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FN2 Modding for more NA power on FN2 K20 - 2021

NPC

Messages
16
Afternoon,

There was a historic thread about FN2 NA power which had some great comments, mainly from @Loxy but I can no longer find it on new site. If anyone can locate and post, I'd be really grateful, but if not, perhaps people will help build up a new thread, seems quite a few more people are getting FN2s to mod/track at the moment.

My car is running 240bhp (on TDI North dyno measure, take as many pinches of salt as you see fit) :)

Car has good useable power, decent mid-range, it's great on track apart from in the straights when I struggle to wind it up sometimes, and so people with more power and torque but less pace in corners will hold me up, then steam off down the straights and not lift off to let me past (worst kind of track drivers). There are a couple of bits on mine that I didn't actually want but either couldn't get in lockdown (when work was carried out) so had to substitute or was put on in error. Mainly HKS RSK and RBC manifold (I asked for RRC). It's also quite loud on m/way cruising, like 80DB, so tempted to take off HKS for that alone.

Current set up:
  1. HKS intake
  2. RBC I/man
  3. 4-2-1 e/man
  4. M2 resonated zorst
  5. Balancer shaft delete
  6. ECUTEK
Low-cost option for me:

I'm considering removing the HKS and replacing with Injen which with a revised map could also give some slight gains? And be a little quieter?

Seems I'll be paying a few hundred quid for the map, worth swapping RBC for an RRC at same time? Or alternative? And worth considering a throttle body?

Also wondering about lowering the VTEC point to 3.8k, which I understand is possible?

Moar NA power :

Longer term, when budgets allow, tempted to push further targeting 260+

Would be really good to hear peoples experiences here, I know many of you like @Loxy went through quite a few different set ups, ironing out problems and pitfalls, such as throttle bodies.

Thanks in advance,

NPC
 
Get the back seats out, they weigh about 40kg.

Is that how much they are? If I had storage, would have done a while back but live in a flat and not quite able to commit to a full time track car (yet). I know the front seats are also heavy with the side impact backs etc.

Although, with the seats down to pick up some parts recently the noise was even worse, with noise canceling ear phones on too. :D
 
With NA the worst thing people do is chase numbers and want more more more, the best way to get the most out of an NA car is to lighten it where possible by means of buying quality parts, the lightness of the car will bring more benefits than a few hp that technically wont even be noticeable.

Depends what you want the car for, how it will be used and so on but if you do specifically want to chase the numbers then ITB's, cams etc would be the way to go, but then ITB's can restrict you by means of noise on tracks etc. Also change the exhaust to a decent one that offers the best all round performance (this is the order I always follows) 1) lightness, 2) low db's for track usability, 3) power gains. Too many just whack 3" systems on which weight three times the amount of the likes of the RM01A, the minimal gains are lost in the real world due to weight increases etc.

Best thing you can do is change the front seats for the likes of Pole Positions which weight less than half the oem sets weight) to bring the weight down, strip out the rear if not needed, change any parts for lighter parts where possible, work on the chassis and brakes.

To get high NA power costs a lot to do it properly so you either chase the numbers or don't imo and I have done it on both NA and turbo's cars. I never even swapped the PRC unit for an RBC or RRC on my DC5 as the costs for gains were not beneficial when I could lighten the car and stiffen the chassis more to gain speed and lightness where it's needed most.

My DC5 was running 249.6bhp (214whp) setup by Romain on a Heartbreaker (as it's known) Dyno Dynamics Rolling road. I did the car back to back with three setups and the best (which I kept) was as below:

OEM K20a Engine
DC Sport Racing Header
Fujitsibu RM01A Catback
K100 ECU
AEM Long Arm CAI Down in the bumper with a direct feed

Aside from that I did a full race geo (none of this fast road stuff) and lightened it with a full corner weighting specific for me in my normal clothes worn on a track day with my helmet on etc. The car weighed in at 1105.5kg dry and 1220.5kg with 1/2 tank fuel and me catered for weight with a corner balance of 50.7.

The car I am potentially buying now is a DC2, 920KG's with 1/2 tank of fuel and aside from a map, mani, cai, exhaust and ITB's it's engine is still an oem B18 98 Spec JDM block, this was a very competitive with some podium wins Pre2003 Touring car. You don't need power you need a lightweight well setup car and stiff chassis with quality parts (none of this cheap knockoff tat on the market ;-)
 
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