What are some relatively cheap horsepower gains and other needed adjustments for performance Honda Civic?

Question

I have a 98 Honda civic EX, with only an AEM short ram modification, nice spark plugs (forget the name) and NGK plugs and wires. It runs nice in the high rpm's but bog's a little in the lows it takes around 3-3.5 rpm to start the zip. I'm thinking of getting a nice catback exhaust to compliment the intake, perhaps on ebay hopefully for less than 430 dollars for a good one. If you got any ideas or like to help newbies with performance that would be awesome, thanks.

Answer 1

Start with the cat back system and make sure it is a brand name like Gibson etc. That is because if you just reduce the back pressure you could have a drop in performance. The name brand companies dyno their products. You can also add a programmable chip. This is the be-all do-all, and you can tweak the performance to exactly what you want and use the gas that you prefer. The non-programmables make you use premium all the time. For the fast and furious part 3 get a NOS system. Hard on the engine but what a ride!

Answer 2

you can buy Ebay performance parts, like a catback exhaust and header, i used a full exhaust i purchased on ebay for about 200 bucks total and i had no issue at all with it, never use those power chips you see all over the place, all that does is cause you to run lean and do damage to your engine, your better off with a Cold air intake opposed to the short ram, short rams cause heat soak which actually lowers HP instead of helping it ( a day like today where it was 90+ degrees would cause you to lose even more power) you really cant get hydrolock using a cold air intake unless the filter is completely submerged, just use synthetic oil in your car, that wont unlock any performance really, just helps the car live better, depending on what your budget is, you really wont notice a power gain, maybe doing a CAI, header and catback, you may see a slight increase and at best 10 more horsepower to the wheels, increasing fuel performance does absolutely nothing unless your car needs it, chips cause damage, and as far as inexpensive parts, you really can only do what i listed, if you have the money, cams are a great power increase, light weight pulleys do provide a gain as well (i bought a set for under 200 bucks) cams your looking at over 300 a set, plus all the necessary parts

Answer 3

To make a Civic fast, the best thing to do is sell it and buy a car with more than 130 hp.