Total newbie question (sorry!)

First off, I know all you guys that have been coming here forever hate these questions, but I am a total newbie, and am very uneducated when it comes to cars and their abilities.

I have a 96 Integra LS that I recently bought from my sister. I love the car, it looks good and runs great. I don't like how slow it is though!

What can I do, inexpensively...as inexpensively as possible...to increase the hp the car puts out? I read around the forum and ppl seem to be replacing mufflers to get more hp, but i don't want a loud muffler, plus i just bought the pipe that conects the catalytic converter to the muffler because it had a hole in it and am in the process of getting it replaced. If i buy a new muffler, wouldn't I have to buy that pipe again too? I just dished out $150 bucks for that thing...so that would suck!

Other options have been to replace the engine, again too costly and not really planning on keeping the car long enough to invest that much money into it. I would just like to improve a few things on my own in order to make some money off the car when I sell it next year.

Any advice is greatly appreciated guys! I know I came to the right place because you all rock!!

Thanks again, and sorry to you pro's!!

hey kashi... I just totaled my 96 LS, and if your to cheap to do anything, give me all of the stats on that car and i would buy it from you.

You could look into bolt on mods. A cold air intake, like the one AEM makes can add some hp, is cheap, and you can put it on yourself in an hour. Other popular mods are headers, full exhaust replacement from the cat back, fuel delivery components (like the rail and pumps), cam gears, and computer chips. Sometimes you can get good deals on that stuff on ebay motors.
btw - a new muffler wont do that much for you anyway.

Just to warn you though, mods do not increase the value of the car. Don't plan on getting your money back.

I say go turbo. Cheap easy way to get lots of power. You can run 12 psi on your car pretty easy, and be putting down a bit under 300hp. and 200 torque. If you have low enought miles that is what I would suggest. You could always through a vtec head on the ls bottom, could probably do it for around 800 with labor, and you will be faster than slightly modded gsr's.

you can get an axle back exhaust or just the muffler so u can keep your $150 part.

I say go turbo. Cheap easy way to get lots of power. You can run 12 psi on your car pretty easy, and be putting down a bit under 300hp. and 200 torque. If you have low enought miles that is what I would suggest. You could always through a vtec head on the ls bottom, could probably do it for around 800 with labor, and you will be faster than slightly modded gsr's.


what would you consider low enough miles? I have almost 113,000 on it.

hey kashi... I just totaled my 96 LS, and if your to cheap to do anything, give me all of the stats on that car and i would buy it from you.

hey str8 silver, its a base model ls coupe, the only additions made to it so far have been a sunroof wind guard, a rear spoiler, and 15" 5-star OZ rims. I just got done replacing the rear brakes, got brand new tires on it, and am in the process of fixing the muffler. I'll post a pic of it later when I get home from work.

I'm not quite ready to get rid of it yet (I just got it a month ago!!) And its not that im too cheap, i just don't see the point in spending a lot of money on something I don't plan on keeping more than a year. I absolutely love the car, i just see myself in a sedan next year. My sister gave me a great deal on the car, so I am looking to clean it up a little and hopefully make some money off of it when its time to get rid of it. However, since I did get such a good deal on it, I am also thinking that if I can get it set up to where I would like it to be, I might keep it as a second car. For now, I just want to make it a little quicker off the line, and go from there.

But hey if you are interested in taking it the way it is, make me an offer I can't refuse and we'll see!!


Thanks for all your help guys!! Keep the suggestions coming!!

113k isn't to high, but if you are just going to sell it , don't wast your money on a turbo or any mod for that matter. But if you decide to keep it, you could go turbo. I would say run 8-10 psi with those miles and you would be good to go. That would put you at arond 250 whp. pretty decent for the price!