The car was purchased in June of 2002 for $6000 from the original owner. It had ~89,000 miles on the odometer. The car came equipped with every option available at the time (options with which SE models of the same year came equipped), including a sunroof, ABS, limited-slip differential, six speaker Clarion CD stereo, cruise-control, power windows, power door-locks, power mirrors, air conditioning, etc. The car was already lowered with Eibach pro-line springs and Tokico blues. It didn't take long for me to realize the car's incredible potential with its excellent handling dynamics--All that it needed was a *bit* more power.
And so one boring summer day a few weeks after I bought it...
I did not buy the car with a single intention of ever modifying it. However, the boredom of summer plus the presence of a father extremely interested in modifying cars himself (http://members.cox.net/formeister) soon influenced me to start playing with the car in an attempt to exact more power and make it more pleasurable to drive.
At first there were very mild modifications, and I thought that each new modification would be the last one...but the obsession fed itself. The first modification was the Bosch Platinum + 4 plugs and the Aurora 8 mm plug wires. Then came the custom, home-fabricated 3" cold-air intake (CAI), made out of mandrel-bent aluminized steel. I refused to pay $250 + for an Injen CAI when the one I engineered worked just as well and looked better in my opinion. After that came the Hotshot 4-2-1 ceramic coated header, and then a fully stainless-steel Tanabe Hyper Medalion cat-back exhaust. I was running no catalytic converter at the time, thanks to the header that replaced the one and only cat on the early S14. A Pilot front strut-tower brace was added to stiffen up the chassis a bit, followed by a Cusco strut-tower brace to match in the rear. That fall a very nice B&M short-shifter and Redline MT-90 synthetic manual transmission fluid was added to make the car shift and feel a bit more sporty, and KVR cadmium-plated, cross-drilled and vented brake rotors with KVR carbon-kevlar pads were added to make it stop a bit more quickly and to prevent any future brake-fade that I might experience.
Coming along nicely...for a naturally aspirated engine, that is.
The car was beginning to feel a lot more like it should; it had better throttle response, a formidable intake growl, quick shifts, tight suspension and was overall pretty quick and extremely torquey.
However, as with all addictions, some was not enough. The first winter I had my car, promising my parents that this was the "last" modification (after adding Suspension Techniques anti-sway bars and polyurethane bushings front/rear), I upgraded to PDM-Racing stage II camshafts (http://www.pdm-racing.com) manufactured by Colt Cams. All of the valve shims were replaced and the valve lash was kept to minimal clearances to ensure the maximum lift from the cams.
These cams were quite a bit more aggressive than the 1991 KA24DE camshafts (and the 91 cams were more aggressive than the 95 cams), yet still very streetable with a sufficiently smooth idle. The stock 91 cams had the following specs: Intake - 207 degrees duration, .350 lift, Exhaust 215 duration, .367 lift. The PDM stage II cams had these (better!) specs: Intake 219 duration, .379 lift, Exhaust 221 duration, .384 lift. The camshafts made a significant difference in the powerband of the extremely torquey yet notoriously suffocated (in the high RPM range) KA24DE. Indeed, PDM dynoed these cams making 11 rwhp.
The engine's top-end was now a lot more fun and the engine breathed better all-around with negligible torque loss. The car was very exciting to drive now and plenty fast; it handled beautifully, accelerated quickly, and looked great while doing it. It should have been rather easy to stop with the modifications at this point as I was rather pleased with the way the car performed--but not pleased enough. I greedily lusted for more power, and more performance. I toyed with the idea of swapping in some high compression pistons (11.1:1 CR) in hopes of being satisfied with the subsequent power gains but knew that the only way I'd be satisfied with the power is if the car was turbocharged :)
Here is a picture with the valve cover off, displaying the new camshafts:
