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Old 29-08-2004, 04:21 AM   #1
deruss
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Planned BA Upgrade path - your thoughts?

Hi,

A week ago I knew little about engines and performance mods :? but I did have an idea that side skirts would look nice on my white BA Astina :idea: . Looking for funky skirts I stumbled onto AstinaGT.com... and now I'm hooked :evil:

I've spent the last week reading this site and others (howstuffworks.com is my friend ), buying magazines, and talking to everyone I know that knows something about cars.

So now I'm looking at my proposed upgrade path, with expected costings, and was wondering what you guys thought of it. I'm looking to spend as I can afford it, not going for one big purchase, so this is in preference order.

Round fog lamps - $200
K&N Panel filter, pipe, cleaner kit - $130
Whiteline 'Handling' Pack - $400 + fitting $150 = $550
Side Skirts - $350 (guessing - waiting for quote)
17" wheels - $1500 (give or take)
AstinaGT sticker $22
Guage Display - $150 (nice)
Whiteline springs and shockers $1000 + fitting $200 = $1200
SUBTOTAL = $4102

Then maybe look at :

Extractors, catback exhaust - $400 (?)
Vented slotted rotor brakes - $510
AFPR - $200 (?)
Fitting of above - ???

So over 5g in total, on a NA, auto astina. What do you think, have I missed anything? Is something not worth it for me? Are my pricings way off?

I read about the BP-BPT conversion, starting costs estimated around 4800, but I figure there's not much point doing this on an auto. (is it even possible?)

Any advice would be great. Thanks.

BTW this forum is awesome
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Old 29-08-2004, 09:41 AM   #2
Dogo
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no point in an auto ? i dont think so. autos are great coz they can shift so quick and keep the revs high during changes - in turbo this means u can keep the boost high, but it may cause traction problems in afront wheel drive.

what kind of results do you want ? if you are after just performance there are a lot more things you could do to get more out of an NA car.

I also think realistically you would want the new springs very soon after getting the new wheels. the ba has a large wheel well and big rims with a large gap around them can look odd.

I'm presuming you have a 4cyl ?

also, whats a AFPR ? A(?) Fuel Pressure Regulator ?
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Old 29-08-2004, 01:01 PM   #3
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Adjustable FPR.

Id be more interested in a RRFPR for an NA motor.
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Old 29-08-2004, 10:36 PM   #4
deruss
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dogo
no point in an auto ? i dont think so. autos are great coz they can shift so quick and keep the revs high during changes - in turbo this means u can keep the boost high, but it may cause traction problems in afront wheel drive.
Would there be any adjustments required though, to prevent an early death of the transmission? I read a little about higher stall speed torque converters that sounds interesting too, so I guess I was a little quick to dismiss this path...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dogo
what kind of results do you want ? if you are after just performance there are a lot more things you could do to get more out of an NA car.
Nothing too dramatic. Better accel off the mark would be nice, and handling through the bends makes for fun driving. not interested higher speeds - car doesn't get out of the city enough In terms of looks I just want the skirts, and my g/f wants the rims.

What other sorts of things do you reckon?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dogo
I also think realistically you would want the new springs very soon after getting the new wheels. the ba has a large wheel well and big rims with a large gap around them can look odd.
Agreed, but very expensive to do just for the look will need to think about that a bit more...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dogo
I'm presuming you have a 4cyl ?
yup.

Thanks Dogo.

jynx, yep, that sounds good. Be a while before I think seriously about that tho...

I'm laying out this plan mainly becuase I don't want to waste $ on stuff that might be redundant down the line, or offer little in improvement. I also wanted to make sure my figures were in the right ball park - it can be tuff to find prices for some things on the net.
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Old 29-08-2004, 10:40 PM   #5
DarkMaTTer
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Re: Planned BA Upgrade path - your thoughts?

Quote:
Originally Posted by deruss
Hi,

A week ago I knew little about engines and performance mods :? but I did have an idea that side skirts would look nice on my white BA Astina :idea: . Looking for funky skirts I stumbled onto AstinaGT.com... and now I'm hooked :evil:

I've spent the last week reading this site and others (howstuffworks.com is my friend ), buying magazines, and talking to everyone I know that knows something about cars.

BTW this forum is awesome
Heh - thats almost exactly the same way that I stumbled across astinagt at about the same time, and with about as much knowledge Cept I was looking at clutch replacements. Howstuffworks is addictive but extremely useful. Read it all the time.

What magazines do you purchase? Anything specifically mazda related...?
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Old 30-08-2004, 12:10 PM   #6
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picked up a Hot4's tech special which was excellent - stuff on turbos and NA improvements, and some of the other guys at work are getting into drift so been flicking through their stuff. Nothing Mazda specific tho - suggest anything?
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Old 30-08-2004, 01:36 PM   #7
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FWDs aint really good drift cars and I havent seen many RX's in the drift scene.
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Old 30-08-2004, 08:44 PM   #8
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If you think a "Stally" will help protect your gearbox your reading the wrong stuff.
2 Main reasons for adding a higher Stall Convertor. 1. You want to stall it up at
the lights so you are running decent revs for a takeoff and want to chirp it into
every gear. 2. You have huge cams and need to idle up the car to compensate
& You want to stall it up at the lights so you are running decent revs for a
takeoff and want to chirp it into every gear !! Those higher revs, more
horsepower, more torque takeoffs are real hard on boxes even the old Turbo400's
which weigh a tonne and would break a foot if you dropped one on it.

Best of luck with your project

Mal
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Old 31-08-2004, 12:53 PM   #9
deruss
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I wasn't thinking that a 'Stally' would protect my box, they just sounded like a good compliment for a turbo - useful for constant gearing at high revs.

I'm still a noob so I'm seeing new things I don't know about nearly every day... everything is interesting!

Jynx, I'm not thinking of taking my Astra out on the track
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Old 01-09-2004, 06:46 PM   #10
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hehe, fitting the shockers and springs is a easy thing to do yourself, same with handeling pack.... save a few bucks there, and learn how the **** works t the same time.....

i swapped my engine in my astina 90 mod, to a bpd-big turbo with no engine-swapping-experience, and it works like a dream! took me about a week. just keep your tounge straight in your mouth.

be careful with the lowering! if u want some extreme frontspoiler, with a lip on and so on, bround clearance will be a prob.... not that it is too little clearence beneath the spoiler, but the overhead og the spoiler(the distance from centre of front wheel to front of lip)
u might end up like me, the lip is almost on the top of the speedbump when the wheel starts lifting......... ARG!!!!
or is that problem just in norway?

grim
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