Good Morning! I've got a '92 Civic VX that has been my daily driver, and I wanted to refresh the motor and rebuild the suspension since the day I bought it, but it's still been a super reliable car even with over 270k miles on it. I finally bought another Civic VX so I could drive one while working on the other, refreshing mine first and then doing a motor swap in the other for something faster, and boy did I get a good one! This new one came from a guy whose wife was pressuring him to sell, so he let it go for what I feel was a really good deal- $3800 for a '95 Civic VX in decent shape, really nice body and solid interior, with a B18C5 swap with the LSD too. Motor sounds and runs great and the transmission is the nicest I've ever felt, but I don't think it fits what I wanted for the 'fast' car. I had imagined a K24 swap with some sort of forced induction, likely a supercharger, for spirited weekend drives or sporty road trips to fun twisty roads. I don't do drag racing, and I really never push cars to their limits or rev them to the max. I'll likely sell the B18C5 and tranny to fund purchasing a welder so I can do some of my own fab and body work (I used to work as a welder, and have really been wanting my own home metal shop to build stuff to sell for some extra income), and then look for deals on the parts I need to do the K swap.

This post is really trying to get a feel for which major components I should be looking for in order to reach my goal. I'll continue to describe what I'm looking to get out of the final product-

-Smooth comfortable ride, like on a newer sports car- sporty when you need it, but smooth and comfortable when on imperfect roads. I have lots of bridge seams and cracked concrete roads near me, so something that can handle that without feeling jarring is a must.
-300-350 hp. I plan on building the motor to handle way more than I could ever throw at it, and then hit it with "only" 300-350 hp hoping to increase reliability. I think 350 is a realistic top end, but basically anything over 300 to the wheels and I'll be stoked. Remember this is going to be a car that I could take on a 5000 mile road trip without any worries, this isn't a race car.
-Torque in the lower RPMs- like I said, I don't rev my engines high and am usually pretty smooth and easy on the throttle. I much prefer a smooth roll on the throttle than a quick punch, and I'm really never in the high RPMs to utilize power there.
-Low highway cruising RPM- my bone stock VX sits around 2200 RPM at over 70 mph, I like that the motor isn't having to kill itself for hours on end if I do a day trip into the city or something. I'll have a 6-speed transmission, and I'd like to end up with 3rd and 4th being my commonly used gears for spirited mountain driving, 5th for any high speed straight line driving, and 6th for pure highway cruising (I want that motor to be happy and quiet and hardly working at all at 75-80 mph).
-Quiet. I'll go through the inside with DynaMat or something similar and really get after any interior noise, but I also want the exhaust to be relatively quiet and toned down, nothing intentionally loud or harsh.
-Air conditioning- this car will absolutely have air conditioning. Are there any extra awesome parts or kits that stand out from the rest? Ice cold and reliable.
-(really nothing to do with this thread, just mentioning it anyways) Leather seats front and rear. I really don't mind the stock VX seats, they're mostly comfortable and I've literally driven from coast to coast in them with basically no trouble. I do want leather though, and am curious if there are any easy swaps that will sit about an inch or so lower than the stock VX seats while staying on adjustable rails.

Please leave any comments or suggestions on how to better achieve these goals. I'm definitely new to cars but not new to taking my time and learning things, and paying attention to detail and doing it right the first time. I anticipate this project to take every bit of two years or maybe a little more to complete, since I do have to stick to a budget and I have a lot to learn along the way especially when it comes to wiring and body work.

 

sell what you have and buy this

a reliable swap with decent suspension is going to cost you nearly as much