For those who arent familiar with the term... DIY = do it yourself.

So I get bored on days when I don't work after school, and to keep me out of trouble, I've been trying to find things to do on my neon. Last night I had some fun and got an atx tb from the junkyard, 3.0L intake, went to checker and got some 2.5" ID exhaust tubing and a filter. Made my cold air, put on the TB, ripped out the old airbox and exhaust manifold heat shield. Now I'm out of ideas. The only real DIY thing I saw on the forums was the intake. I have to do a full engine back exhaust soon, but I dont have the parts on hand, and I'm not exactly sure what route Im gonna go as of right now. Im thinking OBX long tube headers, test pipe, and a borla cat-back.

Anyone got an idea on under-the-hood diy stuff I could do for about $50 or less? Also, if I did put a test pipe in instead of a cat, I know it would throw a code because of the O2 sensors. I don't really want to pay to re-tune the ecu, but I do have a programming module where (if I knew what to put in) I could disable the o2 sensors. Does anyone know how to do that? Or know of a link that would go over that?

 

For the headers part, think that smaller are your header, best low end power you will get but you loose high end. For the O2 sensor, why dont you drill 2 holes into the tube, weld a nut that fit on the O2 sensor on the tube then but your O2 sensor on it. You need to space them at least 1ft. Your O2 sensor will work and you wont need to tune your PCM (ECU).



 

O2 sensors only work if you have a cat though, and I want to run a test pipe.

As far as the headers go, I did some research for the first post and learned that long headers add more mid-top end. So I might want to go for some shortys since Im not exactly a red-line driver. I don't race around the streets and all that, I just like to get up to speed quick without redlining it. Maybe I should find some mid-length headers, so Ill still have some low end and a little mid-range. I just figured since I have to replace it anyways, I should upgrade. I feel guilty though not getting a junkyard replacement though because I only paid $650 for the car so its not worth a whole **** ton.

 

This is not correct... you MUST MUST MUST... have at least the upstream 02 sensor in the header... period... you can have the lower one installed with a bung like said before and to be honest with you it's a good idea... the downstream has 2 operations... to moniter that the cat is still working correctly and to adjust long term fuel trims... so is you go on a long trip further then about 200 miles your gas milage is going to suck big time... just get them both in there.... also if you dont install the upstream one you will run extreamly rich and waste TONS of gas and gunk up your motor and exhaust... so your choice... i like mine better...

 

Ill look into throwing a cat on there.

I wish my exhaust wasnt all rusted to **** right now. I would hollow out the cat I have now, then leave the o2 sensors in and see what happens. Then decide from there whether I want a cat or a test pipe. Who knows though.

I'm still in the early stages of this, and I still have a lot of thinking to do before I finally make a decision. Plus it's not necessarily urgent right now, so I can take my time.

So far I already did a couple small mods, and since I'm still in the process of getting my license back, I want to drive it with the mods I have now and see how it reacts (as a baseline for future testing).

 

im not saying that you need a cat... I dont have mine... I'm just saying make sure to re-install the 02 sensors...

 

So does yours throw codes from not having a cat then? Also, since you dont have a cat and would know from personal experience... I know that they quiet down your engine quite a bit... how much louder is it without a cat? I want a nice sounding car, but nothing that is real loud on the outside.

Back when my sister had her v6 chevy s10, the cat broke and was rattling real bad, so I took a crowbar to it and hollowed it out. Then I reinstalled it and it did get louder, but it wasn't real bad.

 

mine does not throw a code... I just have a evap code, and a battery temp code, both due to modifications neither hurts performance...

As far as the sound goes... I'am a bit loud but not bad at all... I've heard alot louder... I should really get a vidio today after I get my tranny swap done... it sounds really nice... ask boxer he loved the sound of my car so much...lol it has a low growl at idle and doesent get to ricey at all up top...

 

Alright, well if your willing to, I would greatly appreciate if if you got one of:
inside the car when your taking off
and standing infront of the car at idle

What do you have for a muffler?

 

a single in duel out camaro muffler...

I can get a few vidios up... there not going to be the best due to them going to be coming off a 8mp cannon camera but they arnt that bad...