Hey all,

I'm glad I found this forum, it looks like it's going to help me a lot. My wife just bought me a new Civic EX Coupe. Where should I start for performance mods? I can't get too crazy right now, but eventualy will step it up.

Any advice appreciated.

Ralph

 

intake and exhaust is a great start

welcome and where are the pics

 

first off you have a great wife... a new car, thats awesome.

definately intake/exhaust like green said. That is the basis for all your mods. What type of setup are you looking to do? Are you more of a traffic light to traffic light kinda guy, or do you want it to rip through corners? you need to figure out that first then make a wishlist with what it will take and slowly start hacking away at it.

After that we can talk suspension, header, pulleys... anything you want.

 

sorry, a little off topic. Hey Green do you see that thing under our post count to the left that says score. Thats what I was talking about. What is that? Its only on some posts, not all??

 

yea i ony saw it that one day and it was gone and now its back. ill see what i can figure out.

mongose i wish my wife would buy me a new car
. ur a lucky man

 

Intake/Exhaust then suspension.

 

Thanks for the reply guys. I have not heard anybody mention electronics. Any suggestion on some keywords to research for intake or exhause? Everything I have found does not mention the '04. By intake I assume you mean a cold air intake? I am new at this. I have done upgrades to motorcycles, but not cars.

 

there are 3 main types of upgreades... drop in filter, short ram, and cold air.

The drop in just replaces your stock paper filter with a hi flow filter of less restrictive material, giving you the least HP gain of the 3. Next up is the Short ram... its a hi flow cone filter that replaces the whole air box, letting yor engine breath a lot better. Definately a huge step up from the drop in filter. you will get better response (mostly at the lower RPMs). Then there is the Cold Air Intake(CAI) which relocates the filter outside of your engine bay giving you colder air instead of the hot air under the hood. This gives you the most total HP of the 3 but is more noticable in the higher RPMs (because of the longer tubing). Plus it has downsides like posssibly hydrolocking your engine, more expensive, and less low-end power. It all depends on what setup you want.

If you are more specific then we can help u out a little more...

 

I live in upstate NY. It's twistys all the way for me! I want cornering performance and probably low to midrange torque and HP. It sounds like your description of the short ram is a place to start. Also, since it's new, how is any mods I make going to affect the warranty? I have notice that in the low RPMs it's kind of a dog! It doesn't even begin to pick up any torque at all untill mid 3k on the tach. God I hate stock engines! I almost doubled the HP and torque in my motorcycle with bolt on performace mods!

 

I have the 2002 EX coupe which is pretty much the same like the 2004. I love driving aggressively on a twisties too. As for the short ram, you should slightly feel the gain from mid to top but the power gain isn't as consistent like if you get the cold air intake. The Honda VTEC engine is really meant for high RPM which is why the car feel so slow on the low RPM. Getting an aftermarket header & exhaust system would be a great idea also. The stock suspension of the Civic is already pretty good in my opinion on the twisties. I just hate our stock tires. Go for a Neuspeed & Koni suspension set up, perfect for twisties. I'm sure you'll love the way your car handles after that.