Don't use one of these so-called cold air intakes. They basically take warm air from inside the engine compartment and let you think it's cold air. In order for it to be an actual cold air intake the intake duct has to come from outside the car. Most of these so-called cold air intakes don't do that.

I would also advise against any sort of 'tuner' chip, unless you're going to go to the effort to have someone custom tune the chip to your car to make it run right. Most of these so-called tuner chips you find online are scams.

I have seen Tales of turbocharged CRVs, so I know they exist. Even found one for sale when I was looking for my car. It's a very expensive upgrade though if you want the car to work well. Expensive as in possibly more than the cost of the car, but a lot of fun if you do it.

something I would say cannot be underestimated in its effect are shocks and tires. Put good tires on it, and you'll get good fuel economy and a good handling. Put good shocks on it, and all road contact becomes better: comfort, handling, everything.

If you're after marital, but easy gains, you can make sure the exhaust system is the federal version. The California exhaust manifold restricts exhaust flow unnecessarily, and provides no benefit.

Other recommendations include staying on top of your regular maintenance. Oil changes, spark plugs, air filter, fuel filter, distributor cap and rotor, all regular maintenance will improve fuel economy and power if done, and take away from fuel economy and power if neglected.

 

This is such good info, thank you! I am a huge stickler for maintenance and I have replaced the shocks as well as gotten the best tires I could find. I guess I've probably about maxed out what I can do, but it's good to know not to waste my money on nonsense!

 

There were a lot of B-series performance parts out there but with a CR-V this old, I wouldn't bother since performance parts for the CR-V were scarce to begin with, and the B-series is an outdated engine so parts availability won't be available in the future as they were in the past. There was a modification where you could use a cylinder head from a VTEC B-series engine (from an Integra GSR, I believe?) and make some other changes, but it would probably cost more than the CR-V is worth. (A JDM engine from a GSR is thousands of dollars.) Jackson Racing used to make superchargers for Honda engines, and there were probably some turbo kits also. At this point, you'd probably have to do a lot of custom fabrication to put a system together. I know for someone who routinely builds engine, a hopped-up B-series would be a fun build but for an ordinary shmuck like me, it would be an expensive exercise in frustration.

Those aftermarket intakes are pretty much a waste of money--your stock intake will work the same as any of them, along with sucking the cooler air from inside the fender vs. the hot engine bay. The K&Ns that are popular don't have filters as good as the stock Honda air filter, so they let larger dust particles get into the engine.

Chip modifications and tunes aren't worth the money on a stock engine. It's when you have the engine modified that they make more sense, as a tuning shop can get the most out of your custom build. (And that's avoiding the "scam" chips that @Lochinvar mentioned earlier.)

At least you are ahead of the game in terms of having the later B20Z engine vs. the B20B4 in the '97 and '98 CR-Vs, which is a very weak engine. I always felt the CR-V, heavy as it is, should have come with a V6 engine from the day it was introduced to the US...the 4-cylinders are woefully underpowered, even in newer generations, trying to push around 3,200+ pounds. In fact, right in your neck of the woods, my '09 has struggled on some of Utah's unpaved roads (I'm thinking Shaffer Canyon and BLM146/Potash Rd., where the extra power would have been useful).

 

There were a lot of B-series performance parts out there but with a CR-V this old, I wouldn't bother since performance parts for the CR-V were scarce to begin with, and the B-series is an outdated engine so parts availability won't be available in the future as they were in the past. There was a modification where you could use a cylinder head from a VTEC B-series engine (from an Integra GSR, I believe?) and make some other changes, but it would probably cost more than the CR-V is worth. (A JDM engine from a GSR is thousands of dollars.) Jackson Racing used to make superchargers for Honda engines, and there were probably some turbo kits also. At this point, you'd probably have to do a lot of custom fabrication to put a system together. I know for someone who routinely builds engine, a hopped-up B-series would be a fun build but for an ordinary shmuck like me, it would be an expensive exercise in frustration.

Those aftermarket intakes are pretty much a waste of money--your stock intake will work the same as any of them, along with sucking the cooler air from inside the fender vs. the hot engine bay. The K&Ns that are popular don't have filters as good as the stock Honda air filter, so they let larger dust particles get into the engine.

Chip modifications and tunes aren't worth the money on a stock engine. It's when you have the engine modified that they make more sense, as a tuning shop can get the most out of your custom build. (And that's avoiding the "scam" chips that @Lochinvar mentioned earlier.)

At least you are ahead of the game in terms of having the later B20Z engine vs. the B20B4 in the '97 and '98 CR-Vs, which is a very weak engine. I always felt the CR-V, heavy as it is, should have come with a V6 engine from the day it was introduced to the US...the 4-cylinders are woefully underpowered, even in newer generations, trying to push around 3,200+ pounds. In fact, right in your neck of the woods, my '09 has struggled on some of Utah's unpaved roads (I'm thinking Shaffer Canyon and BLM146/Potash Rd., where the extra power would have been useful).

I've been in some of those areas in Utah and YES it can be very underpowered sometimes. I have had a better experience disengaging the overdrive on canyon roads, but I still wish there was a way to add at least a little more horsepower. Either way, thank you for the response!

 

The car is what it is, and it will never be particularly fast or have good handling, its just not in its DNA. Best you can do is get it running at 100% of its original stock capacity and enjoy it for what it is within its limits.

If you are power hungry then stay away from larger tires because big heavy tires rob a lot of your perceived performance, and also avoid any lift kits if you care about cornering and handling. These things have enough stock ground clearance that you will run into other limitations of the car far before you run out of ground clearance if you get into any serious off road situations.

Out in California you could probably find a grease monkey shop or three with some young bone-heads who are knowledgeable in custom turbocharging and they could cobble one on there for you for a few grand, that would help your straight-line hole shot and highway passing power but you'd be trading off the car's famous reliability and commit to increased maintenance (they will tell you its not so, but it is).

Just don't be one of those guys who sits around and talks with his buddies every time he sees them for years on end about how "some day I'm gunna turbo that thing and then its gonna rip!". If money is truly not an issue then either do it (pay a reputable shop) or toss the idea in the garbage and speak of it no more. Same with "engine swaps". You aren't going to swap any stinking engines on this thing, and you especially have no business tormenting your buddies with talk of it if you would ultimately be paying a shop to do it anyways and not doing it yourself.

As others said, performance air filters and other bolt-ons are just a waste of time and money. I see it all the time people putting a fancy new K&N on their new used car instead of giving it fresh spark plugs and wires and simple stuff that it actually needs, then I blow the doors off them with some bone-stock clunker of mine with more weight and less power and they want to know what I did to it to make it so fast... dude I just have it running at 100% like it was when it rolled off the showroom floor.

You are far better off taking that couple hundred bucks for an intake and spending it on some kind of fun experience or adventure. However, I do make one exception: Audio upgrades are totally worth it (in my opinion) because my car is my jukebox and I like to jam out in it.

Keep it mechanically stock @ 100% health with good tires and shocks, go wild with your lights and audio if its fun for you and enjoy it. Pretty rare score to find one of those with only 80k miles

 

Pretty rare score to find one of those with only 80k miles

Indeed! I need to get rid of my '97 ASAP (so no, I'm not keeping it much longer), but I have nearly 290,000 miles on mine.

It's also a bonus that @2001/CR-V/in/Utah lives in Utah where they don't have road salt. My '97 is pretty much impossible to work on now, since so many parts have rusted. Out there, maybe the paint will suffer over time, but the rust cancer will not set in and destroy it like they do up here.

I will say that this CR-V will do well within the limits it was designed for, but there isn't as much room for performance gains as you'd get with a Civic or Accord. If I really wanted more off-road capability in my own case, I'd probably just go with a Pilot and a mild lift kit to gain an extra inch or two of ground clearance.

 

I think I'd go for the 4runner myself if I could swing it (which, I cannot), fj is a little too "quirky" for me in the same way that the Jeep Renegade was too funky and I breathed a huge sigh of relief when the released the same thing as the Renegade in a "normal" body (aka, the 2nd gen Jeep Compass which uses the same drivetrain). The new Compass came out just in time and I got one of the very first ones but I had almost cracked and bough a Renegade/toaster jeep for an affordable softroader. Dodged that styling bullet 😂 🙈

 

I can actually find FJs here in our area, between 150k-200k miles around the $10k range, so they're not too badly priced. Yet most have quite a few owners. I think it really could only be enjoyed by someone who had a use for it more than a few weeks out of the year. The 4Runner is actually a very outdated platform, but it does the job. I guess we can't argue with success.