I've got a 96 civic ex that I need to squeeze more performance out of. However, whenever I reach into my pockets, I can feel the bottoms of them.

Can someone (preferably experienced) in the industry give me a heads up on "name brand" products vs. no-name when it comes to all of the bolt-ons that I find on Ebay? Based on my inexperienced logic, a 2.5" mandrel bent pipe is a 2.5" mandrel bent pipe, whether it has a fancy sticker on it or not. Is an AEM intake really going to perform better than a $15 one off of Ebay?

I've thought about engine swapping and turbo-charging, but I have no intentions of going down that road any time soon.

Mainly, I was just looking at CAI, headers, cat-back exhaust to get the most efficiency out of the engine and some cosmetic upgrades.

Do I have the right train of thought, or am I trying to be too cheap and should just buy a bunch of name brand stickers of shit I can't actually afford and plaster them all over my car like some of the locals?

When you pay for a AEM intake, you are paying for better quality material, and all the R&D that goes into their product.

Same goes for a header. DC and other top notch brands, have clean, good looking, well built header setups. However, you get some of these fly-by-night knock off companies, that use cheep material, poor desing, and poor craftmanship.

Myself, I would rather save the money for a few days, and get a proven product. Unless its something cheap like an air freshner.

The AEM intake probably won't perform much better than the Ebay CAI; install won't be as nice. But then months will pass and you'll realize the Ebay CAI filter is not filtering well, so you'll buy a K&N replacement. Then you'll get a ticket (if you're in CA) for having a non-CARB legal modification. Then the silicon coupler will come loose and you'll drive without filtered air for 2 weeks before realizing it.

All hypothetically speaking of course.

You want cheaper? Buy USED AEM from Ebay.

who drives for 2 weeks without looking under the hood? man i must be an adict... I peak under the hood and give everything a quick look over every time I get gas.

and an airfreshener is the WORST place to cheap out on a car!! I mean come on, you get a cheap knock off air freshener that says it is supoosed to smell like new car interior, the next thing you know it smells like you have a corpse in your trunk!!

My air freshener case cost $20, refills cost $5 :)
no really, they do.. but last forever and smell great

You can get by with any cheapo intake, but shitbrand headers and exhausts will sound like ass and sometimes won't even fit right. If you don't get a ceramic-coated exhaust, it will rust out and you'll have to buy a new one in a year anyways.

When I had the DX engine I went from a crap OBX to Greddy header, and good lord... sounded 10x better for the brand name one. They aren't big companies for selling a lot of bunk parts, they do actually sell good products and word spreads, so they make money and get bigger, with better parts.
Personally I'd rather buy a $600 exhaust, just one part, rather than a $600 i/h/e group buy from brand-x.

i agree with the intake, you can go with a cheapo brand and probably be happy with it. The exhaust can be had for cheap by just buying a universal muffler and getting the piping done by a muffler shop. If you get that raspy buzzy noise, have them weld in a big resonator, i mean 18"+, that should take care of it. As far as headers go, I would only purchase a proven header. You don't want to buy a cheap pos and have it start to rust and crack on you.

I also have to agree with air freshners. Only JDM air freshners lol. I always get the Giga air spencers. Best air freshner on the market. Squash scent is also proven to add 50 whp. That's why my sentra can take on C5 vettes and such.

I have the air spencer w/squash too.. omg we should go out sometime we have so much in common lol

I have the air spencer w/squash too..

:frown: I haven't been able to find squash. Had to settle with the Lemon.

I have the air spencer w/squash too.. omg we should go out sometime we have so much in common lol

there is just one critical thing that we don't have in common lol...I'm heterosexual :p
Unless your a chick, then :naughty:

:frown: I haven't been able to find squash. Had to settle with the Lemon.

look harder lol...I've have found that in some cases they only have the scents written in Kanji and usually the blue boxes are squash scent.

an intake is a pipe with a filter on the end of it and an aem is not going to perform better than a ebay generic.

Smog? It doesnt take that long to put the stock airbox back on

Dyno testing? Anyone can afford to do dyno testing after they have ripped off enough people.

Ive got a stock dooshbag of an airbox system on my 96civic.cx if go and buy sum cheapo intake. Will it bolt straight on or will I need to rip out heaps of stuff and replace it with other garbage? Such as?