since igot a sky red line recently, was thinnking iwould like to up grade,
The first thing to remember when you're looking to upgrade a bone stock Redline is the ECM has a parameter called "desired torque level". This is how the ECM manages power. This number, and its value depends on the operating condition the engine is currently in, is what the ECM wants the engine to put out. Let's say the target is 280 ft/lbs of torque. Now you put in an exhaust that makes the engine produce 290 ft/lbs of torque under the same conditions. The ECM will lower boost under those conditions until the torque level drops and hits the 280 ft/lbs of torque it's programmed to shoot for. Now lets say you're up in Colorado in thinner air (less power) and you're only hitting 270 ft/lbs under those conditions. The ECM will now raise boost to try and hit that 280 ft/lbs of torque that it's trying to achieve.
This is what many people refer to as the "learn down" feature of the ECM which makes doing any power adding mods moot until you address the tune in the ECM.
Now, that doesn't mean the additional parts are worthless...just means you won't get out of them what you want UNTIL you do a tune...but if you do a tune first then add parts or add parts and then do a tune is up to you. When I say "add parts", we're talking simple bolt on things like exhausts, intakes and charge tubes. generally speaking if you go beyond those things, you'll want a tune that takes other improvements like downpipes, larger turbos, intercoolers, etc into consideration for the tuner.
So the FIRST thing you do before buying parts is plan what you want out of upgrading. You may stop at the basics. You may want a simple K04 big wheel turbo and nothing bigger. Maybe you have a whp goal. Whatever your goal is, you need to define that first.
maybe exhaust high flow cat, and maybe intake? would it be worth it? which one would be best? or what if change the whole exhaust sytem? or increase diameter of exhaust?
Some things to consider in what you posted:
High Flow Cat: This is a good upgrade that most folks agree frees up some whp on the turbo cars. In TX, you may even be able to get away with a catless downpipe. However, power gains between a high flow and a catless downpipe are minimal (<5whp).
Intake: I don't believe we have yet to find an intake that has a measurable performance improvement on this platform. It will, however, increase the sound of your bypass valve (more on this later). I have a stock K04 bypass valve on my 2.4 turbo setup but with the CAI I have on the car, you'd swear I have a vent to atmosphere BOV.
Exhaust: On the turbo car there isn't a whole lot to be gained by an exhaust...MAYBE 7 whp. It's not much. The stock exhaust on our cars are 2.5" with very few bends...and the bends we do have are smooth bends so the piping flows really good as is. The muffler is a bit restrictive but not horribly so. Most folks then do an exhaust mod to change the sound of the car and in this case, it's all about what you like it to sound like. I LOVE my Magnaflows (I've had all three of their Sky exhausts at one point or another) and love the sound they get. A catless downpipe will increase the volume of any exhaust as well. As for size, 2.5" is fine for a turbo car and there is not gains to be had by going 3" until you reach the 400whp level. If you're going for that kind of power eventually (like I am...450-500 whp) then you can bolt on a 3" now in preparation for that. If not though, save your money and go with a 2.5" aftermarket exhaust OR just keep the OEM pipe and swap your muffler. For our cars, the 2002 F-body generation (I think that was from 1997-2002 Camaros and Firebird/Trans-Ams) mufflers work. That's the muffler Magnaflow uses in their Kappa exhausts.
im some wat familiar with what parts to change out to increase hp, but ihave yet to experience installing it and/or to knotice first hand its harmful effects.
im pretty sure there are no emisson requrements here in alamo tx, but i wouldnt wana go catless.
Well that would solve the downpipe issue. Good news is you won't lose a lot of power going with a high flow cat.
As far as what to change out and what possible harmful effects, the answer to both is everything. You can sleeve the block, port and polish the heads, go with larger valves, heavier valve springs, titanium retainers, larger throttle body, upgraded charge tubes, larger intercooler, forged pistons, better forged rods, larger turbo, aftermarket exhaust manifold, external waste gate, blow off valve, heavier clutch, lighter flywheel (if you're not an automatic), Quaife differential and make the thing a rocketship...or swap the whole damn engine out for a LS V8 or 2JZ (with a 1JZ bell housing and the right clutch/flywheel combo they bolt right up to our transmissions) and really make some stupid power.
Of course the most reliable modifications are none at all and going down the modification path can lead to some serious headaches if you're not prepared for them. If this is your only car and/or your daily, don't plan on going too wild if you've never done this before. If you can't wrench on your own car this is especially true. A tune, charge pipes, intercooler, intake, exhaust, downpipe, and a big wheel K04 turbo is the absolute limit I'd place on modifications if the above is true for you. Even with that, if your mechanic isn't familiar with THIS platform, there may be issues. Mind you with those modifications this car can still make over 300-330 whp and be pretty reliable.
Beyond that though, and you better be prepared for issues that you'll need to deal with.
ithink ill keep my stock turbo, ilike its quick response it makes,
and iguess my last question is, can i install a waste gate to make it sound cool
Oh boy. Okay, first every turbo I can think of has a waste gate. There are two types of waste gates, one routes back into the exhaust after the trubo's turbine housing, the other vents right to the atmosphere. Of the type that routes back into the exhaust, you have an internal waste gate and an external waste gate. The waste gate on the Redline is an internal waste gate that routes back into the exhaust. This is done for a number of reasons. One, an internal waste gate like this is easier to set up and takes up less space in the engine bay. It's easier to work with and simpler for manufacturing the car. Also, waste gates the route to the exhaust are quieter so they are usually the go to choice for OEM turbos.
There are drawbacks to these kinds of waste gates though. Internal waste gates tend to be less precise and can often leak boost over the RPM range of the turbo. Also, if something happens to the waste gate itself, generally the entire turbine side of the turbo must be replaced. However, except for the waste gate actuator (the thing that makes the waste gate open and close when needed) very little "goes wrong" with an internal waste gate. The main issues is with holding boost to redline.
Unless you go with an aftermarket turbo you will be stuck with the OEM internal waste gate. Even a big wheel K04 (this is the stock turbo with a larger impeller wheel put on the compressor side...turbine side wheel stays stock size) you will have the same waste gate.
Now, you may be confusing the waste gate with the Blow Off or Bypass valve. This is the device that, when a turbo car lets off the gas, gives a PPHHSSSSSSSSTT kind of sound. That sound, generally, is a Blow Off Valve (BOV). The difference between a BOV and a Bypass Valve (BV) is in what they do with the air between the turbo's output and the throttle body of the engine. (This is the area of the charge tubes and intercooler.) Under wide open throttle, the turbo is producing a lot of boost and the entire intake track from the turbo to the intake valves and combustion chamber is full of air under full boost pressure. When the throttle body closes when the driver lets off the gas, the part of the intake behind the throttle body (cylinder, head, and intake manifold) is now under vacuum but the area before the throttle body (charge pipes, intercooler, and turbo compressor) is still under boost. With the throttle body closed, this air has no where to go and if not dealt with, can reverse up to the compressor and stall the compressor of the turbo...which can damage the compressor. To prevent this, the BOV or BV allows this pressurized air to escape. This is where they differ. A BV takes this pressurized air and feeds it back into the intake before the turbo to be recycled into the engine. A BOV just lets this pressurized air escape to the atmosphere and hence why you hear the PPHHSSSSSSSSTT sound.
The issue with the Redline is a sensor called the Mass Air Flow Sensor (MAF). The MAF measures how much air is coming into the engine and gives this info to the ECM to calculate fueling. Once this is calculated, the amount of air registered by the MAF MUST enter the engine or the fueling calculations of the ECM will be off. In the Redline, the BV is built into the turbo and comes after the MAF which is located in the intake going to the turbo. This way, the now measured air recirculates into the turbo and is still used by the engine and allows the ECM to properly calculate fuel requirements like it is supposed to. On my 2.4 build, my MAF is in the cold side pipe over by the throttle body so my MAF isn't taking a reading until the air has left the intercooler. Thus I could put in a BOV so long as I did it somewhere before the MAF.
Now so folks have put BOVs on a Redline and I don't know what they do to the programming or MAF location to achieve this but it CAN be done. It will require a new charge pipe to locate the BOV and of course the tune to make it work.
itried looking up youtube but some are crazy modded, thats a lot of crazy money, not looking to spend 3g's on mods, iwant to start off slowly into modding
im already looking into getting a aftermarket spoiler for my sky...
maybe idk lol
LOL 3Gs. I'm one of the crazy modded guys so I have to chuckle. For spoilers there's not much out there and you don't want to go too crazy on the wings since where it mounts to is a bit flimsy. Here are some modification areas you can look into:
Engine: We've covered a lot of that here so I won't go into that any more. RPM Motorsports (RPM), Performance Auto Werks (PAW), DDM Works (DDM) or Hahn racecraft are the places you can look for a lot of this stuff.
Drivetrain: There are a few clutches available for our cars but it mainly is either the DDM clutch (from DDM, of course) or the Spec clutches which you can get from most of the providers listed above. If your car didn't come equipped with a limited slip differential (which I think all Redlines DID come with it) or if you want a gear based LSD rather than the OEM clutch based LSD, Quaife differentials are still available and last we checked were about $330 for the diff. They use to be around $1500. Our bet is they are trying to get rid of the remaining stock so when they're gone, they're gone.
Suspension: Our cars are meant to be driven...in corners...so suspension is a big thing for us. Tires are the biggest upgrade here so if you have 10 year old original tires, change them ASAP. The better tires the better it handles but it's always a trade-off. Extreme Summer tires are maximum grip tires but can't be used in the snow. All season tires are great in all conditions but give up dry performance. Figure out how you're going to drive the car and this will help narrow your choices. Beyond that, there are sway bars and coil overs for this car from a number of places. Most go with the factory Z0K option sway bars and then their choice of springs or coil overs. I have a set of BC coils and they run just over $1,000 for the single adjustable set (for damping and rebound...you can still adjust ride height and spring preload but those are nearly set and forget adjustments). PAW just released a dual adjustable set of BC coils but they are in the $1500+ range. This is still cheap for dual adjustable coils though. If you don't know what the benefits are from a single adjustable to a dual adjustable then just go single. You would be more apt to mess up your suspension settings with duals if you don't understand how they work in very good detail (I autocross and even I don't know the full idiosyncrasies of dual adjustable coils). The one thing that most folks WILL agree with on here though is chassis bracing. There is a front brace, backbone brace, and rear brace. The front brace is a marginal improvement but the other two are big steps up and most do all three. DDM sells them as a package but I think PAW and RPM offer similar braces. (if not the exact DDM ones)
Body: Look up either RK Saturn Sky (for parts made by RK for our cars) or Norm's Fiberglass. They are the only two companies I can think of currently that make things like body kits, splitters, hoods for our cars. If you want a new hardtop, Norm's or Smoothline would be the go to folks for that but they are well over $1.5K and up for those.
Interior: Other than radio equipment any modifications here will be custom work by local interior shops or OEM options. Our steering wheel is the same as some model Corvettes or you can have a custom one made for you by SoCal Garage Works.
Welcome to the forum and this should get you started in your search. Remember the old saying. How fast do you want to go? How much money do you have to spend? Your pocket book is your only limitation to this platform. So set a goal, figure out how to get there, and then figure out the budget required to get there. Only then can you make the necessary smart decisions to get there in a manner that suits your goal and financial ability to achieve it.
I've attached a few pics of my Turbo 2.4 so you can see where I've gone with my (totally off the rails) build. LOL