mniron

*WARNING....LONG READ*

My Story and build maybe a lot like yours. In 1992, yes aging myself a little, I was 18 and I bought my first new car. A 1992 White Honda Civic SI Hatchback! It was sweet! 7,200 rpm redline revving all 125HP blasting from 0-60 in an earth shattering 7.5 seconds, yes minivans are faster now, and blowing through a quarter mile in 16.3 seconds at 86mph. I did not care! Because when that VTEC hit I felt like I had a turbo! Whoosh! That power….Oh that power at about 4800RPM put me back in my seat…ok maybe a light nudge….ok maybe not at all, but it was still fun as hell.

I was eager to get modding and I did. Installed tinted windows, and a fake cellular phone antenna! Shut it! Those were the **** back then! An Alpine stereo with a kicker 12” sub in a box with a sound stream amp pushing like 300 watts! That was serious power then. I was lusting after some serious wheels…rims man…And I found some starburst pattern white on white….wait for it….17” wheels……YES! I was pimpin on 17” kicks bro. 17” wheels then were HUUUUGGGGEEEE…trust me. I was ballin. We did not have LED light halo rings, but we had these color light bulbs you installed into the front lamps that made your front lights have a little glow all from a 3-watt bulb. It was sick! I loved that car….But then as things always do…I grew up…..and life happened and got in the way.

During my teenage years, I had muscle cars. 1974 Chevy Nova Rally sport all jacked up in the back. Couple of different 70’s Camaro’s. When I got older into my 30’s I built several muscle cars from a 70 Camaro SS split bumper to a few Chevelles. My last Chevelle being a 1972 Pro Tour car. Everyone thought I was crazy to sell it.

Then something changed. Something like a drug. No not crack, no heroin…Not even Mountain Dew….Something even more addictive…..Boost! I was at a local track here in Minnesota called Brainerd Raceway at a car event for the weekend. Amazing track where you drive what you brung with very few rules other than do not hit the person next to you. I had my Chevelle and was doing some road racing. It was a lot of fun but I kept getting spanked by these ricers…these Mazda 3’s, Honda Civics, Mistu what the hell? My friend brought his turbo Civic hatch to the track. I quickly found a soft spot for it because it was an EG hatch like the one I had bought new in 1992. I wanted to know or experience what all the talk of was on an import turbo. No way could it smack down my 383 stroker motor with 500 horsepower. No way… Well I was wrong. Dead wrong.

His civic honestly is not anything crazy or special. However, it is 400+ horsepower to the front wheels running about 25lbs of boost or so. He had lots of seat time in events and drag racing it, so I figured I was good to ride along. Approaching the car I checked out under the hood and noticed the front mounted turbo and ram horn manifold. Nothing really struck me. He started the car and it honestly sounded like a little 4 banger Honda. Nothing memorable and definitely nothing like the sounds of a Chevy V8! I did not really build it up in my mind. I did not know what to expect. He still had a passenger seat and his entire interior. Stereo worked and had a cool shift ****. No 5-point seat belts, roll cage, fire suit etc. Brainerd has a 2-3 mile twisting turn track with a ¼ mile drag straight away. Pretty cool track that we were about ready to blast onto. A track I have had fond memories off dousing with hot transmission fluid from my Chevelle losing a drive shaft and stopping racing for 30 minutes while they cleaned the track and I was towed back to my glorious U-Haul trailer. The fellow racers were very nice as they drove by and telling me I am #1! Wait…It was not the index finger…hmmm. Anyway.

We roll out onto the track and it starts out slow as to be expected. There were many cars on the track packed together like tourists taking pictures. Going about 20mph to jockey for track positions as if we were in a Nascar event race. Shake N’ Bake! I glanced over to notice his redline at 7200 RPM and his speedo to 120. Remember those key numbers. Finally getting the lines to form with cars starting to get into a 2x2 formations as to line up and roll race, we did not get our pic of our competition. I believe we lined up next to a fox body mustang that sounded wicked. I thought there was no way. This will be embarrassing......

He started to wind up the zippy motor. We were in first gear and coming around the corner. No staging lights…No staging lanes. As we came around the corner we were perfectly bumper to bumper….Hands on my lap I had nothing to fear because I had felt that VTEC before. I was not worried. Then I heard some words. It was a quick blur….”Watch this……”. A smile on his face as if he was a magician about to perform a pick this card trick. He floored it. Grabbing second gear the RPM needle jumped as the front tires let loose in a mad violent furry with the car’s front end starting to hop losing its grip. I immediately reached up for the “Oh ****” handle and looked over to see the Mustang about 3 car lengths ahead of us. He pushed the shifter upwards and grabbed third revving the gear out to at least 9000 RPM. Third gear gripped way harder and it just started pulling like a train. We started to fish tail in the rear as the front seemed to want to pull left, as I later found out he has no LSD. I heard the turbo spool and whooshing and the sound from the engine was getting louder. I look over and in a split second, we were two car lengths ahead of the Mustang. At this point I didn’t care…I just wanted to live wishing I wore diapers as I knew I may **** myself. Third gear came and went very fast as we red lined third gear and we were now over 100MPH. He pulled the shifter down to 4th and then something crazy happened. More power…What the ****!?! It was still pulling. The car felt very unstable and violent at this point. I let out a screech like a 6th grade school girl cause I started to see my life pass. I had no control. I was scared shitless at this point going well over 100MPH in a car that felt like it would shake apart at any minute…..And you know what? I ******* loved it. How the hell did this little hatchback destroy a V8 Mustang? It did not seem possible. It defied logic. At this point I knew I had to search out and get my own dose of boost.


Regression (re*gres*sion)

Noun

1. A return to a former or less developed state

· a return to an earlier stage of life or a supposed previous life, especially through mental illness, or as a means of escaping present anxieties. "regression therapy"


This word will have a lot of meaning in my life. I took my 1972 Chevelle to Chicago for the Mecum Auto Auction where I successfully sold my pro touring car to a dealership in Florida. With a hole in my pocket, I set out on my journey to find boost. Having spent so many years working on domestic muscle cars, I really knew nothing about Honda’s or Acura’s other than when I was younger and owned them. B18C what? LSD who? Hondata S300 where? Sounded like Greek to me. I started reading Honda-Tech forums and watching lots of YouTube video’s on builds. I found Humble Performance, SP Tuning, Boosted Boyz etc. It was a fast track and I felt pretty good on what to look for. I hit Craigslist and Facebook market place looking a turbo integra or Honda civic. I came across a 1996 Acura Integra LS with a B18C swap and turbo setup. Guy was a mechanic and I picked it up cheap. I pulled the trans and through the forum I found a local guy who specializes in Honda transmissions to build it up with Carbon syncros and an LSD. Nothing crazy but the backwards fish tail and pull to the left didn’t feel safe to me. It has a basic ODB2 to ODB1 ECU setup with a crome chip. But it is 400hp to the front wheels. See are you impressed yet of my vast knowledge? Running on E85 I found my gas stations and I started banging through the gears and hitting the almighty boost. First and second gears are worthless but third and fourth gear are worth the wait. I made it back to my favorite track for a quarter mile event weekend. I did not have much seat time and on street tires, no boost by gear….I spun….and spun….and spun. If your are spinning you ain’t winning. My best pass was a 13.4. Pretty pathetic I felt. I was frustrated with the grip, but it was quickly drowned out by the turbo sounds through the waste gates blowing off. I had a lot of fun. But it was only the beginning. Still having funds from my auction I decided why not try to build a track only car. I have my Integra for a fun street car and I know I can make some improvements there. But a drag/track only car will test my mechanical abilities and 180 degree my thinking on going from a rear wheel drive to a front wheel drive. I was regressing even further into my need to shoot up my new found drug….Boost.


The Build: 1993 Honda Civic Coupe EG

Name: Regression

From my many years building and selling Muscle cars one thing I have learned is try and buy it somewhat done. Buy someone else’s project and let them spend the money. I found such a project in South Dakota from a really cool guy. I drove my trailer out and picked it up. He told me the history on the car and I did a compression check. All Good. It was not pretty but all the bones were there.

Current Setup:

B18C with Golden Eagle sleeved 81.5mm w/ Weisco pistons and rods with copper o-rings. A stockish GSR head with Supertech valve springs and titanium locks. GSR cams and an ATI dampener.

GSR transmission with no LSD and stock gears. Twin disk CC clutch attached to a K-tuned shifter

Aeromotive 1000 fuel pump attached to a sumped tank connection running through 6AN lines with the same return. The pump is wired to 14V.

Drum brakes in the rear with stock disc up front hydraulic clutch

Interior is stock but has a 10 point certified 8.5 second roll cage. And NRG detachable steering wheel

Borg Warner S300 Turbo 60mm (New) attached to a huge 4” downpipe with dual 38mm wastegates. Golden Eagle intake manifold and a k-tuned throttle body.

Hondata S300 V3 ECU w/ VTEC bypass. Stock ignition setup

Car made 697HP on the Dyno at 25lbs of boost. The previous owner said they could have gotten more but he felt this was a safe range for the motor. Probably a good call. As you can see I think I started with a really good base.












The Start:

*Disclaimer* I am not an expert in any way. I am still learning imports. I am getting help from some experienced people. It is a project.

First thing, I knew is I need to tear it down and break the car down into phases. Based on my racing experience from Muscle cars I knew it is not all about horsepower. Prior learning taught me to work towards focusing on the setup of the car just as much as the engine. Meaning weight distribution, car stance, weight transfer, suspension, wheel and tires, aerodynamics, grip, and power band. Honestly, horsepower focus is down much further on my list. That is where the build will take me. Your opinions and advice is welcome and I am sure will be helpful. However, everyone knows there is not a single right way to do this. So keep that in mind.

I had to skip around some because I was going to have my transmission built and my head worked on. So these were the focus first as they take time to get back from the Vendors.

Transmission:

I simply cannot afford to go with a dogbox, PPG or Albins gears right now. Not in the budget when I have so much else to do. Maybe in the future if I get seriously into this. A built box is $6K+. I have a guru for a trans guy and we decided on the GSR stock gears with Carbon Synchro’s and a Liberty cuff for the 5th gear. Track car remember. Do not need 5th. Going with an M-Factory 4.05 final drive, a speed factory shift changer, and stiffer shift springs. I am going to pick up some spare GSR gears, as they are cheap. In addition, I have another spare trans I got with a spare engine. More on that later. Yes, I could have done this myself through YouTube, but I will learn on my spare first.

I had my Integra trans built in a similar way but with the stock final drive. My first experience pulling a trans was behind me. This one is much easier. If you have not pulled a trans before, hit YouTube. So many good videos out there on doing it. It is actually straightforward.











Head:
I splurged here. Having watched a lot of Humble Performance and other video experiences, I knew I had to step up and get a 4piston head. On Black Friday, they had an amazing deal for a package. However, they needed my core head. I also stepped up and went with Ferrera 6000 valves, and Ferrera competition springs and retainer/locks. I want the flexibility with 110lb springs to rev high as needed and hit peak boost reliably. Ya it was more money, but worth it in the savings they had in the package. I was also curious to validate what I was told about having a sleeved block etc. I sent the head off and should see it in January.



















Time to Lose Some Weight:

Being a coupe, the Civic is heavy and needed a diet. Not being a streetcar anymore I was free to break out the cutting tools. You do not really need all the creature comforts as well when you are hopefully only spending 10 seconds in it under full throttle at a time. I picked up a cheaper plasma cutter to cut the inside of the doors to remove the heavy crash bars. Talk about a hot knife through butter! Too much fun. I stripped the car. Pulling out the interior plastic, sunroof, windows, seats etc. I pulled the heater core, dash and nothing needed. I want it bare bones inside. To answer some quick questions I am replacing the 4 rear windows with Lexan from Y&S Lexan. Putting in a racing seat and building a new dash pod with aluminum. I was not able to weigh everything but what I took to the dump sure felt heavy. Let the pics do the talking….



























I have some experience welding with a wire feed welder. I am self-taught by watching YouTube videos and buying a cheap Harbor Freight machine. Knowing with the build, I will need to learn some more advanced skills using a TIG or Mig I went and took a welding class. I highly advise if you have not welded before to give it a shot. It will save you money and is a lot of fun.





The Build:

I am planning this build to last about 4 ½ months. Being winter here in Minnesota we get snow through the mid to end of April. So testing the car will not begin until May. We have some pretty good roads here in “Mexico” to practice some launches. I hope that leaves plenty of time to finish this build before the racing season. Before I start, installing the vast hardware and racing parts I obtained over the Black Friday weekend I needed to get rid of the heavy sound deadening material that the factory installs. There are many videos on YouTube on how to do this. Simple answer? Dry Ice. I found a place and bought pellet form dry ice. I spread the pellets over the areas of the material and waited. It freaked me out at first because you hear a ton of cracking. I thought I was splitting the metal it was so loud. It froze the material solid in place and it allowed me to take it out in pieces. It took me about 30 minutes to get all of it up and vacuumed out. Pretty easy task. There is something satisfying about breaking those pieces up and challenging yourself to try to get as much in one piece out.




Interior Paint:

I could not leave it all nasty inside. I am not looking to win any car show contests but I wanted something to match the exterior. I am planning on a green matte finish on the outside with Gold VMS drag wheels. I thought a camo combo with a twist would be cool. Nice thing about paint….You can change it. I did a primer, and then a base coat. Then the madness swipes began.










Next Up....Starting the rear suspension

K7-1Ktrevor

mniron

More coming.....Lots more....

mniron

Rear Suspension:

Being budget conscious I went with a set of Blox Pro Drag Racing coilovers at all four corners. I have seen really good feedback and with the sale price I got I couldn't beat them. Rear suspension I think is a real key to the puzzle even though it is not the driver wheels. It has to counter shift the weight back up front and remain stiff and sturdy. "Thats what she said!" Sorry. I know bad bad joke. Anyway, I went with aluminum LCA brackets and support bar in the back. I splurged some and went with spherical ends on the LCA and the pivot points are key and where all the stress is produced. I replaced the bushings in the front bar with stiffer bushings. They weren't a pain to get out with my press. The trailling arm bushings were a pain in the ***, but I replaced them with hard race. I saved money here instead of going spherical here too. I kind of think how the motion points and the pressure on the parts that will be put at this point would be better served with a hard rubber. I originally had drum brakes in the back so I pulled out all of that crap. I also drained the rear brakes and cut the lines. I will be running new ones










After putting together the rear end suspension I installed the new rear brake conversion brackets. You can find these brackets at www.scarebird.com They are well made CNC cut and everything lined up well. I had trim out some of the middle metal with a grinder due to the hub ring being a little wider. But I know this going in. It all aligned the brakes perfectly and aligns the caliper. My good friend Logan just finished welding school and was using some of his mad skills grinding.




Shifter and Stage Brake:

Shifting quickly under speed takes a lot of practice and is almost an art form. Lots of guys miss shifts down the track. So I decided to splurge here and get a T1 G-Force Performance Shifter kit. Expensive...Yes....Worth it? Hope So. The kit came with everything needed to install. The rear disc brakes I got I wanted to hookup only to a staging brake. I will have enough to worry about launching then worry about my brake pedal. I went to finishing-lines.com and purchased their CNC staging brake line kit. It comes with the hydraulic "T" off lines needed and a CNC plate that works specifically and cut for the T1 G-force base. Pretty nice to have a setup that will compliment each out. And it did...From finishing lines I also bought new front brake lines and clutch lines...More to come later in the build on those.

Below we sized up the hole and used the Plasma cutter to enlarge the hole to fit the length.


Then Logan grinded down the hard edges. We also had to drill four holes to put in the provided bolts and line it all up. finishing-lines.com even provided the longer bolts I would need. The rear holes match up to the factory shifter threaded holes. Pretty easy.




This is a shot from the bottom up. With this shifter you no longer use the stock shifter rods.



The finished product turned out really well. It is at a prefect angle too.




With the provided rear hose kit I attached it to the rear and ran it through the stock grommet holes where the old e-brake cables ran. Then connected them to the "T" connector out to the brake calipers. I will be using well bolts to nicely secure all the hosing to the body of the car.





I mounted the rear brake calipers. The rear brake caliper kit I bought was from Jegs.com part# 419-KC408-026. the calipers aligned perfectly to the hub. the rotors are super light weight as well. You can use these rear brakes with a disc conversion as well for any street Honda EG. I wasn't something light weight and within my budget. I splurged on my front brakes and went with......you will have to wait.




I will be off to the hardware store to buy some well bolts to attach my brake hoses and then get everything installed and zipped up. I will also go ahead and bleed the brakes and get them ready. My next focus will be on the trunk and securing down the batter wires inside. I hope to get my transmission this weekend from the guru. But first I have to swap out my Hasport motor mounts with my solid billet ones. I have to go with the solid billet mounts due to the T1 G-Force shifter. More on that later.

mniron

Rear Bumper:
In order to let the air escape through the rear I add the air holes as you see most other racers do. I also trimmed the underside of the bumper because you don't really need the extra lip that curls under just trapping more air. I picked up an Ebay rear air diffuser. Surprisingly it seems made pretty well. Not flimsy like I was thinking. I pulled the bumper off. I measured and taped the plate on first. I drilled the screw holes and outlined holes to be cut with a marker. I used a dremel to cut out the plastic and then a dremmel stone to clean it up. I am not permanently mounting it right now due to painting in the future.








Dents:
Next was my first time attempt to hammer & Dolly out some dents. The crease will be a pain because part of it is behind a support bar and there is no way to pound it with with the dolly. I think it came out pretty well since I will use some filler, sanding, and filler primer before paint.

Before: & During:



After: Not perfect, but enough to make it flat. The marks are from the paint on the hammers head transferred from the inside panel. Again I can't get to that rear 2" crease because of the support bar. I will have to use a little filler. not making this into a show car by any means.




The Door:
I had some smaller dings in the doors I also pounded out flat. Kind of hard to see because its white, but its flat now! If this so far shows you anything its that building a racecar is not always motor.





Next up is finishing up the rear brakes with bleeding them and painting the wheel well and trailing arm. I also hope then to start on the trunk lid shortly. Oh ya picked up my built trans today from the guru "Nate Built Transmissions" *Wife Approved!

mniron

Things don't always go as planned.....I am going to get a plaque made to put above my door so you have to repeat it as you walk in to set the expectations really low. How many times have you put on the parts...then realize...oh ****...no worky....My wonderful friends across the great pond don't always make perfect lining parts. I know shocker. Being budget minded you have to expect these things and adapt. Some grinding, pushing and prodding later.....extreme swearing and a couple of tools thrown...we got the rear brakes buttoned up and the rear wheel well areas detail. I was leaning towards carrying my camo pattern underneath as well. But I was like...no one will see it. It will get nasty from the track...But then getting high off the fumes....those wonderful huffing paint cans...**** wait....that was out loud...Just kidding. My huffing days are long behind me now. 6 step program. If your an alcoholic you get that joke. If not...here are some pictures.


Brake Pads:
Put on the stop squeak. Pads went on pretty easily. However when I assembled the rotors on the drivers side the rotor rubbed some on the caliper. I broke out the old digital caliper measure device and they are a different casting thickness. ya me! So had to break out the BIG GUNS. Yes the almighty dremel that I swear I got through 300 of those stupid discs. Don't get me started on those disc and the micro screw to assemble it. But the dremel has gotten me out of worse situations. Now raw metal is not pretty, but from the outside you ain't gonna see it. Its like wearing a man thong. Ain't no one gonna see it! But you know its there...I know to far. But you just got the image! Ha Ha.








Well that did the trick. We were only talking a few millimeters for the spin. Now check out the beauty of spray paint and a little cleaning. Like lip stick on a pig. Ya Buddy...





Because of my little modification...cough cough I was not able to torture the wife to come out and pull the handle to help me bleed the brakes. She was relieved I think. Then scowled as I merely suggested she could use some practice pulling on the handle...You know for the staging brake of course. "What?! Whad I say?!"

Next up is still to bleed the brakes, secure the brake lines. Then trunk lid removal time...

Keeping wrenching!

ontariorider

solo227

Nice build. Looks like you got a great deal. How the heck did he get 690+hp with a 60mm turbo at only 25psi. Compression must be high as hell. Im in the market for a turbo and have been eyeing the same one. I figured you would need a pretty efficient setup to even hit the 650 mark with reasonable boost. Im gonna be running Type R cams. I think might have found the turbo for me!

Good luck with the build. Should be a solid 9sec car.

mniron

LankorDie

Nice build man! Keep posting please, HT drag needs to stay alive

mniron

Knocked a few more things out on the build. I got word that they are shipping my rear bolt in Parachute bracket. I didn't want a weld in bracket. So I purchased the bolt in one from Turbo Elements. This way I can put the holes into the rear bumper and get it all ready for a chute. I also heard back from 4Piston that my head is almost done! Pretty stocked about that. So in the mean time more simple but necessary stuff.

I ordered some push pins and put the front plastic cowl on after I removed all the windshield wiper stuff.



Then I pulled the radio antenna out and put a blank cover on. Won't be able to hear the radio while dragging!




Next up was a larger task. I bought a full fiberglass kit from Franks Custom Fiberglass. Really quality stuff. I pulled off the existing trunk lid and brackets





Next I put the new fiberglass trunk lid on and the fitment by Frank's was perfect. The gaps were dead on. I purchased push bottom release brackets to secure the trunk down yet have an easy way to remove it. Lots of measuring and eyeballing. I also knew that I would need room for the screw to reach the mount but still be snug.​​​​​​​

Step #1 - Place the trunk lid to figure out where to put the brackets.



Step #2 - Lots of eye balling and measuring the depth and the drill spot. I placed my mark and drilled some pilot holes.



Step #3 - Enlarge the hole with a 3/4" Drill bit to fit the push plug. What I didn't show here is mounting of the ball top screw that will fit into the push pin.



Step #4 - Rinse and repeat at all the corners. Install and tighten the push plugs and screws



Step #5 - Adjust the heights of the screws to pull the trunk corners in and fit tight. Finished product below.​​​​​​​


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turboLScrx

mniron

turboLScrx

simike

turboLScrx

simike

2x0

MN crew checking in

Nice looking build!

jim chuck

Very cool! Keep it coming!