Hey gang, newbie here. I'm relatively new to the tuning side of cars. I'm eager to learn more from others who have skills.

GOAL: Build an affordable, daily driven, street weapon crx that will not only run WITH, but AWAY FROM any stock corvette in performance and handling while maintaining legendary Honda quality, reliability and fuel economy.
Is this possible/reasonable?
Current mods: '85 CRX Si, B16A1, S1 tranny (with JDM YS1 w/ LSD waiting to go in), Homemade CAI, DC Sports stainless 4-2-1 header, custom cat-back exhaust (2.5"?), slightly bored out TB, Tokico Illuminas, Sway Away 23mm torsion bars, modified beefier integra Fr. axles, Progress rear springs, 1g teg front brake conversion w/ Brembo vented/X-drilled rotors (overkill but looks damn cool--would like to do the rear disc brake conversion from 1g teg also), 15" RH CPO35's wrapped in Kumho's, andy's autosports "old" (pre-2002) body kit (new, waiting for installation).
I'm just curious about what options exist and what I should expect cost/labor.
Whaddya think?
thanks for your input.
bryman

 

as far as engine...your options are good...the B16A1 is from the JDM 88-91 SiR's...so it has a pretty good aftermarket...I'd maybe swap some cams...ITR or CTR if you can afford them...and some cam gears and start tuning those...of course you could get tougher internals with a lower compression and boost it(my choice ) other than that...I can't think of anything off the top of my head...maybe a chipped ECU, get a V-AFC...depends on how deep your pockets are.

 

wait a sec how did u mount it??? did u buy the mount kit? that right there is 650 and how do u figure all the money u spent was affordable seems like u have a shitload of cash so i dunno wut ur working with as far as budjet or ur just broke now cause of all the stuff u have

 

No, I don't exactly have gold coins shooting out of my ***. Actually, I bought the car last August for $1500. It had B16A1 w/ Hasport mount kit , I/H/E, ugly/heavy 16" Konig Caffeine's , and ZDyne ecu on when I bought it (Before you soil yourself silly, the car needed A LOT of work). Since then, I put on brembo's, Tokico's, Progress rear springs, RH CPO35's (had been looking for 1.5 yrs. until I scored a killer deal on ebay :thumbup. Here's what I've done to it since I've bought it:
New: alternator, battery, sunroof repair (PIA), rear brake cyl's, control arms, axles, ignitor, plugs, distributer, ign. coil, and probably other **** I can't remember Car STILL needs minor body work (probably 1K or so I'm guessing, unless somebody wants to hook me up :beer and paint.
I bought it knowing I was going to put close to $10K in it. As my goal states, I want it to be a vette killer, and be one of the nicest 1st gen crx's around.
Here's a few suggestions I've heard from others; tell me what you guys think...
1)B20B block--tasty torque monster
2)extensive head work (P & P, milled head, cams/pistons/retainers/valves, roller rockers--rev to 12K!! yummy!)
3)The great equalizer: NOS (AKA: the cheater method)
4)Turbo/SC??---How the hell would it fit?????
Whaddya think??
bryman

 

you could do a turbo kit like you stated, it fits in there, there was a 1st gen at N8 that had a turbo b16a in it...

 

doin FI will require alotof work in the first gen turbo will run into the radiator first of all so ud need to get a radiator that could be pushed forward enough.....a SC may not work ive never seen teh b series in the first gen but im thinking it sits close to teh firewall and close to teh master cylinder....one day i will have a b16 in my 86 with a turbo but ill stick to teh turbo d16a1 ......u got a really great deal on that one im jelous u ripped thaht guy off

 

Hey Bryman, what's up? I remember when you bought that rex on the resource board for 1500 and drove it all the way to Ohio from NV. Actually that price was the original posted price on the board. I woulda picked it up, but the price made me too suspicious . Anyways, you have the 1st gen hasport mounts for 84-87 right, the one's that don't allow A/C?

If you want to walk corvettes I'd say turbo charge, but I saw pics of your engine bay looks like its a tight fit already. Not that it couldnt be done, but man it's gonna be close


[Modified by Brandon Chun, 1:23 PM 8/7/2002]

 

Well you caould buy an new vett and mod it... then tow the CRX witht he vett and you should be able to bet other vetts right off the showroom floor

Just Kidding

You will need to do alot of lower end work to either raise the commpresion or lower it.

Basicly you will have to make an all out race motor... And put out alot of money

 

my suggestion would be to fully balance the B16 rotational assembly and do some new rods, pistons, clutch and flywheel. then pick up a set of big cams, for example the Skunk2 Jun imitations, and rev that mug till the valve cover flies off! haha. with some higher compression-11~12 to 1 and lighter rods and big cams, i am guessing it would be a solid low 13 second car on a tire. on street tires from a 40 mph roll on, traction is not as much of a problem, so i am guessing you could whack a vette. i would stay away from hybrid type motors--ls/vtec, cr/vtec, they don't have the high rpm oiling capacity.

i don't know. i have never raced a vette. but that is a setup i would love to have.


[Modified by wreckedhatch, 10:42 PM 8/7/2002]

 

Put a neon rad in to free up some room for a nice little turbo project. Say a T3 running 10 psi intercooled should put you around 300 at the wheels. You should also stiffen up the chassis though, ie strut tower braces, and where ever you can fit any others.

 

I say make it a VTEC monster, get some big bad *** cams and do LOTS of head work

 

u sir dont have a clue as to wut ur talking about if u had a first gen u would know exactly wut is wrong with ur response the radiator is nothing lke teh second gen crx wut is needed is a VW rabbit raditor its not as tall wich will allow u to put it where the condensor would go makingh more room infornt of the motor

 

Wow, thanks for the great feedback. Just wanted to make a couple replies:
crxgator: "you could do a turbo kit like you stated, it fits in there, there was a 1st gen at N8 that had a turbo b16a in it..."
Do you know who did this? Do they have pics/instructions/details on how they did it?
JDMB18hatch: "u got a really great deal on that one im jelous u ripped thaht guy off".
I'd say by the time you factor in: 1) the plane ticket to get there, 2) the gas to get back, 3) food/lodging, etc. AND 4) all the extensive work I've had to do to it, that it might be considered a DECENT deal. Like I said, It needed (and still needs) A LOT of work. I've put about $4500 into it so far, (if you include the rims)---labor and parts alone to fix the damn sunroof was like $700 --, in his ad the seller stated "minor BUMPER damage" which when I got there turned out to be $1000+ in BODY damage, not to mention it desperately needs paint, and several dings pushed out. Don't get me wrong though, it was probably still worth it--the drive back was 1/2 the fun, but I DEFINITELY wouldn't say "I ripped the guy off"...

wreckedhatch: What would you guess would be involved cost-wise for parts and labor for that endeavor? Ballpark? Also, how much "daily driver" and "honda reliability" would I be sacrificing? I know I will have to sacrifice some dependability, but I don't want to put $10K in the motor and have it last 10K miles...Yeah, the one big downside to going CR-VTEC is you definitely lose on the "rev-happy" B16A characteristics...

Anybody heard of roller rockers and revving to 12K rpm's?!?! How cool would that be??? My bike doesn't even rev to that! How much work (labor+parts) would be involved to do that?

If anyone has any ideas ballpark to what cost/labor is involved with these aforementioned options, list them here.

thanks for your feedback.
bryman

 

i deffinateky didnt know u had to go cross country but if u lived around the car u would have deffinately been saying u got a good deal and uhh yeh go on the crx resource theres a guy there with it done the turbo its gonna be alot of work to make room but itll be worth it or u can do all motor with 200 HP ull be killing vettes in teh twisties and in teh straights u can do that with top end work and a stock bottom end

 

how do you figure a crvtec is less reliable than revving to 12,000rpm regularly??
my motor pushes 8500 like nothing, if you ask me, that's pretty "rev-happy".
with my setup, i've taken modded Mustangs and even a modded NSX easily. upgrade your block to a B20, and call it a day.

 

go with a b20 block and ctr cams and expect low 13's -high 12's (with good driving, and traction.)

 

heh...traction, what's that?

 

I've got some pics of the car to show what's been done so far. How do I post them here? thanks.
bryman

 

[quote]you caould buy an new vett and mod it... then tow the CRX witht he vett and you should be able to bet other vetts right off the showroom floor
Just Kidding

You will need to do alot of lower end work to either raise the commpresion or lower it.

Basicly you will have to make an all out race motor... And put out alot of money1. vette's aren't that fast....b20 block 12:1 compression, ctr cams

2. b16+ t3+ 10psi= more like 230 whp


[Modified by dohcsideSi, 10:07 PM 8/12/2002]