Any Engine mods out yet?

I can't find anything yet. So far I've heard only about this tuned 600 horsepower engine lol.

TRD makes an intake for the CH-R. I gave my dealer the part number and they quoted me $400.

Part Number I found online for complete intake setup: PTR03-1C160

If you go to the TRD website, it's not listed on their site for the C-HR. But they do list what I think are the parts sold separately. And strangely enough, if you piece it together yourself through the website, it's cheaper and comes out to ~$300

TRD Airbox Top: PTR03-1C160-AA
TRD Coupling: PTR03-1C160-AB
TRD Air Filter: PTR03-1C161

I ended up picking up the TRD intake out of .... curiosity I guess. I also picked up a Cusco rear anti-sway bar.

Car background: Owned 2 WRX's and 3 Civic Si's with plenty of experience in modding and tunes.

I decided to purchase these parts after paying off my student loan and having some free cash leftover to play with "owed less than I thought." The TRD box does indeed have a different design compared to stock which I realized after looking at more pictures. In person, the box has a lot more volume within it and pushes closer to the engine, thus it has a much shorter hose connecting the box to the throttle body. The filter looks exactly like the k&n "k&n probably makes it." I already had a k&n and tried to just purchase the hose and top box for the TRD intake but no one is selling them separately yet, I emailed websites and dealers but it was a no go.

After a couple weeks with the intake here's what I notice: Butt dyno = no difference, I've always had a weak butt dyno lol. Throttle response is improved, the car is much more willing to jump to higher rpms, I'd say it's a cross between normal mode and sport now. Sound is actually quieter but at higher rpms the engine sound has a deeper note which is nice. Any actual power gains: Again it is not felt but I noticed while watching my rpms during my hilly commute that the car doesn't need to rev as high for 2 of the larger hills in cruise control to maintain speed. I make the same boring traffic free drive day after day which is why I don't have a sports car anymore, during these same 2 hills with cruise at 75mph the car now revs about 200rpm lower to maintain it's speed. Likewise with my same 2 daily on-ramps, half throttle would get me to about 70-72mph by the time I hit the hwy and that now gets me to about 74mph.

None of this is scientific, it's just "not" things I was looking for and happened to notice which have been consistent. When I installed the intake I also removed the charcoal filter. Install was easy except for the plastic nipple that you have to remove from the stock intake and insert into the TRD rubber hose. It was a pita to get out of the OEM and a challenge to insert, WD40 helped with the re-installation.

As for my Cusco rear anti-sway bar, installation wasn't bad, the only challenge is getting it out after it's loose and shoving the new one in it's place. Removal of a couple small bolts and push clips to drop the under plastics is necessary to reach 2 of the bolts. Installing these bars is always a knuckle buster but I can say this is the easiest I've ever done. Can't really review it yet since I put it in yesterday but during a short test drive on our terrible small town Oklahoma roads, I noticed the car doesn't wobble nearly as much with road imperfections but you do feel those imperfections more. My goal was to make it feel more stable on the hwy, I'll find out more on that when I go to work tomorrow.

Other mods I've done, full led replacements of fog, head, license plate and interior lights. Used Philips bulb / chips for almost everything. Straightened my off center steering wheel by adjusting the tie-rods without changing alignment. Even had dealer check alignment after "wanted it checked before installing the Cusco" and it's dead on, no surprise since I learned that trick a long time ago and have done it many times.

Future mods: Stereo replacement with underseat sub once someone does a DIY head unit install and verify everything works. I'd like to do the TRD springs but I can't afford to loose an inch of ground clearance, with heavy rain I used to have to use a different street to get to my house with my sports cars because of a bad dip that floods. Roads here are realllllly bad.

zbyra said:

Even if there was magic pixie dust that would add instant 30 HP to the motor, you would not feel or see much if any performance increase. The problem is the CVT, as designed and implemented in CH-R the power will never reach the wheels as you would expect. Owning and playing with some very high end sports cars I know from experience that CIA's and cat backs at best yield 3/4% power increases. Again you would never know it in a CH-R. Tuning the transmission torque band would yield best performance. No one is doing it yet as CVT is fairly new concept but with increasing number of vehicles being produced with them I'm sure mail tunes and ECM flashes will become available. Save your $$$ for worthwhile projects, just my $0.2 on the subject. This is strictly my personal opinion, i'm sure others will differ. I just ask they would be courteous enough to show proof with real gains numbers. Peace out >

Click to expand...

Agree. Now any improvement in air intake to an engine will yield modest results. Will you notice this in the CH-R? Probably not. Is it worth doing? Probably is. ANY Air Flow restriction to ANY internal Combustion engine is BAD. Yes Computers will make adjustments via your MAF and other sensors to compensate. Having said that more air flow will cause the computer to compensate with slightly more fuel but remember we are talking about a stock standard ECU with a stock factory tune, so do not expect much from this. Adding an exhaust system that offers better flow and scavenging will again only result in very modest gains. Unless you re-tune the ECU to allow for these mods then you are only gaining better sound and very modest gains. Even re-tuning we are dealing with very small displacement motors that were not really built for strong performance, they were built to move the car along reasonably well and be safe and economical as well as reliable. Seriously......if you want a fast car then go and buy a fast car. These little CH-R's are a good fun car to drive that look great, that is why we bought one. Hey zbyra? If you find that pixie dust shoot me a PM......I will be very interested. You make a very valid point and I felt like adding to some common sense here. Oh and as a word of warning to those looking at "MAIL Order Tunes".............DO not do this. You will end up burning some sort of Proprietary software into your ECU that can not be removed. They say you can switch back to factory tune when you take your car to be serviced and then switch your New tune back on after! DON'T DO IT. If you really want to do something then go to a reputable DYNO TUNER and get it done right.:wink2:

Small update on my 2 performance for fun mods.

If I had it to do again, I'd still buy the TRD intake with charcoal filter removed, nothing you will feel but I still believe through watching my rpms and accelerating on on-ramps that it made the slightest of difference. Performance gain "whatever it is" has been consistent and rpms still jump faster and with less throttle. I wasn't expecting anything from it, Zero, so anything at all is a pleasant surprise. I also still like the quieter operation at low rpm and deeper note at higher rpm.

The Cusco rear anti-sway bar, I actually "was" expecting something from this one and honestly wouldn't buy it again if I could go back in time. Comparing the stock and Cusco side by side during installation, I already knew I had made a mistake. The stock bar is very beefy and it's solid. The Cusco is only slightly larger. Through some daily driving in spots that cause wobble or lean, I'd say at most it removed 25% of the slop and barely makes the car feel more neutral. In comparison, on my Honda's, I replaced the bars in a few of them. With those I was going from a skinny hollow stock bar to a beefy solid bar and it was like driving a completely different car after install. Just a testament to how much Toyota really did pay attention to the CH-R's handling hardware and dynamics.

Again, I've owned plenty of sports cars, modded, tuned etc and still own a liter bike which is where I get my real fun from. I'm no butt dyno believer that adds stickers to feel fast. The above is just my opinion to help the community as anyone buying stuff like this is rare on this vehicle. Cheers!