1994 honda Accord lx [First car]
 

Hi just recently bought a 1994 honda accord lx, i've been spending late nights working on her dings. I am a noobie to all this car stuff, but I've gotten myself very interested in how the mechanics work and how to make things tick. Performance is one of my biggest paths here and my hopes for this forum to educate me about my vehicle. My car is completely stock and was wondering how do i boost its performance. I do have set things in mind i would like to do which i will explain below.

Specs:
2.2l 130hp 4 cylinder
16 valve
5 speed manual
23-31 mpg [give or take]


Things i have done to my car:
-Pushed out some dents on the body of my car.
-Gutted the inside of my car, cleaned it and put it back together. [There were some unidentified objects "scary"].
-Cleaned my engine bay
-Installed a hood [Part i got from i think it's called a wrecking yard?]
-zipped tied the crap out my driver side headlights[they work and are stable so i kinda wanna spend money on the engine, unless otherwise]
-Installed a cold air intake
-Spray painted my "Hub Caps" Black [ For the incredible effect and gain of 100000 hp. haha im joking just wanted it to look a bit classy]
-Named her Alexa [LX and a accord so i came up with the name L-X-A]
- I installed a passenger rear view mirror full assembly
-passenger side tail light installed [my old one was busted up :/]

The direction i want to take:
-wanting to change the timing belt and water pump
-Getting maybe a engine swap to a h22 vtec [Just an idea even though i might fail horribly because i don't even know where to start to even take the old one out]
-turbo charge my standard engine [Also an idea]


I need some recommendations of the little things i should do to maintain and or increase its performance. I am a complete noobie, I don't set my self goals at all i just let myself flow and do what i do to my vehicle.
P.S. I am in the process of getting my title and i put back on my stock air intake because I'm going to emissions soon, don't know if it will pass or fail me on that part so i kept it stock.

Here's a video of what my car sounds like and looks like with the engine turned on also:
There seems to be a problem on starting the car at times. I don't know whats wrong, but i hope i can get your guy's feedback.
Link: 94 Honda accord lx - YouTube
[Sorry for the creepy breathing.]

Here are some pictures:

First, congratulations on the new car. I had fifth-gen Accord and then sold it to a relative, and it's still rockin' with about 220,000 miles. These are great cars.

Before you start sinking money into 'go-faster' upgrades, I'd really take a hard look at that engine and do some diagnostic work first. When you pulled the spark plugs, was there any oil fouling the plugs? You might want to also consider running a compression test- this is, after all, an 18 year old motor. Also, are you blowing oil or antifreeze out of the tailpipe? Any other issues, leaks, or problems that you can see? Deal with any of that before you start spending a considerable amount of money on performance parts.

An engine swap is a big, messy ordeal. Doable, certainly, and the F- to H- swap isn't terrible, but still, it's a lot of work. A few friends have been successful, and a few gave up. Then again, I've seen J30 V6 engines inside of Civics, so I guess anything is possible. However, if you do not see yourself as a skilled mechanic yet, perhaps build up to the big stuff.

Get the Honda shop manual for this car, especially if you're going to consider the timing belt and water pump service.

I did watch your video- I don't have a clue what that snapping noise is you get when you're trying to start it. I'd guess at a bad starter motor, but I could be wrong. When it's running, it sounds okay, although your valves are noisy (could probably stand to have a valve adjustment).

Hope that stuff helps. I'm sure some more experienced Honda mechanics on the site will give better advice, but I thought I'd get you started.

Sounds like the starter is giving up. You can pull it and have it tested to be sure.

Timing belt should be changed every 100k or 7 years. If you are not sure when it was last done I would change it and set a new "base" for the future.

I believe the Accords with manual transmission for your year came with the Denso starter. Many times you can just replaced the starter contacts and be good to go again. In this link for an Acura Integra, the guy replaced the contacts and cleaned up the plunger. It's basically the same procedure for many of the earlier Honda Denso starters. Places sell kits for just the contacts or with plunger. You can even check for the parts from local starter and alternator rebuild shops.

Rebuild your starter for less than $20 - Team Integra Forums - Team Integra