Looking to add 20whp in a cost effective, reliable way. I know enough of you guys have done it and dynoed the car, so let me know. I want to avoid the SC/Turbo route, and I know head work w/ems will do it but I'm looking at $3k.

I also want opinions on final drive gears, I hear you can have them bought and installed for $1k and gain .5 seconds in the quater????

 

what year car do you have?

 

Since Honda has this car so well tuned from the factory, typicial "bolt ons" usually do not add much HP. You can do a search on this and find many N.A. owners who added cold air intakes, exhausts or headers and notice they gained very little for the amount invested.

Head work will also yield very little for the amount invested on a N.A. car. The EMS may be able to pull a few more ponies. But again, you are looking at over 1K + for the EMS unit and several hundred for the dyno time and tuning. I would not do either unless you plan to go F.I. in the future.

Probably your best bang for the buck mod is the one you already mentioned... GEARS! For around 1K they should allow you to shave .5 or more off your time. There is a post floating around somewhere on the board the refers to final drive gears as "the poor man's supercharger". However, keep in mind the addition of gears will not give you 20 h.p. on the dyno. What they will do is change the powerband of the car allowing you to accelerate faster. The end result of gears will really show in your "butt dyno"! Trust me...your car will pull harder!

IMHO...I would start with gears then add "bolt-ons". You should be able to find good deals on used exhausts, CAIs, etc...down the road. All of which combined with the gears will add a huge with little invested! Plus...you car will be reliable!

NOTE:If you are interested in gears, this is your lucky day! We are having an upcoming "Tech-Day" with Hardtopguy April 21. He is offering special pricing on gears and installation. (He is the only one I would trust to install them) Please PM if you are interested in joining us.

 

the best bang for the buck staying all-motor is definitely the 4.57 gears.....i went from 14.4-14.3 range in the 1/4 mile down to 13.8 with roughly the same MPH at the trap and i know with more practice it could have been even lower(13.6-13.7 range)....the only other mods i saw gains were the lighter flywheel gained 8 HP plus helped the car rev even quicker and tuning with the AEM EMS gained me a ton of low to midrange power by lowering the V-TEC engagement whiched helped acceleration even more. I would still just save your money for a Inline Pro turbo kit.

 

Probably should have posted this question in the proper forums, instead of spamming 12 communities.

Merging does not work well, so, the CO's can do what they want with these thread.

 

If you look at the latest issue of Super Street magazine (I think it was Super Street.. could be some other tuner mag) there is an article on bolt-ons and dyno-tested increase in hp.

The greatest gains were seen by installing the Stillen Mega Power Exhaust, followed by an AEM programmable ECU. Headers added the least.

 

MEMBERS:As Hondagal already mentioned, this guys has been spamming all the forum car clubs asking the same questions. I don't think he really wants the info. I had every intention of hitting the "delete" key this morning. However, most of the information posted may be of some benefit. Especially to those looking for an inexpensive, proven way to increase power or speed.

If you guys don't see any value in this thread and want it dumped...say the word and it's gone!