does anyone here mess with these? I'm not wild about the looks but am considering one as a cheap DD ideally a CRX. they must be lighter than the later 80's cars right? do they take to boost well?

 

Being that these cars have cvcc engines, i dont think boosting them would work very well.

Not a crx, but i like driving my civic.

 

I think a CVCC motor would take boost just fine. It's a closed deck, cast iron block. If you don't like the CVCC stuff, just get the Canadian cylinder head from the corresponding motor. As far as I know there was a non-cvcc version of just about every head. An 84 Civic is quite different from the 83 though. Better read up on carbureted turbocharging though, or convert to EFI with a standalone ECU setup like MegaSquirt.