ok so i'm kind of planning to do some weekend warrior action this coming summer, and i have a couple ideas up in the air.

1. volvo 240 turbo - rebuild the engine for 20psi and tear up the 1/4mi
2. mopar k-body turbo - again i'd be shooting for around 12sec 1/4mi

3. work on my civic a bit.

i was thinking about how fun it would be swapping in a b18 and running it stock. those things pound out about 150hp to the ground, correct?

of course i'd work on the suspension and braking a bit - probably just put a nice street performance suspension setup on there (i'm thinking in terms of a 1/2inch drop, max, since i have to commute into seattle in the car), stiffen up the rear, do a disc swap in back, and stick with nice metallic compound for the pads. are the parts for a rear disc setup difficult to find?

as for tires and wheels - i have a set of 14" koenig reign wheels (which i think look pretty sharp) with roadhuggers, but for performance option, i'd have some nice soft compound, or even r-compound tires on the 13" steelies.

tho the idea of an engien swap gives me pause. what can i do with the stock D16 motor? if i were to free up air flow by modifying the head a bit, and adding a more aggressive cam, what is the engine's reasonable, streetable potential? i know the ex model has a 130hp motor. what's the difference there, besides the vtec cam. do they have a higher compression ratio? cause my buddy's ex seems quite a bit more responsive between idle and 4k rpm than my modest little hatch.

i could swap the head from an ex civic, correct? that's pretty easy to do, i gather, about a day's work for an amateur mechanic like myself. if i were to do that, could i expect a quiet, streetable engine throwing 120hp down to the road?

i don't want the car to be loud. my 150db rx-7 is starting to get old hehe.

 

All motor D16 really isn't good for a weekend warrior. I'd say if you wanna stick with the d16 turbo it. D16s love boost, but then again you have a y7 is my guess. I'd say just swap in a dual cam but stick with the b18s for some torque.

 

im in the same boat, ive got a 96 hatch with the D16Y7. How much would it cost (and is it easy to do) to put the ex head on mine?

 

why aren't d motors good for racing (i'm talking autocross, or lapping events, no drag if it's a civic)? do they not hold up well to abuse?

see, i'm currently using a tired old rx-7 for the track duty, and it only makes about 105-110hp at the pavement (depending on it's mood, the ornery bastard), and considerin my civic weighs as much i would be perfectly happy with a like 120hp at the wheels.

but if it'll blow up if i run it >4k for too long, i'd rather look into a b motor i guess.

 

Not much, you can get a complete head for probably 100-150 and then its all just labor after that. Well you'd still need the intake manifold and throttle body but those can be had for cheap as well. If I was you guys and you wanted to do D series boost just get a y8 swap and do that. The minime swaps really don't put out much more horsepower than the y8s.

Rotaryguy: That's not really the case. I guess I misunderstood you with the term "weekend warrior". I didn't know you wanted to autox it. If so then sure the stock d series would be an okay platform. But I really don't think you'll be happy with it.

 

i plan to do a nice lil project in my garage over the next 7 months but Id like my DX hatch not to be such a turtle until then. Where can I get the vtec head along with the TB and IM?

 

http://www.car-part.com is a really good junk yard search. And just take a look in the classifieds. I always see D series parts in there.

 

link doesnt work... ill check the classifieds

 

besides just bolting on the head, IM, and TB... is there any re-wiring that has to be done?

 

i'm building my y8 coupe up to be an all motor autoX car now . Its gutted in the rear, bolt ons, no ac or ps, h&r sport springs, and kyb agx shocks, riding on some rota slipstreams with 205/50/15 kuhmo 712's as of now, but in the spring time i'll be throwing on my brand new azenis. It handles pretty decent and is fun in the turns. By next month i'll have the zex 59300 cam in there along with a chipped p28 obd1 ecu. I'm hoping to eventually make at least 140whp all motor once I get some head work done and maybe some tuning. Then maybe run boost the next year or opt for a new full coilover suspension.

 

yeah you have to run an EX ecu and wire up the vtec solenoid.

 

ok, just trying to my parts-list in order. so i need...

1) IM
2) TB
3) head
4) EX ecu

missing anything?

 

a lumpy cam?

 

ah ha! knew i was missing something lol