ok i've got 2 questions, and i'm sure they're pretty dumb, but i dont' know. 1) what's the difference between coil-overs and lowering springs?? 2) i have a 1997 civic Dx. is my car fuel injected or carbureted??

 

your car is fuel injected.
lowering springs are coil springs like the ones you have on your car, except they are shorter, and stiffer to prevent bottoming out with their shortened height.

coilovers are a shorter, stiffer spring usually of fixed diameter that sits on a perch on a threaded sleeve that goes over your shock body. you can move the perch up and down the threaded sleeve to adjust where the spring sits and by so doing, adjust the ride height.

there are many quality examples of each, depending on what you plan on using the car for, your budget, how much you can put up with etc.

 

Unless you want to pay $700+ for coilovers, stick with springs.

 

GC sleeves can be had for less than $300. Normally, unless you are buying soft lowering springs i/e Tein, you would want to upgrade shocks as well, so you should factor in the cost of that.

For most applications, lowering springs will provide a good performance increase over stock. Unless you are autoXing or another form of racing, springs should be more than adequate.
It is, however, not usually possible to have a slammed car on normal springs, hence the large market for coilovers.

 

thanks for clarity on the fuel injection!! as for $700 coilover kits, i've seen them for prices around $250 and such. would those not be quality or are they lying!?!?!?!?

 

there are actually 2 types of 'coilovers'. there are coilover sleeves, which you provide the shock and then put the threaded sleeve around the outside, and then there are full coilovers, which instead of having a sleeve, the shock body itself is threaded.
the full coilovers are usually in that price range new, but can get obscenely expensive, and the coilover sleeves can be had again for less than 300 for a high quality kit. but then again you have to provide the shocks, so in reality its not quite so cheap unless you already have a good set of shocks

 

i see, so what's a good brand but not too expensive, or is there such a thing...

 

for springs, sleeves or full coilovers?

 

springs, and full coilovers, depending on my budget i'll get one of the 2.

 

how low are you looking at going?
for a mellow drop, 1-1.5" or so, I would lean Eibach Pro-Kit. above that I would go with H&R Sports for a 1.5-2", and H&R race for a 2-2.25"

If you look over in the suspension forum there are a good number of threads discussing various coilover setups. Probably the most widely used and sworn-by setup is Ground Control coilover sleeves over Koni Yellow shocks. The range of adjustment on the shocks is more than that of pretty much any full coilover, both the shocks and GC sleeves/springs have a lifetime warranty, custom spring rates are available on the GC depending on how stiff or soft you want. Here is a list of some other kits available, IIRC there is some discussion of pro's/con's