Hello all..

I got my '91 Accord back from the shop last week, with a 1996 JDM H22a1 w/ 5spd LSD, Prothane bushings, Frozen Rotors, Neuspeed brake lines, Eibach pro-kit, Koni Yellows, front/rear strut brace and rear Progress sway bar and a bunch of boring other random fixes, and I must say that I'm not really that pleased.

My car is just quick. It's not fast at all... A friggin' Ford Focus wagon was trying to pass me on the highway and I didn't have a lot more than it did until 5000 rpm... Even then, I wasn't pulling away from it with any urgency...

I've spent close to $25k CDN on this car, including the cost of the car itself... when I think of what else I could have bought with that money, I feel like taking a sledge hammer to the front windshield of my little money pit. I've been telling myself that all I need now is a turbo kit.. new paint... an engine rebuild with new sleeves and a 96mm crank... but how much would all that set me back? I'd have put $40k CDN into the beast only to get 300 or 350bhp.. That’s a lot, but a mid nineties Supra, NSX, 300zx, RX-7, or M3, would cost about the same... power right out of the box with no messing around. In the end, I still have an Accord.

I'm not really disheartened; I still like my car.. it suits me, it's decent on gas now, it handles fairly well and it IS quick... it's also fairly unique in my neck of the woods... but it sure ain't fast.

 

all i can say is sorry you spent your money without planning.

 

what did you expect? a 190hp motor in a ~2,900-3,000 car isn't going to be the fastest thing on the road. you should be just as fast or faster than ludes and gsrs. if you want a fast honda you need a civic to drop that motor in. i agree before vtec is does feel a little laggin, but that's why you buy a apexi vafc and lower the crossover to 4,800 which should help.

 

:ugh: h22a1 is jdm now? i thought a1 was usdm :naughty:

 

if you ever do decide to go through with your plan of smashing the windshield etc., you can always give your car to me it would be much appreciated

 

Hmm... well I guess you caught me... h22a1 is a USDM spec... I used that code number erroneously. My mistake. I should have just said h22a. That's what it says on the engine, after all.

I don't expect any of you to be sympathetic.. I realize that the 4th gen Accord isn't the ideal platform for this engine... if I had it in a Civic, it'd be much faster... all I'm really trying to get at is that I've spent a lot of money expecting more than I have right now, but when all is said and done, it's still a decent car, just less than I thought it might be. <shrug>

 

dont be dissapointed dude, you dont have a fast car but you do have a fast accord.. id rather buy a slow car and fix it to be fast than buy a car thats fast out of the box.. you get more respect that way

 

Well you could get yourself a nice new exhaust. Get an aftermarket header, wrap it in header wrap, do a full madrel bent exhaust 2.5", High flow cat, one or two resonators (depending how quiet you want it to be), and a new muffler.

You're looking at about $700 US there.

Get yoursef an Intake, Adjustable cam gear, and colder plugs, You're looking at another $200.

Lastly a Nitrous kit. Depending what you buy there between $400-$600.

You'll be plenty fast then. The H22 is a well built strong engine and is great at holding Nitrous stock. You can spary a 75 shot without worry.

All those prices are for new products you can probably save money by buying some used, some aftermarket brands that aren't as popular as the large tuners would also be a less expensive alternative.

You've already got a sweet car with some nice mods and your definately faster then stock and since you have a H22 there is much more head room to play with.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

yeah exactly what everybody else said.....

That's a STOCK motor you dropped in there.... that is way over-hyped as the end all, be all upgrade...especially in stock form....

The H22 is just a better platform to begin with is all.... you will get more power per upgrade compared to the SOHC F22...follow some of the suggestions of other members' upgrade ideas and you will pick up speed....everyone knows that a speed mod is good for maybe a month or 2 MAX if that even...before you feel slow again and want more speed.

but I have to ask....did you really think the motor swap alone would be enough? I see you quoting $$$ figures saying you didn't get what you wanted out of it.... that's THE WRONG ATTITUDE in this game my friend....it's not about that in the Honda tuning world...it's about taking a 17 second car and dropping full seconds off of that time... all because of the work you did , parts combos that you put together and paid for and made work as a cohesive unit....maybe surprising a few non-believers in faster cars or god forbid, yourself even...

BLOOD, SWEAT, TEARS AND MONEY my friend.... if you measure it by how much you spent and what you got out of it you will never ever be happy...

 

BustedLX - those are good suggestions... I have most of that stuff already, but neglected to mention it.. I have an AEM short air intake, the battery had to be moved to the trunk, I have a 2.5" pipe, no Cat (I live in Alberta.. lol. No pollution test.), a resonator and a high flow universal muffler with tips that I picked out.. they look pretty close to the stock EX-R muffler tips..
Don't have headers yet.. ran out of money. Thanks for the good luck... I was thinking of nitrous, but if I'm going to do something for power, I might as well rebuild for turbo and go that way..

ZigenBallz - I realize that I dropped a stock motor in, and only added simple bolt on shit for a slight increase in hp. It's not that I'm unaccustomed to lengthy projects that require more resources than expected - I've done some home renovations.
I was initially just expressing that my overly high expectations were not met, because I had hyped myself up over the last six months of this project. The engine isn't bad, or the car really, just that I expected so much. Even since I've started this thread and gotten... friendly reminders... I've chilled out quite a bit. It is a good car...

I can't ignore the respect I've gotten from people who expect me to be in a shitty old 125hp Accord when I go WOT and my car starts pulling past them.. That's a good feeling by itself... The look on their faces.. :fawk:

When it comes to me quoting $$$... Money is tight with me right now.. 75% of my full time paycheque is going towards this car... I'm paying for clothes, food, rent, school, etc with that tiny 25%.. It is a choice I'm making because I want a hot car, so I'm not really complaining, but I am perhaps over-concious about how much something costs. When the speed shop says that struts will cost X dollars, I compare how many weeks of food they're worth before I buy them.

Anyway, thanks for the reminders and the support, guys. :driving: