Here's what to do:
1. PUT YOUR CAR ON A DIET! Dump the stereo equipment, spare tire, and what ever else you can get out of the car. Civics don't have much power, so you need to be light to go fast.
2. Get rid of the 17's. They explained why above. Find some light weight wheels for the front and use those. I'm not sure if it would work, but you could try some really good racing tires on your stock steel wheels (I'm not sure how much they weigh, can anybody help me here?). Use a slightly smaller diameter tire, that will get more power to the ground.
3. Get rid of the power steering. Take off the pump, and splice the high pressure intake and outlet together and then connect both sides of the rack together. That will free up about 5 HP and shed about another 15 lbs off the car. If you don't want to take off the pump, just take the belt off during racing to at least free up that 5 HP.
4. Stick with the CAI. The short rams don't make as much HP, and they make HP later than the CAI. Here's a comparison for the LX. Sorry, but they didn't have a comparison for the EX.
AEM CAI link:
http://www.aempower.com/pdf/results/...X,CX%20CAS.pdf
AEM short ram link:
http://www.aempower.com/pdf/results/...cDXLXCXSRS.pdf
Notice that the CAI made more HP at peak, had a higher gain, and started making more HP earlier.
5. Run 93 octane and advance your timing. This is good for some low end torque.
6. To go fast cheap, GET NITROUS. Nitrous is big HP very quik and very cheap (relatively speaking).
Hope this helps.
Quik