BOLT ONS:
Bolt ons should be the first mofications of the motor (unless you are balling and do it all at one time). These parts include: intake, intake manifold, header, high flow cat, exhaust, pulleys, ignition (really isnt needed for stock motors. Stock ignition is good to atleast ~250whp), and whatever other performance modifications that do not involve opening the motor.
Intake:
The theory about intakes is this. An intake is an intake. Any ebay intake will perform the same as an AEM given that you are not using a POS filter. That brings me to the next thing. The filter is the most important part of the intake. From "my" research, the Apex'i filter is the best one you can buy. It filters out the most crap and lasts the longest.
Header:
There is alot of discussions regarding which header is the best. What header is best "to you" depends on how much money you are willing to spend. The mass manufactured headers like Dc Sports dont make the greatest hp and are really there to just look good. If you are serious about getting your moneys worth, i highly suggest purchasing a custom header (if your budget can support it). Custom headers range in very wide price ranges. Starting with a mild steel Prospeed/ANR header (~500-600) and ending with Hytech (~1300). There are many fabricators. RMF, SMSP, DTR, Hytech, Prospeed, Kteller, Burns. These custom pieces have been known to put down anywhere from 10-20whp (wide range due to tuning).
Now, if you are on a budget and you really dont want to pay for a custom piece, your next best bet is to purchase a Greddy header and modify the collector to a 2.5". This setup has been proven to produce the best power adder of the mass produced headers.
A Mugen header is a different story. If you are willing to pay 1000 dollars for a mugen header, you might as well buy a custom header for the same or less cost and make more power at the same time.
High Flow Catalytic Converter/Test Pipe
You have a few choices when it comes to picking a HF/testpipe. A testpipe is just a straight piece of exhaust piping that replaces the cat. There are two types, resonating and non resonated. If you get a resonated pipe, the noise you put out the exhaust won't be "as loud" as a non-resonated pipe. Although they make a good bit of noise, they free up more hp than a high flow cat. I believe most people buy these off ebay.
A high flow cat will end up not being as loud but will not give the kind of power gains a test pipe will. I only know of two high flow cats. Magnaflow (same as Carsound) and the Random Technologies cat. The Magnaflow/Carsound cat is much cheaper than the RT (buy over $100 dollars i think). The RT cat does have better flow results than the Magnaflow so i guess if you want "the best HF" go with Random Technologies. I went with the Magnaflow because it was cheaper and wasnt worried about gaining ~1 more hp.
Exhaust:
Your preferance of an exhaust really depends on what kind of sound you want to make (loud, quiet...whatever) and the type of style muffler you want. To name a few of the popular exhausts: Apex'i N1, Greddy Evo, Apex'i WS, RSR....damnit i cant think of anymore at the time . Most exhaust in general have the same kind of design and generally make the same amount of power.
Custom exhausts are really nice and if you choose right, can really help you in the long run. 2.5" exhaust piping is NOT over-doing it, even on a stock motor. Thermal and Kteller come to mind when i think about quality and decent pricing. Their exhausts have a "stockish" look which many people really enjoy. T1R makes a very nice 2.5" exhaust. Here's a link to the T1R exhaust.
http://www.aj-racing.com/catalog/pro...cat=107&page=1
Pulleys:
You can pick up aftermarket, lightweight pulleys from AEM and Unorthodox Racing. These pulleys are designs to take power from your electronics and put it into the motor. With that your battery is more prone to dying if you like to run your stereo with the car off. I had a set of AEM's on my old lude and my window motors really had trouble rolling up the windows after installation of the them (power steering and alternator.)
I'm not too educated on the crank pulleys so if anyone would like to chime in on that, be my guest
TUNING:
As alot of you know, i could go on forever on this topic so i am going to do my best to keep this part short.
If you only have plans to do "basic" bolt ons a Vafc can work out just fine for you. Its not the greatest tune in the world but it can do some good. There are only like 30 something tuning points on a vafc so as you will see, that is very minimal compared to programs like hondata, crome, uberdata, AEM ems which have 1000+ tuning points. You may not use all the 1000+ points, but they are there if you want to use them. So now without further ado (sp?), i'm going to go into the more technical tuning programs or atleast a few of them.
Tuning via VAFC (piggyback):
The vafc, more commonly known as a hack, is a good tool for people who want the lowest budget tune you can buy. To save me from going off on a rant, click the provided link below and it will explain to you in full detail what an afc actually does. In short, an afc fools the map sensor into believing something is happening in which of course it is not.
http://www.pgmfi.org/twiki/bin/view...oPiggybacksSuck - This article is written by Blunder (founder of pgmfi).
Tuning via modified stock ecu:
To run any of the following programs, you must have an OBDI ecu (p28/92-95 civic ex, p72/92-95 GSR integra; These are preferrable in most cases) that has been chipped/socketed and a basemap placed on the chip. In our case since this is the 5th gen forum, you will have to purchase an OBDIIa - OBDI conversion harness. I bought mine from
www.boomslang.us.
Crome Tuning:
www.tunewithcrome.com. Crome has two programs. Crome freeware and crome Pro. The freeware version is of course free of cost and can be downloaded to your computer via the link above. Crome Pro is a program which you will purchase and if you would like to know the difference between the two, you can go to the site and look at the different features. Being that this is a free program, its not exactly the most user friendly like hondata is. You have to do alot of extra steps in this program where as with Hondata, you can push one button and the same thing will be done.
Here is a screen shot from my bin that i run on my car:
Hondata:
www.hondata.com. Hondata has a few programs. Them being the s100, s200 and the s300. As i said above, hondata is very user friendly and doesnt have the "kinks" that most freeware programs inhabit. What kinks you ask? Stupid things like a Check Engine Light popping up and there being no code. Hondata is very easy to obtain and alot of tuners have experience with it so finding a tuner who knows about it shouldnt be too hard. Hondata s300 is the best of their products. This is probably the most user friendly program on the market as on now. For more info, see the link above and you will see why its so great.
Neptune:
www.hrtuning.com. In my opinion, this is the greatest program out there right now. Although, the bad thing about his program is that you can only get it from a handful of people around the country. YET, those handful of people are among the best tuners in the country so thats gotta mean something.
Uberdata:
Pretty much the same thing as Crome. Uberdata was the first freeware program to hit the market. And with that, it has many more "bugs" than the other freeware programs due to so many people being able to get their hands on it.
Greddy E-Manage Ultimate (Thanks to TopEndLude)
E-Management Ultimate does everything that the first e-management does which is the same as the vafc for Apexi. Which is fine tune air, fuel and also have the ability to change the vtec change-over-point.
What separates it from the vafc:
1. The ability to tune both air/fuel and ignition timing
2. The ability to switch back and forth from two preset tuning maps (street and racing maps for example.)
3. There are maps for each individual cylinder to tune both air/fuel and ignition.
4. It has the ability to convert injection and ignition systems.
5. There are also built in boost, rev and speed limiter cutoff.
6. Various so called Smooth operating maps that adjust throttle, acceleration, water temperature, intake temp., anti-engine stall, idle and yes Auto transmission shift points for those auto tranny vehicles.
The E-management Ultimate is a nice system for those who are on a tight budget and want the best bang for there buck. Hondata cost can scale upwards towards $1,000. Whereas EMU’s suggested price is $680. Retail I’ve seen it on ebay for $480 with free shipping but that’s ebay.
I will update with info once I gather some more. For example n/a, turbo, and supercharger dyno graphs to see how it fairs against its competition such as Uberdata, Hondata and so forth.
Linear Mode
