What to do with it?? My wife and I are getting a fatty tax return, and we have decided to give $1500 to each of us to have fun with and put the rest in the bank (getting back around $7000 or so, two kids and a house are nice tax breaks!).

First, off the bat, I'm an N/A guy, so forget nitrous or any kind of boost. And I'm anti-bling, so no body kits, rims or spoilers.

The car is a '99 base model with 76,000 miles. My current mods on the car are only AEM short ram and the knock-off DC sports Megan stainless 4-2-1. I also have the ebay test-pipe, a set of AEM underdrive pulleys, and the E.S. motor mount inserts to put in - all which I got fairly cheaply. This is what I have in mind for the money:

Buddy Club Prospec catback - $439 shipped
OBX Stage I (or II) cams - $359 shipped
V-AFC 2 - $260 shipped
Skunk 2 cam gears - $180 shipped
KTeller's O2 sim. - $75 shipped

That's $1,313 so far. But I also would like to get the V-AFC harness adapter, which runs $190 shipped so that I don't have to cut/splice the stock harness. That puts me almost to my total available. The only way I would run the stage II cams is if I also got Portflow springs/retainers, which run in the $375 range. That definitely puts me out of my budget! I'm not including the labor for install since they would only do the cams and springs and retainers if I got them, or the cost of the dyno time. I can do everything else.

The one thing going for me is that my b-day is also coming up in April and I can probably swing something up to $150 from my family as their gift, so that helps a little.

Justification for my choices .......... the OBX cams are proving themselves decent and are pretty much mimics of the Skunk 2's, so I am willing to give them a chance, and besides, where else can you get cams for that price without being totally used? I like the Buddy Club for the weight and performance. I don't care about sound or looks. I don't want to go Hondata yet because I do not want to convert to OBD-I, and it costs more.

I could also go with the sunroof kit, a carbon hood, and a carbon trunk which would lose the car about 100 lbs, and that would be about the equivalent of gaining 10 hp ......... but for the same price, the parts above in combination with what I already have should be good for about 15-20.

Let me know what you would do or change?

 

I wouldn't change a thing. You're pretty knowledgable with Honda's. I say go for it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TypeR0207 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">First, off the bat, I'm an N/A guy, so forget nitrous or any kind of boost. And I'm anti-bling, so no body kits, rims or spoilers.
</TD></TR></TABLE>



With that said, 240SX.

 

For the same price you could try the RM kteller cams....they look like some promising numbers.....

Take a look on kteller, he has a graph of an h22 with type-s cams vs. with the RM cams.....

with 8 bent exhaust valves....the RM cams kill the type S by at least 10hp over the whole band, and like 15-20 up top....those gains would be bigger without the bent valves.....

so consider that before you buy the skunk 2 profile cams, they have never seen very impressive results.....

just my thoughts, do what you want....

oh, also, you could find an o2 sim for cheaper, i just put one on a civic that cost like $30 dollars, and it works fine. The instructions were rough, but i got it to work.

 

Carbon Fiber lip with a CF hood.... MMMmmmm

 

Ahhhh, I always thought the RM regrinds were like $500 or so, $350 makes it a much more plausible idea! And their springs/retainers are only $265 ....... add another $20 for shipping and we have another decent package choice ......

I've never liked the ideas of regrinds (having had a Gude package done on my old Miata way back in the day, REALLY left a bad taste in my mouth for regrinds ..........), but if people have been getting good results, it might be worth looking into. Does anyone actually have them and have real world experience with them?

 

J.G. cam gears are $70/ea. according to their website.

Anyone have experience with them?

 

for 120 bucks ill give u my 5 bolt brand new skunk2 cam gears. i just need to get rid of these damn things take them!

 

dont forget you are gonna need dyno time with that vafc and timing gears...

 

for the price of a vafc get hondata s100...around 200

 

You said something about the sunroof kit. What exactly IS the sunroof kit?

 

wurd to that. hondata s200, it would set you straight...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TypeR0207 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">....... or the cost of the dyno time ........

I don't want to go Hondata yet because I do not want to convert to OBD-I, and it costs more.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I'm not counting dyno time in the cost of the upgrades because that is a given must-do, so it is not a "part" that I have to order.

As I said, I do not want to convert to OBD-I, which would cost me $100-150 for a harness, and at least $100 for a chipped ECU that would run right with the car, on TOP of the Hondata price ........... much cheaper to go with the VAFC-2 as I know how to tune it having used a VAFC on two others cars I've owned or worked on.

I know it is the hottest thing going for tuning, but I do not necessarily need all the parameters it offers, and I can tune the things I want with the VTEC controller. Hondata is in my long range plans, but not for awhile (after getting an SMSP or equivalent header later down the road).

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by snowblind7x &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">You said something about the sunroof kit. What exactly IS the sunroof kit?</TD></TR></TABLE>

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1102799

 

hytech header - 950
OBD II -&gt; I harness - 75
P28 / Hondata S200 - 500 or less

there you go. more power for the same money.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TypeR0207 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">V-AFC 2 - $260 shipped... But I also would like to get the V-AFC harness adapter, which runs $190 shipped</TD></TR></TABLE>


<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by fastludeh22 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">for the price of a vafc get hondata s100...around 200</TD></TR></TABLE>

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TypeR0207 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

convert to OBD-I, which would cost me $100-150 for a harness, and at least $100 for a chipped ECU that would run right with the car, on TOP of the Hondata price ........... much cheaper to go with the VAFC-2 .</TD></TR></TABLE>

you can sell your ecu which will help offset the price of the new ecu. cost of hondata + harness is less then vafc2 and harness. but to each his own, just my opinion...or go w/uberdata or chrome and u can tune yourself and not pay for hondata

let me ask a question...are you at all happy with your strait line speed? if so get some suspension mods

 

hey im very interested in the skunk2 cam gears

 

my opinion..get an RS*R exmag exhaust instead

 

get a boomin $1500 sound system yo! j/k i agree with shakes

 

also id go w/keteller exhaust. i have one and it sounds and performs great w/magnaflow muffler...better price also

 

i agree with doug too, go ahead and get the nice parts now....

you will end out at about the same power, running much better, and ready for some nice upgrades when the time comes....

you do need a catback though to get that header to do some nice gains for you....

 

That was what I was about to say .......... no aftermarket exhaust is gonna kill the gains from a Hytech or an SMSP, not to mention I'll need a new cat./test-pipe that would go from 2.5" to 2" so it would bolt on the stock exhaust until I could afford the exhaust.

And fastlude ........... I previously had a tweaked Type R that ran 13.9's and a WRX with an exhaust/filter/high-flow cat ....... so I'm NEVER happy with my straight line.

I have my plans for the suspension, once again they are pricey. I'm not going to upgrade it until I can buy a full set of coil-overs. I don't want to re-do the suspension in a year.

Bumping up to Hondata and a nice header/high-flow combination is a little different. That is something that would be easy to do in the future.

I'm liking the idea of the RM Prelude package that has the cams, springs, and retainers for like $535 or so (with the $50 core change). Then I would just have to swap out cams later and adjust the valves if I wanted to go bigger (Jun or Crower Stage III). It would be a much cheaper path, and I would get the stock cam cores with the regrinds, so no worries about breaking them. The duration and lift of the RM's is actually better than the Crower stage 1's, and is not far off the Skunk/OBX's.

That's why I wanted to throw these ideas out .......... this is the help I'm looking for.

And 98SH, I'm up for doing that if no one has taken them in the next few weeks. I'd have to hit up my family early for their "gift" to me. Might take a little to arrange.

 

I also couldn't find an exhaust on KTeller's site for a Prelude ......

 

^^ look harder, use the force....haha

yeah the RM package does sound nice....but consider the header, because then you will be buying something you will not ever want to change.....

if you bought the rm cams and all that, you will want to change it out for the juns (dont get the crowers) eventually and you will have wasted a good bit of money.....

also, i believe the hytech has to be welded up a flange and stuff to fit, so you could get an exhaust shop to make it work easily

its funny how your plans are very similar to mine though....i always seem to agree with your outlook on this stuff.....

good luck in decision making.....

oh also, dont let the fact that you just bought the megan header influence the decision, you could sell it on here....

 

True ....... but I could also sell the RM's for a decent price, and I'd already have the springs/retainers installed to run the bigger cams .......

The reason I say Jun's might be in the future are that my mother-in-law works for the State department as the chief medical person for embassies, and her new duty station is Hong Kong ......... we plan on visiting her within the next year probably. So I could buy them in HK, and have her ship them home, no duties, no taxes .....

I'd love a hytech or SMSP now, but between that and the exhaust the money is used up, and I'll get no tuning capabilities for awhile.

I just pm'ed someone about pricing to get into the S200, we'll see how that fits into the schemes. I also need to do a search and see what exactly I'll need if I do decide to go from OBD2 to OBD1 to run the Hondata. Don't want to open a can of worms and empty the bank account ot do it .......