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I purchased a 2000 Acura Integra GS-R this summer, and after lurking on here for a few months I thought Id post up my build. After owning a Honda S2000 for 9 years I decided to sell it this year. It was a fun build and an amazing car. It seems that I get most fun from working on project car builds. I wanted to build a track car that could be run at local tracks around my area, as much as I loved my S2000 I never wanted to run it as a track car. I think the Integra build will be a great weekend car and track car, so it has potential.
I owned an Integra LS in 94 , but I always wanted a GS-R or Type-R. Much to my surprise there were not any Integra Type R's for sale in Canada when I was looking for a new project car. Even decent GS-R's were hard to find, even more rare than S2000's . I found a Vogue Silver GS-R this summer, 2000 model year, with 190k kilometres on it. It was basically a one owner vehicle for 18 years, mechanically sound for the most part, it just needed some TLC and a good going over. The motor felt like it was almost brand new, very smooth , strong running, and eerily quiet. Having owned dozens of Hondas this engine was almost sewing machine quiet, no ticking sounds whatsoever. It had a bit of surface rust, thankfully it didn't turn out to be perforation rust anywhere. The interior leather was in great condition, all of the interior options and systems worked properly. The interior carpeting was in superb condition. The antenna no longer works but I have no desire to listen to the AM radio, the FM reception is still fine, and I can listen to other sources of music if needed.
I gave the mechanicals the once over front to rear. Coolant, brake fluid, power steering fluid, oil, tranny fluid, and clutch fluid were all dumped and replaced. Stainless brake lines added on all four corners. New rear wheel bearings installed as the old ones were getting noisy.. New NGK ignition wires, pcv, and spark plugs installed, ignition timing set (using my old school timing light after many years lol). New intake air filter and fuel filter installed. All interior light bulbs replaced, and all exterior light bulbs replaced. I tore apart the interior and removed some surface rust on the interior side of the outer panels and gave all areas a good rustproofing from the inside out. The factory sunroof frame was badly rusted for some reason, so I had it replaced. The factory suspension seemed a bit floaty, so I replaced the rear lower control arms with Skunk2 units. New KYB AGX adjustable shocks on all four corners, H&R OE sport springs installed with the new shocks. Integra Type R front upper strut bar installed. Generic rear upper strut bar installed. 24mm ASR rear sway bar and subframe brace installed. Custom trunk brace added. JDM front corner lenses installed, headlights polished, and amber high-beam bulbs installed with LED low bream bulbs. Integra Type R centre console armrest installed, with Type R OEM leather shift ****. Blox short shifter installed. Mugen Twin loop muffler installed (my favourite exhaust of all time). Hood damper supports added, and rear hatch dampers replaced. Fender and hood gaskets replaced. The rear passenger side bumper tab was in need of repair, I'm just getting through repairing that this week, once done the rear bumper will be properly installed.
I just had the car repainted in BMW Moonstone Silver paint, and surface rust addressed. The side rocker sill covers were colour-matched to the body. A new replica Type R front lower lip painted and installed. With winter now in our region I've moved to some performance upgrades to tinker with during the winter season. A 1320 Toda replica header installed with test pipe. Type-R rear brake upgrade - remanufactured calipers with new larger rotors.. Front brakes are being upgraded to Wilwood 6-piston Big Brake kit. While I loved the oem Blade wheels I needed 16 inch rims to fit the Wilwood brakes, so new wheels and rubber are being installed. I put on a new Civic Type R valvecover this week. I was able to get two oil leaks solved, one on the head cam plug, and one on the oil pan.
I expect the full build to be complete within the couple weeks. I've been able to get my son interested in this build, with some good bonding time spent on this car. He never took interest in the S2000 build but for some reason he loves this one. I've taught him to drive stick on this car, which has been great. He is the only one out of all his friends who knows how to drive stick (figures these days). We hope to take this car to the track this summer, it won't see snow or rain when it gets back on the road, and will be garage kept. I know the GS-R intake manifold gets a bad rap from some Honda fans, but I really like the power delivery of this motor, it's a good balance between low end torque and high end power, so I plan to keep the manifold as is. I've modified the stock intake to suck cold air from the front wheel well region rather than the underhood region. With handling and braking much improved, along with a slight power increase, this should be a fun track car. Pictures of the car and parts are below. I don't have any interior shots yet. Once the snow clears in spring I'll be able to do a better photo shoot, just crappy phone camera pics so far. Thanks for reading - Joey
Last edited by zeroptzero; 11-26-2018 at 07:07 PM.
Nice find! I just installed the same header on my boosted GSR this header is by far the best fitting header I have owned and I have had allot of design manifolds but this 1320 piece is very nice! especially for the price, no dyno yet but I can say it hasthe best ground clearance!
Nice find! I just installed the same header on my boosted GSR this header is by far the best fitting header I have owned and I have had allot of design manifolds but this 1320 piece is very nice! especially for the price, no dyno yet but I can say it hasthe best ground clearance!
Thanks. I went with the 1320 header after a Type R owner installed it on his car and noted that he and his buddy had good dyno proven gains from the header, I couldn't resist the price, it does fit well , and saved a decent amount of weight. With this header and the test pipe that came with it the engine revs like crazy and has definitely gained power. Before this I could never feel vtec kick in at 4400 rpms, now it hits hard and sounds totally different, there are definitely gains to be had, and it revs very fast. I have enjoyed it. I'd be very surprised if the gains were less than 10 whp, I think that is what it feels like to my butt dyno. I've installed dozens of headers on a handful of Hondas over the years including Mugen headers, and this one has been one of the stronger felt gains of the bunch.
I was finally able to get the rear bumper installed after painting and rolled the car out for some quick pics. It was a crappy dark day with cel phone pics only. The build is complete though, hope to have it on the track in 2019. It is 100% mechanically sound, suspension and brakes well capable to handle anything I can throw at it.
clean car dude ! keep up the good work. Deserve to not see the canadian winter again
Thanks kindly. From this point on the car won't see any winter, and if I can help it no rain either, it is garage kept and will be used in 3 seasons only. I rolled it out for some pics only. I dread the thought of it rusting. and we get a lot of salt in our parts.. Unfortunately I have to endure the winters for many years to come, lol.
Last edited by zeroptzero; 12-17-2018 at 05:20 AM.
Love the build!! The rotors look really nice I am looking for some myself for my daughters build.. looking forward to more updates. Cheers!!
Thanks for the compliments. I have been following your build as well and it seems like we have quite a bit in common lol.
I always wanted to do a brake upgrade , this combination seemed perfect and still somewhat affordable. I want to do some lapping at the track in 2019 so this should be a good upgrade. After my double din stereo upgrade this month I hope to be done with the build, I will need to upgrade some of the suspension bushings but that will likely be left for next year as they still seem to be in acceptable condition.
looks really good.. is it a touchscreen? really cool
yes touchscreen, it is very cool and really bumps up the interior modernization. Even with the crappy factory speakers the sound is so much better. built in amp makes it much louder and still very clear sound. It plays CD's , DVD's, has Bluetooth phone, USB , Bluetooth sound, etc. It is a Pioneer AVH 211 EX and I got it from Crutchfield. It has an option for rear camera which I like but I don' have it connected to any camera right now. 13 band equalizer setting, a handful of colour and screen options. See the link below on the product
I got the wiring issue tracked down, turned out to be the plug and play harness that came from Crutchfield, whoever assembled the harness (in Mexico) failed to strip a wire so it wasn't making with the clip. What a pain tracking this down, I was sure it was my wiring connections but it turned out to be the harness. The only way I found it was to use continuity testing, not bad work for a white collar bloke such as myself. Now back to reassembling the interior.
Today I received two GS-R badges, these are authentic Honda badges from the previous generation Integras. I always felt that the GS-R badge was missing on our generation of Integras so I'm adding two badges on the front side fenders - driver and passenger sides.
I also picked up an Apexi radiator cap, higher pressure, and looks nice with a gold colour. For some reason the factory cap always sat at a slight angle and looked odd, this one sits straight. Should work well. Pics to be posted shortly.
Sweet pics man love it. glad you were able to find the problematic wire. and i love those rims I have a pair like it I was going to use on my civic, but going to sell them to fund my daughters build. Parents sacrifice. Also, love the badges I forgot the DA's had those GSR badges. nice add keep up the awesome work.
Thanks. It is hard to state how much of an improvement something as small as this makes to the interior of an 18 year old car. It gives a dramatic boost to the look, functionality and modernization of the interior for a couple hundred bucks. The change in sound is something I never expected, very dramatic, and I haven't touched the factory speakers. It can actually get too loud if I wanted to crank it that high, something the stock head unit never could achieve, It looks good, feels good, and sounds good, very happy with the mod. It comes with a remote control, and Bluetooth phone microphone.
Last edited by zeroptzero; 04-18-2019 at 04:32 AM.
11-25-2018, 06:05 PM
Canadian GS-R Build
