blue_sol94

OK, I just bought a 1994 Del Sol S. I have not looked at the motor yet to make sure what engine it is as I didnt buy it to tune/race it. According to the VIN its a D15B7. It is an automatic tranny. This is just going to be a daily driver/bum around/road trip car. Im coming from a Chevy truck so Im use to a big V8 and am just looking to squeeze a little more power out of the car. I would like to know what would be the best bang for my buck. I was thinking short ram/headers/catback. I also wouldnt mind improving the handling a little, such as bigger rims/tires and sway bar. I dont plan on ricing it out and adding a body kit or the like, I just want to improve its overall drivability. Now to the questions!

1. short ram or CAI? why?
2. Headers? Will they help or waste of money?
3. Which exhaust would be best? What kind of power gains if any? Not looking for a fartcan either.
4. Ways to improve handling? swaybar, shocks, struts etc.?
5. Biggest wheels/tires I can fit on it?

It is currently all stock. I'm just looking for the best bolt ons to make it even more fun to drive. Consider me a noob cuz I know absolutly nothing about hondas, but Im ready to learn! Thanks in advance to anyone that helps! If you could go in to as much detail as possible that would be great, also some links if you got em!

xwhitchx

5. Biggest wheels/tires I can fit on it?

get 15" try not to get any bigger, it looks bad

FearTheH

iTrader: (5)

this is how Honda fever starts grasshoppa! soon you will be wanting to turbocharge it and blow the pants off some Mustangs, which isnt hard even with a Bicycle after your trial is up on here you can blow thru the For Sale forums, usually have some pretty good deals there and not too many scammers on here. When i first got my 99 civic si, i was coming from a Z28 and just wanted to put an intake and header-back exhaust... now im building a block for a B16a2 turbo setup. Anyways, welcome friend! and if you can, post up some pics of your Del Sol! Again, Welcome to the Honda world!

eg6206

a good set of headers will sqeeze out some power you will be able to feel as well as a cold air intake. maybe a nice catback if thats your thing. If you want some better handling, a set of front and rear strut bars is a good start. if you really want your handling to be up to par, a set of springs and shocks will suffice, i have a set of tokico blues with eibach sportlines, i couldnt ask for a better ride. dont go bigger than 16s on your del sol anything bigger is usless.

rick_rabies

dont forget to paint the valve cover

Warhawk

1. I usually like AEM, you don't have to oil the filters and they are generally pretty cheap intakes. I like short ram since they are like 100 bux and offer almost the same performance as a cold air.

2. for the street look into a 4-2-1 header. I think megan racing has one pretty cheap. A lotta people like DC Sports headers but they are very pricy too.

3. Apexi WS2 is pretty nice, looks and sounds good. Check out youtube vids of it. People in the honda-tech marketplace sell these catbacks for 400 bux.

4. shocks and springs are a great way to improve looks and handling. It is important not to cheap out in this department though. If you want a badass setup look into a koni/ground control setup or PIC coilovers.

5. 15's or maybe 16's, and try to make sure they are light! Anything bigger and your car will be slow and look retarded....

raidacaipo

First of all I would like to say "WELCOME TO THE DARK SIDE!" and enjoy your honda.
Second, those motors are vtec I believe but at the same time its a single cam.. I wouldnt spend money on air intakes, headers, or exhaust.. except for upgrading suspension

1.keep the stock black air intake box.. I believe it gives you better low end torque for that daily driving which is what you want. But if you insist, get a k and N filter for the stock air box.
2.Dont waste your money on headers..
3.I would stick with the stock exhaust.. again for low end torque purposes and quiet driving.. but if you insist, I would get a apexi ws2 exhaust.. look it up on ebay. its really quiet for a performance exhaust
4.I would work on handling if I were you.. maybe upgrade your suspension to whatever you prefer. research on honda suspension aftermarket parts like skunk2, or tein. Also a sway bar wouldnt hurt.
5. Big wheels? I dont think you want that.. I would say 15-16" is standard for hondas. tire size are usually 205/15/50 for 15" and for 16" 205/16/40-45

have fun with your honda

FearTheH

iTrader: (5)

Got your tire sizes backwards 205/50/15 and 205/40-45/16
sorry, had to do it

raidacaipo

I knew someone was going to do that.. hahah thanks for correcting me

TravisCadello

You wanna Squeeze enough power out to be faster than your V8 truck then take that junk b7 head off and put a V-Tec head on it. its called a mini me swap. You have a non V-Tec block with a V Tec Head. Search Mini ME write up.

raidacaipo

x2

but also
If you combine an older D16 motor's piston with that of a newer D16 head you can end up with a compression ratio of about 10.7:1 with no other work (i.e. D16A1 piston, D16A6 head).

twiztid_989

x2 welcome to the honda world its like pringles wants u pop the fun dont stop i would go w Apexi WS2 they sound great looks very nice 16's look great not to big and not to small

Jaz760

which motor?

raidacaipo

d16a1 which is 86-89 integra

blue_sol94

Thanks for all the replys thus far. I do have a D15B7 engine. How hard would it be to swap the head? Im mainly looking for bolt ons but if thats something that would be relativly cheap and easy Ill prolly look into that. Im not looking to beat my truck in a race or have more power then it, I just meant Im driving this little fwd 4banger when Im used to a rwd V8. just a bit different.

As for wheels, I dont want to go with the biggest wheels, I was just curious how large I could go so incase I find a deal Ill know if I can use em or not.

Ill try and snap some pics today. The cars dirty since it rained this mornin, maybe Ill take it to the car wash and clean 'er up.

blue_sol94

Oh and also I forgot. What is the best oil/plugs/plug wires to run with? The car is overdue for an oil change and the engine seems like it could use a tune up. The steering wheel vibrates hella bad while at a stop light. Also any idea what the idle should be around? at a stop light its at about 600-700rpm. In the morning when its cold it idles hella high like 1200-1500rpm.

Should I use 5w-30/5w-20/10w-30/etc.? Thanks!

93egSLEEPER

i disagree, anything larger then 16" is no good.

93egSLEEPER

1. oil choice is mostly by preference. since your running a sohc with quite a few miles on it i would say run a good standard oil like castrol 5-30w or if it gets really hot in the summer run 10-30w.
2.Get a set of NGK OEM replacement plugs and a set or OEM or NGK wires.
3. typical idle when at operating temps is around 700-750rpm and high idle will be around what you mentioned til its warm. that seems to be fine.

SOHC_civic_si

This thread is just useless. Full of a lot of people who have no idea what they are talking about. First of all, a D15B7 is a non-VTEC engine, and in my educated opinion is worthless to spend money on. This had been covered time and time again, and I hate repeating myself, but here goes. The ONLY way to get power is to boost, run spray (which is dumb and a whole argument in itself), or a VERY expensive N/A build that will cost you double the money to run a turbo, and make less than half the power, not to mention be nowhere near as reliable.

OP, my advice to you is to just drive it for what you got it for. Good on gas, cheap to maintain, etc. etc.

Sure you could spend $500+ for intake, header and exhaust, but that will net you NO MORE than like 8-10 HP. Considering that engine has 102 hp stock I am willing to bet it would put down about 95-100 WHP.

If you really want to modify it a little, than put on some nice 15" rims, with good tires, along with a nice spring/shock combo to lower it and improve handling. Please do not mistake what I am doing here. I am not bashing your car or engine or anything like that, but simply trying to educate you to prevent you from wasting your money.

As for oil. It takes a 5w30 weight. You could have just looked that up in your owners manual.

EDIT: Idling at 1500 rpm's by no means is "hella" high. That is completely normal.

fastrxu

you can also put zc pistons in it for high compression ( correct me if I'm wrong)

anyways I don't think your aiming that high of mods yet.

i/h/e is a good starting point or get a lightweight flywheel. It wont make any power but it will use your current power more efficiently thus faster acceleration

Is it a 5 speed? I dont think I saw that part

SOHC_civic_si

No.

I/H/E, on THAT engine is a waste. For the money you will spend, you will gain 7-10 hp and that is it. For the $500 you spent on that you could buy a pair of nice adjustable shocks, or some nice interior pieces, or even four decent performance tires. Not trying to be rude or shoot down his hopes and dreams, but I speak from experience, and it is a waste.

Hobkins

Not only that but the shocks and suspension will last you a long long time if you don't cheap out on them.

So lets say you go out and dump $500 on I/H/E as the poster above me said, you get a whopping 10 hp! You drive around for a year or two with that get bored and decide to go Turbo. Now you have to replace the headers and the intake even possibly the exhaust (if you decide to go bigger) with the turbo parts. Sure go ahead try to resell them. Your $500 worth of parts are now $200 because there beat to hell and out dated.

Keep it stock. Those D15's are not worth putting the bolts on. IMO

luisrblue

I'm surprised nobody noticed the use of the term "headers"


and some have said "it's not worth putting bolt-on's on that engine" which other engines are also "not worth it"

LANL02

Go for it all.

FearTheH

iTrader: (5)

put a 6" skyjacker kit on it with some 38" super swampers sorry, that was no stupider than half of these posts lol