Performance Suggestions, Please Help

[1988HondaLXIAccord]

Hey Guys I Am New To The Honda Family, This Is My First Front Wheel Drive Car, I Have Had V8s And Other Things, But Since i Got My 1988 Accord Lxi, The Only Thing I Can Say Is That I Am In Love. Anyways I Want To Make My Accord To Be Able To Eat My V8 Friends. So Do You Guys Have Any Suggestions On Performance Parts, Parts That Fit From Another Car To Make Mine Run Stronger. Any Suggestions From Suspension, Motor, Tranny, To Wiring Is Welcome. So Can You Guys Help A Fellow Accord Lover Out. By The Way I Already Have A DC Header, A CAI, And A Ported And Polished Head, And My Car Is A 1988 Honda Accord LXI, 5 Speed, And I Live In Ohio So No Smog Laws I Am Lucky About That. So Please Can You Guys Help Me Out Thanks.

[gfrg88]

Hey Guys I Am New To The Honda Family, This Is My First Front Wheel Drive Car, I Have Had V8s And Other Things, But Since i Got My 1988 Accord Lxi, The Only Thing I Can Say Is That I Am In Love. Anyways I Want To Make My Accord To Be Able To Eat My V8 Friends. So Do You Guys Have Any Suggestions On Performance Parts, Parts That Fit From Another Car To Make Mine Run Stronger. Any Suggestions From Suspension, Motor, Tranny, To Wiring Is Welcome. So Can You Guys Help A Fellow Accord Lover Out. By The Way I Already Have A DC Header, A CAI, And A Ported And Polished Head, And My Car Is A 1988 Honda Accord LXI, 5 Speed, And I Live In Ohio So No Smog Laws I Am Lucky About That. So Please Can You Guys Help Me Out Thanks.

check out Dick Head Racing's mounts... Swap a B and you'll be quick!!! and the possibilities are endless once you're swapped!!!

[bobafett]

If you are ambitious a Turbo A20 is always glorious! Or of course the B-swap once those mount pan out that will open up another avenue.

[bank2me]

If you are ambitious a Turbo A20 is always glorious!

[cubert]

are you looking to run with the v8's in a straight line or through the twisties?


If its straight line, then like gfrg and boba said the b swap would be the way to go. if its on the back roads then a good suspension setup will be more beneficial.

[markmdz89hatch]

are you looking to run with the v8's in a straight line or through the twisties?


If its straight line, then like gfrg and boba said the b swap would be the way to go. if its on the back roads then a good suspension setup will be more beneficial.

Took the words right out of my mouth.

First, welcome to the board. Please hang out.

Second, Just as cubert eluded to.. ...chances are your buddies with the V8's are running rustangs and camaros. Both decent cars because you can get a pretty good amount of power for dirt cheap.

So, how can you smoke your buddies? ...don't go straight. I've always said a Mustang is like a bear. ...it can run straight damn fast, but can't turn worth a shit. Not bashing mustangs at all, just calling a spade a spade.

The one thing that our cars can claim fame to is how nimble they are. Our suspension setup from the factory is far superior to so many of the cars of their day, and the same or similar setups are still used in new cars today. My suggestion is to focus on the suspension now because you have already pulled all the 'quick' power options with intake, header, and p&p head. If you don't have a 2.25" exhaust on it yet, do that, but otherwise start saving your pennies and put them to good use on a good suspension setup.

Without too much work or money you'll outpace your buddies the minute they have to turn their wheel. As for straight lining, unless you spray (and I can guarantee burnt rings in your near future that way) or boost (pretty expensive) you can forget about taking them.

[1988HondaLXIAccord]

Thanks For The Suggestions, I Would Like To Do A B20 But I Like My A20A3 For Some Reason So I Would Like To Stay With It. My Exhaust Is Already Done markmdz89hatch But Thanks Anyway. It Is The DC Header And 2.25 Inch To The Flex Pipe And After That It Is 3 Inch To A Cherry Bomb And Then 3 inch To The Ass. I Have Pics And Video On My Hondaspace Of What My Accord Sounds Like Feel Free To Look, The Pics Are About A Year Old And Now I Have A True CAI And The Valve Cover Is Neon Green, http://www.hondaspace.com/ozzysc0443,
But Anyways, With The Motor Swap Out, Do You Guys Know Were I Can Get Like, Pistons, Cam, Cam Gear, TBs, Strut Bars, I Have Found A Thread On Modifying A B16 Intake To Fit An A20A3 Head, Injectors, Etc And Where I Can Get Them

[markmdz89hatch]

k, first, please turn off that title case, it's buggin with my eyes.

Anyway, good to hear you got the exhaust done. My only suggestion though would be to drop down to a 2.25" and sell that 3" to someone with a turbo. Bigger is not always better. With an N/A (naturally aspirated) setup, you need backpressure in order to keep your torque curve strong. With a 3", you have none, so you'll suffer in the higher rpm's.

On to the rest....

Cam's can be had from Colt, Delta, etc, etc, etc, etc. Really in the cam department, we have MANY options. That's about where it stops.

Golden Eagle does have the program to make the cam gears, but will only do so in a group buy. That said, we have had two group buys to date, and you can find some members in the Trading Post selling them for a good price.

Pistons: No company lists them as an application they readily stock, however any good piston mfg (Wiseco, etc) will make a set for you to your specs if you send them one.

T/B's: Keep searching around, you'll see that some suggest the use of a 4G Accord t/b, and I know of one person at least that has used a Mustang t/b.

Strut bars: DC is the only company that actually made any of quantity (and quality for that matter) and you'll see one of those pop up in the trading post once in a blue moon, but they go for a pretty penny.

Injectors: Take a look in to Mechanical>FuelInjection or Performance sub and search around. Honestly, unless you do something seriously nuts, the stock injectors will work just fine for you.

B16 Intake: These are found on vtec civics (Si's). The B18 (damn near identical) is in all the teg's (90-01).

Are you against spending money on brakes/suspension before you crack open the motor?

I'm a big fan of the A20 too, and would prefer to stay with that over a swap, but that's just me too.

[cubert]

Bisimoto for the cam...It is a very new item, but the guy is amazing with the SOHC Honda motors, so I would recommend him hands down.


Im sure others will chime in for everything else...because truthfully..im not positive what the hot setup is nowadays


**EDIT** Mark is alot quicker than me

[1988HondaLXIAccord]

Sorry about that, my bad. I have noticed that at high rpms, it feels like i am loosing power and down sizing the size of the exhaust would help? Cause see when I bought the car it already had the 3 inch piping on her. And I am not against spending on brakes and suspension, all I need to finish my brakes is the steal braided lines to hold the pressure better, well i would like to do a rotor conversion on the rear but were can i get that at. I have the slotted and cross drilled rotors for the front and i would love to get a strut bar for the front and upper and lower ones for the rear but like markmdz89hatch said you only find those once in a blue moon and they are a pretty penny, and I don't trust my fabricating skills that much to make one. And where can i find coil overs too. I mean before i got this accord and forgive me for what i am about to say cause i take it all back now that i own one, I use to say fuck hondas, I did not even know what VTEC or JDM was, and before you ask i do know what VTEC stands for (Variable Valve Timing and Electronic Lift Control) and JDM stand for (Japanese Domestic Motor) so i am still new to the tuner scene. I do appreciate the help from you guys. Like I said any suggestion from name brand products to home made performance is welcome I wont talk shit about an idea cause i bet i have tried some stupid ones, once or twice before.
(Here is a recent pic of my engine bay)

[bobafett]

You've got all the basics covered already. I can promise you that a Delta 272 cam will make the car a lot more fun to drive, and shouldn't kill your fuel economy (if you care about that sort of thing). Beyond that, a B16 intake manifold (such as AEBS) and if you are nuts, aftermarket throttle body from AnR or BBK etc.

Actually this is a pretty solid price here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/BLOX-...3A1|240%3A1318

I have a stock B16 fuel rail and fuel pressure regulator I can sell you for cheap - otherwise you can pick up some inexpensive fuel rail like golden eagle, and get an aftermarket regulator, or OEM regulator used for cheap.

But you really only need these fuel upgrades if you are planning something serious.

Call the Delta cam guys, they can get you a cam for around $100 and you will have it in under a week. I have purchased 2 from them and will be purchasing a third in the near future. Great people...

[markmdz89hatch]

very cool. yes, dropping to a 2.25 from that 3 will get you so much better higher rpm power and I can promise you you'll feel like you're driving a different car on the highway. Kudos on that DC header, that's a damn expensive header, and not easy to find at all.

For the brakes, yes, SS will be a nice upgrade, but unless you're really pushing the snot out of the car, and braking very hard, you won't notice a difference. It is however, a much safer alternative to worn out old rubber lines which I'm guessing you (and damn near everyone else) have. Good inexpensive preventative maintenance.

Also great to know you've got good brakes up front. For the rear, there are two people in the Trading Post selling rear SE-i setups, which are rear disc, and a direct bolt-on for our cars. The 3G came in 4 different trims (DX, LX, LX-i, and SE-i). Without going into too much detail, for 88-89... the DX and LX have a smaller front rotor and caliper, and drum brakes, the LX-i has larger rotors and calipers, and also drum brakes. The SE-i, which was only available in 89, and only in Coupe or Sedan, had rear disc, along with a handful of other options. Do a search on rear disc swap, and you'll see a full parts list for them. In fact, check out the sticky'd thread at the top of the forums and I'm pretty sure there's a how-to on it.

No worries about the Honda comments at all. We're not all high on Hondas. Hell, I grew up with older muscle cars, huge detroit iron, british tin-can's, my beloved 300Z, and everything in between, on top of my half-dozen 3G's. Most of us are all equal opportunity car nuts, but we all found something damn infectious about these stupid 3G's. Great cars and an addictive community of supporters for the car.

As for suspension, coil-overs are fun because you can play with the ride height as you wish, but if you don't care much about the ride height so much, and just want it to handle a hell-of-a-lot better, go find yourself a set of Koni's and slap them on. I promise you'll have way more fun with it. Beyond that, there are a number of c/o manufacturers out there, Ground Control being one of the better sleeve-type sets out there, but you'll fall short on finding shocks that will work well with them. Check out the suspension section for all the arguments on that topic.

I have a few things in the works, so if you're not afraid of throwing a fair amount of money at a good setup, just hold off a few weeks and I can promise some new info will hit this board and open more doors for us. I'll leave it at that on that topic.

Listen to what a bunch of the guys here are saying about the fuel injected stuff, as I don't have a clue about the 3G in that department. Mine is, and will remain, carb'd.

That's one very lime green valve cover you got there. I'm very jealous about the DC.

Word of advice though, the absolute first thing I would do at this point is check all of the ball-joints and control arm bushings. Those do go, and replacing worn outs one will not only be much safer, but will tighten things up a bit too. Bookmark www.hondaautomotiveparts.com This will be one of your best friends while you have your car, as it is all of ours.