The Hire

When I was looking for a long term project car I was looking at ten year old luxury sedans. Acura, Lexus, BMW and Infiniti.

I eventually went with the 1.6 EL because of the exceptional reliability and inexpensive up-keep compared to the competition. I also have a bit of a soft spot for honda.

I've been working on this car for about 5 years now.

Anyway I hope some of you find this contribution to the build threads interesting.

Comments, questions, ideas, opinions even if negative are welcome. Everyone has different tastes.

I will continue to update this thread as time goes on, cause this build will continue for as long as I'm kicking. In around ten years I plan on doing a full frame-off restoration and rebuild the k20r engine from scratch.




Stock with Quantum 28 window tint:











Then I did a de-badge, painted side skirts, Ractive muffler, custom cat back piping, a 10" kenwood sub, JL's best tweeters and kept factory deck and speakers. Just your basic fan-boy car at this point.

















Then I added a front upper tie bar, voltage stabilizer, ground kit, rear upper tie bar, picked up the full rear leather seats for 40$ on clubel.ca, blew my kenwood sub so I got a JL:












Found a used 12 piece silver dash trim kit for the 1.6 EL which is extremely rare, in fact it's the only silver kit I've ever seen. I even had to buy it used. The wood grain kits are somewhat common however. I also painted the speaker grills, no bigge:













Not bad for just a 300rms 10"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k3Kq_7PTaA


Then I added type-r replica lip and a custom grill, SRI, NGK blue wires:









Then came the rims Motegi Track Lites that are under ten pounds each, took out a loan for these puppies, lol:







Also added momo e-brake handle and front leather seats from a Premium EL:







Carbon fiber trunk and hood next, got them both used to save some loot cause they need to be custom made for the EL:








Then I slammed it on Koni yellows with GC sleeves and Eibach springs 350lbs front and 400lbs rear:









Eventually I raised it back up a bit because it was too low, I also added LCA's, rear lower tie bar and painted the EL oem sway bar:







Blacked out the turn signals:





Ball joints were starting to go, so naturally:









ITR front brake upgrade, GSR rear disc upgrade, carbing lower tie bar, hard race and energy bushings:




























Had to get rid of some of that honda cancer, so they cut out the metal, welded in new metal and re-painted the lower left bit of the rear wheel wells






Picked up some decals at Import Alliance in Nashville:






Blacked out headlights:











Engine swap came next. It's a luxury sedan so I retained AC and PS. The AC was a pain in the ***, cost an extra 2 grand, and added a few months to the swap. The hybrid racing AC kit is $500 alone... Plus there was a lot of trial and error with fitment. Had to change the steering rack, which then had to be sent out to be rebuilt, so its all new and reliable. Had to use a different sub frame and front lca's as well. It worked out though, cause now the engine is mounted a bit further back and a bit higher than most swaps.




























Ordered 5 Red Racers, still need a 3 pod for the a-pillar and a 2 pod for the steering column. Just the one is hooked up now, to get it running need to know the fuel pressure:






Some finnishing touches just came in:

r_Senik

i want an el so bad that i almost ran off the highway when i saw my first (stock) one in atlanta couple months back.

BEE1

Nice build. Don't see too many EL's around..

The Hire

Well come up to Canada and buy one. Dime a dozen here.

I don't know what the import laws are like in the states though. They are pretty mellow here. You can see jdm skylines cruising around on a regular basis here.

The guys at www.clubel.ca are very helpful, may even give you a hand vetting an EL that's for sale up here. There's usually a couple for sale on that site to.



Thanks.

Wish I could have a super clean bay with ITB's but mines a DD.

Ziprock

very nice

i own a 98 el myself. from nova scotia. nice to see another canadian el owner on ht

erikwithak86

Started out pretty ricey imo, but it looks like you're heading in the right direction. for the K20 swap. Have you taken the Acura badging off the dash board yet?

The Hire

Lol no doubt. Was new to the hobby, money was tight, and the mechanics of the vehicle were in good condition. When I bought the car rice was a term I was naive to. Getting involved with car clubs and meets educated me and I was able to get my bearings.

No expense has been spared regarding the swap thus far, DSS axles, defi gauges, and so on. Though a few things need to be upgraded this year. Still have oem cat and ractive muffler. Will start researching exhaust soon. I also want to get k-pro, baffled oil pan, manifold, bigger injectors, etc.

I haven't removed the Acura badge from the dash yet... It's a bit gaudy, but I like it. Some other people like it to, though your certainly not the first to express distaste about it either. Could make for a good poll thread.

Aaron0526

Like it all except the wheels, abit to ricey for me

OGv2siik

very nice man!

The Hire

I understand that you may not like the look of the wheels. They're not for everyone indeed.

But they are forged and under ten pounds each.

How's that ricey? You've peaked my curiosity.

I thought rice was main criteria was being unfunctional?

Someone please educate me.

The Hire

Actually I think your right... With the guages going in and the shift boot/type-r ****. It's time to get rid of that acura badge, there will be plenty of other nice focal points now. It will look more grown up and cleaner without it.

Thanks!




Also if anyone has anysuggestions for my cat, piping and muffler that would be great. I have a DC header so the rest of the exhaust should be in the same ball park. I'm not planning on boost cause it's a DD and I road trip around the states a lot to Nashville for IA and such. Maybee even driving to socal for the winter this year. So im thinking 2 3/4" piping if no boost?

Aaron0526

Just because something is nonfunctional, doesnt mean its ricey. Something thats functional can be ricey. I think they look ricey, thats just how i feel motegi's look in general, just cheap.

The Hire

Gotcha.

Thanks for the reply.

In the long run I was thinking of using the tegi's as my winter rims, doing carbon fender flares and throwing on some bronzish coulored , wider Volks. Its an idea that looks good in my head, lol, I'll photochop it before I do it though.

erikwithak86

I think most people just see Motegi's in general as ricey because they're kinda cheap wheels. Functional or not, every ricer on the block has a set of 17x7 MR7s. I think because most people see this they are turned off by the brand. Those track lites are good though, hella functional. I bought some wheels that weren't expensive but they only weigh 15 pounds each (17"). Most of the people on here would call your wheels rice if you're not rolling on volks, enkeis or some other high end wheel. Even Rota's are played out for the most part now, when a couple years ago, they were the hot ****.

As far as the Acura badge, yeah it just looks tacky to me. I'm big on clean and simple, especially interiors. It will definitely clean up the dash, especially with all the other stuff you'll have going on in there.

The Hire

Awesome post Erik.

That makes a lot of sense regarding the rims.

^Sammy]!.

Nice job so far on the EL, I am myself building my EL which I picked up from Brampton about 2 years ago

The Hire

Congrats. That's sweet man.

Was it hard to import into the states?

Link to pics?

The Hire

Well the car just appraised for 13k and change. Which is not bad I guess, considering it's got 300000km's on the body. That's a bit less than half of what I put into mods though.

Got the safety done as well.

Insurance will be 8k a year... ****, lol. I hope my girlfriend likes kraft dinner.

So testing, tuning, and a professional photoshoot will be coming the next week or so.

ShadyEF

Total hotness

Str8EJ

!

The Hire

Tell me about it...

It's like $674 a month.

But at least it's all legit and my insurance company can't walk away from 3rd party liability because of undeclared mods in the event of a boo boo.

The Hire

Thanks to makeitshine.ca for the great full service detail!

Always dose an awesome job.

EM2abe

Wow... pretty nice. This is more than what I expected. I've never seen That motore swap done before on this EL. clean.

DA_RS

sick thread

ChaseIntegra

Man it has come a long way! Pretty respectable "honda-tech" build ha. People are quite the critics on this site. Looks really good though. The wheels, i don't hate em. The exhaust, I do hate that. Oh and where's your air filter? I like it though, good work.