Anyone else do the following to their X-Type:

-Throttle-body coolant bypass

-Air Intake resonator delete

-Exhaust resonator delete

-Remove heat-absorbing foam from under the intake manifold (it's put there to decrease horsepower and decrease emissions when coming to the states for certain ratings)

 

I have not. funny because I actually have the intake off of mine now to put in a new o-ring on the water inlet.

Did you see much of a difference on any of these mods?

 

Haven't done any of those mods, Can I ask what is the "coolant bypass mod"?
I saw the mod on the blue x type on car domain, I could not use that intake they used, it would be a vacuum for water imho.

 

I vote for some free mod writeups by Mr Bond to be stickied!

I haven't done any of these but I would..

 

They're all pretty easy, other than the foam under the intake manifold which you will need to seat new gaskets underneath.

The coolant recirculation is a REDUNDANT design that gathers heat and restricts horsepower by recycling the heated coolant to the throttle body. Some may argue this was installed to prevent icing in the winter.... I've done this to EVERY car I've owned for YEARS, and even this winter, my X-Type started in one turn on a morning it was -16 Fahrenheit sitting outside my hotel all night.

The air intake resonator-delete is REALLY easy: pull it off, and stick a rubber grommet in side, then melt the grommet to the inlet if you wish to fuse them. I also duct taped it after inserting just for insurance. JUST MAKE SURE THE GROMMET IS TAPERED! you don't want it sucked into the engine!

On a V6, the gains aren't as big as I've seen on V8's, but that is always the case. Diminutive gains and a little pep is about all that's added with these, but again, they are FREE.

Another mod that may have to do with the engine's 'timing' is one step colder spark plugs. I've done this to both X-Types to get rid of sluggish response, and it has worked on both of my X-Types.

Google the coolant bypass mod, it looks pretty much the same on any car. I'm sure the Mazda6 guys have figured out, or the Ford Contours.

 

That car only saw the track, so it never was washed with any rain.

That intake did free up some quality gains, but no one responded to our production of it, so I sold it to someone whom I've yet to come across on these forums.... lol

 

Personaly i would think that a team of English engineers know how, and what to put into a car to make it would better then this lil-ol'-Colombian-kid. But as i see all you guys talk about this I question my previous stance on the matter.
I guess that when said team is designing the car they have to make it work on a very broad spectrum. So if you know your car is in the dirty south (southern USA) you wouldnt need all that anti-freezeing equipment.
So my question is, is this really worth it? To make changes to your ride that could effect longevity? Because allthought you may think that a hose only effects the coolent system you might inencertantly effect other parts of the car. Im not trying to sound like a smart ***. I honestly dont know enough to answer that.

 

I understand what you are trying to get at.... but it really holds no bearing in this particular case.
All of the necessary functions to operate are still occurring, and in fact, these particular modifications allow the car to perform 'better' than intended.

A large floormat might 'come from the factory,' but it's still a good idea to swap it out or modify it if it's causing the gas pedal to stick or blocking the brakes.

Not really even anything worth arguing over.

 

J_Bond, and the resonator exhaust delete you mentioned? Can you provide more detail?

 

These are all very basic and common mods

 

Which resonator? the exhaust resonator or the intake resonator?

 

Agreed.

 

The stock setup has NO effect when starting a cold car because the coolant is also cold. As the coolant warms it provides the TB with heat to thaw any ice that forms. You'd have to ask an engineer exactly what conditions are needed to freeze a throttle body but keep in mind what the wind chill might be when dealing with a venturi.

As a pilot I learned that carb ice was more of a concern on a summer day with high humidity. A carbs venturi will ice up in mid summer. Activating carb-heat (diverting manifold heat near the carb) was performed at mid field downwind so if a chunk of ice decided to melt off you could dead stick a landing. Been there, done that. Engine failures at 1000' suck. Car stalls on street, no big deal.

That being said, I don't know anyone who ever stalled their car using the coolant bypass mod. Some cars benefit from it, some don't. My guess is the X is in the latter group. And exactly how many people are taking their X down the 1/4 mile to "reap" the benefit?

 

...All good points. Well said.

 

Any nice rumble from stripping out the exhaust resonator?

 

VERY little. WOT it sounds a 'bit' more aggressive. Still not sure why it's even there. The sound change was quite minimal.

 

I notice they added alot of things to this car...that it didnt need. For instane the baffles in the baffles in the airbox...restrict air flow just to make the car queit. And this is seen throughtout the whole car.

 

Huh, my idea of free/cheap mods is a little bit different. Having an air brush at my disposal, I do a lot of painting upgrades for dirt cheap (cost of a quart of paint is pretty low). I did a Sport conversion on my car for less than $100. I am now in the process of converting the outside lights to LED which is only costing me about $1 a light. But then, having a little bit of wiring knowledge helps with that.

The next projects in store for my car is probably going to be a repaint of the defroster vents to blend with the dash (mine are currently a light brown where the dash is a much darker brown) and then probably an "expansion" of the wood trim on the doors to encompass the entire void on the side. I think that would look interesting. I just have to find an exotic wood place near me to get some of the burreled wood. Granted, if I can find some, then I might take the time to redo the dash vents too. Help tie the dash together a bit more. That would be mainly time, not so much cost. All the ideas.

 

Thermo, just for giggles I bought 10 194 LED bulbs for 2.99 shipping in just to have a look. Mind you they are all singles, I did the DRL and the license plate lights and the license plate looks great, the DRL are OK at night, at least a lot closer to the color of HIDs sitting right beside them, at night you can see them, but during the day not so much. I'm in the process of tracking down SS mesh and making my own grills, I am looking for a bit more open weave, similar to the Adamesh 08 style. I've got the Exexpat cheap intake system on order, I just have to pick it up across the line. The US has a much broader range of goodies that we have access to in Canada.

I would be interested in doing the TB coolant delete, Mr Bond, what is it you need to do? Is it just blocking the coolant pipes?

 

Hi- could you explain a little more about, "the foam under the intake manifold which you will need to seat new gaskets underneath"? I still have the foam and am going to do the upper and lower intake gaskets, for the first time, this weekend and would like to remove the foam if not needed, but am not sure what you mean?