xviper

Bad in what way?
It is generally considered that most, if not all headers and most, if not all exhausts on this car will do very little in the way of power enhancement so in that sense, the car doesn't care. I don't believe such things will be "bad" when the car is new or older. You just lose your warranty on the original header and exhaust and anything that Honda can prove was damaged as a direct result of that mod.

Shadow_S2K

Arn't newer cars gernally slower then older cars because they havn't been fully worn in? I know that performance and power wise i won't be getting alot, and ill void the warrenty on the parts i swich out. I was just wondering if i should wait to mod the car in its early age, or should i wait till its been driven more. Thanks

xviper

Hmmmm! The things you're talking about like header, exhaust are not that invasive a mod to do on the power train so I don't think it's too big an issue when you do it. When I say "invasive", I'm talking engine internals, forced induction, nitrous, that kind of thing. One of the first mods with a "perceived" performance enhancement are intake and exhaust. Certain intakes can offer a noticeable gain for relatively reasonable cost but the pair together make for low bang for the buck. But "tailoring" the sound may be worth the money to many.
All cars need a certain amount of "breaking in" but not nearly as much as in the "old" days. As for this car being "slower" when it's new, this point is a debatable one. If you looked at "before" and "after" break in track numbers, I'm not so sure you would see a significant trend here. (I may stand corrected, though.)

Shadow_S2K

Do you think that if i just ran aftermarket intake and header it would effect my performance because i will continue to run my stock exhaust? Does the stock exhaus provide enough free flow? How long should i wait if i wanted to get into the actual block, such as cams etc? Thanks

xviper

The stock intake and exhaust system is already very good. We have a fairly high flow cat to begin with and the stock header works very well too. That's why an aftermarket header will not produce significant gains. The only drawback to the stock intake is that it is NOT a cold air one.
Although a new header won't gain you much, it won't adversely affect your performance if added to the stock exhaust. Most people won't bother spending this kind of money unless you are also doing a supercharger. Of course, a turbo will come with it's own manifold.
There are many "performance" intakes in the market. Find one that is also a cold air one. This alone will show significant gains.
How long you should wait before tearing into the engine depends on how long you want to keep the engine warranty. Whether you do it early or later in the engine's life, there will always be a short "break in" period for "built up" engine.
So far, it's only been my input here. Now that Monday is upon us, more people will be back and see this post. Hopefully they will provide their thoughts on the subject.