I have a 94 civic ex coupe with a 1.6 litter engine and i was looking at upgrade chips. on e-bay, i saw this:
92-95 civic vtec PO7 ecu chip
and i really realized that i don't know what i should be looking for. Right now, besides custom piping and an exhaust, it's pretty much stock. Please help.

 

I'd say focus on other bolt-ons before you get into the heavy stuff. A new ECU won't do too much good on an otherwise stock engine. Check out an intake, header, maybe a free flow cat. I think you'll find them to be a bigger bang for your buck right now.

Just my $0.02.

 

i have an AEM CAI on the way and i'll look into the free flowing cat, but one question i have is will headers actually impove performance or do people put them in just to get rid of the rusty pan stock ones? Arn't all headers the same size?

 

Yup, it makes quite a difference, I'm told. Size of the header is only one aspect. A good tuned header will have much more efficient exhaust extraction than the stock manifold. many people say it's one of the best bolt-ons out there. Not that I have one yet myself.

EDIT: clarification.


[Modified by risingson77, 10:34 AM 5/31/2002]

 

All headers are not the same size. I used to have a Nissan Sentra and the exhaust manifold on that thing was so small that getting exhaust out of there was like trying to squeeze a watermelon through a hole the size of a lemon.

On the topic of Hondas though, I definitely noticed a difference when I put my DC header on. It ended up jacking up my crappy muffler because it was so free flowing.