all you krazy car people...

[krazykomrade]

I don't usually post in the car forum, I'm all current events. But I get a 1994 Infiniti J30t, and I just came into some money (500ish) and I was wondering what if any cheap mods i could do for my car. I'm not very familiar with engines or that, so i figured I'd ask the experts in the car forum before i talk to some guy who will try and rip me off. PS: i read a few of the threads here, and im sick of the fucking ricer/tuner/euro/muslce wars. I dont want to discuss that, I just want to know from someone who is familiar with my type of car what would be some good, relatively inexpensive upgrades.

[veXati0n]

with a little more you could do part of the exhaust or you could go the other route and change either the PCM or the intake, wires, and plugs. PCM would give you the most gains probably (I don't know much about your engine), the intake plugs and wires won't gain really anything but it does help and has been proven so. Exhaust won't gain you anything except a cool sound unless you do complete exhaust (headers, tubes, high flow cats/deleted cats, and mufflers).

[krazykomrade]

Yeah, on of my car buddies said that the intake would give me the most hp boost for my money, but what is PCM?

[veXati0n]

It's your computer. It tells your car pretty much what to do and how to do it. It takes care of all of the electronic devices involved, but not the mechanical. Eventually you'll need to chip your car if you plan on further mods. I'm not sure a cold air intake is the best bang for your buck. I don't know how much it costs for your car, but the gains are minimal. For example, I was looking recently for a cold air intake on the Pontiac Grand Prix GT, and it was like 200 bucks, and there's no way that's going to give me 5hp!

If you do intake, do exhaust too. Your car will sound faster, which makes it feel faster. It's not the case however, but it's still something that people do who aren't into radically modifying their cars for huge horsepower figures.

Have you considered an audio system? You might get more enjoyment out of your 500 bucks that way than with mods. If you want any significant improvement on your cars overall performance you might have to throw 2g's at it. I don't know much about your car, however, so I might be wrong.