Can too much freeflow from both air intake and exhaust cause very weak low end power? I have a B16A3 and feel like my bro's D16Z6 has way more low end then me, but hes running only a ram air intake and stock exhaust. Or is it just how my engine is supposed to be?

 

You got it. Your intake and exhaust systems were designed to work the best with your engine. Changing them to something larger nets slightly more top end power, at the sacrifice of lots of low end torque. The performance you feel from a larger intake is the better throttle response. I really find it ironic that everyone "upgrades" their intake and exhaust first, when really they're just hurting performance until their engine can make proper use of it all. No offence, this isn't directed at you. My car came with an eGay ram intake and a HUGE exhaust. The only reason I haven't changed it is because I'll need the exhaust very soon and the intake will be replaced anyway for the turblow.

EDIT: The pre-vtec torque curves of both engines are very close to each other to begin with as well.

 

Damn. I love how you know what your talking about as it is becoming rare in here...but , what, then, do you suggest for restricting some flow for the exhaust? I am running glasspacks in place of both resonator and muffler...reason is that both were shot and my friend had them laying around. Thanks again.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by deadend9009 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Damn. I love how you know what your talking about as it is becoming rare in here...but , what, then, do you suggest for restricting some flow for the exhaust? I am running glasspacks in place of both resonator and muffler...reason is that both were shot and my friend had them laying around. Thanks again.</TD></TR></TABLE>
If you have a silencer for the exhaust put that in. A muffler helps A LOT with backpressure so it would be wise to get a new one (plus you won't be polluting so much). One option for the muffler would be a twin-loop. Basically it goes through the muffler, loops around, and goes through again. They still offer great performance but allow for a reasonable amount of backpressure. OBX makes one that's a direct copy of Mugen's. Obx make some shitty stuff, but apparently this is pretty good. There's a huge thread on it: https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1219989
Do you still have your cat in place? That helps too.

To be more specific with what I said earlier, the stock systems offer the best performance but from a driveability standpoint. The honda engineers also had to take into consideration cost, noise, pollution, and fuel economy. A more freeflowing engine is good, but its really easy to go overboard.