Throttle response?

New MAF and filter. No catalytic converter. Probably why it went over 110 mph. P0420 is the only code. Haven't checked fuel pressure, but I can drive all day long and hammer down if I want and it'll get there.

Air filter does have a few miles on it. Might be time to flip it around (it's a plain rectangle) and beat the dust out of it.

I'll borrow a fuel pressure tester and run that one of these days. Maybe change the filter too. Haven't done that since I bought the thing now that I think about it.

Since there's very little keeping the engine from breathing out, what I'm mainly looking for is ways to increase is ability to breathe in. I know high priced air filters are generally a waste without other work done.

What about shaving the throttle plate? I hear good things about that in regards to response. What would I do exactly?

Again, I don't want to dump money into mods. I want to milk this little $300.00 piece of junk for every penny I can. I attached a pic of this fine chariot for you to laugh at. That's the good side.

I'll run compression and fuel pressure checks eventually. Send like every day off I have is rainy and I don't have a garage to work in currently. I might have to clean out dad's so I can use it.

But again, the car runs very well. Just no low-end power. To be expected with a 1.8 and 3 speed auto. With the engine pushing the car past the highest speed (110) on the speedometer, I doubt there's a compression issue. The needle has to be approaching what would've been 115. GPS has more or less verified accuracy up to about 80. I wasn't exactly looking at the GPS at 115.

The other day, I noticed an air box is behind the battery. And the breather tube comes out of the box, takes a roughly 75* turn under the battery, a 90* turn in front of the battery ( and the tube is now half the size of what it was) comes up to battery height, and turns 90* again. It's about 1 inch wide and 1.5 inches tall. Tiny compared to 2+ diameter at the box. That's got to be pretty restrictive to flow. I'm thinking I'll take the battery and tray out and find a better path, maybe do some drilling and cutting, and get some PVC or something to open it up. It'll be ugly, but the car is already ugly anyways. Do you think I'll get even a minimal gain there?

In my experience, a minimal gain for normal auto driving turns into a very noticeable gain for my heavy-duty abusive stop and go 700x/day use. For example, ceramic and metalic brake pads last me 6 months. Cheapies last 2-3. Definitely worth the extra to buy the ceramics.