Where to start?
 

Alright I have a 97 Ex, D16y8 engine. All I have are bolt ons, short ram, header (on its way), and my cat back that I am ordering this week. I don't want my car to be I/H/E only since honestly that sucks lol. As for build wise I don't want to go hardcore and pull my engine since I have to go to school and what not. Budget wise I don't have the money to blow a ton at a time, spending chunks over a time period is better since I have need money for college as well as my bills. Budget wise I am not looking to spend 1000s, I don't need a monster of a engine, just something with a little more kick. I don't want to turbo. I am thinking about doing a B16 swap next summer, but I don't know if I'll be able to do it from lack of experience and I don't really want to pay the cost to have it put in for me. Any help is appreciated, thanks.

Huh??? You don't want to pull your current motor, but you say you want to possibly swap it? Or are you saying you don't want to pull the motor now since school is in session? If you are planning on swapping to a B16, why waste money on a d series header? (the intake and cat-back will swap over just fine).

My advice to you is to figure out exactly what you want (meaning how much power do you want to end up with and how much money will you have??). With a d16, you can look into building the head/bottom end (building the head is easier IMO since you don't have to remove the entire motor). If you want to stick with the D, look into getting a camshaft, valve springs, retainers, valves, etc etc. However, if you start modding like that, you'll need some sort of tune to clear CEL's (I did for my 99 y8).

Once you get bored of I/H/E on a D series you have only a few options to get a decent amount of power:
- Build the internals, port/polish the head, and tune
- Forced Induction (Turbo, Supercharge, Nitrous), and then tune.

Since you are planning on doing something major to your car/motor next summer, you have plenty of time to read up and research.

either save your money for the b swap or you can just stay with your d16y8 and build it,
now you can go all motor or turbo, if ya wanna add some power to your d motor put a stage 2 cam, lightweight flywheel, lightweight underdrive pulley, maybe upgrade your injectors and get your ecu chipped and tuned.

Fix'd!

But really, 94chb is right. Boost, swap, or all-motor.

Ah been at work all night, to clear up the stuff cv, if I do the swap it'll be AT LEAST next summer, and if I were to start building my D I'd start that now. And I don't want to pull the motor while in school... I rely on my car too much. And I was looking into cams and valves and what not, to do v springs, retainers, a say Crower stage 2 camshaft, and valves, how much of a gain can I expect? I dont care what I get mpg but how much would the set up lower mine? I've looked in to pricing and it'd be like 320 for Crower v springs/retainers, 300 for camshaft, what valves would work with the springs? So basicaly I'm looking at around $1000 in parts, how much is a tune?

As for gains, don't expect anything huge. It'll probably be in the 15-20 hp range. For mileage, that is all based on well of a tune you have. When I was rockin' out with just the camshaft/skunk2 IM/springs/retainers, I was getting around 25 mpg.

I spent $175 on my camshaft (got a deal), $240 for my IM, $300 for the springs/retainers, $80 for the cometic head gasket (although you do not necessarily need it if you are not taking the head off). I don't think you need aftermarket valves if you're only running a stg 2 camshaft. I needed new valves since I was losing compression through one of my exhaust valves.

Tuning is where it can get extremely expensive. First off, you need something to actually tune the car. You have a few choices. Again, it depends on how much you want to spend. You can get a piggy back system (greddy emanage, apexi vafc for example) which basically connects to you stock ecu, a chipped p28 and get Hondata ($$), crome, ectune, or a standalone system such as AEM ($$$$$ and not worth it for your goals).

Once you get something to actually tune the car, you can try to tune it yourself, or you can take it to a tuner. If you attempt to tune it yourself, I would highly recommend a wideband o2 sensor and A/F gauge. That'll help you determine if you have appropriate A/F values. If you get a tuner to do it, expect to pay for about 2-4 hours of tuning. Around me, tuners usually charge around $150 an hour.

Remember, you would most likely only require tuning if you mod your d16. If you switch to a b16 and keep it stock (with the exception of bolts ons), you can run a p28, a p30 (if obd1), or a P2T (if obd2). Also, the springs/retainers/tuning are all basically supporting mods for the camshaft. The camshaft would be the only power adder out of the list of mods you mentioned above. Well, except for upgraded valves, but I doubt you would need them.

Now to boost the D16, how much internals would I need to upgrade to handle the turbo? And I have been looking into swapping the B16 and it doesn't seem that hard to put in an Ex... it is just wiring I'd have a problem with.

you can boost on stock internals

Wiring would be a lot easier than you think if you swapped in a B16a2 (obd2 version that came in the 99-00 SI). Most everything would plug right in since it is basically the same chassis. You would have to worry about an ecu, mounts (which you could get from a 99-00 SI), and axles. There are a bunch of little things that I can't name off the top of my head.

Regarding turbos, you need to do a lot of research regarding it. I have seen stock internals take up to 10lbs daily. My d16 sees 7-7.5 lbs daily from the JRSC. However, the amount of pounds really doesn't mean anything just by itself. You also need to take into consideration the size of the turbo. Smaller turbos spool faster, but technically "top out" regarding max. power quicker. Bigger turbos take longer to spool (turbo lag), but have greater potential.

Think about this, the amount of boost, whether is be 5 lbs/7lbs/9lbs etc etc, is determined by the pressure in the intake system. You MAP sensor would read boost. Stock map sensors are good up until 10 lbs. However, if you have 5 lbs of pressure in a little baby turbo, compare that to 5 lbs of air pressure in a big turbo. There's a lot more air, right? Yes. Thus, forcing much more air into your car, making you need more fuel, creating more power...yadda yadda yadda.

Before you think you want to go boost, get a compression test, and a leakdown test to determine how healthy your motor is.