Ok, I've been to a lot of Prelude forums. Unfortunately, they are just as full of worthless crap as spam. People looking to jump the gun to answer a question - albeit incorrectly - on these forums has frustrated me so much that I've almost given up looking for directions to take my car. Now I don't really thin I have a great starting point, because it's a 1991 Si 4WS. It's a great car, but there really isn't much aftermarket support like there is for a lot of other Hondas. So basically, would I be kidding myself by dumping money into my Prelude? If not, what would be worthwhile.

 

You could always do a swap, I heard of people doing h22s, and b16s to 3rd gens! So there is somewhat of potential. If you want something with much more of an aftermarket then seriously get an Integra or Civic, the aftermarket never ends you will be swimming in options.

 

or get a 4th gen lude... thats how i did it.. i had a 3rd gen and i couldnt find **** to do to it... so i sold it and bought a 4th gen...now i have too many options..lol

 

Then again B-Series is always larger then the H-Series

 

Bigger volume wise (not displacement)? Unfortunately its not compatible with b18s, because that would open a world of possibilities. I'd like the idea of the LudeSpeed turbo, but what kind of internals would I look at? Have customs forged? Modify the originals? I mean c'mon, whats a guy to do?

Of course I've thought about something that is built faster from the factory with a huge performance following. But I have a modest car and would really like to put some muscle under that hood. Who would see that coming.

 

I, too, have a Third Gen. Here's what I have (most is still available):

Ground Control Coil Overs
Koni Adjustable struts (special order)
GoodRidge brake lines
Cusco upper strut brace
DC header
K&N intake (did not relocate the battery)
Free flow cat (first one died after 178,000+ miles)
Stromung exhaust
Jet ECU upgrade
Volk TE37's (15x7's with Sumitomo HTR-Zs)

I _LOVE_ this car, and will not part with it.

 

Hell yea, 3rd gens! Do suspension work and worry about the motor last.. Suspension will make or break a car..

 

it depends on what you goal in life is. If i had to do it all over, i probably would've left my prelude stock and not spend so much $ on the car...but put it into other things.

There are a lot of cars that you can make quick for little $, and the prelude is not one of them. You have a 3g, so unless you are doing a swap of some kind, you will not see the power results that you most likely want. Preludes handle damn well for a fwd car, so my advice would be to put the $ into suspension and enjoy throwing your car into turns, whether it be at a soloII event or an open track.

 

Thanks for the serious responses guys, I really appreciate it.

While I'd love to have the raw power, I accept the fact I won't get it in the lude. Suspension has quietly been my #1 priority for a few reasons: mainly because I want to get into scca (sts?) but also because its already an incredibly well handing car so I have that to work off of. I guess what my ultimate goal is to have better low-end power and to hold the road like I'm on rails.

 

if you can swap in a b16, why can't you do a b18?

 

Swapping would be fine, but it wouldn't be a drop-in. I was talking about interchangabilities - like manifolds, cams, etc.

 

what about a turbo?

 

PM "chrisb" on the this board about the turbo. He's the founder of the former hondaprelude.com and he was running a Ludespeed turbo in his car. He's expressed his opinion that you can't get the B21a or B20a5 to refrain from blowing piston rings with a turbo. You can do an H22a swap, but kiss your AC and power steering goodbye, and plan on spending around $7,000 just to get the STOCK motor in your car if you spend about market value for the motor and pay to have someone install it. It's not an easy swap. You need damn near everything, and you have to wire for vtec and then manage vtec on top of all of that. The end result is about $10,000 and a lot of time for a car that still isn't really worth working on. Some people have been attempting to put B16 HEADS ONLY on B20a5 or B21 blocks, but don't expect this to be a bolt up and go project. I still haven't heard of one running.

Should you keep the thing? It all depends on what your goals are. I am officially my prelude's bitch, and I have been since I bought it 3 years ago. I know that there is little to no performance gain to be extracted from it, and it's "just an old car" that can't hang with most of what's on the road right now, but I still love it. It's got beautiful exterior and interior styling, it handle's great, and it's fast enough for me. This summer I dropped it 1.5" on Eibach pro-kit springs and Tokico blues, replaced all my rotors and pads with Brembo blanks and ceramic blended pads, and picked up a Thermal R&D catback. I can't wait til spring when I can get a Cusco strut bar, Goodridge braided brake lines, and maybe some Cam gears. It will never be really fast, but I'm happy with it, and there isn't that many out there anymore. I'll probably still get spanked by a 5th gen with 300 lbs of stereo ****, neon, and a body kit at shows, but at least my car is DIFFERENT.

 

Very well said

 

goal: "is to have better low-end power and to hold the road like I'm on rails."

I never would expect to hang with a majority of performance cars on the road/track. I just want to have some fun, and autocross is the place to do that. I never had any intention of drag racing, if that's what anyone was implying.

 

I am not arguing a point or anything, so please don't take it that way. But does anybody remember the member '90 si' from hp.com? He seems to be doing pretty well with his 3rd gen. If I ever get the chance to talk to him again, I will ask him to drop a few lines on here.

there was a thread on another board about this subject "turbos"...I don't know what the consequences are for naming another board , but it was at http://www.preludepower.com and it was under the 3rd Gen Forum.


[Modified by irdprelude, 2:42 AM 10/18/2002]

 

Hey, did you happen to have the url for the thread, cause I'm not seeing any kind of search feature over there.

 

the search button is really hard to notice...but in the top right corner you will see the word 'search'. click on it. http://www.preludepower.com/cgi-bin/ib3/ikonboard.cgi

Well, go to the 3rd gen forum, go to page 3 and it is "turbo purchase info". The thread is 3 pages long.


[Modified by irdprelude, 3:08 AM 10/18/2002]

 

Don't be a wise ***.

That site is so poorly put together I didn't notice that links would be located in such an unintuitive place.

Edit: I got:



[Modified by ThreeGFourWS, 6:46 AM 10/18/2002]

 

What?

 

If your main purpose is autocross then it will be worth the effort. Chrisb used his quite a bit for autocross and was sucessful with it. He may even have a custom set of shocks and springs left from that if they haven't been sold yet, ask him about them. I'm not so sure you'll pick up much more low end power, and you have a "strike against you" because of the B21a. I burn a quart every 400 miles of highway driving with mine. It's still running fine, but either the valve seals or piston rings are shot. This is the typical problem for the B21a. If it starts happening for you to I would recomend swapping for a JDM B20a. They are about .05 less displacement and they put out nearly the same hp and torque figures. They are also not plagued by the engine problems. This is what I'll be doing in a year or so.