When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I recently picked up a 2001 Acura Integra Type R in Nighthawk Black Pearl, #01-0431, with nearly 94K miles on it, but with everything in great shape for a 24 year old car. Some or all of the previous owners appeared to take great care of the paint, interior, and maintenance, although at some point, I think earlier in its life, it got a factory replacement engine or block. It's a mystery why, could have been a money shift, factory defect, or some modification that pushed the engine too far. The current engine is at least from 2017 and probably way earlier. The current engine runs great, that last 1K of RPMS before redline is strong, and much stronger than I recall a GSR being, as it should with the extra 25HP near redline.
Official Badge:
How she looked when I got her:
Why did I get this car? To relive the 90's and I was missing that vtec induction sound you just don't get in modern enthusiast cars. Also fun to drive a manual again although dual-clutch-transmissions can be fun too. Back in 1997 I picked up a 97 GSR, in the same color as my Type R!
Living in CA you really can't make many changes to the car without going to see the state ref, which I had to do in the 90's, so back then I had a mildly modified almost OEM+ setup, which I'm planning to also do with this Type R.
I make these changes purely for my enjoyment, it might not suite everyone's tastes but what does, ice-cream? I'm not a purist or a collector and this is a driver's car. It might be hard to tell this is even a Type R from the outside since a lot of integra's have the type r wing and front lip these days, with a lot of 5-lug conversions, and I have removed all the Type R stickers(who hates me?). I want it to mostly fly under the radar where only enthusiasts know what it is with a deeper look, though you can tell quickly if you look at the interior which I'll leave alone, minus replacing every incandescent bulb with LED, except for the amber dash lighting.
To start with, the type-r stickers, rear Acura logo and wording badges were removed. That was painful, took forever to get the old adhesive off, but after a few compound and polish passes, no remnants or ghosting was left. However, either a previous owner or thief removed the rear Acura logo emblem with a screw driver and left scratches. This ruined my plans for using a Red Honda logo in the rear as it didn't hide the scratches anymore. There are also two holes that are behind the Acura wording badge that using the Honda one didn't cover. I don't feel like visiting the body shop yet and who knows how well they could color match 24 year old paint, so back to Acura lettering with the Red Acura Logo badge it will go when they arrive soon.
I then moved on to easier modifications feeling sore from the de-badging, I wanted to redo some of the engine bay changes. The original:
One of my friends who had a cold-air intake ran over a puddle on the highway and hydro-locked his few years old GSR (at the time), so short-ram intake it is, just for the sound.
There was also a HID headlight conversion that I replaced with LEDs, which don't need two rather large separate boxes mounted in the engine bay.
I wanted to have matching front and rear strut mounts, and finding a rear oem Type R one in good shape is near impossible, so I switched to using a Skunk2 one, blasphemy, I know. I have just installed the front so far.
I have always loved the wrinkle red valve cover with silver spark plug cover and carbon fiber doesn't feel 90's to me. I couldn't find an OEM one in good enough condition, but billet ones are available everywhere.
The car also came with a bonus Mugen oil cap, it matches the intake and spark plug cover well, so I installed that too. I did replace the Mugen radiator cap with an oem one, felt like just a sticker. That's temporary until I install the Mishimoto radiator I have sitting around, which has its own cap.
Lastly, the red stamp on the block's model and serial number looked ugly in pictures, so I removed the paint. If I ever sell the car, doubtful at this point, I'll disclose this has a replacement engine/block.
Next I installed some clear corners as I'm anti-amber, though the LED I installed here is white for parking lights and amber when the turn signal in on, to make it easier for other drivers to see.
Then I managed to track down a set of used, 2002 vintage, CE28Ns, that'll hold me over and are backup incase my special order for new ones falls through. Trying out the long, open-ended, blue lug nuts for fun, looks very JDM to me, but I'll probably switch to closed-ended, shorter, black ones.
When the car arrived, it had a silver gas pedal with the rest oem rubber. I changed it up with something that matches better and looks close to what I had back in the 90's.
The shift boot wasn't attached to the shifter surround, the surround was probably broken by a previous owner replacing the shift boot. It looked like some zip-tie recently came undone that held it in place to account for a broken clip and screw hole. Somehow I got lucky and tracked down a new in-original-packaging one, that cost too much, but this would be something I look at every time I drive. While I was at it, although the installed boot looked good, I just replaced it with a new one as well since I had everything apart anyways.
The car had two fuel pump kill switches wired in sequence, with splices into the wiring harness at two different places. The wiring was sketchy looking, see the picture below, and the holes drilled into the rear turn signal cover and rear ashtray to hold the switches didn't look that great, so it all had to go, with the affected wiring harness wires soldered and wrapped with heat shrink tubes. I have a plug-in-play Main Relay Conversion with Kill Switch on order that I'll probably install. I have been wondering if the Immobilizer with our Keys isn't already enough, and if they really want the car, they will tow it.
There were and still are some various clips and screws missing in the interior, I have most of them replaced and some more on the way, at least getting clips, bolts, and screws from Acura is still possible. It's also missing the ECU cover that the kick-panel clips into. I tried to get two decent looking ones I could restore, but ran into problems getting both so far.
The rearview mirror was degrading all around the edges, since I couldn't find a replacement, I just installed a Spoon Blue Wide Rearview Mirror, which just sticks a mirror onto the OEM one, looks great and the rear visibility is much better. Pictures later.
All the lighting was replaced with LEDs (from three different lighting companies to find a combo that works), except the amber dash lights. They are way brighter, clean 6000K white lighting: headlights, high-beams, brake lights, parking lights, turn signals, license plate, trunk light, glove box light, dome light. Pictures later.
Next to install will be the mishimoto radiator, fans, and hoses, then KW V3 Coilovers with Skunk2 front and rear camber kits. I'll get more pictures when I install them, but I have one of the KW's:
Other plans include repainting the type r only rear brace bar in the trunk, its all scratched up, and the exhuast header cover, with a cast aluminum color. Spoon Calipers and front rotors are on special order. New CE28s (Bronze) are on special order. I have a straight B&M short-shifter that I also had on my 97 GSR, goodridge stainless steel braided brake lines, new fluids, spark plugs, spark plug wires, distributor cap, rear rotors, new brake pads, and other stuff to install.
I'm doing all the work on this, with little time per week, so it should be slow progress from here on out. It's nice how easy it is to work on this car though. So many how-to youtube videos too!
Failed Honda change over, back to Acura! Pardon the dust and messy garage.
Main relay conversion and kill switch arrived. Seems too easy to tell a main relay based kill switch is installed using the oem location, so I think I'll move that when I get to installing this.
... As well as a hidden Bluetooth Headunit, 4x50W. The rear speakers are currently just whispering, even with the fade all the way to the rear, if it is the OEM radio that is dying, this should clear that up.
Radiator Stays, finish is not quite what I expected from Mishimoto, I got two sets from different vendors, same result. I'm trying to paint one set, nearly got my technique perfected, will swap them when it's done.
Last OEM piece I was missing, the ECU cover, which the passenger side kick panel also clips into. All the ones on ebay had rust, I found the least rusty one. Sanded and then sprayed a few coats of primer so far, will paint an aluminum color just to seal it before installing. Don't know how to do a zinc coating or something fancy like that, it's a hidden part anyways.
The kill switch is now installed, a really nice plug and play solution.
Takes about 10 minutes to get to the point you are testing the new main relay and kill switch. Everything just worked the first time. How long the rest of the install takes is up to how well you try to hide the wiring and where you place the switch. I won't go into much detail, but there is plenty of places to hide and blend in things. I also left the original main relay bolted into place, it takes a long look to realize nothing is plugged into it.
Really nice to have options like this now, we don't need to make up custom solutions and cut into the wiring harness, the best part is the switch is connected to a relay, so it's not going to see or have to deal with the amps feeding your fuel pump.
One of the previous owners, the second to last one, reached out to me and I learned a lot more about the history of this car. This answered a bunch of little questions I had while I was going through the car. In short, it has had a fun life so far, each owner taking the car in their own direction.
The original engine wasn't in that great of shape in 2010 when this owner acquired the car, he thought it was on borrowed time so he bought a brand-new OEM short-block and Type R head straight from Acura. The original motor was previously run with the ECU swapped out for one with a Hondadata S200 installed and it was running a NA tune. It was raced quite a bit.
He didn't install the new motor right away, and instead decided to supercharge the existing motor. At some point the head gasket blew and when looking into the motor more, they noticed a partially melted piston. He thinks it might have been due to detonation during the previous owner's tune.
On 12/2013 the new motor went in at around 84K miles. I just hit 94K this weekend, so the motor has about 10K miles on it.
The new motor was turbo charged for 4K miles with a conservative tune @ 8psi, using a separate ECU with a Hondata S300 V3.
This owner also installed a couple of goodies into the new motor, a Skunk2 Stage 1 Camshaft (305-05-0140), and adjustable Cam Gears, they might still be there, I will check when I get to doing the valve adjustment.
The transmission was also refreshed in 2015, replacing all of the bearings/synchros using Synchrotech parts.
I have been itching to install the coilovers and camber kit, just haven't found the time yet, it's next though.
In the meantime, I acquired some tools for the valve adjustment:
Since I'm going to take the valve cover off anyways, I'm going to swap my "garage art" valve cover for the one installed currently, just looks slightly refreshed.
Finally got a Cat-back Exhaust on order, was hard finding one with the look and sound I wanted with a confirmed restock.
For the sound, I wanted to hear it at the lower RPMs before the engine noise really kicks in, but not too loud, and not raspy, where the police wouldn’t be bothered to write a ticket for it.
A'PEXi - World Sports 3 Looked good, but I’m afraid it will be too quiet.
On my GS-R in the 90’s I had a Greddy/Trust exhaust, then a DC Sports one after I ran over something on the highway that ruined the Trust one. The Trust one was a bit too quiet back then, the new Trust one seems too loud. DC Sports is in the middle of redesigning theirs with nothing in stock for the current model, and plans to release next year - the sound was perfect for me back then, not sure what they are planning for the new one.
But no worries, I came across the Revel/Tanabe Medallion Touring-S exhaust and fell in love. The few videos I could find sound great, deep and noticeable sound, but will be under the 93db limit we have around here in CA. They were not sure about a restock, but now are, so my order is finally in.
ITR 01-0431 Modification Thread
I love the attention to detail.
