next on my to do list is header and exhaust. what is the best bang for the buck? mugen would be nice but is it the best??

 

stock

 

reasoning on that would be....

 

................ cause Honda did it right

 

your car already has a "header" on it ..... it's not like your bitch'n '76 Camero that shipped w/ POS cast iron exhaust manifolds or something

 

actually get toda and J's racing single pipe. these guys eat higher grade sushi thus boosting IQ levels, diversifying engineering skill sets...

 

Might not be your JDM way but .... all kidding aside, as long as you are not looking to "upgrade" but to just make your car sound "cooler", a CATback exhaust is what you'd be after. Plenty of locals have different ones for you to hear .............. after that you can bang all the bucks you want

 

The guy who owns the tech shop that I go to has a friend who races an S2000 in Japan, and his friend said the best combo power-wise is Amuse / Amuse.

 

If you're NA, don't worry about a header, stock is just fine. There are several options out there for headers that have reported to give NAs a little more bang but it's not worth the bucks.

Same goes for exhaust, slight increases here and there but if you're just after sound, Comptech gives a nice note. Only one in the area that I can think of off hand that has a Comptech is VTECMOM. The Comptech cans have a nice look too.

If you're going FI, then you're in a whole new arena and there are numerous options for you to choose from with many different price tags. Your choices are all going to depend on your individual setup with FI (SC, turbo, PSI, etc.)

Being FI, I run a Mugen header with a custom design cat back exhaust using Magnaflow cans.

I had a DC SS for awhile and was not happy with it, it was a cheap option but there was between a 15-35RWHP difference between it and the Mugen (Mugen being higher than DC) and the DC had no mount for the stock heatshield. The Mugen is not cheap but was worth it for my application.