Im about to pick up an 88 CRX that needs alittle work. I plan to install a new clutch, springs, shocks, tires, intake and nitrous. It will be autocrossed about once a month and taken to the strip about once a week. I have never dealt with CRX's before, and Im just looking for something cheap to have fun with.

Are there any problems that I should look out for in particular?

Also, is a 50 shot do-able on these engines? Assuming good tuning is utilized? I have a friend that will do the swaps for next to nothing, so worst case scenario is Im out a few hundred bucks for a new engine.

Thanks.

 

well to save some money don't do anything mechanical to the D16a in case you do swap the motor out. do stuff to help handling and braking. don't do the clutch unless its totally gone. 50 shot should be fine but make sure the motor is up to snuff with a compression test

 

RUST!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ceLtic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">RUST! </TD></TR></TABLE>

Depending on where you're located rust is probably the only major problem. Good luck on the project and I'm sure you'll have lots of fun with it. Oh yea and remember it is a 16 year old car so I'd suggest a tune up//oil change immediately when you get it.

 

Florida for me, so rust shouldnt be an issue.

If I do swap it it will probably for another d16. Power really doesnt matter in autox's and Im just dragging for fun, so theres really no reason to step up to a b16 or 18.

Ill be sure to do a full fluid change and some basic tune up stuff, plugs, rotor, etc.

 

climate control breaks....very hard to find them

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by onefastcrx88 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">climate control breaks....very hard to find them</TD></TR></TABLE>

Gonna be a race car, dont need it anyway.

Also, what kind of times do people pull with a basically stock engine and a 50 shot?

 

well ur good to go then

 

to tell you the truth there is a lot of tuning invalved when adding Nitrous. I hope you know how to tune or otherwise your just going to blow the motor up after awhile. Just adding nos to a car isn't great for it. Thats just my opinion. A d16 wasen't ment to be raced all over hte place so you need to mod it to get the best potential out of it. Good luck with it.

 

werd my old tired d16a6 didn't last long when i bought the car, the wrist pin locked up after 1000 miles of owning it..
don't get me wrong tho the car could last forever..
BTW i'm hoping your getting an Si, with the MPFI.. and not a DX or HF?.. those are not good platforms to start with if you have no plans to swap

 

I was looking into anything but the HF. I planned to have the nitrous dyno tuned, with retarded timing, colder plugs, fuel pressure safety switch, and bumped fuel pressure via a BM pressure modifier. I really dont care if I blow the motor, I have a friend that will do the swaps for free. Which brings me to my next question,

When this motor blows I thought it would be best to throw in some forged pistons/rods, however my friend, chet here on the boards, thinks its best just to keep swapping them, I think this will end up being more expensive in the long run. What are your opinions?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JonGP4 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">BTW i'm hoping your getting an Si, with the MPFI.. and not a DX or HF?.. </TD></TR></TABLE>

correct me if im wrong, but the hf does come with mpfi and with a si motor(very easy swap) they can be pretty fast becasue of all the stuff that honda left off to save weight.

and don't worry about the motor going, i had my car (Si) for a year and a half and i bump it off the rev limiter at least once a day, and even with oil in the coolent and it buring both coolent and oil it still runs strong. I LOVE HONDA!!!!

 

I did alittle research on piston/rod combos and it looks like I should be up to spending a good 800 bucks on them. That kind of defeats the purpose of what Im trying to do here, so Im curious to see if there are any other alternatives to safely running a higher shot. Can I swap in B series pistons or anything? I was going to spray a 50 shot on a stock high mileage engine, so I would be happy with a 75 or so if we went in and rebuilt with new pistons. Any ideas?

 

Of course you can swap in a B series. If you get any model but an Si, I highly recommend getting a d16a6 and si tranny in there. The motor will handle a 50 shot fine, buddy had a 50 shot w/ an intake and did 14.6 bone stock. As for the auto-x you might want to take a look at your bushings, and maybe get the ES master kit, they're only $100.

 

I was referring to B series internals. I read somewhere that you can swap in LS rods. They would obviously hold up better than D series rods right? Now what about pistons?

 

I just checked out homemadeturbo.com and people are selling kits they have pieced together for 400 bucks obo. So Im starting to consider going this route. I talked with my friend that said he would do the swaps for me and he said he would do them for free, as long as I was there to learn, I didnt object.

Im pretty sure I could get one of the kits for 350 shipped, and would need probably 100 bucks of misc. stuff. So for that price, I would much rather have the boost.

I also read that people are making 300whp on a stock d series engine? Can anyone confirm? This is unreal and I would more than settle for 175whp on decent boost for reliability reasons.

 

Yea boosteded9 (or something like that) is pushing that much w/ a vafc and msd btm, but most say the limits of the D series rods are around 220whp. They're pretty god damn thin, so if you want it to last I'd spend the time on management and being conservative.

 

get the car and have fun dood

 

Well if Im going to have to focus on managment (can get expensive) and being conservative (not making alot of power) then maybe I should pick up a used Zex kit, and an adjustable FPR and call it a day. Considering this is only a track car it doesnt make much sense to deal with the possible headaches of a turbo all the time.

 

a friend of mine here in florida just went 12.0's @115 on slicks in his street legal crx. he's running a STOCK d16z6 with a somewhat tuned 100 shot. just recently the motor "popped" in bradenton although he had been running this setup for about a year and a half prior to this minor mishap. as far as i'm concerned...an intelligently tuned single cam/nitrous setup is the best way to go...because its cheap and still somewhat reliable...and when the motor breaks...a d-series shortblock is easily found at a relatively inexpensive price.

garrett (tegunderpressure) wants to learn as well as have fun...which is why he's wanting to start this project. i'll do the motor swaps for free because i'll get to drive the car whenever we auto-x it...and with his dad helping to fund the project its less expensive for me.

hopefully we can find a crx soon...i'd like to get this project started.

 

Bump, looks like were boosting. Im going to pick up a pieced together turbo kit for 300 bucks, it has an MX-6 turbo, 1g DSM sidemount intercooler, 2g DSM BOV, DSM 450's, TurboXS Boost controller, Greddy Turbo Timer, stainless oil lines and adapters, and an HF manifold. Then Ill just find a cheap VAFC to run the hack, and it should turn out nicely.

The only thing that concerns me is that Chet said the turbo would peak out at about 5 grand. I think I would rather have something that spools later but pulls all the way to redline. Does anyone have opinions on this? Should I just ask him to seperate the turbo from the kit and get something else off DSM Trader?