A Little HP Help

[jaise]

Hello.

I have a 1989 Honda Accord LXi. Is there any way to "up" the horse power and/or acceleration for cheap. Say no more than 100 bucks? If so, let me know. I would appreciate it. I am sure it sound rediculous, but let me put it this way: I am a starving teenager, with a job that pays peanuts, and has a need for speed.

Thank you .

[Igovert500]

Basically, power costs money. To get any noticeable gain, you are going to need to spend much more. And with $100, you can't get anything that will add more than 2-3hp.

Is your car fuel injected or carbed? Sorry don't know my 80s hondas.

If FI, you could get an cone intake. If carbed you could look for a throttle body spacer. Both will only offer minor gains, but both would also improve fuel economy a bit.

[antwn_5k]

you could do a makeshift cold-air for carburated, and add a k&n drop in filter, there is much debate as to gutting and if it actually does anything, but it's an option, tune-up your car and you will gain hp (actually you'll be replacing hp lost over time). there's alot you can do just don't expect too much. goodluck. have fun.

[jeffcoslacker]

Anything you can do to allow freer intake charging and is usually your best place to star, assuming it's in a good state of tune to begin with. Exhaust mods usually bring better high-rev performance, at the expense of a loss in the low and mid-range.

You can therefore have too much exhaust flow, but it's nearly impossible to have too much intake capability. If the is more than the motor can flow, it just doesn't pull any more air. If you are fuel injected, there is sometimes a branch off the intake duct that dead-ends...don't try to defeat that, it serves a purpose, and your intake air pressure readings will be off which can cause some driveability issues.

On any car, a cheap and effective easy mod is a K+N direct replacement filter, and you can bust out some holes in the airbox (make sure it's on the incoming side, not the filtered air-to-motor side) to allow for freer breathing.

I don't advise shortening the intake tract by trying to eliminate length from the airbox to engine ducting, because that slight drop in diameter and length as the air heads to the engine straightens and increases velocity of the intake charge. A better option is to find a material that has a smoother interior, if it uses that "corrugated" ducting. If it's molded plastic and already smooth inside, don't worry about it.

You can also bend some sheet metal around the airbox and find a place behind the nose of the car that you can run a duct out to, the idea being to isolate the intake air from motor heat, and provide clean cool air to the filter.

Any of this you can do for the amount you are talking, if you just use your head and hands. You can buy a cheap holesaw to use on a drill for boring the airbox at any hardware store, look in the "Under $4" bin if they have one, usually there's an el cheapo holesaw set in there. About three 1 to 1-1/2" holes is all you need. The K+N panel will probably set you back $40-$50, but it's worth it to never buy another air filter. I've been using the same one for 125,000 miles now.

The intake is much more throaty sounding like that, even if it's not faster, it'll sound like it

[jeffcoslacker]

BTW, did you all see that video on Streetfire, where they put the 150 nitrous shot on the stock Civic and dynoed it (and blew it up)?

[jeffcoslacker]

http://videos.streetfire.net/hottest...314076A782.htm

Whoops. It was a 250 hp wet shot. Enjoy!