well the prelude will be in my possession within a week, and im looking for a little more power with a little more noise.

can this be achieved better with a custom air intake or a custom exhaust?
im not sure what the difference in price is so im looking for a little comparison

also, what effect do these intake/exhaust changes have on my fuel economy? i want to maintain good gas mileage as much as possible

thanks in advance for cluing me in

 

Better to go all the way with intake header exhaust. Just by a twelve dollar intake from ebay and slap on a high flow, quality filter like a K&N, HKS, etc. For an exhaust you can by a catback from greddy, hks, apexi, etc. or you can by the muffler and have a shop fabricate the piping for you, (will save hundreds of dollars). Don't just slap a muffler on your stock piping . Also look into investing in a high flow cat. For headers you really won't see great gains unless you pay for a mugen, rmf, smsp, etc. Those can run u in excess of $1000. A cheap ($500) header will be more worthwhile if you were to slap a supercharger on there, but I don't know if they make SCs for the H23. With a $1000 budget you can do I/H/HFC/E, and that should give you a noticeable difference, not to mention if you do an oil change, clean the injectors, and replace the fuel filter, plugs, wires.

Doing all those things I mentioned above should give you better (3-5mpg) gas mileage because your throttle response will be better, well as long as you don't have a lead foot.

 

http://www.aempower.com/product_intake.asp

at this site, which of the few at the bottom am i looking for? i dont understand the difference between them (cold, hybrid, short ram,etc)

 

cold will give you the most power

 

The cold air intake is longer than the short-ram and takes in cool air from outside the engine bay, as opposed to warmer air from next to the engine. You will not need a "Hybrid" intake, they are for cars with engine swaps. As RDN said, purchasing an intake from ebay and putting a K&N filter on it is the most cost effective.

Since you are just getting the car, my advise to you would be to first do a tune up, flush the radiator, change the oil, etc. Another good investment would be a manual of some sort for your car, preferably a Helms. They sell some on ebay on disks as well.

 

i didnt think you were serious about 12$
after looking, im wondering how are the generic brand intakes going for under 20 bucks? it makes no sense! i thought i was gonna be paying 200 for an aem or iceman ....why r they so cheap? do they work anywhere as good as they others do?

 

An AEM/Iceman intake is just a thin wall aluminum tube, with some snazzy looking paint. (I bought an AEM CAI years ago... made it into short-ram because it was more convenient before IM gasket and intake air temp testing) The net change in horsepower between the is negligible (you might get a single extra hp out of a CAI)

All the crap about the testing they've put in, etc etc is propaganda. Ebay + K&N = AEM. I think someone on H-T did a dyno comparison with another car. Do a search there.

 

so is there actually bad cai's and good cai's, or is it just the filter that matters? how will i kno a good one from a bad one? also does the sound of the generic cai change from the aem sound? im really loooking for a little more pronounced sound coming from the front of the car.

also,what does the cai actually change from a stock engine? if its just a tube why doesnt honda make them that way? is it just the placement of the air filter?
(minimal mech knowledge), but first car=many experiences that will help

where do i pick up k&n filters? how much will they run me?

 

You pick up your K&N filters at www.fox-performance.com and save about $20 off the shelf price, but you still pay enough to barely qualify for free shipping. I've ordered from them twice now and they're the man! If you're in California shipping takes like two days.

Dan

 

All CAI's are 'good' CAI's. AEM/Iceman and big companies would like you to believe their products are better, because the resist heat soak, and 'flow' better and a b unch of other propaganda. The limiting factor in intake flow is the filter. Not the intake tract. You can buy a K&N filter, and a 'ebay' intake for around $35-45. Versus the cost of an AEM intake. You save $125.

My opinion is: Even with Header and Exhaust, a short ram is equivalent to a CAI. There is no difference that you will feel. (Blah blah you can measure a slight 1-2 hp difference on a dyno with an experienced operator/tuner...but you still won't feel it) The nice thing about the short ram intake, is that you do NOT:

1) have to enlarge the hole from the engine bay to inside the fender
2) have to get into the fender well (invloves unbolting fender liner, and splash guard) and take the filter off the tube when you are working on your car.
3) have as high a risk of hydrolock, like say if you live where there can be unexpectedly high water (TX flash floods!!!)