What direction should I go in?

Hope this is somewhat the right area to post this in. I just got my accord about 2 weeks ago. It's not completely paid off yet, but I'm already planning on modding it. I'm thinking I will have about 1200 dollars I want to put into performance parts for my car. Originally I was thinking Greddy EVO2exhaust, AEM intake, and DC header. Since the people on this forum seem to know a pretty good amount about the accord I want to know what you would do with 1200. My car is completely stock and is going on 130,000 miles. It is the 2000 EX F23A4 with the 5 speed. I've never messed around with turbo and I'm not sure how much that would cost, but I know enough that I would either get I/H/E or a turbo since I'd have to replace these parts then. So should I save up for turbo maybe. I want some decent power, but I realize that it's only a 4 cylinder, so I'm not expecting to have a racing car or anything. Also, if I do I/H/E, where should I go from there, or is it not going to be worth my money for more hp after these. I was looking at new cam gear and new pullys. Long post, but I hope to learn something here.

I/H/E will give you prolly maximum 20-50 hp....  and im being generous... i was thinking of doing a whole engine swap on my f23 but ive seen other forums where people are swapping heads of the H22 to the F23...

just wait and see what the elders think.... im just a newb, i used to drive a g35, before that a tsx i just got my accord like a month ago so i learning myself at the momment... this forum website kicks butt by the way....

hey you might want to take out the cuss word. they will get mad at you for it lol just a for warning. but to answer yourr question. i would go with i/h/e cuz you can run a turbo on all stock parts but it would prolly run bad cuz it would be able to push out all the air that it needs to. so for now get i/h/e. i have a tru time pully kit on my car and you kinda notice a difference but then not. its good when the a/c is running tho. 

quote:

ORIGINAL: 02BlueAccord

hey you might want to take out the cuss word. they will get mad at you for it lol just a for warning. but to answer yourr question. i would go with i/h/e cuz you can run a turbo on all stock parts but it would prolly run bad cuz it would be able to push out all the air that it needs to. so for now get i/h/e. i have a tru time pully kit on my car and you kinda notice a difference but then not. its good when the a/c is running tho. 

 
Umm...what?
 
With 130K miles on it, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to boost it stock. Find a spare engine and build it for boost or build the current one if thats the way you want to go. Keeping in mind how long you plan on keeping this car.

Currant has the best suggestions yet.  If you really want the power, I/H/E is not going to get you there.  I say 10hp from those.
If I wanted to boost mine, I would find a spare f23 (salvage yards will likely have low mileage ones for reasonable$) and piece together a turbo over time as I had the money for parts.  That of couse would be if I had the storage space for a spare engine.

Blow all the money on an H22. do a swap.

And not to be a wet blanket, if you've only had the car 2 weeks, have you had a chance to find out what kind of service its had over the years?  There may be plenty of maintenance/safety stuff to think about if you haven't already.  I'm thinking it would be smart to stick some of that $1200 into a timing belt soon if that's never been done.  Tranny fluid, brake fluid, cooling system, brakes.....  all stuff to nail down.
 
Not trying to tell you what to do, in case you've tended to all this. 

sorry man i meant CANT not can

YES, peter4jc is right, you never know where that car has been, do all the maintenance stuff first... youd be suprised how much power youll gain by doing the necessary things... check your spark plugs too. if you have Bosh TAKE THEM OUT, i just changed mine to Champion AutoLight double Platinum and my car feels so responsive compared to the bosh ones. also change your oil for two reasons... one so youll know where youre at as far as change interval, AND so you can put some FULL SYTHETIC in there... i put 4qt of mobile one F/S 5w-30 and 1/2qt of Lucas Oil... and man what a diffrence this made... seriously man do all the maintenance stuff first then mod it... youll be sure that your engine is doing good and that youll get the most power out of your future mods...
 
 

yup, check the timing belt, if that goes out you got no more motor to work with...change plugs (NGK irridium), upgrade plug wires, go full synthetic. maybe take to honda and get the senors checked or replaced...like PCV valve or EGR valve...little things like that will add up, and then the car will last long enough for you to save up and build another motor or do what you want.....if you got anything left look for some good sprigns and struts and lower taht B****

I don't think his car has plug wires.  My gf has an '01 LX and it doesn't.  I think both engines went to plug-on-coil in 2000.  Also, are you sure that you have the F23A4 engine?  This will say "ULEV" on the valve cover.  If you want to get power out of that engine, you will need a cat-back, SRI and a new head, potentially from an H22.  I wouldn't do the H22 full swap though, just the head.  The F engines have cast iron sleves which the FRM sleeves from the H22 can't hold a candle to.  Once you have a cat-back and SRI, you can throw a nitrous shot in and that engine can take quite a bit of abuse, but like others have mentioned, you have to do maintenance first.  An easy item that is oftem overlooked are the radiator hoses.  I changed mine to silicone last week and flushed with vinegar twice and rinsed 5 times afterward and still didn't get all of the crap out!!!  Mine is pushing up on 90k, so yours would probably be dirtier unless it was very well maintained before you got it (I've never been so lucky).  I try to replace with lifetime parts like the silicone rad and vacuum hoses, Peak Lifetime yellow coolant, Silblade wipers etc.

Check over ALL maintenance items including replacing rubber, maybe the brake lines as well, change all fluids including flushing brake fluid out of the lines with new ......  If I were you, I'd plan that 1200 for maintenance and improvements to the basic systems then start saving for mods.  (Rambling, I know .... been a long month! Sorry, but I think you get the point.)

Dude, all 6th gen 4cyl engines have plug wires.  Unless your gf's car is a V6 or has an engine swap from an 03 or newer 4cyl

I'll double check, but I thought that it has COP like mine.

I know both f23a1(in mine) and and f23a4(ulev) have plug wires.  I don't know about the f23a5(non-VTEC).  Look at 02blueaccord's avatar.  The wires are in the picture.  His is an 02 model.

you prb get a little more power out of the mods with a f23a4 since all the piping is tighter and alot more restricitve. I tink thats the reason for 2horsepower and 2 ft/lbs of tourque.

I'll just look under the hood when my gf comes over tonight after work.  HR4VTEC, you're probably right about the pipes, however the A4 head is different and I think the redline and VTEC engagement are lower, but I'll have to look ...... I never really looked into modding her car since it's our weekend trip car and I want to keep the MPG up ..... also, she's not the most attentive person on the road and I don't want to encourage her to drive more agressively.  With my car, I can turn up the VTEC engagement and disable secondary triggers when she's not looking if she's driving.

i have the ulev engine..mine has plug wires and redline is the same as in other cars...mods definately did help it though...much more better accelaration...cant really tell when vtec kicks in but i hear more roaring of the engine when i hit 4.5k +.....i really dont think our heads are different either...

The heads arent any different and neither is the redline or vtec engagement. WTF are secondary triggers?
 
Sometimes I wonder where you guys come up with this stuff, like the guy who said he removed his governor. I'm still wondering what it was he removed and how he removed it to think that it somehow changed something.

quote:

ORIGINAL: BlkCurrantKord
like the guy who said he removed his governor. I'm still wondering what it was he removed and how he removed it to think that it somehow changed something.

I chuckled at that one too.  He probably just wrote that in his sig.  Or the person he bought the car from probably told him they removed the governor or something.  Or he's flat out lying like the guy with his "gangsta wifey" over on the 6th gen website. lawl

On my V-AFC controller, there are triggers to make the car go into VTEC regardless of rpm.   One secondary trigger is an adjustable throttle setting which can be set to the %WOT that I want (65% WOT is where I usually keep it) and the other is for when the intake pressure drops like when you are going up a steep hill.

I'm going to ignore that comment BCK.

If the A1 and A4 heads are the same, why would they have different identifiers?  For that matter, why would one be CARB certified ULEV and the other not?  The pipes would not reflect on the motor designation.

a4 is the same head.  there is nothing different exept the 2 hp difference due to more restriction...the carb ulev crap were especially made for california accord for emission reasons 

quote:

ORIGINAL: blackex19

a4 is the same head.  there is nothing different exept the 2 hp difference due to more restriction...the carb ulev crap were especially made for california accord for emission reasons 

 
Exactly.
 
Ignore what comment? IMO - messing w/ vtec engagement on a SOHC is pointless. In the end you're just wasting gas.

Thanks everyone for all of the input. Been a while since I've been on here, but I'm back at work now and have nothing else to do, lol. Yes, the car is the F23A4. It has the ULEV symbol on the engine. It has plug wires. As far as the car's condition is concerned, it's pretty good and has been owned by someone I know for the past 2 years so I know what's immediatly wrong, but general maintenance still needs to be done. I've already gone to full synthetic and flushed the coolant. I'll be looking into the other fluids probably this weekend or this week. Thanks for the heads up on the timimg belt, i'll have to look into that one. As far as I know, the difference in the F23A4 and the F23A1 is mainly the exhaust manifold, which constricts the system and goes to a higher temperature to have better emissions. I also think that there is a different computer which governs stuff (I have no idea about computer stuff, so I dont even know what it would govern), but that's not %100. I'm interested in this H22 head swap. If anyone has a link to how to accomplish that, it would be greatly appreciated. If not, then just somewhere to start looking into that would be good. The money issue, is really like 1200 after basic maintenance. So, at this point I'm thinking header replace would be good so I can get that lost hp and torque, also exhaust and intake to open up the airflow(and make some cool noise). I know I can only expect maybe 10-12 hp on these, but I dont know too much about modding, so I was trying to find out what other options there were in my price range. I'm not experienced enough to do a swap or a turbo without help from my friends though. Any info on the head swap would be cool. Thanks and sorry for the long post again.

Don't get a header if your interested in the H22 head swap b/c the heads have different manifold designs.
 
Search - www.honda-tech.com for the G23 Vtec build