My wife and I just bought the car. Essentially, I have very little experience in regards to car modding or repair. Our goal here is to make repairs, mod the car into a zippy thing and learn as much as possible. We would like to hammer out the engine first. What are the options in regards to engine swaps? What are some of the easier mods to start with? I figured a cold air intake would be a good start. I'm all over the place here, I suppose my real ask here, does anyone have a mod list, youtube videos etc showing these cars with mods? Any and all ideas for mods are welcome as well. We want to go ***** to the wall with our little covid project lol.

 

The only way to add real hp to a motor is turbo, supercharger, or nitrous and they all have their own idiosyncrasies. CAI is a waste unless you are using some kind of forced induction... it may make it louder when you step on the gas. If you remove the Cats (likely not legal in your area) and run a header/free flow exhaust with a CAI you can make more power but you will spend a lot of dollars on little gain. If it is not a DD (making a track car?) you could also gut it and remove everything except the front seats to make it lighter and that will make it go faster too. Then upgrade your suspension/tires. (Shocks, struts, springs, sway bars)

Better off buying a car with a turbo and start modifying it (get a tune to increase induction psi) if you want more hp... or get a V8. (Or a twin turbo V8 like me )

First suggestion is do all the maintenance like oil change, spark plugs, trans fluid/filter, coolant flush, power steering flush, brake fluid,check your brake pads/rotors, belt/pulleys if needed, etc. Also check your struts, shocks and CV axles. Make sure it is up to zipping around and taking some abuse.