Horse hockey, there are plenty of 4 cylinder cars that sound great. The average rice rocket might sound like arse but your generalization shows your ignorance. There are some great sounding 4 cylinder Porsches and Alfas and that's just the top of the iceberg. An Alfa Romeo 4C with the Acropovic...
Intercooler should be the first (engine) mod, since you already have the plumbing you absolutely should "fill in the missing link" before anything else. A downpipe upgrade should probably include a retune so it may exceed the $500 budget but the IC shouldn't need tuning adjustments.
In my case...
IIRC, some run the SVE in 19x11 all around. Tight fit but can be done. Seems worth figuring out with a weight savings of around 10lbs per wheel and, in all likelihood, the flow formed SVE is probably stronger in addition to the lower cost.
I got lucky and got hit head on so it only cost me a few bucks to have the body shop install it while the front end was apart.
I've gotta ask, why the Roush intake? It seems like a waste of time and money, no?
i had to re-read this old thread to see if there was a newer version out yet. I've had the catted downpipe for a year and a half and it's still in the box. I haven't given up hope that there will be a second version of the Y-pipe that is necked up to fit the 3" to 3" adapter instead of necked...
3, there are two different big ugly steel sliders. The base US Ecoboost gets a solid rotor while the EBPP and all GTs get a vented rotor. The rotor diameter is the same but the base EB caliper won't fit on the wider vented rotor. The two versions are identical in appearance but the base rotors...
I don't think it matters how long you let it warm up before you start driving, that only warms up the engine. Don't start flogging it until all the driveline components have warmed up a bit. Your trans and rear need to warm up too.