OK, first off, it should not cost $600-800 to lower your Accord. That's what you'll get quoted going to a normal automotive repair shop, and that's based on standard, out-of-the-book hourly time estimates for replacing suspension X $65-80/hr.

Find a import specialty shop (AKA a "ricer shop"); we have about 6 in the Denver metro area in Colorado. I'm not sure where you are, but unless you're in the sticks, you should have at least a few that will charge no more than $200 to lower your car for you (most of the shops around here will do a Civic or an Integra for $100 or less, maybe a little more for Accords, but I don't see why - it's not any harder).

$200 or less (labor only of course) to lower a car is not bad, b/c doing it yourself you could easily run into a lot of problems caused by rusty control arm bolts whose heads snap off, or are rusted in place to the sleeves inside the bushings. You could also just f**k stuff up just reassembling parts wrong because you've never done it before.

In terms of HP from your basic bolt-ons (intake, header, exhaust), I would assume you'd get about 5-8 peak wheel HP from an intake, and maybe another 3-6 peak wheel HP from the header (either one, the real DC product or the copycat).

Adding a high flow catalytic convertor and a 2 1/2" or larger dia. exhaust would prob. net you another 4-8 WHP. But that is going to drastically make your car louder (which the intake and header is already going to do, to a lesser degree).

BTW, in theory you can make more PEAK HP with a short ram (assuming it's cold outside) vs a cold air system. The CAI usually gives a little better torque and response lower in the rpm range (4000-5,500) because of the longer tube tunes the power curve differently, but becomes a bit of a flow restriction at 6,000 rpm or higher. Come to think of it, that's not even an issue on a stock F22a - doesn't it rev limit at 6400 rpm? On a high revving B16 or B18C, it might be more of an issue . . .

Sounds pretty negligible for the $500-1000 you'd spend on all that, huh? Well, welcome to reality, vs. what the parts manufacturer will tell you you'll gain.

Remember I'm estimating wheel HP measured on the dyno, not estimated flywheel HP (ie, how the 125 HP and 140 HP figures Honda quotes for the F22a are obtained).

Is this worth it? Dunno, it's up to you. On a 3,000 lb car, even 20 whp gains is probably not going to have you scaring stock GSR's or Civic Si's.

After you've got the basics done though, you could swap in a bigger cam (pretty cheap on a F22a since it's just a SOHC as opposed to two on a B-series or H22) and gain at least 12-15 more peak WHP with a cam gear, a fuel computer/B&M adjustable FPR and some dyno tuning . . .

It's that old adage again - "How fast you want to go depends on how much money you want to spend."

Here's my follow-up question to you - "How fast do you want to spend your money???"