99Civex

Hey Guys, Got a 99 civic ex sohc and was wondering if anyoneone had any good ideas on ways to mod this car up bit with out taking a huge blow to the wallet. since theres notin much in there anyway. I Recently put on a 2.25in. catback exhaust and plan to purchase and install headers and a high flow cat and possibly trade the fart can for an A3 racing axleback. I also have a short ram air intake so far . Looking to increase throttle response and a some low end pick-up. Any Good Ideas?

Vindicator9000

How huge of a blow to the wallet are we talking? There's really not a lot you can do to a D16y8 without swapping or going turbo. You've already got the best SOHC engine and transmission that Honda put in a Civic.

You could probably drop a nonvtec B20 in there for under 1K, which would give you like 30hp, 40tq, and a lot more potential. A stage 1 cam might get you that too, but after valve upgrades and tuning, it would have cost you close to 1K anyway.

What's an A3 axleback? Never heard of A3.

99Civex

thats my bad it's actualy called a 3a haha. what about a chip or a programer? or is downloading hondata the answer to that? appreciate the response. thanks

Linked

your not getting any decent power by going Naturally Aspirated on a sohc my friend.

turboing is the ONLY (unless you swap) to give your car some more power.

but if your looking to go a long way, vindicater9000 nailed it with a nonvtec b20, then later on get a vtec head and build it properly for boost of N/A

and you have to buy hondata, its a chip that you put into your ecu that allows it to manipulate the settings of the ecu. for your needs hondata may be a little expensive and i'd suggest chipping for chrome and letting the tuner deal with tuning it

oh yea welcome to HT (where if it aint JDM, gtfo)

99Civex

I allready put a cat back on the car. if i put headers and a high flow cat will that give me any increase in horsepower or just make it even louder then it is allready? i fould a kid online with a b18 for 185 bucks. it needs a tune up and timing belt, should i buy it?

99Civex

I Was also planning on doing my tming belt and all the great stuff that goes along with that. are the kits online (ebay) any better then what you get at the local auto parts store

Vindicator9000

That's a good enough price that I'd be worried it was stolen or in worse shape than he admits. Hopefully he's got a VIN tag on the engine. If so, run a carfax on it. If not, I'm not sure that I'd turn my back on it, but I'd be a little wary.

Really though, that's a hell of a bang for the buck. You'll still need a few hundred more to actually do the swap, because you'll have to buy a transmission, shift linkage, mounts, ECU, etc. Even still, that'll bring you more power per dollar than ANY other D-series mod short of a turbo, and will give you a good starting point for more mods.

Hondata is wonderful, but it's prohibitively expensive, and not going to give you any significant gains on an otherwise stock engine. Not worth the money on a stock D-series.

For timing belt, I would strongly recommend going with authentic Honda parts. Yes, I know they cost a lot. If a timing belt fails, you trash your engine. If the tensioner fails, you trash your engine. If the water pump fails, your aluminum engine overheats and you trash it. Honda has put a lot of engineering into those 3 parts specifically to ensure that they're good for 100K miles, and won't fail. I can't say that for ebay/autozone parts. I'm all for ebay parts in some circumstances, but timing belt components are too important to fail.

Sure, autozone may give you a lifetime warranty on a timing belt. So, if your timing belt breaks, bring it in, and they'll give you a new $20 timing belt. They won't warranty the $1K engine that you just trashed because of your broken timing belt though.

See where I'm going with this lol?

99Civex

loud n clear dude thats my biggest concern is part failure and then bending vaulves and endind up with a junk motor. thanks for the advice. as far as the b18 goes my car is still an automatic for the time being would that still work with the a/t? i see no point in switching it out till the tranny starts sliping or blows up. which might be a while cause the car just turned 70k and i just did its fist break job and replaced the original cat back, haha im only the second owner

junhaitian

hey man i am glad yall bbring this conversation... i just did a swap from b16 to a b18... when i am driving its like the car is skiping.... and when i stop the kilometer is goign up and down! what do you think i need to get checked up? do you think its the computer i need to change?

rick_rabies

a civic is the cheapest thing to make fast. but dont waste your $. save it all

Skifledanabit

Which parts would you recommend... care sharing with us?

Matt93eg

X2! Hit nail on head IMO.

Vindicator9000

Ebay = GREAT for:
-getting name brand parts cheap. ebay still has the best price on.. well.. Rotas for example.
-getting OEM parts cheap; new or salvage.
-getting knockoff parts cheap, assuming they're knockoffs that aren't extremely important. For example, I got my Rota Slipstreams off of ebay. Sure they're knockoffs, but they're at least a well-known knockoff that's decent quality, and I'm not paying $2K for wheels on a #3K car.
-getting cheap knockoffs of stuff that you know isn't as good, but doesn't affect integrity of your build, or is SO cheap that you can afford to replace it with more ebay parts. For example, I know a LOT of people buy ebay turbos. Sure they don't last as long as a name brand turbo, but at 1/3 the price, you can afford to replace it 3 times instead of buying 1 namebrand.

Ebay = BAD for:
-getting cheap imitations of important namebrand parts
-getting cheap imitations of important OEM parts (like timing belts)
-paying lots of $$ for FAKE namebrand parts
-paying a little $$ for FAKE namebrand parts.

I have no problem with knockoffs - they have their place in the world. But knockoffs that look identical to the real thing bother me a bit. It's like wearing fake Jordans... you may fool people who don't know anything, but you'll always know you're a douche, and so will any enthusiasts.

Skifledanabit

hah, OEM parts aren't a big problem for me, seeing as im in the UK, or unless i have the meaning of the abbreviation wrong...? OEM = Original European Market? such as JDM = Japanese domestic market and USDM = United States Domestic Market...?

ChumBucket

Oem= original equipment manufacturer, real Honda, not aftermarket.Hope it helps you.