I have an 01 ES1...I am going to use it as a daily driver and race on the weekends. Right now, I can afford to spend around $500-$1000 on it, and I was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction for what to purchase.

All I can think of is the normal bolt-ons...Intake, headers, exhaust, underdrive pullys, spark plugs and wires...whats some other mods I could get staying under budget? I know alot of people will tell me to hit the suspension first, but I just plan on taking this to the strip, no race tracks, and especially nothing on the street. About all i might do for suspension is get some eibach springs.

Also, i can find parts on ebay for 1/2 the price of stores, and ive heard that "you get what you pay for"...but on an intake or an underdrive pully or something like that, is there really the need to spend 150 on a CAI or 300+ on a set of headers? will there be THAT much more of a noticalbe difference?

Last question, right now, i have the stock wheels on the car. When i purchased the car, the previous owner had a set of motegi's wrapped in toyo proxes Fz4 225/35/18's. I plan on selling the wheels, and getting some smaller, because i know how larger rims can slow you down some. On my last car, stocks were 15" and i had put 17"s on it, and just by switching to larger wheels I lost a half second.
What kind of rims are there that are lightweight and good for racing? I heard something about 5zigen FN01-r. Anyone know anything about lightweight wheels?

I appreiciate the help.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by kptrk6 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I have an 01 ES1...I am going to use it as a daily driver and race on the weekends. Right now, I can afford to spend around $500-$1000 on it, and I was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction for what to purchase.
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the hell is an es1?
em1? :/ i thought the new civics were em2s..

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by BoBoChan &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">the hell is an es1?
em1? :/ i thought the new civics were em2s..</TD></TR></TABLE>

It is a 2001-2005 Civic Sedan.

 

Yeah, what he said...

Any help with my questions?

 

You are not going to make a big enough difference in engine performance to justify the cost with your current engine(assuming it is the stock engine) with only spending $1000. An engine swap or forced induction would be a more practical way to increase performance in that area but will cost far more than $1000.

You said you are going to take it to the strip and that it will also act as your daily driver. If you do take it to the strip or anything like that,you will be increasing wear and tear on the car and run the risk of breaking something,even though it is a Honda. You have to ask yourself if you want to run that risk with your daily driven car.

As far as suspension goes,a lowered suspension will not help you as much at the strip as it would at a road course not to say it wont help. If you do decide just to get springs, I highly recommend you change out the dampers as well as the stock ones are not designed to work with lowering springs. You also have to take in account depending on which suspension you get the altered geometry you will have to deal with,for example, the angle of the tie rods will be altered and that will increase bump steer and wear on the steering rack. Also be careful how low you go with the suspension as it is your daily driver. That will depend on the roads in your area.

Alot of racers will tell you that 16's are the size to get when it comes to wheels and at least 7" wide. They are a good trade off between 15's and 17's. They are generally better looking than 15s (personal preference) and will produce a shorter sidewall with the tires but are generally slightly heavier however they have less rotational interia than 17's and are generally lighter and are less prone to wheel damage depending on the size of tire you get.

5Zigen is a Japan based company and from what I hear make very good wheels. The wheels you mentioned "FN01-r" are a forged wheel and are quite expensive. You might want to take a look at the cast version(not as strong and heavier) the,FN01R-C,which will be much less expensive but look generally the same.
Dont forget about tires also. There are alot of them. If I were to buy tires right now,I would go with the Yokohama AVS ES100. They seem to be good all around tire and are reasonably priced. They can get quite loud from what I hear though. What I would suggest is to look on TireRack.com and take a look at the tire tests and surveys they have on their site. There is alot of good info on that site.

Good Luck.

 

Thanks alot, I apprieciate any little bits of wisdom I can get.

When you mentioned swapping engines or F/I...I wish I could do that, but I just dont have the money. Im not looking to get this car running 12"s or anything, id just like to get it around the 150-160 hp area...It came with 115 stock? I know thats quite a bit to ask from bolt ons, but I know people have done it before.

This comes to my question with parts from "Ebay" and other cheap places...

Will I be getting roughly as much gains from them as the name brand $300+ intakes and whatnot? I have installed ebay intakes on my last 2 cars, costing maybe 30-40 dollars MAX. Are the name brand injen/aem/whatever going to make any noticiable difference besides the dent in my wallet?

 

Dx and Lx-115hp,110 ft.-lbs
Ex- 127hp,114 ft.-lbs

One thing you could try is if you are willing and have the resources to do a swap you could try swapping a K24(Accord,Element,CR-V)engine into your car. They put out around 160hp. They can be found for fairly cheap also. Ive seen them for $800(possibly cheaper) with the transmission. You would need also Hasport engine mounts which run about $600. Other than that Im not to familiar with that swap. There are other things that need to be done though.

As far as the Ebay intakes, I would think it kinda goes like everything else,you get what you pay for. I would imagine the finish on the Ebay intakes is fairly cheap and will detiorate and the welds(if there are any) not to be quality. I really cant talk though because I have never owned or personally known anyone that has owned an Ebay intake, I have just "read" about them on the internet. I have also read people that have had good luck with them too. Just ask around. I dont like those kind of tube intakes made by ebay/injen/aem and rest though because they generally take away from the lower powerband. In some instances they take power away from the entire powerband altogether. I prefer the stock air box design because of the balanced powerband and throttle response it provides.

 

You can make as much power as you want, but if you can't keep it on the ground (where the suspension setup will come in), you will not get the most out of your other mods..

Don't fall into the "I drag race, so suspension won't help" hole; your suspension has a lot to do with your timeslips (you'll really see it in your 60 ft times)..

While with a turbo you can still pull off an "ok" time with a crap suspension by making up for wheel hop/spin with top-end power, with all motor, you need to keep the wheel-hop to a minimum to get your best time.. And just think, that owner with the turbo could have an even better time if a decent suspension was involved.. Suspension is NOT just for cornering; you'll just set it up differently depending on what kind of racing you are doing..

This is why we don't see too many decent times out of an amateur N/A honda owner..

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RedLight_Si &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">You are not going to make a big enough difference in engine performance to justify the cost with your current engine(assuming it is the stock engine) with only spending $1000. An engine swap or forced induction would be a more practical way to increase performance in that area but will cost far more than $1000.

You said you are going to take it to the strip and that it will also act as your daily driver. If you do take it to the strip or anything like that,you will be increasing wear and tear on the car and run the risk of breaking something,even though it is a Honda. You have to ask yourself if you want to run that risk with your daily driven car.

As far as suspension goes,a lowered suspension will not help you as much at the strip as it would at a road course not to say it wont help. If you do decide just to get springs, I highly recommend you change out the dampers as well as the stock ones are not designed to work with lowering springs. You also have to take in account depending on which suspension you get the altered geometry you will have to deal with,for example, the angle of the tie rods will be altered and that will increase bump steer and wear on the steering rack. Also be careful how low you go with the suspension as it is your daily driver. That will depend on the roads in your area.

Alot of racers will tell you that 16's are the size to get when it comes to wheels and at least 7" wide. They are a good trade off between 15's and 17's. They are generally better looking than 15s (personal preference) and will produce a shorter sidewall with the tires but are generally slightly heavier however they have less rotational interia than 17's and are generally lighter and are less prone to wheel damage depending on the size of tire you get.

5Zigen is a Japan based company and from what I hear make very good wheels. The wheels you mentioned "FN01-r" are a forged wheel and are quite expensive. You might want to take a look at the cast version(not as strong and heavier) the,FN01R-C,which will be much less expensive but look generally the same.
Dont forget about tires also. There are alot of them. If I were to buy tires right now,I would go with the Yokohama AVS ES100. They seem to be good all around tire and are reasonably priced. They can get quite loud from what I hear though. What I would suggest is to look on TireRack.com and take a look at the tire tests and surveys they have on their site. There is alot of good info on that site.

Good Luck.
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good info for you

 

Thanks again guys, im getting alot more info and help than I thought i would...

Another problem ive ran into...I cant find any full exhaust kits for the ES1 LX. They are all for the EM2. Any help?

 

You can do is swap out your engine thermostat( Usually $90 for a cold thermostat) and you might want to check out http://meganracing.com for some headers and/or a test pipe. They got some headers for under $200.00 and test pipes for under $100.00.

 

Thanks for the info on the thermostat.

I checked the MR site, and all they have are parts for the EX...

Anyone know where I can get any kind of exhaust upgrades for the LX sedan?