Phase 1 Complete - Wheels & Springs Installed!

[sstress]

Dropped about 2" and rides awesome! I had the same springs on my 99 WS6. The only spring for real street driving, IMO.Eibach Sportline Springs18x7.5 Kosei K1 TS225/40WR-18 Kumho ECSTA ASXNext steps... window tint and subwoofer. Engine mods: Removed charcoal filter in intake and installed K&N. No plans to do any other engine mods. I like the gas mileage

[Toasted7]

Looks great with the drop and the wheels look nice too!

[damronjr]

Quote, originally posted by Toasted7 »Looks great with the drop and the wheels look nice too!I agree!

[sstress]

Thanks Toasted! I went with these wheels because of the weight. 16 lbs ea. Most I looked at were 19 - 25 lbs!

[BlueCrush]

Looks Great! Nice Wheels & Drop! What's Phase II?

[sstress]

Phase II - tint.... subwoofer. Nothing major

[Toasted7]

Quote, originally posted by BlueCrush »What's Phase II? Ditto!

[NascarXprt]

Nice job on the drop and wheel tire combo! great choices. and the end result is killer nice job man!

[tcam]

u could get even better mileage with a few engine mods. a cold air intake should boost it some and so would grounding wires.

[damronjr]

Quote, originally posted by tcam »u could get even better mileage with a few engine mods. a cold air intake should boost it some and so would grounding wires.More air = more fuel! As far as I know grounding wires have been found to have little to no effect whatsoever other than smoothing out the elec system.

[2002sportside]

Quote, originally posted by damronjr »More air = more fuel! Not true... a CAI doesn't make an engine take in any more air, your right foot does. An engine can only ingest so much air anyways, an intake isn't going to magically make the throttle body any bigger or make the butterfly open any more at a given throttle position. All a CAI does is make it get there a little quicker with less restrictions when you ask for it. Any drop in mileage after an intake is due to getting on it so you can hear it more... After my intake install I gained over 1 mpg with mostly highway. With the header and UDP I raised that a little more, although it's too early to tell if it will be a consistent gain. If you don't get on it, you won't see a loss in mileage.

[damronjr]

Quote, originally posted by 2002sportside »Not true... a CAI doesn't make an engine take in any more air, your right foot does. An engine can only ingest so much air anyways, an intake isn't going to magically make the throttle body any bigger or make the butterfly open any more at a given throttle position. All a CAI does is make it get there a little quicker with less restrictions when you ask for it. Any drop in mileage after an intake is due to getting on it so you can hear it more... After my intake install I gained over 1 mpg with mostly highway. With the header and UDP I raised that a little more, although it's too early to tell if it will be a consistent gain. If you don't get on it, you won't see a loss in mileage.I can see your point, but how do these modifications produce a GAIN in gas mileage?

[2002sportside]

For me it provided a gain because I didn't need to get on it or downshift to pass on the highway, just give it a little more throttle. The loss of restriction has the most to do with it. Once you remove the restrictive factory intake tract you make the engine more efficient by allowing it to take in air much more easily. By allowing it to exit the engine more effectively you should also see a gain. Volumetric efficiency is the key to good power and good economy... from the factory they are set up for a compromise of power, longevity, comfort, and smoothness. This is done to satisfy the masses who would never put up with the sound of an intake sucking in air or a free flowing exhaust. At the same time that means there is room for improvement (although not quite as much with today's vehicles). Google it and read up, I don't make this stuff up...

[AKLGT]

in my 01 tundra, i noticed about a 2 mpg GAIN with an intake. on the vibe gt.... well, i could hardly keep my foot off the gas! LOL. i don't know if it decreased or not, had it on the car only after having it a month so who knows. all i know is that i avg 26-28 mpg with my foot almost always on the gas. not too bad if you ask me. the current car, if i were to put my foot on the gas as much as i did with the VGT, i'd be doing half that! i'm happy when i avg 20 mpg!

[joholste]

i love those rims ... makes me think about getting them as well...16 lbs for an 18 in. rim

[CAN-AWD-VIBE]

thats super light... well done! looks good, my springs are coming and my rims are ready... just in time for winter. So there will be no pics of mine until spring cause for now it looks stock.Oh wait it is stock. Damn. CAN-AWD-VIBE

[sstress]

Thanks for the feedback! I'm not sure I want to increase HP in the Vibe. Its such a tiny motor with very little torque... and at 2700 lb curb weight it needs all the help it can get. Increasing air flow is the only way to make more horsepower, but it'll kill your low end on such a high-winding tiny little engine. In theory, I guess I can see how it could increase gas mileage but not if you move your power band too high. This motor only makes power when it spins. And if you open this motor up too much, you're going to have to keep your foot deep into the throttle just to keep it moving down the road with other cars. And thats what kills gas mileage.My last 2 cars were mod'd (see pics) and my WS6 was the most insane street car I have ever owned. Even with a wild .577 lift cam, no cats, intake work, and computer mods the LS1 made so much torque I didnt even miss the loss of some low end grunt. It made tons and tons of power across the entire rpm range (big v8 good!). But I was pouring $50 a week into the gas tank.. maybe 10-12 mpg? More air through the motor means more gas. When I moved to CO, emissions testing and high gas prices prompted me to trade in the Firebird for a new Ford Focus zx3.So for now, I'm going to move very slow and consider every change I do to the Vibe. Maybe a new muffler and cleaning up the exhaust... and I might build my own ram air intake similiar to the concept car I saw online.And please, don't think I'm trying to discourage anyone from their own mods. HP is a blast! And I like reading about all of your vehicles. At this time in my life, I'm taking it easy Thanks again for all of your responses!

[2002sportside]

Quote, originally posted by sstress »I'm not sure I want to increase HP in the Vibe. Its such a tiny motor with very little torque... and at 2700 lb curb weight it needs all the help it can get. Increasing air flow is the only way to make more horsepower, but it'll kill your low end on such a high-winding tiny little engine. In theory, I guess I can see how it could increase gas mileage but not if you move your power band too high. This motor only makes power when it spins. And if you open this motor up too much, you're going to have to keep your foot deep into the throttle just to keep it moving down the road with other cars. And thats what kills gas mileage.I don't really agree with your theory... The intake improved my low end slightly, but the header and UDP (installed at the same time) really woke this motor up. Bone stock you didn't really feel any torque before 5k. With the way it is now the car pulls hard from 3k up to redline. You need to find a slightly modified 1ZZ dyno before you dismiss mods as killing lowend. All the ones I have seen show an increase in hp and torque throughout the powerband. You probably won't find much on here but you will on 9thgencorolla.com, newcelica.org, etc.

[sstress]

I checked out 9thgencorolla.com and found this dyno test of an intake and a cat back installed on a stock 1ZZ-FE. As you can see from the chart the intake and free'er-flowing exhaust does increase HP, but check out the curve compared to stock! These mods have completely killed the low end availability. This is my greatest concern. What the stock design accomplishes is cylinder packing at low engine speeds."...CosmoRacing intake and magnaflow catback exhaust look at the increase in power... STOCK I WAS RUNNING 111.17HP & 110.74TQ after the two mods ran 120.60HP &115.13TQ"Here's the link to the thread: http://www.9thgencorolla.com/f...114Again, a screaming high HP motor can be really fun at the track, but unless you're gonna supercharge, say goodbye to low-end torque CORRECTION - I was reading this dyno chart wrong. This is not a stock to mod comparison. The flat line is torque and the steep line is horsepower. Looks like torque only dropped a couple of lbs at the low end from stock and these mods increased horsepower by about 9.

[nuvibe]

Welcome to the Drop Club sstress, nice looking ride you have there.... nuvibe

[sstress]

Thanks nuvibe... it's good to be here playin' with y'all. I'm still learnin'!!

[nuvibe]

sstress keep us posted on the rest of the other mod's.... nuvibe

[northvibe]

wow nice drop and rims!! oh i love your other cars too theres a sweet focus at the target by my parents house that has the tails and headlights painted inside same as the car color, looks sooo nice with its body kit.

[SuperSpeedWagon]

sweet cars none the less good job i know you'll make the vibe look awesome