"outlaw" mods....
 

If exhaust regulations weren't an issue, what mods could one do to improve performance?

a straight back?

What kind of exhaust regulations are you talking about? Noise restrictions or emissions?

Forgive my ignorance of the Venezuelan legal system. :D

I'm talking about emission regulations, and local laws are not an issue because I don't think I'd get a ticket for that...heck, I've never met anyone who has goten a ticket for anything in my country. You should see some of the buses here, the smoke is so thick that you can barely in front of you.

For example, could I just remove the catalytic converter(sp) or would that damage my engine?

it won't hurt the engine but it will fuck up the environment and by doing so you should get some more HP too! (something like 5HP?)

Now we're talking, keep em coming people.

get a racing header that should give ya aonther 7HP

The only thing I don't want from this mods is to have smoke coming out of my muffler, that would look very lame.

has a racing header officially come out yet???
i know companies claim to have made some, but has any1 got one?

Smoke out of your pipe is going to be another problem, not caused by you removing your cat. You could just install a straight pipe from the back of the header to the end. No muffler or anything, get some extra power out of that. Don't go too big because you need some backpressure. It won't sound as cool as having a muffler installed though. Do the whole FS-ZE thing without the emissions equipment, replace the ECU, etc. etc.

First thing I would do is ditch the cat and install a long-tube header. However, I'm not sure if anyone makes a true long-tube header for the 1.6L yet.

Also, I'm not sure what type of computer system your Allegro uses; this has a large effect on what performance mods you can do. U.S., Canadian and most European Proteges use OBD-II, which is designed to self-diagnose problems with the emissions system on the car. Many "old school" n/a power mods (such as cams, headers, head porting, etc.) will freak out an OBD-II computer and cause problems. Some Proteges sold in other parts of the world use the older, more flexible OBD-I system; however, I'm not sure what Venezuelan cars have.

However, if you truly do not have to meet any emissions requirements at all (like I said, I know nothing about the Venezuelan legal system), there is all sorts of crazy stuff you can do that is out of the question in the U.S.- big cams, cylinder head mods, even ditching the stock EFI and installing dual sidedraft Weber 40DCOE carburetors. :bt:

If I were you, I would try to hook up with some enthusiasts from the Philippines. The Protege (known as the Familia over there) is a very popular car over there, and back when I was on the Protegetech Yahoogroups email list, there were some Filipino enthusiasts with some pretty wildly modified BH Familias that could run times that would shame most U.S. 1.8L cars. :D

Have a look at these headers.

I'll post mor epics later this month when I get my high flow cat and 2 1/4 system in place.

http://users.chariot.net.au/~sp20/

Headers are well worth their weight in gold.
As mentioned on previous posts, 1st cat is removed (sensors repositioned so Engine warning light does not come on for this reason) and I've dropped 2% on fuel usage but gained 10% on power at the top end where acceleration is much improved. Now do a 8.8's for the 0-100km/h whereas before was a 9.5.
Cant wait for the high flow cat, exhaust and Chip later on. Hoping for low consistent low 8's.

Good luck.
Claude

Doesn't the SP20 have a 2.0L engine?

If it's a 2.0L or a 1.8L, it's an F-series engine. The 1.6L and earlier 1.5L are Z-series engines and the headers will not interchange. There are several commercially available headers for the F-series, but I'm unaware of any for the Z-series that are available in North America.

I believe OBX racing has a header for the 1.6L...you could also get your intake manifold ported and polished to increase flow,just find a reputable machine shop...

I thought that the OBX 1.6L header was still under development, and nobody had been able to verify if it will be a true long-tube design.