Acura

[sanitygone]

Who here owns an Acura CL, RL, TL, TSX, RDX??

[onsite]

I don't own one but I was an intern in engineering at the factory for awhile. What would you like to know?

[sanitygone]

I am wanting to know, about how I can increase the performance of it. So I can get a little more out of it. I have a '98 Acura 3.0CL Premium.

[DemonicUnicorn2]

you could swing over to How Stuff Works and type in 4 stroke engine. It will give you links to cool/cold air intakes, super and turbo chargers. Won't tell you how to port and polish the head though. though i agree with kong that you would be much better of on a Acura or other tuner forum.

[<Maverick>]

well at least he had the good sense to put it in the off topic forum.

[Athiel0]

Honestly, if your looking for a performance car, then i wouldnt go with the CL, if your in a situation where you already have the car, but want some more go out of it, then you can always go with the standard intake and exhaust. If you put a turbo charger or supercharger or even nitrous oxide on an engine that wasnt designed for it, it can definatly screw up alot of things. If you do decide to go that route, take your car to a performance shop (not your local garage, and dear God not an autozone) and tell them what you want, the can look at the engine tell you weather or not you can handle it, and prep the engine for it (lower compression, stronger rings, shorter stroke if they want to go that far)

Other than that when you just start bolting on things to a car, it decreases the life of it. Especially anything that would give you any real noticable performance.

[DemonicUnicorn2]

cold air intake wont hurt anything. it simply allows for cooler air to reach the cylinder for combustion. cooler air is more rich in oxygen and the more oxygen in the gas/ air mixture the more potent the combustion becomes. adding a cold air will increase your HP slightly (maybe 10 at most) and increase your fuel efficiency slightly, at the cost of silence. your car will not be nearly as quiet as it used to be.

adding a cat-back exhaust will increase the rate at which hot air can be expelled out of the car. bigger pipes and less curves to the pipe make this as efficient as possible. as you know, it gets much louder. you can also eliminate the catalytic converter but will face a ticket if you get pulled over. Police in some counties do in fact carry mirrors for looking under your vehicle, specifically to look to see if you have NOS or a catalytic converter.

without adding anything to the motor you could take the head off and take it to a local machine shop and tell them you want .010in (ten thousandths of an inch) removed from it. this will make it higher compression but will drastically shorten the life of the motor.

your best bet for now would be a cold air intake. then ponder what else you want. to do to it. though i would have to agree with Athiel0 that the model Acura you have isn't the type you would want to be suping up. i have a buddy who may be willing to part ways with a 80s integra. as well as a buddy who has a niche for hondas and acuras.

[Cut Throat]

To add to this, Nitrous IS legal in OHIO. My dad used to be on road patrol a few years ago and still has the law book, I was looking to see what I could do to my car when it is offically mine and nitrous is legal, as well flamethrower kits(so long as it is used appropriatly).

[DemonicUnicorn2]

I'd have to disagree with you on that cuttthroat. Nitrous is legal IF it is not connected to the system. The tank can be in your car but the disconnect must be in plain sight. Also, if you have nitrous in the car and the police have any suspicion that you may be inhaling it, they have a right to search your vehicle. Inhaling nitrous and possession of nitrous with intent to inhale or sell is a crime. If you don't know, nitrous oxide is basically "laughing gas", a weak anesthetic. So you can imagine it's also used to get high off of. It is what charges Cool Whip cans, and I'm sure you've heard stories of kids 'Whipping'. It is legal to have the nitrous hooked up while at the track/ drag strip.

[Cut Throat]

Sorry, I completly forgot about inhaling it. I was only thining of having it in your car.