98civi

I'm just looking for some pointers. I am a true old head when it comes to this game. I was all about it back in the late 90's early 2000's. Now I can proudly say that my son is wanting to build this civic and I'm vary behind the game. Any advise that could get him started would be great. I do know the basics but according to him I'm to old school since I've been out of the game so long, lol. He knows how to make me feel old. Thanks for any tips and advise

Galan

We Old Timers are wiser...But it all depends how deep his pockets are. If he has around $10k he can dump a k20 engine on it and turbo it. He can also go with another few Mods mix and match with an accura..

At my age I am/would rebuilt to orginal state:
http://i912.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/DSC00241.jpg

NotAJDMFanBoy

upgrade the brakes first. And make him do all the work. I've seen too many Civics in the junkyard that were there from front end collisions.

Don't let him do any of his own electrical work without supervising. I've seen too much cobbled up stuff from kids who have no idea what they're doing.

Keep the single cam, play around with tuning and suspension before doing a motor swap.

EJ1_CRIS_909

One thing you can do is refrain your child from being sucked up into this whole "jdm" scene with the 3m tape visors, and the benen tow hooks, and all that crap... Let him keep it original with quality OEM japanese market parts

98civi

All very good points and trust me all work will be done by him so that way when he breaks it he can fix it. I learned the hard way and so shall he. It def will be keeping the stock motor for a while but like we all know these little single cams have great ability to do wonderful things. Ill try and get some pics up for the before and let ya know how its going. Im just happy that he decided to go import I dont know what I would do with a domestic in the drive way, I've never had that happen before. Thanks for the input and advise its def going to help me get him going in the right direction.

Jdm_driver4

Have him do a b motor swap asap. He'll have a lot of fun with it in high school vs. all the stupid high school ricers. and he will learn a lot about the car. Do not upgrade the D-series they make NO Power! unless it's forced induction, and even then......it's not much.
PLease please please do not dump money into the d-series, he/you will regret it. I did a b20 swap w/intake and it kills full-bolt d -series anyday.
ANd i got a turbo kit for cheap
and i still get an average of 24mpg with me takin it to redline at least once a day and racing once a week. high 30's on freeway.
Everyone says d-series is a gas saver and blah blah blah. it doesn't save that much more gas.

and homie above is right about the brakes. stainless steel lines and rear disc for safety. when it comes to an accident you can never stop too soon.

EJ8_Man

One of the most painful lessons I've learned is there is a lot of crap out there. Cheap crap that you try to justify. eBay is a great source for substandard cheap crap. Do not buy off-brand made in China core engine or suspension components. I.E. do not let him put his life in the hands of a piece of **** product. Keep the parts OEM or established aftermarket manufacturer.

Pick your machine shops carefully. I know of 2 very good ones in California, I'm not sure where you are from...

Read, read, and read. Read what others have done. Let him work on his current engine. Make him start with the simple things: changing fluids, brakes, adjusting valves, timing belt, water pump. All the routine maintenance. Have him get used to using the Honda manuals. There are a lot of online - free - pdf versions of his car online.

There is no substitute for experience, and of course this is a progressive accomplishment. He needs to spend time reading, pulling on wrenches, and occasionally breaking something and then learning from his mistakes.

drew-cavazos

B Series ...!!! Always fun..

98civdx

The first thing he should do, even before he washes the thing for the first time is an alarm!

I have seen far to many cars, with 10's of thousands invested in them, get stolen and never be found.

Personally, I started in suspension. Coilovers,sway bars, etc.

As EJ8 Man said, read, do research. Research things before you do it, to insure you get the most for your money.

tlarimer

iTrader: (3)

+1 for security being the absolute first thing that gets done to it.

Number two would be planning ahead and only upgrading components once. I.E. plan for a bigger engine and build the brakes and suspension accordingly. Bigger faster engine should be the last thing on your list, especially since he is still in H.S. Having a teenager myself getting ready to drive and coming from the Honda scene way back in the late 80's early 90's, this is the route we will be taking.

Rjrmc50

Great advice from all of you guys...

evilclown312

iTrader: (2)

D series cant make power? GTFO .. You obviously need to read more.

EJ1_CRIS_909

x2, dont underestimate single cams, theyre secret lil monsters lol.

That noob needs to GTFO, stainless steel brake lines? The stock ones are sufficient enough. And talkin about high school ricers? You seem like one with that username of yours. Do you sport "jdm" tow hooks, "jdm" taped window visors with blck housing headlights too??

NOFX

Security first!

Then a shop manual and possibly an electrical troubledshooting manual. You can find the ones Honda uses on eBay all the time for about $50 for the set or so. Now he's "ready" in the event anything bad happens.

Get him into doing his own maintenance and repairs to anything already on the car. Needs a new clutch? Let's do that. Throwing a code? Let's figure out how to fix it. Want a radio in it? Let's do this the right way with a conversion harness. No need to cut up the stock dash harness!

Now have him read, read, read! At this point in time there's just an incredible amount of information out there for the '96-'00 Civic platform.

It will be in his best interest in my opinion if he takes a look at everything and reads up before he just starts throwing crap at the car without an educated opinion besides, "I saw it and liked it."

There's no good reason that this Civic shouldn't last your son a nice long time, so there's no point in going out and screwing it up just for the sake of being different.

Good luck to both of you!

98civi

all yaw have very valid points and positions. Thanks for all the tips def makes me feel like a newby, lol. but all of you are right and I'm going to take all your advise and put it to good us. I have an idea of a good starting point for him now but yep time to get it to read some more, lol. This is going to be fun I cant wait to tell him to study more. Good looking out