I recently bought a 97 Accord with the F22b2. After fixing the issues (at least mostly) this will be my daily driver and I just want it to be a little more fun to drive. I don't want to go as far as forced induction but looking to add enough hp to have some fun. Budget is $1000 (feel free to suggest anything though I could change my mind) at the most but the less I have to spend the better. What's out there that can bolt on with relative ease?

 

There aren't many bolt-ons that will give you much of a gain in HP. Plus you are only starting with 130 hp with that engine. I don't recommend putting a cold air intake on it for very little (if any) gain in hp, because you are asking to suck water into the engine and do major damage.

Modifying the engine of a daily driver is not the best option for reliability. I'd recommend that your tires, brakes, and suspension are in good shape.

I'd recommend looking into saving up for a H22 engine swap for a gain in hp. The swap has been done a ton of times, so there is a lot of information out there. Price out the engine and parts to see the cost for this kind of swap.

 

I've got a 2011 Charger also so reliability isn't a huge issue. I figured engine swap was probably the best option but 3-4 grand is alot. Some people were saying intake manifold, exhaust, cia would make a difference. Just trying to work out if it's worth the expense.

 

Lots of folks say an intake and an exhaust will make a difference, and from a noise perspective that's true, but from a performance perspective, all it will do is add a few HP up near red line, however, there is virtually always a commensurate drop off in mid-range torque. Said another way, while doing the daily driver thing, the car will actually be slower than it is now, so unless you're planning on tracking the Honda, save your money.

 

I doubt the swap would be 3-4 grand if you did it yourself. You'd have to price out the engine, plus the other known items you'd need.

Upgrading the suspension can make a big difference in how the vehicle handles. Just do your homework to find quality suspension upgrades. I know the Honda parts last a long time on these vehicles and work fairly well.

 

I'm with others. For $1000 you aren't going to get much more performance out of bolt ons.

Also I don't think an h22 swap would cost 3-4k, but it will cost more than 1k.

What I would recommend is swap the transmission(assuming its manual). The h22 transmission has much shorter gears so it will accelerate a lot faster. But you will compromise highway gas mileage. M2B4 is the sought after transmission as it also comes from the factory with an LSD. It took the better part of a second off my 1/4 mile time with my f22b1

 

I have to agree with the others who have posted. Half of that grand would go to a nice flowing exhaust, but you'd loose mid range in the process. Hell even a good stock exhaust will run close to 500, and with your car being a "non-VTEC" your limited in the top end too, as the VTEC would start kicking in at 3K and go to redline (6K). I have an idea of what you've got, as I have a 97 4door Accord LX with 5 speed, and it seems like it runs out of power once it gets to 6K on the tach. I realize that Honda limited it like that to keep from breaking the engine.
Your best options are a better trans (with LSD), and tires and wheels, so you can put what power you have to the ground. My 99 Accord with 5 speed I'm running 205's on, and it makes a difference over the stock 195's it came with. I realize it's only 10mm per tire, but these cars are very under tired, and a little goes a long way at helping. I found that out years ago on my air cooled VWs, as they came with 165's stock. Hell you could lock them up like nothing. The ideal now is to run 195's or even 205's on them, before doing any brake upgrades (the disc brakes don't work well if you're sliding a tire across the pavement).

 

I see this is an old post but not so old to ignore. That being said, for others like me scouring for information on building their late model accords, at the price point OP mentioned the greatest gains that can be made will not be with bolt ons. If you are just looking for quick power and performance gains with as kittle money invested as possible, your best option is going to be having the car tuned, which will require purchasing some electronics and having it put on a dyno.
The 97 LX w/f22b2 is a economy car and Honda has it tuned for maximum economy and emissions.
a simple tune alone will give it better performance than other mods. If you happen to do the exhaust, and intake, the tune will be a little better, but intake and exhaust w/out a tune is exactly why everyone here parrots lack luster gains if any at all from just bolt ons.
They all love to cry about the first part while failing to mention the second part. In my opinion, if ppl want to do what we love doing to these cars, a tune is mandatory. Otherwise you are just throwing money away so your car can look like it is special while not being able to do anything special. Why pay for parts that need tuning to access the performance gains and then not pay to tune it… that’s just plain ignorance.