95630706

It was the in house performance divison of Diamond Star... Top secret until now

Admitedly as the Evo ct9a platform ages there are cheaper and better ways to go faster, so, to some extent I will admit a bit of nostalgia for the past and I always relate HKS with a good factory relationship with Mitsubishi, thier achievments in racing and cool stuff we coudln't get in the states.

Their IC is a good example. The cast end tanks on the RS IC are absolutely beautiful, no sharp corners and asymetrical for a shorter route to the TB . I bought it used from this forum for 200$ and have since paid many, times that cost for a fabricator in the US. to weld on wiggens clamp ferrules a Garret core and custom brackets. A couple Brits expanded the HKS tube+fin core at some pretty good boost levels.Mine has seen 60+ PSI in boost leak testing and held fine, but it's demise was actually salt and New England winters eating it alive. No HKS parts I have, have ever outright failed though and I have lots of em'.

Back to the OP, it is clearly not the case that "no one uses HKS parts", rather we are fortunate enough to have awesome domestic support now and we can pick and choose depending on your needs and goals. For the people with Nationalist issues, for all the HKS stuff I have, more of my money has gone to domestic sources obtain, modify and support these parts than HKS itself.

Ramen_Noodle

iTrader: (3)

Thread cleaned again. Last warning.

emo_joey

I was gonna get hks cams but everyone was telling me not to. No one gives me a reason why though... Haha

vipers

iTrader: (13)

^^ i have the hks 272s... work great for me! people talk down about them because they can make a FEW more ponies with kelfords and cosworths than with the hks'.... doesnt mean they are bad, just means if u had all 3 in front of you, the hks would be the last to get picked... but if u find some really cheap (like i did), those few extra ponies arent even close to worth it!

i also have the hks cat back exhaust..and love it! and an hks oil cap.. bling! lmao

Toxin

iTrader: (2)

But they will outspool them both and produce great midrange in combination with the new HKS turbo, which is what japanese tuning is all about, something you will never be able to comprehend.

Appauldd

iTrader: (22)

Toxin....I am on target with you. There is something to be said about fast spool, low end torque and fat mid range power. I mean unless you are strictly a drag racer how much of the time are you in the upper 1/4 of the rpm range? Answer, not much. Thus, the most important thing here is to have a goal in mind with your mods. Don't buy HKS if it does not fit your goal. If HKS does then get it.

FJF

iTrader: (18)

...let me second this emotion.

EVO8emUp

iTrader: (30)

^^ for sure. There's a lot more to it than peak HP.

GregGSC

iTrader: (44)

This is actually a false statment. HKS for years has been known to have lazy lift curves and extremly long seat durations on most of the profiles they produce. This will actually cause slower spooling and less midrange power in most cases. More aggressive higher lift profiles with short durations will have better throttle response and create more midrange and power than the opposite.

try not to spread false untrue statments on forums there are a lot of people that read what you type and think you are some type of expert. But then again what do i know.

PaperClip

iTrader: (3)

I have HKS cams in mine. The 272s may not be the most aggressive for 272s but HKS has really good quality control and thats something I wanted when it came to cams.

David Buschur

iTrader: (53)

It seems to have been covered but I'll give an opinion too.

HKS is top dollar for their parts and that's not a problem. The problem is your are paying top dollar for a mediocre performing part. They don't sell hard core race parts. What they sell are parts that perform well over stock and that work for the masses. They are more than capable of building some of the most bad *** cars in the world but those aren't the same parts you buy off the shelf.

The DLI2 we really liked for a long time (using this as a point because it's mentioned in here) then they all started failing, 6-12 months is about the time limit you can expect it to last and there is no warranty after I believe 6 months. It's a $500 part. Their cams, 264, 272, 280's make good power over the power band but far from what you can get from at least a half dozen other cams at less money. Their turbo kits are WAY over priced, mediocre performance and headers that crack and fail.

The HKS V-Pro is a good unit, I used it for a short time and it's made a lot of improvements since I used it. I'd still not use it over a Haltech or AEM.

As for supporting an American company.........that is a big issue with me. I realize the EVO was built in Japan. When I started working on 4g63's they were built in Normal, Ill. I'd have never bought an Mitsubishi back then but did buy an Eagle Talon. We grew into this car and I can say beyond a doubt that we've put MILLIONS of dollars into the US economy because of these cars. We've made it possible for hundreds of American people to have jobs because of the work we do on these cars. It's kind of a double edged sword for us. I love my EVO and never plan to sell it.

-Evo Aaron-

iTrader: (17)

Well stated ^

I have the HKS GTII 7460r bolt on turbo and I absolutely love it, identical to stock spool but with better transient response and great power numbers. They did a great job with this turbo

Ev0ikon

iTrader: (18)

I still have those HKS272 on mine. Idles smoothly under 1K RPM and pretty fat powerband on low RPM. It drops a bit up top but I don't spin over 7500 RPM so that is working well for me.
I will test these newer cams if any dealer wanna send me some for cheap.

evo1008

iTrader: (4)

have hks 280's and i love them

RSGuy

iTrader: (12)

Yeah when I read all of these horror stories of people's camshafts breaking, I'm really glad I went with my HKS 280's that use factory blanks. They work great too.