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Beginners guide to H22 Engine Modifications PT. 2

213K views 157 replies 96 participants last post by  L0B5TA 
#1 ·
BOLT ON's

Bolt on performance parts consist of things like a header, intake, exhaust, intake manifold...etc. Pretty much anything on the outside of the engine is a bolt on. Bolt on's are only as good as the money you put into them. Don't want to spend much? Well then dont expect much power. It sucks, but thats the truth. If you really want to make REAL power with bolt on's, you must break your wallet. These quality (sometimes custom) parts are not for everyone. If you are just wanting to buy a header to buy it and say you have a header, megan racing makes decent products...kinda but are VERY easy on the wallet. I'm a quality guy myself, so megan and all those other products are worth didly squat to me.
A very cheap bolt on setup might go like this:
stock intake and K&N filter with all resonators and baffles removed, stock header, Magnaflow cat, Apex'i WSII or RSR exhaust
all that can be aquired for under 1000 dollars. It will sound good and look good. You will gain slight performance, but this setup is mostly for people who dont want to waste money.

A bolt on setup geared towards performance might go something like this:

AEM cold air intake, BPi flowstack and filter, Ported and port matched Euro R intake manifold, 68-70mm Throttle body, RMF/SMSP/Hytech/SSR custom header, test pipe, 2.5" exhaust (3" for more power)
this setup will cost around 2000 dollars and will likely be loud and obnoxious. The headers listed are all in the price range of 850 to 1000+ a piece.

Intakes and filters:
an intake is an intake
------i used to believe this statement. But i dont anymore. Well let me rephrase that. An intake is an intake if you are planning on buying a regular ole intake like the AEM v1. If you are looking at the AEM V2, which is a nice intake and serves a purpose, there are ways to get the same effect as the V2 but not hurt you wallet as much. The V2 is a good intake, its just too expensive for my taste. It's purpose is to increase flow, allow for less resistance which in turn increases power. I have a simple and cheaper solution which has been tested. It's called the BPi Flow stack.
My review can be found here:
http://preludepower.com/forums/showthread.php?t=245808&highlight=flowstack
Here's a word from Bryan Pendleton, engineer of the flowstack
A velocity stack benefits automotive applications for two main reasons.

1) Is the abillity to tweak and alter the air velocity profile and air velocities. Now this is a big benefit in ITB applications and various other racing applications, but as you did mention most of these benefits are dampened due to intake length and a plenum manifold.

2) The next major benefit is through the prevention of seperation at the entrance. The entrance of your intake can cause a significant head loss or loss of energy. These effectively creates a choke, due to the turbulent vortices and eddies created at the entrance. The severity of this head loss is dependant on the internal geometry of your filter, but can represent a significant restriction. Due to the nature of turbulent flow, you cannot calculate losses analytically, but experimental data has been provided to correlate to. We can estimate head loss (ie. how restrictive) of the entrance geometry based on emperical data that exists. If we dig up head loss coefficents for plan ended pipe, square shoulder entrance and a radius entrance they are as follows: .78, .5 and .2-.04 (depending on radius) respectively. So head loss can be reduced by a factor of nearly 20 by running a stack over plan ended pipe.
Reference: Potter & Foss, Fluid Mechanics. Or you can run a search for head loss for viscous internal flow.
Interesting enough though, I just received some results from a customer with a 85mm B motor, that compared a Injen Velocity Stack Filter and the BPi Flow Stack. Gains of 2-3 ft-lb through almost the entire engine operating range. I will post us the result in the next several days or so.
This intake setup can be had for around 150 dollars, which is about a 100 dollars cheaper than the V2. Use that 100 bux and take your girl out or something :tongue:

The everlasting Header debate:

There are MANY headers out for our motors. But there are not many that actually do what they are intended. These headers consist of a stock-like design. These designs included: Dc sports, Megan, OBX and all the other Ebay crap. As they are designed like the stock header, they do not gain much on our motors. If you are just wanting something cheap and dont care about the power, these are your best choices. Dc sports and Megan are fairly comparable in quality however the Megan header is much cheaper. I would never suggest anyone to get OBX products. I have never believed in their product and never will.
Now, on to better exhaust manifolds, the next step up. There arent many in this category that you can get new anymore, but some of them consist/consisted of Prospeed, ANR, Kteller (custom). Some other non custom header are mugen and T1r. I havent heard many reviews about the T1r product but i hear they are very nice :oops: and also cost a pretty penny. Same goes for the mugen header. If you have the money to purchase these headers, then you might want to look into buying a custom header which i will talk about now.
RMF/SMSP/Hytech/SSR all make the best H22's headers, they range from 850 to 1000+ dollars and usually have a long wait to get one. Which one you end up going with is all a matter of who you like more honestly. I chose RMF because of his original designs and knowing his background. Whenever one of these products gets mentioned, there is usually a big debate on which one is better blah blah blah, but i honestly think they all make the same amounts of power.
I wont go into more advanced stuff like exhaust pulsing, the use of merge collectors and scavenging in this post simply because this is a BASIC intro after all and i'm not fluent on that topic.

Exhaust
Deciding on an exhaust really depends on your goals and if you are aiming for performance or whether you just want an exhaust that sounds good.
I'll start off talking about the mild exhaust setups that are more for sound and retaining that overall stock look.....kinda, lol.
Chambered exhausts like the Apex'i WSII, RSR EXMAG are quiet and relatively stock looking granted the polished piping and different muffler. They are chambered which means the exhaust is quiet. The chambers in the muffler slows down the velocity of the exhaust which in effect restricts power.
Straight through exhausts like the Apex'i N1, Tanabe Racing Medallion and so forth are just that. They do not have the chambers to hold back the exhaust flow. These exhaust typically will gain more power and allow for the other parts on the engine to work more efficiently.
In all honesty, the greatest exhaust is going to be one that you make yourself. Here's an example. www.kteller.com sells exhaust piping kits for our cars, even full exhaust that sound decent. But you can build your own.
For instance, 2.5" exhaust piping with two magnaflow resonators. With that you could buy pretty much any muffler you wanted and the sound would be pretty decent for a 2.5 exhaust. There's all sorts of combinations you can do when making your own. Thats what makes it so nice. Don't have the tools to put it together? A muffler shop can do that for you.


High Flow Catalytic Converter and Test Pipe
I am a relatively environmentally friendly guy so i'm always going to suggest a high flow cat over a test pipe. A high flow cat still has the capability to catch all the bad gasses that would pollute the air in its absense. A test pipe is just a straight pipe that replaces the cat. There are two kinds. Resonated and non resonated. The resonated test pipes are basically just resonators to keep the noise down while acting as a straight pipe. Test pipes do not catch the pollutants, however they do gain more power than high flow cats. How much? I dont know. I doubt its that much more, but every little bit helps. Test pipes make the exhaust VERY VERY loud, but some people dont mind it.

Tuning:
There are a few ways to gain extra power through tuning the ecu or manipulating it to work in your favor :)
The most basic tune is the VAFC, however, this is considered a hack in the tuning world as it is lieing to the ecu.
Here is an article by David Blunder, the creator of PGMFI.org, explaining what a VAFC really does.
http://www.pgmfi.org/twiki/bin/view/Library/WhyDoPiggybacksSuck
A vafc does not have the ability to manipulate the ignition timing indepently. Fuel tuning, which all the vafc is capable of (besides changing the vtec crossover), will only do so much. Tuning the ignition timing is how the real power is made. I would only suggest going the VAFC route if you have very mild bolt on's and dont plan on going any farther.
The Vafc is a pretty decent option for the SH ludes considering there isnt much out there that would allow the ATTS to still be functional. I believe the greddy emanage and AFC's can be used with them and still have a functional atts system.

There is a solution to those who want a more complete tune; there are programs like Crome, Hondata, Neptune, Uberdata, etc which use the stock ecu as a basis. These programs are setup to where you can change nearly everything about how the engine runs without having any problems with the stock coding of the ecu. These programs require OBDI Ecu's which are from 92-95 model years that have been socketed to accept an aftermarket eeprom chip that stores most of the ecu's memory. These programs can independently adjust the ignition, fuel, vtec crossover, cold start fuel, rev limiters and MUCH much more.
Here are some links to helpful tuning sites:
www.pgmfi.og
www.phearable.net
www.evans-tuning.com
www.efi101.com
www.hondata.com
www.tunewithcrome.com

Other tuning solutions involve standalone engine management systems which completely replace the factory ecu. These ecu's have the ability to control pretty much anything and everything you would want to control. You can even add things to the program to monitor or adjust.
These programs include:
AEM EMS, Haltech, Motec, F.A.S.T.
There are a few more but thats what i got off the top of my head.

________________________________________
OK, still not finished...sorry guys. I'm trying to make this as basic as i can.
 
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#43 ·
So go with bolt on? According to the guy it runs about 2g's for a good set up. Shouldn't i just go with a tubo kit for that kind of $$$. Where or how can i find info on what a bolt on is and looks like exactly and where to get this. I am verry grateful for you prelude brothers lending a hand:)
 
#49 ·
and i feel that i should add that a turbo kit or any kind of turbo set up you may encounter is going to require much more than $2,000 to get working safely and properly. more than likely well over twice that.

but, like blake said, that's what the forced induction section is for. i just didn't want you to have any misconceptions.
 
#52 ·
I would highly advise you to just get the RMF, you can't go wrong with it. Contact 98vtec, the OP in this thread, as he's a distributor for them.
 
#56 ·
Im new to this site, but i know dat dis kid 98vtec is a prelude god. All you need is your own church and i would be ur first member. But lol i feal stupid asking noob questions but not everyone i know is cool enough to own a lude. Whats the bb6 stand for. Atts? Will taking off the belt for the air condition harm my motor in the long run. v-tech everyday harmfull for my engine. And is there chips or something to take of my rev limiter. If so, which. thank you lude god.
 
#57 ·
lol. I'm no god. I'm just one person willing to spend money to find out what is best.

BB6 is chassis code for 97-01 preludes
bb4 is code for 4th gens...i think bb2 is 4th gen too

ATTS is automatic torque transfer system

VTEC (not V-tech).

Vtec will not hurt the engine but you will burn more oil. Keep an eye on your oil level.

Chips = garbage
tuned, chipped ecu's = good

no rev limiter is asking to blow your engine.
 
#63 ·
Okay, so im really considering going with VAFC to gain some horsepower. I have few bolt-ons but I wouldn't consider it a good setup. I got an AEM CAI, and a Skunk2 MegaPower Cat-Back exhaust. I also have a 12lb flywheel if that means anything. Would I get anything noticable out of the VAFC with just an intake and a cat-back? Would you recommend VAFC for DD? Thanks in advance guys

oh and the link giving info about the VAFC is not working for me so if anyone wants a new one feel free to use this

http://www.hondahookup.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1254605
 
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