I am swapping an H23A Bluetop into a 00' SH shell, and I'm looking for ways to build a little power without doing to much internally... I've heard gutting the butterflies and cutting the runners is an easy way to build power .. Has anyone have any experience with this? Any help appreciated#!

 

There are a few thread floating around on gutting the H series manifolds, and the H23 benefits well from it, in my opinion, along with a larger throttle body.

Combine that with a well flowing exhaust manifold/ header, and some decent cams, and you can end up with a pretty stout setup without getting too far into the engine.

 

https://blacktraxstore.3dcartstores.com/BlackTrax-H-Series-Intake-Manifold-Spacers_p_28.html

Check out blacktrax site. With port and polish IM you could see minor gains (increasing plenum volume).

What ecu you're planning to use? You don't get gains without custom tune/map. Also your exhaust setup needs to be upgraded

 

Replacing the butterflies with a gutted spacer and gutting the upper plenum would be the first step and will provide some high RPM power on it's own. Gutting/porting/smoothing the lower runners will show more gains but it's a PITA to do. To get the maximum benefit you need to remove ALL the material between the runners in the lower plenum and do a lot of port work. Look up "220racing" and you will see some examples of their stage 1/2/3 ported manifolds to get an idea of what you can do.

You will lose some low end torque with the ported intake manifold but it's not that noticeable on an H23A since it has loads of torque anyway. You have a P13 head H23A so you might not see horsepower gains as big as some people that have a PDE head model but I would still expect some with the ported manifold.

Also as TimiK said, upgraded exhaust will help a lot. H22/23 really like a nice 3" setup with a good size collector on the header.

 

i have a chipped and socketed p28 with the obd2 to obd1jumper... Its a true bluetop... Not sure what gearbox but going t2t4lsd in the future

 

Its a pde head if im not mistaken

 

You would have to look at the stamping on the front of the head. It will be near one of the exhaust ports. That's a P13 intake manifold as it has PGMFI stamped on the upper plenum. The intake manifolds for the 00-01 PDE head models were blank and had the IACV on the back of the upper plenum. It's possible someone swapped the upper plenum if you didn't get the engine directly from an importer though.

 

As of now its a bone stock Bluetop with a chipped/socketed p28 ecu, DC header (looks like the stock manifold) and a short ram air intake. Charleston SC is too wet for cold air set up .. The gear box thats on it was what came with the motor from Japan, im assuming from an SI-R Accord... The plan is the basics until ive got a motor to play with. Intake exhaust fuel air... More of everything!!!🤣

 

short ram intake is more like downgrade compared to stock intake - its only sucking warm air from enginebay

dc header = stock header