The stock muffler on my brother's 90 Civic Hatchback was rusting through, so he just cut it off completely (used a hacksaw about 1" from the inlet tube). Surprisingly, it wasn't much louder! I've seen other aftermarket mufflers that sounded a lot louder - it seems to me that NO muffler is less of a restriction than anything aftermarket.


I see lots of aftermarket exhausts, both decent and garbage ones. How much extra power do you really get from an intake and exhaust on a naturally aspirated Honda (or any brand car for that matter)? I know on my 90 Eclipse Turbo, a 2.5" downpipe and 2.5" exhaust with just a cut airbox/K&N and 15psi of boost made some tremendous power increases. I would seriously doubt that an intake and exhaust alone can make much of a difference.

I wouldn't even consider getting an aftermarket exhaust or intake for my 03 Accord. It's a heavy Automatic Transmission Accord with a 160HP 4 cylinder. No reasonable amount of money could make it fast. (by fast, I mean a 12 sec 1/4 mile)