First mods?

What are the best first mods for performance, reliability, and drive-ability? I have no idea what the best place to start is. Tunes are always great but is that the first thing I should do to the car? What do you guys think?

Depends on your goal if your looking for performance then get an intercooler. If your looking for sound then get a catback either magnaflow or maybe roush

INTERCOOLER

Your car will run better regardless of if you are tuned or not.

Another vote for intercooler. It will allow all of your future mods to work better.

my first was catch can.

Do an intercooler.

1) Catch can
2) Tune
3) Intercooler
4) DP

but it all really boil down to what is your goal and your purpose with this car.

For performance, reliability, and drivability. Maybe new tires?

BetOnMet said:

What are the best first mods for performance, reliability, and drive-ability? I have no idea what the best place to start is. Tunes are always great but is that the first thing I should do to the car? What do you guys think?

Click to expand...

The biggest thing is reliability. Grab a catch can, colder plugs, a good quality synthetic oil, and intercooler. After that, get a tune and a wastegate.

The catch can will keep crud (via the PCV system) out of your engine and will help to reduce any buildup on the back of the exhaust valves (byproduct of having a DI engine). It will also ensure that fuel quality isn't getting diluted down (because the PCV passes unburned fuel and oil vapors back through the intake system to produce cleaner emissions).

The colder plugs will plug some heat out of the combustion chamber which will help reduce the possibility of pre-ignition and/or detonation. These new four cylinder engines are pretty high-strung, so you can run a colder plug on them even with the stock tune.

A good quality oil will help prevent wear (better shear resistance, etc.) and can even help with reduced oil vapor (coming through the PCV system) from burn-off while the engine oil is heated up. The NOACK value is a good value to look at in regards to that quality of the oil.

The intercooler will allow your tune, even the stock one, to perform at it's maximum capabilities. Once the charge air temps (CAT)(the air entering in at the throttle body after leaving the intercooler) gets so high, the engine will begin to pull timing and take other preventative measures to circumvent anything catastrophic happening. A good intercooler, such as the Levels or ATM, will keep the CATs close to the ambient temperature outside. Like with any engine, whether boosted or NA, the cooler the air is entering the engine, the better it will perform. Denser air = more powa!

After all that, the tune will really open it up and put a smile on your face. However, I always recommend doing the aforementioned as supporting mods (like of like preventative maintenance too) to add an extra layer of safety. You can run the car without any of it, but it's kind of like going to the doctor about your health. You can eat crap foods and live to be 100 years old, but you could also eat better foods while living to 100 years old with a much better quality of health.

In any event, don't overthink all of the above. I just thought I'd lay out some basic info for you. Have fun with it and welcome to the forum!

All good suggestions so far. Turbo cars love freer-flowing exhaust, and they make driving MUCH more fun!

Thanks everyone that had replied! As it stands, it looks like I am going to go with a catch can and maybe some little things like spark plugs and oil... at least to start with. Next comes the power! Have to save for a little to get in my tune and intercooler somewhere near the same time though.

I went with these....

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Intercooler, The stock car will be more efficient run after run. You'll enjoy it more in the summer for sure.

BetOnMet said:

Thanks everyone that had replied! As it stands, it looks like I am going to go with a catch can and maybe some little things like spark plugs and oil... at least to start with. Next comes the power! Have to save for a little to get in my tune and intercooler somewhere near the same time though.

Click to expand...

Not sure where you are with miles/warranty on car, but I'd go Ford Performance tune, if you have a lot of warranty left.

Intercooler is really not needed unless you are going to track the car or simply want it. It is fine if you want it... some swear by it. Some swear by catch can, etc.... stuff like that won't hurt anything unless you have warranty left and they could be potential warranty issues with those changes (depending on dealer, etc... I learned the hard way that dealers can be jerks about simple mods and some are great).

Keeping in line with performance, I'd say 2nd mod should be tires. Get a good set of tires.... stock tires seem to be crap, mine are jacked already and I've not been too bad on them (no burnouts). Reading the wheels/tires section and other threads, seem people have trouble with tires. I've never had a car where the tires sound like hell after 25k miles (they get rotated, etc).

Summer tires ... for like summer.
Engine strut and K brace (cheapest suspension upgrade FP is less than 200 and if I can do it myself anyone can)
Intercooler and tune or suspension upgrade....depends if you want to go fast straight or go fast in turns.