Lude Generation

Howdy folks, I can't believe my luck in finding this place. I have a 97 4ws vti that I'm finally looking to put back on the road after about a year sat on my driveway. It was a one owner, low mileage car with a fsh when I bought it.
I've just rented a spot in a garage near my house so I finally have somewhere I can work on it in comfort.
For starters, I've ordered a service kit for it.
I also found a complete intake manifold from a type R Accord and I've an AEM induction kit and a new ECU winging their way to me right now.

If anyone has any hints or tips for me I would be very grateful to hear them. From what I'm told, switching to OBD1 will cause me to lose my 4ws, is this true? I'll be sad to see it go but if I get a nice increase in power I can live with it.
I know the 4ws computer can be disabled and it's not recommended to drive with the alignment tool in place.
Should I install sub frames from a 2.0? Can the springs be trusted to keep the rear wheels straight?!

Will the mods I've picked give me much of a boost from the stock 185hp?

I should probably start a build thread if these questions are in the wrong place, sorry mods!
I'm really looking forward to getting involved with all you like minded Prelude heads!

You won't lose 4ws going obd1 as 4th gens are obd1 and 4ws. 4we uses its own separate ecu.

And welcome along.

Well that is great news, thank you very much.
And thank you for the welcome.

What ECU are you getting bud?

If you install the atr manifold it will need to be modified slightly to fit, but not much

If you install that ok, you'll loose power until you get it remapped. Once a remap is done I'd say you could get up to 200 bhp maybe a little more but you'd benefit from getting better cams from an atr/h22a8 or type s fitted as well

Welcome.

Always great to hear from new members.

If you do want to go 2ws then yes, you must swap the rear subframe, it is the only safe way. However... No need to go 2ws

Not sure I would start with the IM... Won't see too much of a gain with just the IM on otherwise stock engine/exhaust.
Cams and exhaust first would be a better gain with a tune?
(or all 3 at once with a tune, obviously!)

As for disabling the 4WS and keeping the 4WS in place. I'm not an expert in the 4WS system but I have one that isn't working on my 5th gen prelude and I can tell you at least in my situation on the edge a non-working 4WS acts freaky and a little bit scary sometimes. I really don't push the car that much at all because of this.

YMMV obviously!

Drax wrote:What ECU are you getting bud?

If you install the atr manifold it will need to be modified slightly to fit, but not much

If you install that ok, you'll loose power until you get it remapped. Once a remap is done I'd say you could get up to 200 bhp maybe a little more but you'd benefit from getting better cams from an atr/h22a8 or type s fitted as well

I've bought a reconditioned & chipped P28 ECU from an American store on eBay. It's a bit of a crapshoot, I know, but his rating is high and he's sold hundreds of them. All the capacitors have been replaced. I had to send him my engine code and what mods I am planning install.
My plan is to get to a rolling road to get a full custom map when I get everything installed.
When my intake arrives I'm gonna start a build thread and hopefully I can get some help with what needs doing.
Will the Accord unit take much modifying to fit to my Prelude's engine please? The injectors and fuel rail are included in my kit.

wurlycorner wrote:Welcome.

Always great to hear from new members.

If you do want to go 2ws then yes, you must swap the rear subframe, it is the only safe way. However... No need to go 2ws

Not sure I would start with the IM... Won't see too much of a gain with just the IM on otherwise stock engine/exhaust.
Cams and exhaust first would be a better gain with a tune?
(or all 3 at once with a tune, obviously!)

Thank you very much for the welcome.
I definitely want to keep my 4ws, I wouldn't ditch it by choice, that's for sure.
From what I've heard the stock factory intake on my my car is very restrictive compared to the one I've bought. I've been told that it will actually make huge difference across the whole rev range.

AeroNotix wrote:As for disabling the 4WS and keeping the 4WS in place. I'm not an expert in the 4WS system but I have one that isn't working on my 5th gen prelude and I can tell you at least in my situation on the edge a non-working 4WS acts freaky and a little bit scary sometimes. I really don't push the car that much at all because of this.

YMMV obviously!

I had a JDM Celica GTR about 15 years ago that had a dodgy 4ws system in it too. There's no way in hell I want to do through that again!

Welcome along and hope all your mods go well. I know I'm a heretic but I had a wonky 4WS sytem on my 4th gen and after much faffing about trying to fix it, unsuccessfully, I sadly got rid of it. Much to the genuine dismay of a lot of the guys here. I wish it could have stayed because, when it worked, it was lovely. But I became a bit worried it was going to freak out on me one day and drive me off the road.
Anyway, you sound like the kind of bloke who's not scared of a bit of spannering so I hope you'll keep it on. Best of luck with your refurbs.