i have a 99' honda civic ex SOHC v-tec and im ready to build her(: But Im not sure where to start with her. I wanna start on the engine but dont have the money for the motor i want.. So im thinking about starting with a greddy evo 2 exhaust, some wheels and getting her painted this blue/purpleish color. Then when the money is good ill replace my motor, clutch/flywheel, headers, transmission, cams and all that good stuff. Im one of few people around here with sense when it comes to hondas and not being a ricer. I do most of the work on my car by myself. Being a female has the boys doubting that i can do this but i plan to show them all what i can do. With some words of wisdom it shouldnt be that hard. right?

 

intake, header, exhaust for starters. swaping a b series isn't that hard, if that's the route you want to take.

what are your plans for the car?

 

hello baybay =] haha jk. ive been debating on what exhaust to get too. the evo 2 is nice but i think im gonna get the buddyclub pro spec

 

Go spoon exhaust sounds GREAT!!!

 

get a greddy sp2 or an apexi ws2 they are look better and arent as loud dont get n e thing specific for that motor if your planning on swaping in a b series i would get some suspension on the car and save the money u were gonna use painting it if the paint is decent get something else..

 

I agree with FRESHTEG that suspension should be one of the first thing. Wheels and TIRES make a big difference for appearance and performance as well. I say go ahead and paint it though, a good paint job is key to a nice car in my humble opinion.

 

Step 1: suspension
Step 2: brakes
Step 3: power

Don't waste your money on a paint job unless the paint is messed up beyond saving.

 

This man speaks the truth, mostly. Personally I started with the swap first because I'd already owned the car 7 years and 190K miles, and wasn't sure I wanted to keep it anymore... I was sort of getting tired of it. The gsr swap got me excited about it again, and made me want to fix the rest up.

Generally though, I do agree.

Oh, and as someone pointed out, a I4 Honda engine has 1 header, not headers. And a single cam has a (one) cam, not 'cams.' I'm not really a stickler for terminology, but that'll get you made fun of around here lol.

 

If you don't want to remove the engine, there really is only one way to get "real" power out of a D-series, that is... forced induction. Going N/A it'd take twice what the car is worth just to get a D-series to 200 HP. Beyond that, you can always swap engines. I'm sure there are more people that can give better insight but I'll chime in with a few...

B16's have between 160-170 HP but little torque. This swap will pretty much make your car an 99-00 Si.

GS-R's are 170-180 HP and much better torque than B16. Price is decent for USDM ones. A common choice because it is a good choice.

ITR engines are about 200 HP and CTR's are about 185 HP. In my humble opinion, they are astronomically ridiculously expensive and are an incredibly bad investment.
Flame me if you want, spending $5000 for 200 HP is stupid.

H22's are fantastic power to dollar ratio but can be a bit more difficult to get in the engine bay. F20B DOHC are the same. Both have about 200 HP and cost about $1000 for the engine. They have fantastic torque and as I said before, you get a LOT for the money.

K-series is... Money. Nuff said. Wait until supply is higher and demand is lower.

A F20C/F22C1 can be installed in a Civic. You need a kit that mounts it to a K-series trans. The engine alone runs $3000-3500. On the other hand, 240HP. Probably not a good investment.

Some people successfully install J-series V6's - $3,500 does the entire swap, which is good for 260 HP. A decent investment as well as being something unique.

About that EVO2 Exhaust, if it's a catback, you can keep it even after you swap in some cases. I've heard the EVO2's... they aren't that loud. more of a note that varies with RPM than that stupid buzzing fart sound. GReddy makes decent exhaust. FRESHTEG is correct though - the SP2 is actually pretty damn quiet. It'll get less attention from your "friends" in blue.

 

Agreed.

...not quite... There are a lot of other minor differences, including the fact that people will always pay more for a car with an EM1 vin tag. My feeling is that you can make an EX *better* than an Si for less money, but it will never be an Si. If you really want to complete the look, you'll need an Si cluster, wheels, rear sway, front lower control arms, front swaybar, front strutbar, rear disc conversion, seats, grille, painted skirts, Si badge, DOHC badging, and either Black Pearl, Milano Red, or Electron Blue paint. And it still won't be an EM1. But it WILL be a theft magnet for all the people who want to pretend their EXs are EM1s.

Personally, I don't care. I proudly drive an EX that'll spank an EM1 every way.

Agreed. I've argued before that the GSR is the best bang for buck in the B series world. ITRs are nice, but too expensive for what little bit extra you get.

Yep to all of that. J-swaps still have a lot of bugs, and probably always will. I seriously doubt anyone will ever fit one under a stock hood.

For exhaust, I still like the Apexi WS2.

 

I had a Tanabe Super Racing Medallion on an EK hatch w/ B16..No cat.. and it was only truthfully loud at highway speeds and not ricey loud just deep and agressive.

Thats my personal choice and I would never try anything else

 

4 inches of shimming on that hood will fix her right up lol

 

Word, if you have ANY intentions on doing a motor swap don't bother buying things for the Dirty D that will give you 4hp for way more than its worth besides being cool. I say get suspension/wheels/tires, slight brake upgrade, get the body/interior the way you want to your taste, and all while planning out what you want to do to the motor swap/build. Oh and for exhaust I'll soon be running a Hytech rep. header, test pipe, 2.5 kteller catback with Tanabe Super Hyper Medallion muffler. Should be fairly quiet/deep sounding for what it is from what I've heard.

 

Hey there, hmmm...well I have a 97 ek hatch and so far i've put in integra ls seats, CTR red carpet, repainted it silver with red pearl mixed in, tien h-tech springs...so far so good. I just bought my exhaust, if you want a good deal with an amazing exhaust i'd go for the Apexi World Sport 2, its a great exhaust, good on performance but at the same time looks clean and relatively stock looking. its got a nice deep sound but not over bearing like other exhausts on the market. http://www.importdpsonline.com/ They have a really great deal on the world sport. Its $420 shipped! What engine are you trying to swap in? Im about to buy a USDM B16A2.