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After much hesitation and debate I bought a 2000 Civic EX Coupe for my daughter. She is very intent on us building this car together. Good thing because it has no engine or trans. The body is solid and has been striped of all the interior, the front end, doors and trunk. We replaced the worn carpet with an OEM replacement and that's it. Now I'm stuck. I have built several cars before but never even touched an import before. I feel like I'm starting over. Here's the best part, my daughter is only 9. She has been around muscle and drag cars her whole life and knows the hard work that goes into them. I don't want to go to crazy and have time to research what to look for but the problem is I don't know what to look for.I'm looking to build and "all around" car. Good HP, Good brakes,good suspension, good audio, body kit, paint ans so on. Please help with any advise or ideas. They will be greatly appreciated.

 
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This thread is epic, she's 9 and rebeling by buying an import

your looking to build a complete car, so it's a bit difficult/impossible to go into everything in just this thread. The advice I can give as a starting point is look into oem brake upgrades and start searching for a used set of full coilovers.

 
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Yeah well what can you do? Kids will be kids at least she's into cars. Not much choice in my house though. LOL You are right though we have nothing at this point but a rolling chassis with some new carpet. I've been looking into a B18 with a mild cam, agressive CAI, AEM fuel Mgt. Sys., and a T56/48 hybrid turbo for the engine. Trans. and suspension are still up in the air though. We did find a body kit that we both like it's the VIS Battle Z kit. We have time to build and test everything and I'm sure the car will go through different looks before all is said and done but I want a solid reliable drive train to work off of. I want to avoid N2O and stay with turbo or supercharging. I'm aiming for 400HP and a suspension and trans to hold up to it with room for a little more down the road. Any advice or comment would be greatly appreciated.

 
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Wow, that is SO awesome, your 9 year old daughter into cars.
I hope my 2 year old niece gets more into cars as she grows up. She already plays with cars more than dolls and is already taking stuff apart.. haha.

Looks like you got your self one hell of a project, and it looks like you've done a bit of research already. You could go with the B18 route, or you can go for a 99-00 Si route with a B16. I forgot what the advantages/specifics into building a b16 instead of 18, but I've seen good numbers come from a b16 build. I'll leave that knowledge up to the 6thgen guys that actually know what they're talking about. By the way, that sounds like it's a HUGE turbo. I think you'll have more success with a t3/t4 hybrid or a Garrett GT3076R ball bearing turbo. If the t56/48 sounds as big as I can imagine it, if the B-series could spool it, there's be some ridiculous turbo lag.. Then again, that's me speculating.

Best of luck on your build, and keep us updated on how the car's turning out.

 
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B16 vs. B18 is likely the most debated topic in the history of import tuning, no joke.

Pro-racers and tuners almost all preferred to run B16s, because they have a better head. Pro-racers run fully built bottom ends though, so they can negate the relatively high compression and thin rods they have stock. B16s are also a more simple and less expensive swap into a 2000, because they're obd2.

B18a1/b1 have much lower compression pistons and thicker rods stock, making them better for boost on the stock bottom end. The disadvantage is the head, but some people prefer a simple non-vtec head for tuning and in that case it's actually an advantage. B18a1/b1 are obd1 though, so that's extra conversion work.

There also people who scream that a b18 with a b16 head is the winning combination, best of both worlds idea. Those same people will say if you can find a b18c or even c5 head then that's better than the b16.

The only thing everything really agrees on is that b20s are terrible for boost unless they're sleeved.

If you can find a tuner in your area using it use neptune for engine management, it's both the best and affordable. If you can find a Neptune tuner then Hondata S300 is the way to go.

I could go further, but I'm going to stop here for now lol

Check out project ej in member rides for some inspiration.

 
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Am I just better off with an H22A?

 
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Not if you looking to boost it, the h22 has very thin stock cylinder walls that make it difficult to boost. It's a good engine if your just looking to do a N/A build, but you won't be making 400whp if you go that route.

 
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So it's back to banging my head against the wall trying to figure out 16 vs. 18. Are there any other engines that are viable and will produce over 400hp and be good for daily driving? Acura engines should be a direct drop, no?

 
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Nothing other than the stock engine is a direct drop, there's some wiring and new mounts but that's all fairly simple.

A k20/24 hybrid or a stock k20a2 will easily make 400hp and be completely reliable boosted to that level. On completely stock bottom ends with a decent size turbo people have made over 700whp with k-series engines and fully built well over 1000whp, check out k20.org to research k-series engines.