Hello HT. I am a huge fan or the CRX's and ef's. I just purchased my 3rd one, 88 crx si. The other 2 are long gone now but the memories remain. The first one was a 91 hatch gutted with a zc swap. Bought it thinking it would be a great car for delivering pizza and very quickly discovered just what these cars are about. Over the next 3-4 months I plan on doing a lot of work to my new toy. I am looking at turning it into a street legal summer car that will be raced at autocross events. Hoping you guys may be able to help a bit along the way.

The car: 88 CRX SI used and abused with a bagged zc swap running nitrous. I assume the engine is bagged due to nitrous but the guy I bought the car from says he has never used the nitrous? The issue might also be the huge tires on the car. 225/40r17. Thinking that dohc zc engine just isn't enough to turn those huge tires. Could also be a combination of the two. On deceleration the engine backfires tons. But only when the engine is reving down, actually sounds bad a$$. Either was that engine will be gone so it don't really matter. Those tires will also be gone as they are way too big. They rub like crazy, on rough roads I can even smell the rubber burning. Guy I bought the car from said he used to have 18's on the car but had to downsize. One last detail, and I know you guys are going to hate this but I don't care. The car has the black widow wide body kit. I like them, I think they look great and I'll even go on record saying that.

The plan: b16a2, b16 tranny with lsd, b18 5th gear and hydro to cable conversion. Rear disc and front 10.3" brake conversion.

The budget: Hopefully keep it under 10g.

Order of operations: This weekend I will be blocking the car up and removing the interior. The car does have some rust on the floor. It doesn't look that bad from what I can see looking underneath the car but that can change very fast with the interior removed, can jacked up and a screw driver poking at it. My metal fabrication and welding skills aren't the best so depending on severity it may have to go to a body shop for the metal work. Once the rust has been repaired I will completely rebuild the entire suspension system as well as upgrade and rebuild the entire brake system. At this point I am going to bring the car for it's safety inspection. I am in Winnipeg Canada and we have some very strict safety inspection standards here and I know there is a ton of small tings that need to be fixed. No hood prompt, hatch shocks are shot, wiper blades are shot, does not squirt washer fluid, wipers stop where ever they want and do not return to there proper parked position, tail lights have moisture in them, rear defrost does not work, check engine light does not work and a I'm sure there is a bunch of other small issues I forgot to mention in there. Thankfully the under glow works fine lol. Once the car passes it's safety inspection I will do the engine and tranny swap. In the future when I am ready for more power I will have to option of going ls vtech or turbo or both.

Questions and concerns so far:

1: The rust on the floor is getting pretty close to rocker panel and the rocker panel has a fiber glass side skirt molded to it that does not come off easily or salvageablly. Can you weld on the backside of fiberglass or will catch fire? If I use a wet towel on the fiberglass and weld 1/8" at a time and give plenty of time for it to cool off think I might be able to get away with it?

2: I have read several ways of doing the front 10.3" rotor conversion. Seems to me the best way to do it is to find a set of rare knuckles from 90-91 civic ex sedan as they maintain factory suspension geometry. I do see the more common way of dong it is to use da integra knuckles but this will alter the factory suspension geometry. The issue is the ex sedan was only a us model and never came to Canada. Not going to find that at a wrecker out here. Anyone know where to find a set of knuckles? Opinions on difference and effects of the change in geometry with the integra knuckles?

3: Tires, there is a lot of people saying 195/50r15 is the best size tire for these cars and anything bigger then a 15" kills the performance. As I mentioned I believe this is one the problems with the 17's that are currently on the car. The articles I have read on tire size don't mention power. If I'm going with a b16 would there be any performance killing issues with 16". One of the biggest I hear with these cars and a b16 is getting traction. With the wide body kit I think I could get some 245's under there as long as the rim as the right offset. Anyone see a good wright up on tire fitment for a black widow crx? What do you guys think of 245's or 16's, too much tire?

Thanks for taking the time to read this and and comments, concerns or help will be greatly appreciated.
Enjoy the pictures.