I'm thinking of replacing OEM air intake & exhaust on my '97 Accord DX. Should I buy short-ram intake or cold-air intake? Which one is better? Name brand intakes have name brand prices, ebay no-name parts are relatively cheaper. They use the same materials and filters. Should I just go for ebay and save myself a couple of dollars or will I really be damaging my car in the long run? As far as exhaust. Should I be even messing around with catalytic converter? I need to pass the state inspection. What is the most cost effective way I can modify the exhaust on my Honda to get extra horses and without draining my wallet. As you can see, I'm a little low on dough right now.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mshabelm &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I'm thinking of replacing OEM air intake & exhaust on my '97 Accord DX. Should I buy short-ram intake or cold-air intake? Which one is better? Name brand intakes have name brand prices, ebay no-name parts are relatively cheaper. They use the same materials and filters. Should I just go for ebay and save myself a couple of dollars or will I really be damaging my car in the long run? As far as exhaust. Should I be even messing around with catalytic converter? I need to pass the state inspection. What is the most cost effective way I can modify the exhaust on my Honda to get extra horses and without draining my wallet. As you can see, I'm a little low on dough right now.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Cold air is better than ram air. It sucks cooler air from the bumper instead of warm, hot air from engine bay. If you don't want to go with brand name, you could get cheap ebay cold air intake but make sure use K&N filter. It does no harm in long run. Get catback or straight pipe depend on your wallet. If you want to replace the cat, got hi flow cat.

 

^^ agree with him just buy an ebay intake and then go get a k&n filter

BUt,

there should'nt be any reason to change your cat unless you change your exhaust piping to a larger diameter. ive looked into getting a ""Highflow Cat"" and i talked with an exhuast shop owner he said that the only reasons to change your stock one were ...

A: your car is very old, the reasons for that are after so many miles your cat gets a bit clogged and restrics airflow, and if your car is really old the older style catalytic converters that came on those cars are not the newwer honeycomb style.
your car has the honeycomb type of cat.

B: If you change your exhuast piping to a larger diameter you'll want a larger cat.. that is if you change the piping all the way up to the header(full exhaust)... for a cat back there no need since the piping comming from the engine to the cat is the same stock size