Technical Write-Ups

If you ever wondered what the performance gains (most notably, horsepower gains) of I/H/E (Intake, Headers, Exhaust) were, wonder no more.

Over at Import Tuner (click the source link for the article), they’ve taken a 1994 Honda Del Sol S with no engine modifications (in fact, I believe the only modification was the rims), and take some numbers before and after doing some modifications.

The article is extremely informative, even stating the ambient air temp.

Test Information

Owner: Import Tuner
Dynamometer Model: XS Engineering Dynojet 248
Air temp @ 68 Degrees Fahrenheit
1994 Honda Del Sol S (D15b7 engine)

Baseline (Peak) Horsepower: 92.4
Baseline (Peak) Torque: 94.2 lb-ft

It’s been argued for years. What are the gains, and how considerable are they, of using a test pipe or high flow cat on your car?

Thanks to Import Tuner (hit up the source link to find the article), we now have raw data and numbers to test the results and differences of the multiple configurations.

The article shows a test between these four:

1. Stock Cat
2. Magnaflow Ceramic Core High Flow Catalytic Converter
3. Magnaflow Metallic Core High Flow Catalytic Converter
4. Test Pipe

Basically, they put a slightly modified Civic (it had Intake, Headers, and a Cat-Back exhaust) on the dyno and get “147hp and 105 lb-ft to the front wheels.”

I wrote the following write-up when I was 17. It was originally posted on solsociety.com (click source link for original post).

I did this write up by accident. I meant it as a reply to a poster’s question and went WAY too into detail, so I figured I would give it it’s own topic and call it a write up. It’s just a compilation of the knowledge that I have obtained over my countless hours of research and my slight amount of experience.

WARNING!: Some things in this write up are opinions, and are intended that way. Please don’t feel offended by these opinions.

I’m a novice, but my god have I done my research. I had the car a full year before I could drive it, so all I did was research and learn about it. If you want, you can listen to me, but everyone likes something a little different. I am just sharing a little of my knowledge in hopes that you’ll get something out of it. Anyway, you might be looking into what I am doing, if you want a little more power and a ride that will be a lot more fun.

Update: To see actual dyno test yielded performance gains, check out our related article.