what engine is in this? what are y our personal experiences owning one/ modding one? are they a waste? thanks for your input

 

You are going to want to search about this, cause I am sure it has been covered many times. If not on this page, I know for sure you will get more info about that motor on 7thgencivic.com.

Anyway, the D17 in those cars arent great. You are working off of 127hp from factory, with minimal torque. Intake, Header, Exhaust wont net you very much hp at all. You might bump your power to about 135-140 depending on parts used. Again, this is NOT at the wheels either. There are really two routes to make a 7th gen civic go "fast." Either you are going to want to go with Forced Induction, or a K series swap.
Forced induction for those cars have been around for a while now. There are a few turbo kits out on the market that will get you quite a bit more power. Also a nitrous setup with bump some power out of the motor. No superchargers (to my knowledge) have been made for that motor.
The route that I went with my 01 civic, was the K20A2 swap. It was very expensive at the time, but I was one of the very first (I was actually 4th according to HASport to purchase their kit). I had to fabricate LOTS of things, and wire up my own wire harness. As time went on, if you were to do the swap today, you could probably do the entire swap for roughly $5000 if you know where to shop. I will let you do your own research about the K-series motors, but it is no secret that it has gobs of potential.
Hope that helps a little bit.

 

interresting.. i actually wanted to go sohc turbo, but i couldnt find what motor was in the car let alone a kit for it. do you have any suggestions? or would a custom one really be the only way? also, would i have to mod internals? thanks

 

Again, there are some kits already made for the car. I would look into those, see if they have parts that you would like to use, or if you think piecing one together would be better.
All kinds of info can be found on 7thgencivic.com
They have an entire forum devoted to swaps and FI

 

thanks mang. how do you like your k20?

 

My car was down for about 2 months getting it in.
Had it for about a week before a drunk driver in a miata slammed into the rear end of my car at about 80mph while I was at a near stop destroying my 01 civic.
While I had it, it was an absolutely blast! Seeing the tach needle just dive way into the red to the 8000rpm redline of the K20A2. The 6 speed felt amazing, I even had a neuspeed short shift adapter on it which gave it a better feel. Complete loss of traction shifting into 2nd, chirping 3rd. That was on 215/40/17 Yoko tires.
And when I had it done, like I said this swap was still at myth status. No one had seen it, so needless to say whenever my hood went up, swarms of people crowded around. It was a good feeling.