Whats a better sound and performance upgrade for a Honda Accord 96, a flowmaster or a muffler?

I want to give my Honda Accord 96 a good sound and performance with either a Flowmaster or a muffler tip but I'm not sure which one to add to give it the best results possible.|||You'll need a new exhaust system, not just a muffler/resonator. To be honest, though, unless you're also going to replace that sewing machine Honda engine (what, 2 liter?) you'll still be blown away by stock Nissan Altimas and Dodge Neons.





I've never understood the rationale of the "tuner" car. You have a used vehicle with the original motor with a fair amount of miles on it. Then you want to tweak more horsepower out of it and continue to use the stock transaxle? Recipe for disaster. In addition, some of the more urban types here in Houston spend a lot of money on wheel and tire combos for a car with a Blue Book value of maybe $1200. I don't get it.





Then again, I was 18 and stupid once. I had a '69 Mercury Marquis. I replaced the two barrel carb with a Holley 4 barrel and Edelbrock manifold (it came with a 429 Ford V8). I replaced the barcalounger suspension with pieces from a Mercury Montego, slapped a set of headers on it and dualed out the exhaust. It was the fastest 4800 pound luxury sedan (leather seats and interior) in Texas. Between 1979 and 1980 I ragged that motor out, punched a hole in the oil pan while pulling a Smokey and the Bandit maneuver on the Katy Freeway, and damaged the front suspension beyond repair.





EDIT: Sport Compact Car? That's hysterical! Kid, you're not going to get 300 horses out of a 2 liter four banger. The SR20DE is rated at what, 120 horses? It just won't happen. By the way, my hobby car is an '82 280ZX. I haven't owned an American car since 1980.|||there will be no noticeable performance difference from either... the stock exhaust is to restrictive for just a muffler to help, also for these things to be much of a difference the engine needs to be modified in such a way that it could take advantage of an oversized high flow setup ie turbo. by just doing things like that and straight pipes your just gonna hurt your car|||Unless your honda engine has $10,000 stuck into it the stock exhaust is fine.


I never did care for the raspy sound of modified exhaust.


Do what you want, but gasoline is a better investment!


hope it helped!


Mark S.|||Don't listen to the anti-SCC (sport compact car) crowd. I've been a SCC fan since the early 80's - way before it was even in style.





Your muffler choice depends on your future header choice. My choice for street use is a conservative muffler (I hate that raspy sound too), a good mandrel bent slightly larger piping, larger resonator, higher flow cat., and a DC sports ceramic 4-2-1 header. This combination provides better hp and "street" torque (middle rpm).





The racing choice is a 4-1 header, very oversized piping and loud muffler. This produces more power, along with noise, but shifts the torque up higher in the rpm so it may make it feel a little dead at lower rpm.





plan on a cold air intake too. If your moving more air OUT of the engine, then more air IN is needed.





As for the transmission, these are only modest increases in power and the japanese drivetrain is extremely robust. My stock block SR20DE motor has been reliably boosted to 300hp with no mods to the transmission besides heavy duty clutch. Too many people have the "american" thought that their drivetrain is maxed out - the Japanese very often thoroughly overbuilt every part of the engine for maximum endurance and reliability.