turbo motors have problems with crank walk and it can get really expencive really quick to fix especially if it ends up sucking a valve when the crank ends up walking. I sold my 98 Eclipse GST that was running 28 pounds of boost on a daily basis. That car was running in the mid to high 12's on street tires in the quarter mile, (figure taking off right around a second for slicks). In order to run that much boost you need to build up the bottom end and run a front end innercooler as well as upgrading the turbo and exaust. I did all the work with a friend in his garage as well as building up the top end and doing a stand alone so I could run 8900 rpm. My point is that for a couple grand on top of the car you can be running low 13's to high 12's safely and consistantly. The entire reason I ended up selling the car is that the crank was begining to walk and I didn't want the expence of having it done. Another reason to go with the first generation is it having a six bolt crank instead of having a seven bolt crank which is about 5 pound heavyer.

Anyway, here are some more questions about the ECUTUNE stage 1 and 2. What is the process of installing the stage 1 ECU from ECU tune? I have tried to download the install instructions but have not had any luck being able to open them up. Is it an easy install or is it pretty involved? Dose the stage 1 chip from ECU Tune allow you to run 87 octane gas? Is the toggle switch pretty easy to install as well to go from the performance setting to the gas saving setting? If I end up putting off getting the stage 1 and saving for the stage 2 is the replacment MAS a direct plug in or dose it take re-wireing? Dose the stage 2 ECU have the same install instructions as the stage 1?

I thank everyone once again for answering all of these basic questions which you have all answered probibally a billion times over. Also, if anyone has a first generation DSM I still have a 3 1/2 inch MAS from an LS1 motor as well as a translator which allows it to be a plug and play mod as well as allowing you to tune fuel, timing, and airflow that is read by the ECU. I would be willing to sell it for about half of what I paid for it. It is brand new and has never been used. I hope everyone has had a great weekend and as everyone knows the Hawks got screwed by the officials. Talk to everyone soon.

Dylan