what are you looking to spend

 

Preferably under $50, but I'm not sure how expensive it is to get a little increase in torque, so possibly more if you can't get anything decent for somewhere near that price.

 

$50 might get you 2-4 lb/ft, something youre not gonna notice at all. If youre wanting to feel some good ol' thrust and tire-burning torque, get a turbo/supercharger kit.

 

if your car is completely stock then Id start with a intake; with cold air or short ram. The stock intake a 20lbs of restrictive plastic; non-serviceable foam. Will wake up the car a bit for you.

There are a few intakes for the duratec motor floating around the buy/sell forum. I picked up my marcy motorsports CAI for $80 on here.

 

intake and de-cat

 

How long/how hard is it to install the intake? I'm not very car savvy as far as installing things in the motors goes.

And, again, my ignorance is showing here, what is a de-cat?

 

A short ram intake install might take 20min, 30-40 if your really unexperienced. Honestly if all you have is 50 bucks to spend on performance upgrades keep it stock, save your money for some real parts if you want real power.

De-cat means gutting the catalytic converter which will make you actually LOSE power on the focus so ignore that. You can get a race header that will remove the cat but you will not be able to pass inspections if your state has them.

 

I'm not looking for racecar torque or anything, just a little bit of extra torque, the car just feels a little underpowered when you go from stopped to speeding up. I have more to spend than just $50, but would prefer to keep it cheap, I'm just looking for something to make the car not so slow when starting from a stop. But I don't need a HUGE difference, I'm just driving around town and don't want it to feel so slow and underpowered.

For the intake do you have to take anything apart or can you just open the hood up and install it without too much work?

 

What Id do is spend more than $50 and get an intake, tune, and pulleys.

 

I don't think I need all that, I'm not going to be racing my car, just looking for a little bit more power to get going from a dead stop.

 

You could skip the tune and just go with the intake and pulleys and get a few ponies and torque. The tune will also help, but is decently expensive.

 

Is your car a 5spd or auto ?

 

Automatic, another reason I'm not looking to spend a lot to get it super fast. How much are pulleys and how long is the installation time?

 

Search around ebay, AEM was discontinuing a lot of pulleys for my SVT and I ended up getting a pulley for $15. The main pulley I would change is the crank/underdrive, that will free up some hp lost to parasitic drag. Installation, when done by a friend with knowledge and tools shouldnt take more than an hour or two to replace all the pulleys provided in the kit.

 

heres a vid of my 08 se 2.0 smokin them tires if ya wanna see has good torque for mostly stock http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_ZKLpS_Ygs

 

This could cover you intake needs and is less that $50.

CLICK HERE!

 

I just got my Short Ram Intake for $100 and i can defiantly tell a little better pick up. SO I'd say start with that. and go from there.

 

Moved to "DURATEC Performance Chat"

 

i second the post with the link to the stealth intake... cheap and dyno proven to give you a small boost. Its definately IMO a perfect alternitive to a full CAI, atleast til you have the cash to do a full upgrade.

 

X2 That is a nice find. Cheap too. Just watch driving through puddles.

 

guys, i'm looking for a nice bit of torque, would anybody recommend cams? What would be the best set also?

 

If you're planning on going turbo I wouldn't...

 

But I can get cams FOR turbo, can't I? I'm buying the one Focus Sport has, the complete bolt-on with supercharger, here:

http://www.focussport.com/turbocharger.htm

I just wanted to get some bottom-end power, these 2.0 SUCK for under 2500rpm.

 

But I can get cams FOR turbo, can't I? I'm buying the one Focus Sport has, the complete bolt-on with supercharger, here:

http://www.focussport.com/turbocharger.htm

I just wanted to get some bottom-end power, these 2.0 SUCK for under 2500rpm.

 

You mean turbo, not supercharger correct?

And the turbo cams won't do anything for your NA power till you get a turbo. They are a very high lift, low duration cam which really only benefit an FI application. Even then, they are only good for 10-15HP from what I hear Tom saying. Not worth the trouble IMO.

 

Just read a report in Muscle Mustangs... pulleys on a V8 showed 3 HP and 5 TQ on the chassis dyno. Since our engine is less than half the size of the v8, we should get about half the benefit. Not a lot, but also not nothing.

 

Way off on your guessing there, as said above you can't compare numbers from any engine but another 4cyl DURATEC.

But I can get cams FOR turbo, can't I? I'm buying the one Focus Sport has, the complete bolt-on with supercharger, here:

http://www.focussport.com/turbocharger.htm

I just wanted to get some bottom-end power, these 2.0 SUCK for under 2500rpm.

If you don't already have the basic boltons cams will do you very little good, then you need to tune the car for the cams. Lastly if I'm not mistaken running TURBO cams on a non turbo car will run like shit, you'll need the whole turbo kit to go with it.

de-cat does not mean gutting the catalytic converter. its putting a test pipe/straight thru pipe in the place of the cat. I didnt lose any power on my svt. actually gained 7-10

and lucdongwong or whatever your name is... pullies dont do anything.

Your in Duratec performance chat, to "de-cat" a duratec you'd have to gut it. Resulting in loss of HP, his only option for that would be a race header.

Also can you show me a dyno of a SVT getting 7-10hp from a ORP or "test pipe" b/c if thats even near true to get that to the wheels I'll buy one right now for my SVT.

Send it in PM to keep the thread on topic, a before and after would be prefered.

 

you cannot compare the out put on a v8 and just cut it in half and say thats what a 4cylinder will put out, i never heard of a comparison like that...

the mustand motor is a completely different motor, its completely uncomparable to the duratec focus motor even if it was running only on 4cylinders.

 

Don't even worry about pullies, for an auto and just a little bit more zip for cheap go with stealth intake, ported throttle body and tune. With the tune being the priciest but you also get the benefit of a code scanner. And I'd like to see dynos of gutted cats losing power.

 

And I'd like to see dynos of gutted cats losing power.

Sorry I don't have any dyno's but its a common sense rule of car modding.


You loose power b/c of the loss of back pressure combined with the turbulence created by the empty shell of the CAT. With a race header or ORP (non duratec) the air is directed smoothly and with less restriction, thats what makes the extra power. Ever wonder why we don't put 4" exhaust on the focus? It benefits from a bigger piping but still needs back pressure to make a beneficial exhaust thats why the max for a N/A focus is 2.5".

 

wouldn't a set of pullies on an auto be at least slightly benficial because the tranny is already taking lots of power just to drive it, if this is the case i might drop some coin on those darkstar lightweight pullies for my fofo if it'll pickup a few ponies or even make it slightly faster out of the hole - which is basically what im looking for.

 

Well we don't put 4" exhausts on because they wouldn't even fit. I won't get into any the backpressure nonsense here. I'm more for proof than conjecture.

 

Well we don't put 4" exhausts on because they wouldn't even fit.

Good job catching the sarcasm in my post!

(that was sarcasm too..) [thumb]


I won't start debating the need of back pressure either, I did this enough years ago. If you think that its not needed and found research that said a N/A engine does not need it then so be it.

 

i plan on getting pullies for my LX, but its alot easier of an install than a duratec focus, sinse everything is keyed, and the pullies are cheaper