First a little background info:
I am an automotive tech with about 8 months of professional experience but I have been a weekend warrior since the summer of '13 when I bought my first car, a 2000 civic dx coupe. Since that day I've fallen deeper and deeper into the seemingly endless rabbit hole that is the honda world. Fast forward 4 years I now have 8 months under my belt working at AAMCO transmissions and I am finally at the point where I have enough experience, have enough resources, and to a lesser degree have enough money for finally realizing my dream of starting my first build.

So about 3 days ago my 2 buddies, who are more ricers than honda enthusiasts, got a chance to purchase a 1996 Accord EX sedan for about $650. For months they have been haunted by the fact that neither of them, one owns a 2003 Lancer Ralliart and the other a 2014 Accord EX, have been able to beat an ex-miata owner turned subaru owner who rolls around in a stock 2003 WRX. Both of my buddies who initially bragged about being faster than my shitty commuter, an automatic 2002 Civic EX, now found themselves in a state of terror realizing that they in fact were not as fast as they believed they were. Soon they turned to the honda world for comfort and found hope in the form of turbo'd B series motors, killer H and K swaps, and frankenstein motor monstrosities shoved into the tin can shells of Civic's and CRX's. It didnt take long for them to realize that perhaps in order to be fast you dont need to buy a fast car but rather you can build it. So when they heard that this Accord was selling for cheap and that not only was it affordable but it also had the oh so coveted "VTEC" feature, they immediately jumped the gun and went for the purchase. Shortly after the deal was made I was asked to join in because it would bring costs down and because I would be a valuable asset to have if they ever hope to build a car to beat the "Subaru from Hell".

First they began talking nonsense about swapping in H series motors and building different varieties of frankenstein motors from B20V build to an F22 block h23 head combo. All this they claimed could make great power and be much cheaper than a K swap. When I explained to them the multiple parts that would be needed, the machining that would have to be done in order to be done right, the possible loss of p/s and a/c, and the time that would be needed to do right they began to see the reality of what a "project car" really was. Eventually we agreed to go turbo and decided to first fix current maintenance issues with the vehicle and start the turbo process in early January.

Our goals are not in this particular order and are as follows:
Push the stock internals to their limits
Achieve 220+ whp
Eventually run low 13's at the track
Maintain a budget of around $2000 lol

As a side note we do not want to open the engine and replace internals quite yet. We want to use this as a learning experience and take this one thing at a time. First we want to turbo the motor properly and learn and understand the theory of how it works (I understand the theory of just about all internal engine modification, I've been studying about forced induction from the forums here at hondatech for about a year now but am still far from understanding all the principles of FI, and I know little to nothing about tuning. My friends know so little that its annoying, but more on that later lol), we want to push the power on the motor as far as the fuel system will allow it (we may upgrade to proper injectors and pump if money is not tight) or until we blow the motor. Once we blow the motor or max out the fuel system we want to pull out the motor and replace it with at minimum OEM parts but hopefully with quality performance parts and at the same time we will upgrade the transmission (performance clutch, carbon synchros, possibly lsd but that depends on money again lol). Again we want to take our time and learn.

I will post pictures soon of the car in its current state and list out our upcoming maintenance projects, ask for advice on turbo setups, and ultimately just keep track of our progress on the build and also will be posting this same thread on the forced induction forum. Hope you guys enjoy it.

 

So this weekend my buddies decided to do the brakes on the car and also replace the cv axles because they were in rough shape. They began at 9 on saturday morning and... well they never really finished lol. I showed uo at about 7 pm to see what they were doing and found the car in a dismantled state. I couldn't stay for long because I had to go run an errand but before I left I showed them where the transmission drain and fill plugs were at and told them to drain the fluid so as to get an idea of what kind of shape the transmission was in. Well about an hour later I get a phone call from my friend saying that he stripped the drain plug hole and wanted to know if when I come back I could bring my welder so we could weld it back into place. Frustrated and in a state of shock I finished doing what I had to do and rushed back to my friends house to find that not only was the drain plug stripped but the fluid was full of metal flakes which mean that our budget for the build just got a little smaller lol. I insisted on leaving the car as it was and waiting until Monday night so that I could get my re-threading tools from work and we could fix the hole but my friend really needed to get the car out of his garage and persistently recommended just slapping the plug into the with JB Weld and said if it didn't work that he would personally pay for a used replacement out of his pocket. I decided to go with it because that buddy was letting us use his place and willingly offered to make up for ******* up the transmission.

additionally we installed a cold air intake a few days ago (not my idea). When they purchased the car they immediately started looking at lots of aftermarket parts to buy for the vehicle. Some of the first things where the classic ricer additions, headers, intakes, and exhausts. I convinced them to wait on wasting money on parts until we had a proper budget and parts list and I also had to explain to them about how those parts would for the most part be useless if we were going to turbo the car. They had already ordered a Spec-D cold air intake though and one of my buddies desperately wanted it to be installed so that we could "sound loud". So now we have a 1996 Accord with a JB Welded transmission and a super sick cold air intake lol

 

heres a bonus pic of our high performance air filter. I'm pretty sure the red adds at least 5 whp

 

Update on current status of vehicle:

The JB Weld is holding fine so far but we had other issues when driving the vehicle around last night. We began to feel bad vibration from the right side of the car as if the cv axle had gone bad again along with scraping noises coming from what we suspected was the brakes. After Bert (one of the clueless vatos) and I questioned Xavi (the other clueless vato) about his procedure in putting back the vehicle together the night before we found out that he had only tightened the lug nuts using a 3/8 ratchet because he was afraid he might strip the studs (he is scarred from his experience with the drain plug). We drove to my house VERY slowly and VERY carefully and found that on the right side all the lug nuts where removable by hand and that the left wasn't much better. I tightened the lug nuts and showed them the proper procedure for tightening lug nuts then I found the plate that was rubbing against the brake rotors and bent it back into place.

We went ahead and drove the vehicle a bit more and luckily had no more issues. Now we are going to make a plan and start piecing together our turbo kit. Originally we were gonna buy an eBay kit due to lack of money and because this wasn't that serious of a build but we have decided to piece it together on our own in order to be able to reuse some of the parts and learn about the process better. Any help would be appreciated.

P.S. I apologize for the posts in rapid succession. I originally posted this in the wrong thread and am just now moving this here

 

It might not be a bad idea to double check that the axle nuts are also tightened, since it sounds like you (your buddies) had to remove them. They have to be tightened to 181 ft-lbs, and a lot of torque wrenches only go up to 175. Also, the ratcheting torque wrenches aren't always that reliable. A lot of people seem to reuse axle nuts, but they are supposed to be replaced if removed, and when tightened, the edge is supposed to be indented into a notch using a chisel.

Sounds like tightening the lug nuts solved the problem for you, but thought it was worth mentioning.

 

CAI with the stock trans gearing is not going to do much but make noise.
IMO the biggest improvement with a NA Accord is to change the trans, you will gain a much needed increase in acceleration. Stock gearing is for cruising/economy.

 

Thanks for the advice. To me using new nuts and notching the edge so its back the way it was originally seems like common sense but taking into account the errors that have been made it would be wise to double check all there work for the next couple of weeks

Yes I am aware of this and have also told my friends the same thing but as I stated in a previous post they want loud noise to sound fast right now. Also as far as the transmission we plan on getting one from pick and pull and building it up with higher quality parts and perhaps changing gear ratios o the final drive, but now you have me thinking about whether or not there is already a shorter geared transmission that bolts right up to the f22b1 and would require less money to be put into it?

Do you have any recommendations for gear ratios, final drive, or another optional transmission that could be swapped in? I will be doing research on my own but between school, work, and fixing all the junkers that keep breaking down at my house its hard to get all my info right quickly.

 

here is the link to the FI thread I created to get advice on piecing together the turbo in case anybody want to take a look.

edit: It was moved to the general f22 turbo thread. It is the most recent one at the moment

 

Welcome to H-T and good luck w/ the build.

Few pointers, by what I've read it seems your buddies might need a little supervision and a helping hand in the right direction before I'd leave the 'cord in their hands again, or that thing could become a death trap. Maybe before they start on any new installs or services inform them of proper procedures and what to look for, and to always RE-CHECK THEIR WORK. Instruct them on the proper tools required for the install/service and ensure they know how to properly use them. Education goes a long way on keeping people safe and from injuring others. Also, as much as this is a learning experience, no one that I know of just wants to throw money at something and not expect something in return (except maybe Trump), but inform them seriously of the consequences of performing haste/incomplete work on this car. If everyone is putting in money on this, make sure its being mod'd and serviced correctly. I will definitely keep an eye on this thread, bc I love a budget build. Always fun to see the progress and ups and downs. You guys got questions, H-T has the answers.

-Rick

 

To Rick and all who may be wondering what happened to this build. After explaining to them the time and cost required to do this build vs the more supported platforms such as the 92-00 civics and the 94-01 integras we have decided to flip the car and move on to something else before we get too deep into this thing. We bought the car for about $650 and put about $400 into it to get it into fairly decent shape. We sold it for $1500 and have set that money aside while we look for an eg hatch to pursue our budget build on.

 

As a side note I actually bought a 1995 integra last year but didnt touch it till this year after finally selling my commuter. I have been doing some small repairs to bring it to what in my eyes is "good condition". I have a few leaks to trace and a little bit of detailing to do before I am ready to start my personal build on it. I will be starting a thread soon to showcase my car and do How-To's of any diag or repairs I happen to do that I think will be helpful to the H-T community. Thanks to all who gave this a read and sorry that this build ended up going nowhere, hopefully next time we can come in full force