Sooo.... It's been about 4 or so years since I gave any serious thought to fixing up the old 'rex (no cash ) and now I'm in the position of 1) buy a new car or 2) do the swap and mods I always wanted. My budget should be around 6-7k and as far as getting something else, I think I've decided to just stick with my crx (an 89 Si 265k miles) and have something quick and reliable rather than buy something newer that will be slower and possibly die on me. Wanted to build a turbo NA miata with all the nice Racing Beat suspension goodies, but I don't think it'll happen the way I want it just yet. If I can afford it after I graduate I wanna skip the miata and get a used Elise.

Anyways, I started compiling a list of mods that (hopefully) will happen over 2ish weeks next May. I'm just not sure if there are newer or better options that have surfaced while I was out. I just want something reasonably quick (autoX and a little straight line every so often) that's solid and reliable (hard to do repairs in an apartment parking lot on a 20-30 deg slope ).

1) Body - straightened and painted with new front and rear bumpers (almost tempted to go with one of those old-mugen-knockoff wings west kits but I'm not a fan of body kits...
2) Suspension - Already have some poly bushings that I never got around to installing. Thinking some Ground Controls with KYBs. Also thought about some Tein coilovers, but I'm wondering if there's any real use in dumping the extra cash just for autoXing.
3) Wheels/Tires - I always wanted some SSR Competition wheels (they're called Type C now aren't they?) Not sure about tires... so many out there. maybe 205s or 215s if they fit alright.
4) Brakes - I like the sound of the Accord wagon calipers/Civic EX rotor swap. Not sure yet, but I'm thinking about a rear disk conv. with all swapped parts.
5) Drivetrain, misc - I guess some of this will depend on the engine but for now I'm thinking about a steering wheel (mine's coming apart), putting the battery in the back, a short shifter (Neuspeed maybe?), a Fidanza FW and an Action clutch. Carbon driveshaft like in Gran Turis- wait, what?? nvm
6) Engine - (Looking at hmotorsonline) I guess this is the meat of the issue. I've always had a thing for the ITR engine (I guess we all have) even though I could get more power for the cash. I've thought about a plain B16, a turbo LS, a GSR and other options but I can't decide. My reasoning for the JDM ITR is that I could just drop it in (in a manner of speaking hehe) and have a respectable amount of power. I could turbo/build/etc any of the others but getting the parts and doing the tuning at my current juncture would be super expensive since I don't have access to a shop/welder/etc at the moment (lost contact with most of the car guy buddies and wouldn't wanna be a tool moocher). I'm halfway decent at fabrication, but I'm in college in a tiny apartment for the next few. And *sigh* as much as I hate to admit it, it would be pretty sweet to pop the hood and say, "Ah it's nothin much, just a stock JDM ITR engine." There, I admitted it...

So there's my pre-planning layout. I'm still in the research phase, so I have a good bit more reading to do, but I thought, "What the heck, I'll go ahead and post it." Any thoughts/opinions/etc? Does my timeframe of 2-2.5 weeks sound good (doing everything but the body work in a garage and the BW in a body shop)? I really want to plan this out well and do everything right. No ghetto fab, no junkyard turbos, no zip ties/duck tape/wire holding things together, etc. Maybe (probably) I'm an idiot being this picky but for once I wanna do something the "right way".




Modified by phoenix at 8:54 AM 7/27/2008

 

If you do all the work yourself and use a gsr engine, you will make budget, itr maybe not. It’s not really going to be all that to have an extra 10-20 hp, for the money you saved on a grs you could make up the difference easy. I personally would and did use the b16, save another 1000 over the gsr and 3000 over the itr. My b16 makes 280hp with some help from a turbo. Just some things to remember odb series, harness, jumper harness, A/c bracket if you want to keep the ac, belts, hoses, brackets, mounts, axles, shift linkage, water pump, tools that you don’t have already, dizzy are often times in need of attention, coolant, oil, sparkplugs, hondabond, new rotors, brake fluid, bearings for the hubs, exhaust system, misc. gaskets, if your painting: new outer window seals, rain gutter seals. These are just the things I can think of off the top of my head, every car will have something that will need a little attention and it’s never the big thing that hurt, it’s the nickel and diming that really takes a toll and can send the cost of rebuilding a car through the roof. I don’t even want to think about how much I’ve thrown into my car and the bottom line is no matter what, it’s still only worth 3-5K on a good day. Just some stuff to think about.
One thing I will say is, become very familiar with ryan’s how to swap website.
Good luck