Alright, so I bought a used 97 Honda accord with 181kmiles. Was wondering if installing a cold air intake would be a good thing or bad thing? I live in Cali where it rarely rains. Plus i was wondering if installing a catback exhaust system would be worth it? So can you fellas help me out?
A bad thing. A ring and top end job to restore the power lost over 181K miles would be better.
Being in California you have to make sure any changes to intake, engine, or exhaust are CARB certified for your specific make, model, and year of car or you will not be able to register it. The exhaust system, if you find an approved version, might be worth it (although that is a lot of expense to justify). The intake - not so much. You have to get over the $1000 level to get a better intake than the stock one.
It would be a bad thing. Factory piece is infinitely better than aftermarket, and already cold air. The fact that they lie to sell you something should give you a hint as to actual performance. Catback is equally pointless. The further from the motor you get, the less difference it makes. Without changing the airflow of the engine (heads, cam, headers) changing exhaust OR intake ducting will make zero gains, and can actually make things worse due to poor exhaust flow which destroys any scavenging affect the factory had designed into the system. There is a reason most of the riced out import cars have black soot on the bumper, which wouldn't exist on a properly running vehicle. Change the motor, that's how you gain more power. Anything that doesn't require disassembling the motor to some extent, re-tuning the PCM, and/or adding headers isn't doing anything for performance. No way around that.
