6 cheap alternatives to car mods

If there’s one thing is car guys love (besides cars), it’s car mods. However, some of us don’t have the green to go buy us a set of Yonaka coil overs or a Borla exhaust system. But when you’re broke, you get creative. Here are some popular budget alternatives to some car mods.

Disclaimer: this list is strictly for educational purposes, as none of these mods are guaranteed to work properly, and could potentially damage your car. So if you must try them, exercise caution, and always wear protective wear.

Spring lowering/ lifting kits

Like I mentioned earlier, some of us can’t afford new lowering springs and coil overs. The alternative: these lowering/lifting kits that you can pick up for about 15 bucks at your local parts store. They work by clamping a section of the spring down, which makes the car sit lower. You can also use them to lift it, if that’s what you prefer. Lowering the car helps improve the handling and makes it less likely to roll during hard cornering. You will find after researching, however, that according to a lot of reviews, they don’t work well. But they are out there if you wish to give them a try, but like I said earlier, be careful, as one incorrect move could potentially hurt you.

PVC CAI

This is one of those mods you find on a redneck meme page. Can’t afford a cold air intake kit? Can’t even afford a build-it-yourself CAI kit? Try the Home Depot special: the pvc pipe with a pod filter! Definitely an interesting idea, but it’s not certain that it adds any hp. If anything, you can paint it, throw a couple of stickers on it, and try to make it look cool. You’ll at least have the whoosh noise of the pod filter if that counts for anything.

Washer wheel spacers

This one is actually pretty clever. I’ve seen it done before, and it seemed to work just fine (still take heed to the disclaimer though). Instead of paying 15 bucks for a pair of wheel spacers, you can pay 15 bucks for a bunch of washers to do the exact same thing for all four wheels. Spacing your wheel can improve handling slightly, but overdoing it could cause issues with the steering. And you also have to make sure you have enough stud poking out to get the lug nut on there. If you don’t, you’re gonna have a bad time going down the road.

De-capping fuel injectors

As seen recently on Mighty Car Mods, de-capping the fuel injectors (removing the tiny mesh screen (cap) on the tip of it) can increase the cc rating of the injector, which means it will spray more fuel. Bigger injectors are almost a requirement for forced induction applications because more air is being forced into the engine, therefore the injectors need to be able to keep up by dumping more fuel. De-capping injectors can be risky though, as you could permanently damage the injector, and will therefore have to buy a new one. And injectors are usually not cheap, so learn how to do it before you start attacking it with the cut-off wheel. Doing this will also require a tune, as you don’t want to flood the engine.

Hacking off exhaust parts

I’m not gonna lie, some cars do sound pretty decent when you cut off the muffler. The theory behind doing this is to remove a restriction in the exhaust system, which will allow the exhaust gases to flow more freely, which hypotheticallyfrees up some hp. Some people even hack off the catalytic converter, and a lot of people even go as far as cutting off both, replacing everything with a long, straight pipe (hence the term “straight pipe”). This makes it extremely loud, and is illegal in some places, especially places that have emission laws. You may gain a couple of hp by doing this, but more than likely you’ll get a lot of disgusted looks and a few lectures from bitter old people.

Thicker oil for high mileage vehicles

This one isn’t as much of a mod, but it’s still a cheap alternative for buying high mileage oil. They say that using a thicker oil will do just as well as the more expensive oil that is formulated for high mileage applications. Whether or not this works is beyond me, but some people swear by it. I would think that you would be making the engine work harder to fight through the thicker oil, and that would decrease your fuel economy. But it is said to better lubricate the internals and seals and help protect them better so they’ll last longer.

Feel free to correct me if I was wrong on anything. As I mentioned, if you do any of these, be cautious, and stay protected.