What's next for my d17a2

[Spitfire32888]

i have a 2002 civic hx with a cold air intake
what should my next step in hp gain be?
- i'm low on money so list mods in order of cost please and could you give me a cost estimate.
thanks

[Tobias]

Well u can add some n/a stuff like headers, catback exhaust etc. Headers on ebay, depending on what brand, can be cheap or expensive. I bought some ebay headers for about $110. They were obx I believe.

[i love honda]

Get a nice header, a cheap ebay brand is going to rust and probably crack fast. Not saying don't get anything off of ebay. Im saying make sure it's name brand...like Megan Racing makes a good header. Check and see if they make one for your car. You can go to a muffler shop and tell them you want a 2.25" or a 2.5" exhaust made. Order a muffler before you go though and take it with you to have welded on. I recommend the Megan Racing muffler. It's sounds awesome. After you have the intake, header, exhaust, then you can start saving up for a cam, and then tuning. The header should cost anywhere from around $125-300 and the exhaust could be as cheap as $90 bucks (that's how much mine cost), and the Megan Racing N1 muffler off eBay is $79 shipped. If you have anymore questions, just PM me.

[custom_junky]

another option would be to get a different head all together. the hx has the vtec-e in it, so not all that great for gains in performance...might want to look into either the a1 head, which is a striaght up head, no vtec, or the a2, which is on the ex model civic, granted it is also a vtec-e head, however crower has made a stage 2 cam for it...either way is up to you...
another thing is to get an ex tranny(manual), the hx tranny won't hold as much power as the manual, and with the shorter gear in it it will get up and gogo a little quicker...

[Tobias]

another option would be to get a different head all together. the hx has the vtec-e in it, so not all that great for gains in performance...might want to look into either the a1 head, which is a striaght up head, no vtec, or the a2, which is on the ex model civic, granted it is also a vtec-e head, however crower has made a stage 2 cam for it...either way is up to you...
another thing is to get an ex tranny(manual), the hx tranny won't hold as much power as the manual, and with the shorter gear in it it will get up and gogo a little quicker...
What type of head is in the HX? I thought it was the A2. Anyways best bet would be the A2 even though it is Vtec-E it still puts a little bit more power down than the non. Replacing those internals w/ a PnP is not a bad idea. But as Spitfire said he's low on the dough.

[stmotorsports]

HX = D17A6, vtec-e w/lean burn operation 117hp
EX = D17A2, vtec-e no lean burn mode 127hp

for the ~10hp, I wouldn't bother going thru with an entire head swap unless you're planning on milling, p/p, performance cam and/or valves/valvejob/etc...

unfortunately simple cheap mods that actually do anything are kinda few & far between, you can gut your cat but make sure you put a section of pipe inside to keep the pipe diameter uniform, otherwise you'll create a flow stagnation point which will usually hurt if anything. Try running higher octane and bump your base timing, see if that makes any difference. I know it sounds stupid but you can run a resistor in your iat sensor which will fool the ecu into thinking it's seeing colder air which will advance the timing curve more aggressively- this is the "adds big +hp !!! mod" kits that you see all over ebay. Other than that, you're either buying or fabricating parts- header/exhaust/cams/timing gears/forced induction/etc or getting involved in engine internals

[custom_junky]

^^correct...

[Tobias]

Check this thread 4 resistors and cheap ebay chips! http://www.d-series.org/forums/showthread.php?t=21957

[custom_junky]

opps...missed the whole adding a resitor thing...like i said in the thread tobias pointed to, don't use resistors...

[Hyaboosta]

if you want speed from the d17 either go boost or nitrous. Nothing else is worth the money. I did dpray before for a year now im boost.