95 Accord mod suggestions?

[HondaAcura87]

I am new to this world of car tuning, i have a '95 Accord EX 4-door with vtec. So far my only mod is a rear wing, but I'm trying to convince my parents to let me make performance upgrades. Anyone have any suggestions what parts to mod first? I was thinking about suspension or exhaust. I don't have a the greatest income so I'd like to keep it cheap but not sacrifice quality. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

(btw, anyone have anything I could use to convince my parents to let me do this?)

[F23A4Racer750IL]

start out wit like a K&N open element filter. it will be louder than stock but it will be like 40 bucks. if u want quiet exhaust greddy sp and apexi ws i pretty quiet. if u want to lower ur car, dont cut the springs. thats popular choice for people w/o the money. something like eilbach or tein lowering springs should be fine.

[BullShifter]

1st mod - www.helminc.com buy a Honda repair manual

2nd - make sure all maintenance is up to date 100% ( fluids, timing belt/water pump, filters, etc.)

3rd - now comes the mod's
If you don't have a lot of money suspension is NOT the place to start. H&R makes great springs for the price but you still need aftermarket struts, poissbly $$ for install, & an alignment.

3 first basic mod's Air Intake(prefer cold-air) Cat-back exhaust & header.

[HondaAcura87]

well i am not as poor as you guys are probably thinking i am, i just got a new job (hopefully make good money) i would really like to do suspension work. can you guys suggest parts and what i need. i'd like to get new springs, shocks, and a strut bar. id like to have ride height adjustability. do adjustable coilovers take the place of springs, is that what makes them adjustable?

[HondaAcura87]

should've proofread that last sentence

correction - do coilovers take the place of regular springs, is that the only way to get height adjustability?

[F23A4Racer750IL]

yea like jackassi said make sure u do maintenice work first.

[BullShifter]

If your interested in suspension I'd recommend stopping by the suspension section of this site - http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul...play.php?f=964

I still suggest maintenance & a repair manual before anything.

If you must have ride height adjustments you really should invest into a true set of coilovers(not just sleeves) - $800.00 & up. You will also need camber kits & an alignment EVERY time the ride height is changed. For street use & some race aftermarket springs & struts will be the best choice. Every day conditions will make adjustable collars rust to the threads leaving you with 0 adjustment. Check www.tirerack.com look into H&R or Eibach springs with Koni or KYB struts. Neuspeed also makes nice springs. Koni yellow struts have 15-25mm of ride height adjustment due to threaded spring perches - very nice strut.

I dont suggest any more than 1.75" of lowering for street use.

"Coilover" is a very over/mis used word. Almost EVERY modern production car uses coilover springs, even your honda. Generally when people refer to coilovers they are meaning fully adjustable(true) coilovers or coilover sleeves.

True coilovers are much more expensive than sleeves and feature both springs& struts in 1 package, with ride height adjustments built into the strut & also strut dampening adjustments

Coilover sleeves are springs & a threaded collar that sits between the SPRING(not sleeve) perch & spring, aftermarket struts needed. The only sleeves I recommend is Ground Controls, try to stay away from sleeves if at all possible. Sleeves can & will break spring perches. There aren't any struts that will work properly with a 3" or more drop. Most sleeves have 4-5" of lowering. With true coilovers it's all there built to handle it.

If you do your springs/struts right upper strut bars really wont do much. Your better off investing into a larger rear sway bar.

[Igovert500]

I'd do sway bars rather then the strut bars, or rear strut bar and front sway bar. They will help your turning. Also as far as your parents. Tell them that the bpu(basic power upgrades) will help your gas mileage, and they wont make ridiculous power that will make change your car much. Honestly, unless you put on any forced induction such as a supercharger or turbo, or nitrous, you wont have tremendous hp gains. I'd go with intake, headers and exhaust. Get quality headers and mufflers, then go to an exhaust shop and have them build you a custom catback exhaust system. It will be like 200bucks. Also get a cheap hi-flow cat, you can probably get one for 70 bucks or so. Get the cold air intake for your intake, get it on ebay, itll be cheap. Any K&N imitation will do fine.

[HondaAcura87]

Thanks for the tips guys, one more question though. What is the difference between sway bars and strut bars?

[BullShifter]

Originally Posted by HondaAcura87

Thanks for the tips guys, one more question though. What is the difference between sway bars and strut bars?

Upper strut bars tie the strut towers together providing bracing, tighten up the chassis.

Lower tie bars do basically the same thing except they brace lower control arms.

Sway bars are only found under a vehicle, no uppers . . . .Sway bars, Anit roll bars tie the lower ends of the suspension reducing body roll. On a front wheel drive car it is best to have a larger rear bar than front. A rear sway bay upgrade will do more than any strut/tie bar.

[akordboy]

When I first started my "baby", I went with the obvious first. You lower it and get wheels first (along with strut bars). I went with Skunk2 coil-overs. Best ride quality I think for coil-overs. Then you want to do performance. Exhaust, header and intake. For the exhaust I did Greddy PE Cat-back. Went with the DC Sport header and AEM intake. Next came the brakes (you need the extra stopping power). Went with Power Stop cross-drilled rotors (and goodridge steel braided lines) and green pads. Then I added a fuel pressure regulator to bump up the fuel pressure. BIG difference. If you are not going to race it and don't have alot of money, those are the three biggest engine parts you need. From there you can always add. After all that was taken car of, I went with bigger wheels (18") body kit, hood and wing (eventually got rid of it), corbeau Seats (which got stolen this past saturday along with my steering wheel, alpine deck, TV, Tach and Gauges. $3300 worth of shit some f*%#$&g asshole couldn't afford himself)

Here is a link to my car: http://www.onlineshowoff.com/service...ch=accordingly

my car is the white accord....

[92lx]

if you want to do performance, engine wise. The first step is to do the mantainence as said, and deffinately, deffinately by the HELMS manual for your car, if not that, at least the HAYNES (which is cheaper but far less superior).

The next modification that most everyone does is a cold air, or short ram intake. They aren't that expensive, especially off of eBay.com (if you get one there, make sure to upgrade the air filter to a real k&n for filtration as well as flow reasons)....

But the biggest modification you can have by far, is going to be an education, so start reading...a lot. I'd actually recommend you spend a month or two just reading forums and stuff before you even THINK about doing an upgrade, you'll save yourself time, money, heartache, etc, that way

- Nathan

[akordboy]

[quote=92lx]
The next modification that most everyone does is a cold air, or short ram intake. They aren't that expensive, especially off of eBay.com (if you get one there, make sure to upgrade the air filter to a real k&n for filtration as well as flow reasons)....


I don't know what kind of budget you are on or what you want you car to look like, but just remember one thing. With all aftermarket parts, you get what you pay for. You can go on ebay and buy some no name intake (or any part) and pay $30 for it, but you aren't gonna gain anything from it. Do it right the first time. Check all the for forums and educate yourself like 92lx said. I dumped $25000 into my car, so I have a little bit of knowledge about building a show car.

Just my


Jeff

[jazer80]

akord boy - that's not true in all cases. when you buy a 30 dollar short ram (assuming that you then get a real filter piece for the end) you're not gonna have any significant difference between what that provides v. say an AEM. when it's something like an air intake, just look at it logically, do you really think that aem's piping is any different than the ones on ebay? they're same dimensions, and they route the filter to the same location, which is all that is important for an intake system. actually there's one other thing of importance to some people, which is why the brand name ones sell, which is carb #'s. if you live in a place where you might have to prove the legality of your parts to an officer *CA*, then you'll want one that has #'s, which the generic ones on ebay will not.