Hey all, I'm new to the forum and I just got a 04' Honda Civic LX coupe. I've been doing a lot of homework about mods for the engine and found out that it doesn't play nicely with bolt-ons My goal for this (my frist honda) is to just wake the car up a bit. I know in order to get 200+whp I would need to do a K20 swap, Nos, or turbo. I don't wanna go that route untill a few years down the road money is a little tight...

My goal will be something like 150whp. I was thinking of going with something modest like I/H/E, and doing a Head Swap from a EX to add V-tec. I don't need anything super ultra honda jdm power turbo boostin , just something that will be fun to drive and just wake the engine up a little. If I'm not satisfied after that then I'll go on to a K20 swap. What are your iputs on this guys? Thanks in advanced!!

 

your sn brings back memories for this forum...

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread/2247386

check that thread out for more details.

and if you already had looked at that, youll know that 150whp NA is achievable. You will need the following though:

High flow Intake Manifold
Bigger Injectors
Stage 2-3 NA cam
Retainers
High Compression Pistons
Intake, header, full exhaust
Vtec head
AND YOUR MOST IMPORTANT MOD: Kpro

your looking at ATLEAST 3-4k but youll have a pretty quick car.

 

welcome to the site, follow this guy =] https://honda-tech.com/zerothread/1977383 the other 1llmatic. if i was able to do it all over id just do suspension for now until you can afford a kswap.

 

Thats for the feedback, I've been using that thread as my bible lol. The main thing I was on the fence about was swaping the vtec head because I've heard at other places its not that big of a difference for $200-$500. Everything else would be in steps. Yeah, like I said not trying to be the fastest, but I want something fun to drive.

BTW how does my screen name bring back memories?

 

Sorry to double post, but yeah I've seen his build thread before 1llmatic. Maybe I should just save up and go with a K-series.... Get it lowered, rims, then just wait. Thanks again for the feed back.

*sorry to double post*

 

1llmatic was the guys sn. he passed away not too long ago and when you posted about kswaps, it just kinda reminded me of him. great guy he was

 

Aww man sorry to hear about that...sounds like he was a great guy. I'll be sure to live up to the illmatic name

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Curiouz_G &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">1llmatic was the guys sn. he passed away not too long ago and when you posted about kswaps, it just kinda reminded me of him. great guy he was </TD></TR></TABLE>


i had the same thought.

welcome to the site tho! and good luck with your build up!

 

The ex head swap is not a good idea...You will be spending a lot more money for not very much more power..You should take the money and get the i/h/e and look at the aem tru cam gear. With all that you might get another 20 hp MAX..but when the car is only 117 hp stock you will be at about 140hp. If you are looking to get at about 150hp you will need major upgrades..I have a 2004 civic ex and before turboing it, I have h/i/e stage 2 clutch and 9lbs flywheel and with all that I was at 168hp on the dyno..But the ex comes with 127hp stock...So you would be able to get around 150hp if you upgrade the clutch and flywheel..OR is it a/t?????

 

Yeah the v-tec head swap is a waste of money. They dont kick in like they used to back it the day with the older generation civics. If ur serious about going k-series, just save ur money and get the k20 out of the rsx-s. Those were the best in my opinion. Hope this was helpful.

 

168hp on the dyno? even if that was crank, thats still pretty high. You also mentioned you didnt even have a PROPER EMS in other threads when you were NA. People with Kpro and TONS of NA mods still didnt make as much as you did. Can you explain that?

as for an ex head swap, if your planning on boosting in the future, go for it. They have turbo cams for vtec heads but youd need to get a custom grind for an LX if you ever boost.