REVscene - Vancouver Automotive Forum

epicbeardman · 03-03-2011, 06:11 PM

Before owning a car of my own (a civic ep3) I just drove my parent's cars which were usually of german origin. so i didn't really pay much attention to the JDM scene. I knew about famous tuning companies like Spoon, Mine's , Top Secret, etc. but didn't really have a reason to buy products from them. Now that I have a Japanese car, I just started looking up some JDM stuff and was surprised by how expensive some of that stuff is. Of course companies like Mugen and Spoon are expensive, but they are still abit more reasonable than say places like J's Racing. I saw some J's racing headers going for over 1500 dollars! This is like BMW aftermarket parts level of pricing. So my question are these things really worth it? I know this is kind of subjective, but please give me some objective responses to their level of quality and performance increase. Do these products justify their 4-5x pricing over similar domestic companies, i.e. Skunk2, Crower, Jackson Racing, Comptech, etc etc?

flagella · 03-03-2011, 06:23 PM

In short, unless you're balling out of control, no it's not worth it. It's better if you go to a forum and ask for opinions from the owners especially if you are buying performance parts because you need to know it's dyno proven.

I remember spoon header for s2k makes it lose power lol.

Nightwalker · 03-03-2011, 06:54 PM

In some cases the domestic aftermarket parts are better than JDM parts.

It's good practice to compare as many sources as possible for a part and skim through the largest forums for your platform for tests/feedback/comparisons.

lowda9 · 03-03-2011, 07:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flagella

In short, unless you're balling out of control, no it's not worth it. It's better if you go to a forum and ask for opinions from the owners especially if you are buying performance parts because you need to know it's dyno proven.

I remember spoon header for s2k makes it lose power lol.

i seriously doubt that. Maybe in some parts of the powerband but all in all, i highly doubt Spoon would release a product such as headers that would make you lose power.

Do you have any proof?

Jgresch · 03-03-2011, 07:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lowda9

i seriously doubt that. Maybe in some parts of the powerband but all in all, i highly doubt Spoon would release a product such as headers that would make you lose power.

Do you have any proof?

Pretty sure it just loses top end power.

MindBomber · 03-03-2011, 07:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lowda9

i seriously doubt that. Maybe in some parts of the powerband but all in all, i highly doubt Spoon would release a product such as headers that would make you lose power.

Do you have any proof?

An over sized header or perhaps extremely well designed header decreases the amount of back pressure and that can cause a slight lose of power in certain areas of the power band, it's not that Spoon produces a low quality product its just not optimized for a bone stock engine.

To the OP: Unless you have cash to burn and want to build a shiny show car, then spending money to get certain brands is far from essential. On your EP3 you could spend several thousand to get a big brake kit from Brembo, but you'd still get great results with a DC5 brake swap for a small fraction of the cost. It's all about knowing where to spend your money and on what parts.

tofu1413 · 03-03-2011, 08:54 PM

^ what he said.

TypeRNammer · 03-03-2011, 09:13 PM

I have JDM looks, as for performance, the parts are domesticated

tofu1413 · 03-03-2011, 09:17 PM

so what if its domesticated.. as long as they work fine and dont fail.

there are lots of domesticated parts that are actually superior in build quality and performance than jdm equivalent.

TypeRNammer · 03-03-2011, 09:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tofu1413

so what if its domesticated.. as long as they work fine and dont fail.

there are lots of domesticated parts that are actually superior in build quality and performance than jdm equivalent.

Megan?

I know megan products for Honda's are garbage lol.

I have a megan mid pipe paired up with my spoon n1.

The mid pipe is so failed cause since the first install, the mid pipe would bang against the chassis. Had it fixed sinced then.

tofu1413 · 03-03-2011, 09:31 PM

headers, valvetrain parts, pistons, con rods, hell, even all motor blocks..

ilvtofu · 03-03-2011, 09:46 PM

This is the same guy who started this thread...?

http://www.revscene.net/forums/do-yo....html?t=636263

Meister1982 · 03-03-2011, 10:00 PM

J's racing products are overpriced because the owner needs to make an extra dough to cover his lawyer's fee.

twitchyzero · 03-03-2011, 10:11 PM

JDscaM

HondaGuy · 03-03-2011, 10:16 PM

Admit that some JDM parts are very pricey but again its personal preference. But I still heart my JDM parts.

Side note:
Comptech Sport 6-2-1 Header/Downpipe for V6-J-Series costed me $2000 CDN back in 2003-2004.

jasonturbo · 03-04-2011, 04:14 AM

YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR, DOESNT MATTER WHAT CONTINENT IT CAME FROM.

PK-EK · 03-04-2011, 08:31 AM

what you need:
Ebay intake
Megan Racing race header/DC Race header.
any aftermarket exhaust
Kpro

hk20000 · 03-04-2011, 09:18 AM

Seeing that you came from a European car background here's JDM car 101.

contrary to European parts, on a Japanese car:
Not all ebay knockoffs are bad
Not all brandname parts (JDM or not) work for your purposes, there are no "stages" in Japanese car tuning.
Not all engine parts make power, not all suspension parts make the car handle better, in the end you have to tune towards your taste.
When in doubt, always go back to OEM. OEM equipment on Japanese cars are always overbuilt and will likely take on twice the factory torque and power before showing any sign of failure.

dark0821 · 03-04-2011, 09:52 AM

^ +1

but that is OEM JDM parts of the late 80's to 90"s... recent JDM cars arent over engineer-ed like they use to =.=

omg english fail orz...

crazyazn · 03-04-2011, 09:57 AM

More often than not, it's not worth paying the extra $$$ for JDM parts. The performance between domestic parts and JDM parts is often similar...while domestic parts are significantly cheaper.

For example, Hytech and Comptech are good domestic brands...although they are quite expensive...lol

spoon.ek9 · 03-04-2011, 10:00 AM

OP the first engine mod you should be looking at in an EP3 is a Type R or Type S head. Worry about the rest afterwards.

PK-EK · 03-04-2011, 10:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spoon.ek9

OP the first engine mod you should be looking at in an EP3 is a Type R or Type S head. Worry about the rest afterwards.

good luck getting it to work properly without Kpro....

do basic bolts ons first
then you can work on building the engine or boost.

spoon.ek9 · 03-04-2011, 12:15 PM

^ i never said it was a straight bolt on

flagella · 03-04-2011, 12:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lowda9

i seriously doubt that. Maybe in some parts of the powerband but all in all, i highly doubt Spoon would release a product such as headers that would make you lose power.

Do you have any proof?

back to back dyno against stock header, with all other parts being the same.

epicbeardman · 03-04-2011, 12:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spoon.ek9

OP the first engine mod you should be looking at in an EP3 is a Type R or Type S head. Worry about the rest afterwards.

To be honest, I probably won't do anything to this engine other than general maintenance. If anything I'd yank it out and do a K20A2 swap before I modify it. Besides it's got a ton of kilometers on it and it's mostly just for DDing.