Pandaryder

So, I'm a fairly new driver. I've had my license for almost a year now and have been driving my Civic for a little over a year. I drive a 2005 Honda Civic Value Package. If you haven't heard of it, it's basically a bare bones vehicles with Air Conditioning...everything is manual, except the transmission. Well, it has a D17A1 engine and it's completely stock. Well, now that that's cleared up, I have a few questions.

1) Would a Cold Air Intake improve my acceleration by much? I was thinking about getting an AEM V2 Cold Air Intake since it's the easiest thing to install and it makes the car sound better.

2) Would an exhaust be better to get? I'm trying to go for a Naturally Aspirated setup...I'm pretty sure

3) Are there any other upgrades I can get to get my car from 115hp to about 140hp without spending an assload of money? My budget is around $300-$500?

4) Would tires and rims be better? I would go as big as 17" if that's the case. I'm riding on stock 14" hubs with average width tires.

5) Is there a reason why people don't fix up VP Civics, other than the fact that it's manual everything? I would imagine that would be the kind of thing to bring out the inner ricer. Lol.

Thank You.

Awjvail

No, nothing can bring your HP up that much with that sort of budget.

Bolt ons such as intake, exhaust, etc only add like 3 HP. They don't do anything but look/sound nice.

Pandaryder

Are you sure? I read somewhere that an Intake for a Honda Civic of my year would give me somewhere from 5-12 HP.

HLC

yea thats not true. i have the aem cai, header and a full exhaust and i have 117whp (measured by dyno). your not getting to 140 w/o probably a full n/a setup with kpro or boost especially on an A1. swap the head to an A2 for vtec to get "127 hp" which is crank hp and probably like 90 or 100 at the wheels.

CoupedUp04

I have an 04 VP, so I feel ya on the bare *** bones. You're lucky in a way cause the manual transmissions don't have a tachometer. Although, having an auto must suck... as for your questions:

1) CAI, or any intake really, is not going to do much anything to the performance or engine besides maybe hurt it. Intakes make a (somewhat) cool sound at high RPM.

2) An exhaust system is not going to do much of anything to the performance or engine besides maybe hurt it. Exhaust systems make a (somewhat) cool sound at low RPM.

3) There is nothing you can do in that price range to add that much power to our cars. If you plan on doing anything besides intake/headers/exhaust (as far as engine mods) be prepared to spend a lot of money. Honestly, from all the threads I've read and research I've done you could buy an Acura RSX Type-S for as much as people are spending to add turbos and nitrous.

4) The engineers at Honda did tons of testing and found you would get the best ride out of our car with the stock size rim and tire. Go as high as 17" and you're going to HATE how loud the road is and how much you feel every bump. Go with a nice set of 15" or 16" at the most and you'll be much happier. But still... no power for you.

5) Most EM2's (our generation of civic) have a non-vtec engine and even the ones that do have the vtec are still pretty **** poor as far as power. Also, the older generation Civics are MUCH cheaper. The 6th gen even can go for under $1000. On top of that you can put $4000 more to drop a B series in it and you've got a 170 HP car (without boost or juice)... and that maybe exaggerated as far as price. VP's seem like they would be ideal because they don't have the extra weight from power locks and windows, and I'm sure most people planning on doing an engine swap right away and turning our cars into a BEAST do prefer a VP/DX, but most people prefer the gauge cluster and other trim pieces of the EX/LX.

Bottom line, our cars are GREAT on gas and are EXTREMELY reliable when properly maintained. You'll be much better off in the long run if you just enjoy what our cars are made for. Stick with moderate styling modifications like fog lights, nice rims, headlight bulbs, tint, etc.

Ok i'm stopping now or I never will...

Awjvail

In short, don't buy a Civic and expect to get power out of it.

The Civic has enough power to keep the car rolling at moderate speed and to be as fuel efficient as possible.

lowlife9

focus your money on looks because your not going any faster on that budget unless you use nitrous oxide.