out of ideas

[Retard324]

well, i hav again been embarassed by another crappy car. first, left by a neon in the curves, an now beat by an integra with a pooter (fartcan) on the straights... wtf. either my driving sucks or my prelude sucks. what are some things i can do to make it faster? i dont know what else i could buy, cause i hav intake, cam gears, V-power plugs an a set of plug wires (that dont fit thanks to 2Kracing.com), leaving exhaust out of the question for now. any ideas? i'm on a $500 budget. thanks

[Gammey3]

Is there something wrong with how your Prelude is running?? A neon shouldn't have a chance against a Prelude in the curves (Provided of course that it wasn't an SRT4) One of the things I've always been proud of is the fact that my Si could out maneuver most other cars in the corners even while being rather bulky for a 4-banger, they come equipped with some of the best factory suspension out there. I don't know what year or model the Integra was, so I can't say for certain that you should have beat him, but assuming it was stock between 1990-2000 models it should be anywhere from 2400-2700lbs and have 170-195bhp w/130 ft lbs of Torque, your Si (if properly tuned on the Cam Gears) sounds like it should be putting out about 170-180bhp w/about 156 ft lbs of torque, if you haven't reduced the weight any on your car you should be at a hefty 2866lbs. The pure math on that one makes it hard to call, but I'd give it to the integra just on the weight issue, even though your Si should have the better gear ratio. For $500, I'd probably go with a cold-air intake, intake manifold or header, exhaust system, either of which you'd be getting about 10-20 hp. Try losing some weight out of your car, and if all else fails, find a local SCCA and sign up for driving school, it's money well spent to learn to race or just drive better.

[Retard324]

yeah everything seems to be going wrong with my prelude now, not just leaking coolant BUT SPRAYING it out of a hose, syncros goin out, plus i did hav 2 other fat asses in the car. i'm thinkin about gettin some cams from Crower for about $400, what do you think of that? one of my friends can port an polish my intake manifold so i might be goin with that soon too. and about the cam gears... to tune it, what do i do with those bolts?

[Gammey3]

http://www.automotivehelper.com/topic15167.htm

I posted this link in another thread, but you really should go read it, it explains all about how cam gears work so I won't go into detail about it here, bottom line is that you need to get somewhere with a dyno and be prepared to spend at least a couple of hours adjusting them. Cam gears do you no good if they're just set to factory specs, and mis-timing them can result in power loss or engine damage. And another thing to remember for power is that roughly every ten degrees cooler the air going into your engine equals about 1whp, that's why I'd recomend the cold-air over the ram-air, your engine bay is usually sitting at about 120, while the air outside on a nice day is about 70-90, at the least that's 3-5whp free of charge!

[LXDSMXL]

Just recently my prelude was getting dusted all the time. I timed my 0-60 time it was doing 13 seconds, I was doing 7-8 seconds when I just bought it 3yrs ago. I took it in for a valve adjustment, idle speed adjust, tune up etc. I timed it again this weekend I was doing 8-9 seconds big difference. So I suggest just taking it in and see what might be wrong.

PS is your prelude Vtec?

[loco69boyz]

Yeah getting a valve adjustment helps a whole lot. You can really feel the difference when you get a valve adjustment.

[Retard324]

nope, no vtec sadly. how much would a valve adjustment cost? i hav felt that its accelerating really slow... like... really slow. one reason the neon took me in the curves is because the springs are worn out and it was a little hard to take some curves at high speed. i cant decide whether to get cams or suspension... either more power, or take turns faster. i cant decide.

[LXDSMXL]

Originally Posted by Retard324

nope, no vtec sadly. how much would a valve adjustment cost? i hav felt that its accelerating really slow... like... really slow. one reason the neon took me in the curves is because the springs are worn out and it was a little hard to take some curves at high speed. i cant decide whether to get cams or suspension... either more power, or take turns faster. i cant decide.

Well, let a machanic check it out to see if you need valve adjustments first. I paid like $180 for a valve adjustment at a chevron station (they sucked) My cousin did it for me for $50 bucks. Be carefull when choosing where to take you car in.

Another thing you could do for more power is get a H22 Vtec head swap or a whole H22 enging swap. Now we are looking to spend some serious cash, so just save those $500 and keep saving. Or you could just buy a Vtec prelude.

[jono828]

If ur gettin a clutchmaster fx100 clutch, you might as well get a lightweight flywheel. That will give u better acceleration and throttle response.