Hey fellas, I am looking to buy one of two CRX HF's but I'm not 100% sure which one is the better deal for me. Please forgive my noobieness and am not looking to get flammed. Thanks

<U>My goal is to get a HF for its intended purpose of getting the best mileage, not for making a project out of it, so with that in mind, here's my two options below.</U>

I would like to read what you guys think and/or recommend given the price for each is very similiar (regardless of any extra shipping costs or the cost of me flying out and driving it back to Sunnyvale).

I know a stock HF is EPA rated for 49/52 and a stock DX is EPA rated for 34/41 but am not sure what the mileage difference will be given OPTION 2's chassis is an HF so the D15B2 DX motor will not have the extra 200 lbs to haul around.

Option 1:<U></U>
- Year: 1988 CRX HF
- Price: $2300 (owner has a $2100 standing offer until I let them know)
- Engine: D15B6 with 180K miles
- Chassis: 180K miles
- Color: Light Blue (stock color)
- Body: Small dent on front bumper with a few scratches on bumper, otherwise clean bodywork/paint.
- Title: Owner claims clear (I will need carfax to verify this)
- Extras: Owner can get its bodywork/paint flaws fixed very cheap (not Maaco or Earl Schieb)
- Starts and runs perfect (according to owner)
- Missing cargo area pieces
- Seats are purple but has seat covers on it.
- Stereo doesn't work
- No A/C

Option 2:<U></U>
- Year: 1989 CRX HF
- Price: $2000 obo (owner has a standing offer of $1800 until I let them know)
- Engine: D15B2 which was rebuilt on 12/22/05 for over $900 in rebuilt reciepts
- Chassis: 267K miles
- Color: Light Blue (stock color)
- Body: Small dent on front of hood, otherwise clean bodywork/paint.
- Title: Owner claims clear (I will need carfax to verify this)
- Extras: TONS of reciepts dating back most/all owners maintance
- Starts and runs perfect (according to owner)
- Missing cargo area pieces
- Seats are torn here and there but has seat covers on it.
- Stereo works
- Has A/C that works

 

i would do the 2nd one.. its always nice to hear "tons of reciepts from all the maintence" ,,and has a/c,,which is a plus but if you're all for gas mileage you probably wont be using it that much anyway..

and you say these cars are missing rear cargo parts..?? im pretty sure the hf didnt come with the same rear cargo as the dx and si cars from the factory..so maybe its just normal ,,

 

Option 2. My only question is why does it have a D15B2 in it? Did they convert from MPFI to DPFI, or are they using a HF manifold, on a DX block, and head? Besides that the second just sounds like an all around good car. With the money you would save over the other one. Buy some JDM seats off of Ebay for it.

 

Yeah I have no idea what all they did to convert it from the stock HF to the DX motor it's currently running. I want to review the paperwork to see who did the install so I can ask them since the current owner doesn't have a clue about this stuff, they just bought it, paid to repair/maintain it, and drove it.

I'm getting a clearer picture on option 1 since I'm still waiting to get a carfax on it but I ran the VIN to find out its smog history and it failed on the 15th, so I'm going to ask the seller if he intends to provide me the smog certificate if I buy his car or if he's thinking I'm buying it AS-IS, if that's the case I think option 2 is looking better (again assuming the owner is providing me the smog certificate).

I just don't want to deal with the hassle of trying to get a car to pass smog. I found a local CRX HF for sale for $2000 but it was sold as-is, then the owner spent $900 and got it fixed to pass smog so he decided to keep it...too bad it looked clean.

Here's a pic of the engine bay....I can see the '16V' on the valve cover but want to see the engine code to be certain it's a D15B2, and not just a different valve cover.




Modified by 97SS at 8:12 AM 5/18/2006

 

D15 With EGR I vote #2 too. Can't beat records. Gotta have the smog!!

I would suggest checking the suspension I would kick the rear tires forward and back to check the bushings, Rear lower control arms are bucks.
As for the front, I would jack it up and shake the tires and look for play in the ball joints and steering.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 97SS &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">




Modified by 97SS at 8:12 AM 5/18/2006</TD></TR></TABLE>

Thats definitly a HF intake manifold.

 

Stupid question I know but is it having the HF manifold a good or bad thing? Thanks.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 97SS &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Stupid question I know but is it having the HF manifold a good or bad thing? Thanks.</TD></TR></TABLE>

its a good thing in this case..because the stock manifold that comes on that d15b2 engine is setup for dual point injection (2 injectors)..

 

88 baby, the best year for honda!!! Or atleast the crx, there's no seatbelts on the doors!!! That's just me, but the 89 is a better deal.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Mugencrxsir1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">88 baby, the best year for honda!!! Or atleast the crx, there's no seatbelts on the doors!!!</TD></TR></TABLE>
The '89 HF had pillar-mounted belts as well.

 

the only difference between 88 and 89 is the rear suspension which is supposed to be a better choice for autox but i say go for the option 2. hope it has a HF manifold otherwise you got youself something even slower than it already was

 

UPDATE:
I took a look at option 2 and it has a D16A6 (thanks for the correction) engine from the Si not the DX's D15B2 like I thought, and it has the Si's manifold too, so it looks like they did a complete swap, they paid $19XX for it back in 1998, so it was a used engine (probably 30K plus the 80K miles put on it since so it has at least 110K miles on the engine and the chassis has 267K.

I still have two other HF's to look at before making up my mind, so we'll see. Thanks for the input guys.


Modified by 97SS at 10:29 PM 5/18/2006

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 97SS &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">UPDATE:
I took a look at option 2 and it has a D16B6 engine from the Si not the DX's D15B2 like I thought, and it has the Si's manifold too, so it looks like they did a complete swap, they paid $19XX for it back in 1998, so it was a used engine (probably 30K plus the 80K miles put on it since so it has at least 110K miles on the engine and the chassis has 267K.
.</TD></TR></TABLE>

d16a6 is the si engine..maybe thats what you meant..and are you sure thats a d16a6 intake manifold..?? looks small like the hf from what i can see in the picture..

 

Here's a better pic of the manifold.

 

that looks like an a6 with hf manifold