Hey guys,
Im new to this thread and am very pleased to see how well this community works together!
Recently purchased a 2001 s40 with 134k miles on it and im loving it. Was wondering what easy/inexpensive "mods" that are available or you would recommend for the s40.

Looking to squeeze a little more performance out of it.

Also any fluids/additives you like putting into your car?

( doing a oil change soon and id like to put mobil 1 10w/30 into it, if you have another recommendation let me know!)

 

Whale tail, pinstripes, throttle body spacer, cold air intake will get you about 30 HP.

For fluids I like gasoline. Works well in mine anyway.

 

easy mods - yes... Inexpensive uh not so much.

Easy mod for more power is to get an ECU tune. Search online BSR offers a stage 1 for the gen 1s but its in the $700 range.

next is the downpipe/cat - if you can find a 3 inch downpipe/cat (my guess is $500-1000). Cat back systems cost $500-700 but most of the restriction from the downpipe will remain.

These two mods along with a KN air filter gets you to about 200 HP when the 12T turbo runs out of air. You can troll eBay and look for a 14T from a HP European S40 but beware, most 14Ts in the US are out of the S60s which have a different flange - you could get a turbo rebuild to put the impellers in a 12T housing to do the same - again that's $500+ or so.

If you have an automatic, you probably don't want to go over 200 HP anyways so maybe do the ECU tune and KN filter and be happy with +30 HP or go and buy a Gen 2 where parts are readily available (but not cheap).

My suggestion: Do the KN filter, invest in nice wheels/tires/shocks/rear sway bar upgrade then invest in a a kickass stereo...

 

awesome advice, def going to be looking into the KN filter
just upgraded tires.
Think a sway bar upgrade will be done in the near future as well!