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i was wondering if there is anything you can buy like sound deadening insulation you can install to keep out a little more road/engine noise? and also ive seen pics of a few cars on here with an aftermarket grill. it looks like maybe all they did was remove the stock upper grill and put black mesh there. is this a possibility and has anyone done it? thanks

 
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I used dynamat sound deadening in the doors, rear deck, and trunk. Makes a good difference, although it doesn't cut out too much noise. Better tires will help. I have bridgestone turanzas and they're pretty good.

There are a few grills you can buy that are direct replacements. The black mesh is called the altezza style, and there's another one that has an H emblem and rs symbol on it.

 
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For keeping out road noise, you'd probably want to start up front, as opposed to the back of the car like you would for a sound deadening install related to car audio. The major contributor to road noise is in the footwells/firewall. I'd start deadening there to keep out road noise. You'd have literally hundreds of options as to how to go about it. You could pull up the carpet and so a basic mat dampener install using Dynamat, Fatmat, Second Skin, E-Dead, Brown Bread, Raamat, etc. Or, you could go less conventional, and more budget friendly with carpet padding, or spray undercoating, etc. Another option is to use liquiddeadener, manufactured by many of the same companies that make the mat type dampeners. Yet another option, and a good one as well, is to use expanding foam (being careful around the moving parts, such as the pedal assembly, etc. That's used more often though to fill gaps between larger pieces of metal to keep resonance to a minimum (like in the truck, side panels, door panels, etc.). If I were going to sound deaden the footwells, I'r more than likely go externally as well as internally to deaden that area. Meaning, I'd use my friends lift, or simply jack the car up, or use ramps, (with the front wheels removed of course, and spray a coat or two of the undercoating on the outside of the footwell area. That way I seal out more noise. From the front of the car, I'd work my way to the rear, deadening the door panels, next. Then, once I was done with the door panels, I'd probably next go inside the trunk and deaden in there (especially covering the vent inside the passenger side of the trunk by first fiberglassing the opening, then deadening over that). Then, I'd work on the other areas of the vehicle. But that's just the way I'd go about eliminating road noise only. If it were from an audio perspective, I'd do the trunk first, then the door panels, and finish up with the front of the vehicle (foot well areas). This is assuming you plan on doing it all in stages, if you were going to do it all at once (very tedious, boring, and frustrating task) then you could start where ever you choose. Depending on the brand of deadener you are using, it could be pretty expensive (Dynamat being the most expensive). You might also want to refer to the DIY stickified at the top of the ICE section as to how to apply the deadeners, etc.