Which type of intake?

I have a salvaged 96 Prelude SI. We are putting in a 96 Accord engine + tranny, and I am wondering whether or not I should purchase an AEM cold air intake for a "Prelude" or an "Accord". Does it matter on the engine type or hood style? Thanks. Btw if I install the intake, will it improve both hp and gas mileage?...Are there any negative effects? Also I heard that I need to put an exhaust on it also in order to get any significant gains w/ intake. So please also tell me an affordable exhaust that doesn't make a loud sound. Im not driving this Prelude for race reasons, but for daily commutes to school whereas without the pickup of a Geo (no offense). Thank you for reading this!

Originally posted by Greg3kgt
I have a salvaged 96 Prelude SI. We are putting in a 96 Accord engine + tranny, and I am wondering whether or not I should purchase an AEM cold air intake for a "Prelude" or an "Accord". Does it matter on the engine type or hood style? Thanks. Btw if I install the intake, will it improve both hp and gas mileage?...Are there any negative effects? Also I heard that I need to put an exhaust on it also in order to get any significant gains w/ intake. So please also tell me an affordable exhaust that doesn't make a loud sound. Im not driving this Prelude for race reasons, but for daily commutes to school whereas without the pickup of a Geo (no offense). Thank you for reading this!
If you are putting in an Accord engine into your car, you would most likely put in an Accord intake. But I don't know how well that would fit into a Prelude engine bay. Why don't you buy a Prelude engine instead? Which Accord engine are you dropping into it? If you do install the intake, it will give you extra horsepower and will slightly improve your gas mileage. Negative effects I assume you don't like a loud noise (you said you didn't want a loud exhaust), so that would probably be your only negative effect. Another one would be if you get the AEM CAI without the bypass valve, you have a chance of getting your engine hydrolocked (if there's a lot of rain in your area). There are many exhaust systems availible for the Prelude Si, but I don't know of any aftermarket ones that aren't too loud, I'm sure there are some, but someone else will have to answer this part of the question. Hope that helped.

As far as the not too loud exhaust goes try to see if Thermal R&D makes an exhaust for your car. They're great, not too loud, and not terribly expensive. http://www.thermalrd.com/

Thanks for the input guys, I think we are actually putting a VTEC engine in it. Im going to talk to my dad tomorrow and find out the full details about it...although I know as far as gas mileage goes I'd be better off w/ a non VTEC, but it'll solve the case of performance needs w/o intake =) Ill post the specs of the engine we are placing once I figure out what the hell we're doing. =)

the 96 accord and 96 Prelude both have a very similar engine bay layout, especially since they share the same chassis.

the 92-96 Prelude S also used the F22B non-VTEC Accord motor.


with that, I would recommend a 92-96 Prelude S intake. should fit under the hood fine, and mate up to the throttlebody squarely