So I just got a 98 Prelude, after the 93 I really liked them. First off whats the deal with the SH as far as performance goes? I am getting ready to do the cold air, but to tell the truth there are allot more vacum lines and really stock preludes use cold are intakes, just the factory filter sucks. I just don't want to loss power off this deal. I have the H22 with five speed. What advice can you give a newby to the four cylinder perfomance world?

 

Intake/Header/Exhaust

 

Do the basic crap first..

 

Take off the front bumper and take out the stock resonator(passenger side),plug the vacuum line at the intake manifold, and drop in a k&n filter in the stock location. Just leave the stock air box and it will pull cold air.You'll drop a few pounds on the car and free up some Hp. Best of all much cheaper than buying a $140 short ram or more expensive cold air intake. Also don't jump at getting a header if you aren't sure about going naturally aspirated or with forced induction. If you go naturally aspirated you want a nice header and cat back exhaust/high flow cat. If you go with a turbo you'll need a special exhaust manifold specifically for your car however if you go supercharged you can retain the header. Also the intake will vary depending on the application, if you go N/A you can use stock or after market cold air kits , but with FI you need a slightly modified setup for optimal gains.

 

I love this site but if you really want help on stuff like this go to www.preludepower.com under their forced induction area. Being Prelude specific you'll find the answers you're looking for.

 

Congrats on the Prelude purchase!

I have a 97 SH and all I have done to it is a CAI that was installed when I bought it used.
IMO, don't do anything other than a filter change as the driveability is great from the factory already.
If you start messing with headers, you will most likely lose low-end torque in the interest of Horsepower.
Unless of course you spend upwards of $1200 on a custom header.
Turbo is pretty much outta the question with the FRM cylinder walls... Unless you wanna do major engine work, which equals $$$$...

The only other worth-while upgrade I would do is the Type-S conversion. Just bigger cams, higher compression pistons and the JDM ECU...

 

Coilovers. If you want power, go boost, don't waste time with other stuff. If you don't want to go power, then go for handling because unless you go boost, you're still gonna be slow.