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Currently in a 2005 Civic LX 1.7. Its a stock D17A1 that just rolled over to 150K miles. At around 120k I started having to replace components you expect to go out around that time. My go-kart like suspension was replaced. Shortly after that my water pump went out. I ended up replacing damn near everything before the water pump too knowing full well I was still going to have to bite that bullet. And right after replacing the valve cover gasket (of course.)

So now I've kinda commit to running this thing until the wheels fall off, and I've just started a delivery job so taking care of the car is a priority.

So I ended up getting a K&N CAI, mostly because I hate how bulky and obtrusive the stock air box is. Everything was copacetic until I drove Houston to Dallas non-stop and pulled a code (too rich) that went away after a while. Now that I'm driving every day I caught the code again and it went away. But I've been noticing some heat coming from the floorboard. I was due for a ATF change so I went ahead and did that, but still getting heat. Only thing I can figure is something with the cat, but its not glowing when I look under, so who knows. I went ahead and switched back to the stock air intake and started looking for solutions...

Then I started looking at threads for swapping to the A2 head, and similarly exhaust... Its curious because the whole A2 long block goes for around 700 bucks, getting the head on its own is like half that without the solenoid. A junkyard could have the head, but then its a worry about the condition, plus getting the ECM and reprogram, or find a VAFC2 for $250 bucks, and what kinda benefit am I really looking at here.

I drive kinda like an *******, and I don't know where all my low end has gone, but its not entirely there anymore. Takes way to much to get going. Thinking I need to do a compression test at some point.

Anyone who can throw some good advise my way, it's appreciated

 
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The cat is hanging off the front of the engine, it's built into the manifold.