I was able to get my hands on a used Apexi WS2 on ebay very cheaply, so I'm looking at other things I could add to it.
I think a F23 IM and a nice header would be very good.
I done tons of research and read tons of articles, but the problem is all of them are at least 5 years old lol.
I found F23 onto F23 manifold convo, but I have a couple questions. Will I need to have the head ported or anything like that? Is there anything else I'll need besides the conversion plate, TB spacer and the IM itself?

As far as the header goes, I came to conclusion that DC sports gets the most praise at it's price range. I also found that the Megan header isn't too bad either.
However, that was 5 years ago lol. Today there are tons of header and such on ebay.
There are DNA and Spec-D brands.
I'm trying to keep this on a budget, so I was thinking the Megan header would be a nice upgrade. However on Megan websites it says it's only good for EX, will it fit my SE?
Also if I get a header and WS2, will it bottle neck at my cat or will it be alright?
My budget is that of college student.
Thanks

 

F23 manifold:
No porting required. It's a great opportunity to upgrade to a larger throttle body and port match the upper intake TB opening. The 62mm OEM Honda TB's are cheap an readily available. Don't buy the IACV adapter, it's too thin and you'll have one of the coolant lines rubbing on the TPS. You can cut down that barb to gain a half inch or so of clearance, but it still rests on the TPS. Best bet is an IACV relocation kit, they're not much more from Rosko Racing. Unless there's another IACV that can be used with the spacer, that's just about the only issue. You'll need some spare vacuum lines and coolant hoses, as well as some high-temp silicone or whatever you want to use to fill the Injector air bypass holes on the flange. I used silicone as I had it available in my toolbox. No issues in over 2 years and 35K miles with it. You can relocate the IAT sensor to where it's at on end of the drivers side of the F23's plenum, you'll need to extend the wires for the IAT about 12" to reach. I just went to the junkyard and grabbed the IAT plug end and cut the wire about 20" back from there off a 6th gen Accord. That's about all that's necessary. Ensure to get the head to manifold surface clean and clear of any gasket material. Replace whatever gaskets and o-rings need replacing. I should have part numbers listed in my build thread linked in my signature.

I run a longer primary tube eBay header. It's worth it. The longer primaries and shorter secondaries let it make better midrange torque and it still pulls the same up top. Also see my build thread. I made an o2 extension harness to move the primary o2 sensor from off the primaries to where the EX has it, just after the final collector for the secondaries. Didn't notice any difference, but it seemed to throw a lean code every now and again with it on the primaries.


Personally, when my car was still F22B2, I did the intake manifold and header in the same day. I did the F23 intake manifold and drove it around a little bit, which didn't seem like it did too much. The header was a NOTICABLE gain everywhere, especially above 5K. Both gains were negligible, really, and you really won't notice big gains, EVER, with the F22B2. The head just doesn't flow well enough, and the cam is too weak.

More recently, since I've swapped to an F23A1, and done some other supporting mods, I know of the biggest restriction to the F-series: the stock catalytic converter and exhaust. The inlet on the cat is MAYBE 1.75" and the outlet is more like 1.25". The stock exhaust is again, MAYBE 1.75". I deleted the cat and made my own 2.25" exhaust. I'm still un-tuned, but it help drop nearly a full second off my quarter mile time. My previous best was 15.8@86mph, removing the cat, doing the 2.25" exhaust, adding a 62mm OEM Honda TB from an H23A VTEC, matching the plenum opening, and adding a velocity stack and air filter. I went 15.06@90-91MPH multiple times, very repeatable. EVERYTHING else stayed the same on the car. No real improvement to 60ft times from previously, which were still in the 2.1-2.2 second range on a summer street tire. When it was fairly stock(05-06 RSX-S muffler, OEM Prelude intake box and tube), it ran 16.2@83mph, pulling about 2.2-2.3 second 60ft's, on the same suspension/wheels/tires it has now.

Again, see my build thread for details.

I know your pain on the budget. Aside from the $500 or so invested into the swap, I'm an utter cheap *** and have picked most of what's on my car from the junkyard or bought used from friends. I MAY have another $400 in bolt on power parts on my car. I built the exhaust from $11 worth of steel I pulled off various aftermarket exhausts in the junkyard; also snagged a magnaflow muffler off one of those cars for $20. My intake tube cost $6 from the same place. Velocity stack and TB were $50 from a friend. Air filter was $45 brand new from Summit. Intake manifold was $50, but I'm not counting it anymore since I got one with my swap and using it as a spare. Cat delete and header were $60 used. I probably have more money into various couplers, gaskets, and o-rings from Vibrant and OEM Honda that cost more.

 

Which kit did you use? They all say they are for the H motor and the Euro-R.

 

Wow, thanks for the type up! A lot of great info.
I got my hands on used WS2 for $275 shipped, and in the process of getting brand new megan header for $80.
My only problem now is that the megan header has 2 bolt pattern for cat and my cat is 3 bolt. Also my cat is 1.75 inches so I'm going to have to upgrade to a 2.25inch cat.
I will most likely will have to go to an exaust shop, because I need to have a flex pipe somewhere in there too.

Thanks for the info about the F23. I'm going to do that after I'm done with the exaust. I'm going to try to get my hands on a prelude intake, larger TB, and the thermal gasket. However I do second the question about the IACV relocator, it says for h23-23 engines only.
Also how will all this impact my gas economy? As far as I understand the exhaust might better it, but a bigger IM is gonn make it worse since it's larger?
Thanks

 

A more detailed explanation of my problem.
The megan collected is 2', however the flex pipe looks smaller. Not only that but the bracket is 3 bolts. I also want to have an ability to swap out the headers, since megan isn't Carb.

What would be the best and cheapest option for me? ( besides getting a DC header, it's in my plans but I want something done now)
Thanks

 

I used the Rosko Racing IACV 3 wire to 2 wire adapter. On the F-series, it's just about 1/4" to 1/2" to small for the IACV barbs/hoses to clear completely. A TB spacer would alleviate the issue.

I got about 28mpg combined with the F22B2. I get about 30 combined with the F23A1 in it's current state. On the freeway, both get about 34-36 depending on how fast I'm going(70-75 is usually my cruising speed) straight freeway. 400 miles to the tank is normal for me in the summer. Winter mileage drops to about 25 combined. The F23A1 seems to like 93 oct better(could be my imagination, it doesn't run a knock sensor so it really can't adjust for it), the F22B2 didn't give a crap what I threw in it. I shift at about 3000-3500 regular driving, and beat on it daily. This is all un-tuned on the F22B1 ECU, and with a 4.266FD from a wagon, as well. The swap was really pretty easy, almost everything bolts right up to it from the F22B2. I bought my swap complete with 100k on it for $500 with a TON of extras, and re-cooped about $200 from selling the auto transmission that came with it. Did all the regular 100K maintenance, replaced a bunch of misc gaskets and seals, left off the balance shaft belt, and it's been great for 20K or so since I swapped it. Love the extra power, especially the torque under 4000rpm.

That's kind of odd, mine was only two bolts off the header, and three into the stock cat. It's probably because yours is a CA emissions car, mine's spent it's whole life in OH/MI. Your best option is to probably whack the wrong flange off and have the right one welded on.

 

That appears to be the Special Edition exhaust system.
It has a pre-catalyst > flex pipe > main catalyst. Mid pipe is shorter and unique as well.*top pic*
Megan header was made for the ROTM 94-97 Accords, if you want to maintain a stock look you will need to change out your exhaust system to a regular DX/LX system.*bottom pic*

IIRC these cars also use a wide band O2S. They were the ULEV of the 5th generation Accords.

 

Yeah I saw those pictures, but I didn't know how to plug them in here, (aka lazy).
I think I will keep the flex pipe and oem converter.
Looking at the specs the flex pipe is 2" Inlet, which matches my header. However I have hard time finding out the Inlet and outlet of cat converter, id image it would be the same?
If the flex and cat are the same, I would just have a shop weld a new bracket on my header.
Thanks

 

The PCM is a different beast from the other cars as well. With the removal of the pre-cat you may set a code for P0420. IMO modifying this car will be harder and not net you the results you expect/desire.

 

How does the PCM in this car differs from other cars? Is it tuned to be more gas efficient?

I'm gonna install my WS2 after I clean up some rust on it, and probably stop there. Id rather not waste money to have a check engine.
Wold code P0420 put it into limp mode?
Id imagine an F23 IM would be even a bigger pain in the ***.

 

No limp mode with P0420. My car throws it every now and again since I don't have a cat on the car.

 

Got my WS2 installed, it didn't not fit my SE at all, the pipe was too long, so had to cut it.
The pipe was long enough to replace the cat.

However now I'm gonna work on getting my megan header, hopefully it will make the ws2 a little louder as well.

Now another problem that I have is that the engine is loud as ****. My engine totally overshadows any exhaust tone that I might have.

 

Yes, the exhaust on the special edition cars is completely different from the DX/LX/EX cars.
If you are going to install a header and exhaust on your car you would need to remove the entire exhaust, the two pieces you would need then to complete it would be the small pipe #7 in the second pic, and the standard catalyst #3 in the second pic from a DX/LX to fit the pipes as factory.

IMO trying to modify one of these bastard cars for engine performance is not worth it.

 

I have both the catalyst and #7 pipe if you need them.