This is my journey from my daily into a toy

[ghost02026]

I am working on a 98 civic lx 1.6 auto...I have already changed the exhaust to 2 1/4 stainless with an oval muffler cat back system, front pipe was a problem but had a buddy that owns a shop make me a front pipe with a flex to mate to the system from the cat. I am planning to get a 4 to 2 cast manifold (no cat..I live in massachusetts so no need for cat after 15yrs..sorry CA). The aim of this car is to be a little bit of a sleeper so a header was out for now.
I have a couple of questions
(1) where an engine is basically am air pump my exhaust is outdoing my intake. I want to keep an appearance of stalk by increasing the intake tube (painted black or find another plastic blk unit that I can sub in) to keep up.
(2)do I have to do any tuning to the chip at this point?
I know you guys are usually coming from another direction then I am right now, but, this is my slow and steady right now (with a little more speed and alot more thinking for right now) and at the end of the day...for now...it is what is rowing my boat (and getting me back in after years away from "sleepers" and the hobby).
(ps) I have a high energy coil on order..just putting that into the mix
thanks

 

[XpL0d3r]

(1) where an engine is basically am air pump my exhaust is outdoing my intake. I want to keep an appearance of stalk by increasing the intake tube (painted black or find another plastic blk unit that I can sub in) to keep up.

Not exactly sure what you're saying here. Intake's are pretty much pointless on these econocars.. color will not matter. You'll get a change in the tone of the engine but little to 0 performance increase.

(2)do I have to do any tuning to the chip at this point?

Nope. 98 is ODB2 so you can't modify it. For a tune you'd need an ODB1 ECU and to have it tuned by a reputable source. For the mods you have on this car it would be pointless to do so at this point and a waste of your money.

I know you guys are usually coming from another direction then I am right now, but, this is my slow and steady right now (with a little more speed and alot more thinking for right now) and at the end of the day...for now...it is what is rowing my boat (and getting me back in after years away from "sleepers" and the hobby).
(ps) I have a high energy coil on order..just putting that into the mix
thanks

High energy coil will be useless. If you want real performance gains on this car, you need to swap the motor or turbocharge it. But since it's automatic, I wouldn't recommend turbo unless doing an auto to manual conversion.

I would save your money on most of those mods you have lined up, as the very very little performance gains are not worth the money spent.

 

[Drakon543]

ya intakes are pointless on these cars ofcourse i stuck one on my car anyway lol but its just a shiny noisemaker. also agreeing with the turbo comment there are a few na builds out there but from what ive read its alot of money for not alot of gains. the auto comment is a definite as the auto trans is fairly weak when you start bumping up the power. ive heard about a company called lvl10 transmission or something that can make it a little more durable. but for the price you can easily scoop up a wrecked ex for like 400 bucks and have everything for the swap. im planning on a manual swap eventually myself but its also my dd for work so im more focused on doing other things atm.