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EP3 'Money well spent' mods for the FN2

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196
Hi guys Im trying to compile a list for the 'must' mods for an FN2. Im talking in terms of engine/intake/exhaust and brakes/suspension/chassis mods that are essential for making an FN2 a great car to drive everyday and for track experiences. If you have any suggestions could you please list them under one of the above catagories along with a price and their individual benefit to the FN2.

Thanks
Mike
 
HKS RSK intake is a good option for an intake.
Miltek is the popular exhaust choice

Eibach pro kit springs with FRS (which mine already has) for the suspension
Js do three braces which we've talked about on the phone or there is Ultra Racing

Loxy will be along shortly with engine tuning I'm sure.
 
I'm just about to make my dinner and get the lad ready for bed! :lol:

I'll post up in a bit. Basically brakes and geo first, get to learn to use the power you've got for now.
 
Righty ho.

As Ed said. Eibach Progressive Springs with Fast Road Set Up. Some companies will advertise the FRSU cheap but it only includes the front camber bolts and they don't touch the rear. This is only half a job as you'd expect, no point making the front grip of the back end is out of alignment and could still be snappy. It needs to be a full job to be predictable and allow spirited driving.

The only current price I can find on the site is Grinspeed's at £160 for the FRSU including Camber bolts and doing the shims. The Eibach springs are around £140, budget on 1-2 hours labour depending where to get them fitted. To be honest, get them done at the same time as the labour to fit the rear shims is partly duplicated to fit the rear springs, so you'll get a better price, and if you get the springs fitted after the FRSU, all the alignment will be wrong and you'll need it doing again.

Brakes. I can only speak from experience but I found the standard FN2 brakes to be very lacking, especially when braking at speed I used to get horrible brake fade from a single pedal press. Firstly the OEM discs are fine, you don't need to start thinking about grooved discs unless you plan on doing prolonged track work in my opinion. For the odd track day, OEM discs are fine. Stay away from drilled disks as well, they crack and are generally just horrible things.

Get yourself some braided lines £80-£200 depending what you get and around 1 hour to fit if the rears play ball and you've bought a decent set with blocks on and the old lines come off easily. They won't stop any brake fade but will dramatically improve the pedal feel and if you do that, you'll know be able to control your braking better. Upgrade the fluid at the same time to something like Motul RBF600, £18 a bottle RRP, Opie do it for £14.50 but you'll need to pay postage and you'll need a couple of bottles maybe 3 if you're giving the system a good flush. It is dot5.1 so compatible with the car's dot4 system and it is designed to cope with higher temperatures that standard brake fluid, so should perform better if you put a lot of heat into the brakes.

The final piece of the brakes puzzle is some decent pads like Ferodo DS2500s or Cosworth Streetmaster pads. I've never been much of a fan of EBC stuff and prefer these two. The pads cope much better than OEM with the higher temperatures you'll see with repeated heavy braking and are ideal for occasional track use. Fronts and rears are around £100 each end. Well worth it.

Now go and have fun.

If you start looking at engine mods, you are pretty much instantly into a couple of grand for any decent gains. As Ed said, HSK Racing Suction Kit, £380. Dead easy to fit yourself, I've done a how to in the How To section. There are other intakes Tegiwa one is around £500, Mugen I've seen recently for around £950, GruppeM is around £1,000. AEM do ones now that is good but it needs to be mapped to get rid of a nasty flat spot, that intake is around £400. CPL's is good, it's a cold air intake like the AEM but harder to fit, I think that is around £450. Different options really and what you prefer.

The Milltek exhaust is the cheaper option, £499 new, one on Ebay now for £299 opening bid. If you look at something like HKS you are talking more like £900, and well over a grand for anything any more exotic. Lots of exhausts out there if you want to shop around and money permitting.

To get any real gains out of that, you'll need a remap. The standard way is with Hondata Flashpro, which is £550 new but they do turn up second hand for anywhere between £400 to £450 but they usually sell fast. Then you are looking at around £300 for a map. Paul at TDi-North is renowned for mapping and worth the trip, but there is Sam at TDi-PLC (sister company) in Thurrock and a lot of people recommend Romain at Artech/Eurospec in Guildford.

From the intake, exhaust and a remap you would be looking at around 220 bhp peak, but a massive hike in mid range power and torque which makes the car a lot more drivable in the day to day and a lot nipper out of bends on track if you aren't the Stig/Worzel and can keep the car above 6,000 rpm for the whole lap.

You could say do the race header as well at the same time as the remap, which is generally a bigger bore exhaust manifold without the catalytic converter which will give you even more mid range grunt and a bit more top end. Tegiwa do probably the best bang for buck on headers at the moment with theirs at around £500 new. If you want Toda, you are looking at £1,250 depending on who you go to. Very nice bit of kit though.

As with all decats, you will struggle come MOT time unless you swap it out for the OEM unit or have a friendly MOT tester, it is technically a defect that VOSA can fine you on the spot for if you are caught with it on the road as well, as technically they are for race use only. I'm not saying lots of people have been caught and I'm not saying it's a risk worth taking, but
it's up to you, you've been warned. :lol:

That's it really unless you want to start looking at inlet manifolds, throttle bodies and cams. Which you will eventually, but that is probably enough for the first couple of months I'd expect.
 
Cheers.

I've made the thread a sticky, so if anyone else wants to add, by all means.
 
I would comment against your opinion of drilled discs IMHO bud.

A lot of manufacturers use 'drilled' discs on their high performance models.
Porsche, Ferrari, BMW, Audi etc etc

If discs are cast, then drilled, they can/will crack, but discs cast with the 'drill' holes in them are fantastic.
 
That's a fair point but what's the cost on a set of them cast that way, EP3/FN2 size? A cost you could justify on a £50k saloon or super GT.

I was under the impression it was quite high, so a majority of the discs you'd see would be drilled.
 
Excellent info there John and much appreciated write up. As Ed says, his car has/had a lot of those modifications made.

Very much looking forward.
 
thanks for the advice was looking at a miltek exhaust remap eibach springs and panel filter was looking at having this done at amd tuning seems i am kinda on the right train of thought
 
thanks for the advice was looking at a miltek exhaust remap eibach springs and panel filter was looking at having this done at amd tuning seems i am kinda on the right train of thought

If you are just going to change to a panel filter you could try smoothing your airbox. It can help with airflow. RevMonkey got his done: http://type-r-owners.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?79892-RevMonkey-s-Fn2-)-Updated-Carbon-wrap&p=1051532&viewfull=1#post1051532

It's an in between if you don't want to go the whole hog for an intake and costs nothing to do so can't hurt. :)
 
In you talk about induction kits I am put off by the price, It would only be worth it if you changed the exhaust system with an upgrade wouldn't it?
Can anyone recomend a good cotton panel filter for the standard airbox, and i'd smooth the inside of the standard airbox like forum user ratmonkey did.
 
Can i have some advice please im looking at some small mods as im on a budget, i was interested in the HKS RSK from sumo power but i was told that the premuim HKS kit is just at good using the standard airbox ( as you dont get any heat soak), has anyone got feedback on this?

Also i want an exhaust looking at either the milltek or the HKS, what do you think?

am i right in thinking if i were to change the induction and exhaust i would need a remap to stop the dash lights coming on?
 
Premium Suction kit is pretty much the same as the stock set-up. All you are gaining is the hard aluminium pipe and a HKS panel filter for the OEM airbox. I wouldn't bother to be honest. Either get the RSK and fit a heatshield, go for a CAI like the Skunk2 or if you must have a closed airbox then go for the Mugen or Tegiwa airbox.

Both those exhausts are good. HKS will probably be a little bit quieter.

It won't need remapping, and no dash lights, but you'll get the best gains from them with a remap.
 
Nice one cheers i have heard alot about water getting sucked by the cai to the engine is this a myth?
 
No, not a myth as it does happen. You have to go through a fair bit of water for it to happen though.
 
I've got a sumo power filter and an smoothed out airbox. It gives better acceleration at about 4000rpm and into VTEC at about 5500rpm. So it has improved the mid range. The standard airbox is heavy plastic so smoothed out it is just as good as a branded one you just have a smug look on your face because you are customing the old skool way and saved yourself some dosh. I bought a rotery tool to smooth it out.
 
I may well be testing out the theory of smoothed out OEM airbox vs Mugen/Tegiwa airbox shortly depending how the weekend goes.
 
If you get round to testing that, please let us know as i could do with saving money for the exhaust rather than an intake.

Also would a larger throttle body make much difference without being mapped?
 
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