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So I had my Honda civic ex 2001 for about a year now and I want to customize it, it has the stock engine and everything is mostly stock besides the air intake, there is a cold air intake. I want to mod the engine for higher horsepower and just make the car an overall enjoyable car. SO far i put a subwoofer in the back and an amp, i just want to customize the car overall, like the engine mods or the interior.

 
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MT or AT?

What are your power goals?

You're in luck, this forum started as a 7thgen specific forum, and that's where I started (holy ****, almost 17 years ago at this point). If I don't know the answer, I can get you the answer in one form or another

 
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It's an automatic, and I just want more power I feel as it has less then 100 hp cause the car has been through some years and a bad previous owner, I use it as my daily and its either selling this car if i can or saving up some money for an engine swap like a crv engine, but i would like to mod the steering wheel, radio, and make the car faster, its my daily and my first car so i don't really know how much is the perfect hp for this car, but thanks

 
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Fun fact, even though it's rated at 127hp, that's 127 at the crank. AT is much more parasitic than the MT, and you're rocking closer to 100hp at the wheels. The D17A2 MT is about 110hp at the wheels.

Swap, Look at the RSX engines man. K20A (JDM Integra/RSX type R), if you can find one cheap enough, will take some work, but your best bang for buck. Otherwise, K20A2 (RSX-S) is a good one, or at the least, K20A3 (RSX base model/EP3 Civic Si) is where you wanna look. If you're feeling frisky, Franken K-swap (k24 block, K20 head) is a torquey monster. There was a dude that ran that setup here, 232whp after tuning it, 218whp without the tune.

That's not to say the D17 can't be fun. It kinda is the red-headed step child of Honda engines, but it's really easy to work on. Those ATs can be headaches, and those head gaskets are finicky as ****, too. However, if you can get ahold of a Crower cam for it (been discontinued, kinda hard to find), that can get you some good bang for buck. I paid $300ish for one, and with the other bolt-ons I had (AEM V2 intake, full header-back exhaust), I forgot the actual number, but it was in the realm of 130-135whp. She wasn't the fastest on the road, but damn she was fun to drive. The 7thgen responds pretty damn well to quality suspension mods

I did have it turbo at one point. Only 2.5psi (wastegate issue with the turbo) and it was putting down about 150whp. **** man, that thing flew. The AT will be your crutch tho

I've since graduated to a 2018 civic hatch

 
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hey thanks so much, man, ill look into engine swapping but I'm only in college and it's taking a load out of my money so ill save up some money and maybe upgrade the car instead of upgrading an automatic, or get something else to swap the transition and then engine saw it, I been looking at jdm engine inc to just look at some engines that would look nice to put in them, I know my cousin had a 98 manual civic ex and was about to swap the engine to a crv engine but he threw that engine away so ill look into getting that engine off him or anything get a rsx engine, are there any mods I can do to this engine rn besides the other cam or is there another forum to find it for the D17 engine, again thanks man

 
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This is pretty much the forum for 7thgen stuff. There was a.. schism of sorts.. when this site got sold and changed from 7thgencivic.com to civicforums.com. From that 7thgenhonda.com was created, but I've heard that their traffic died down worse than ours.

idk if @piano55man still has it, but he bought my crower stage 1 and had it for sale at one point.

Also, if you're looking into a AT to MT swap, @mac25 would be the guy to ask there

Intakes and exhaust on this thing are pretty much noise makers, but the right configuration would make the car sound really good. Sure, companies claim "gain 50 million hp from our intake!" when, in reality, it's like.. 3-5hp gain at the top of the RPM band, with a loss in the low end. Like I said man, suspension is where it's at tho. The D17 is a straight econobox motor unless built right, and at that point, you're spending hella cash to get it to that point.

Power from this engine mostly comes in the form of forced induction (turbo, NO2, or if you're feeling frisky and want to try and supercharge this engine with a full custom setup). The stock engine can handle 8psi boost. 10psi in some cases, but that's really pushing it. There's also a dude that I'm still friends with on fb that used to frequent the forum, he got his engine bored out to 1.8L and built the hell out of it, but I think he's been paying more attention to his Odyssey lately bc family man, but still keeping his tuner roots into that car. Then again, all that costs money. Save it up if you ever want to do one of those engine swaps, or even make it more fun with a AT to MT swap. It'll prep you for if you eventually do the K20 swap and have to do the MT swap anyways. Shifter assembly from an EM2/ES1 civic is the same exact assembly as the DC5 RSX, and that chassis housed the aforementioned K20 engines (with the exception of the EP3 civic hatch, but that engine was in the DC5 also)

 
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If you're anything like me at 19 years old, you probably have better things to spend that much money on. If you're insistent on working on that car, which I totally respect, then completely ignore what I'm about to say. Just know I'm saying the following more out of jealousy than anything.

I'd either buy an older civic, integra, or RSX if I were you though. Older civics have much more aftermarket than 7th gens, integras are probably the best bang for your buck as far as stock Honda's go, and the RSX has the K-series you'd want. Again, totally up to you. I'm biased because I had an Integra, but it's a much better platform to build on. As a broke 19-year old university student, it made a lot more sense.

 
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Yea well I am 19 and money is sorta an issue with me also, my dad has a 01 BMW 330i but to many miles on that so I was looking to either find one like that but maybe an Integra or rsx sounds good cause the gas price wouldn't be that much of aa problem. I'll keep thee civic to have as a project car and try to do some stuff to it, in the end, I want to boost it with a turbo kit and get some experience on my hands with it but an Integra does sound a lot better. But what are your thoughts on BMW's like e46's. I also look a lot on eBay and other car sites but there isn't a lot out for seventh-gen civics, the look also isn't the best imo like an older 90's civic but its what i have so l see what I can do with it

 
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Side note, the '01 Civics have bad auto transmissions. So keep an eye out for that. There are some threads in the link below with more info.

https://www.civicforums.com/forums/332-transmission

Also, you mentioned getting a CRV engine from your cousin. If he was planning on putting it in a '98 Civic it's likely a B series from a first gen CRV. You can't use it. If you were going to use a CRV engine go with a K24 from a second gen. You can buy swap mounts for the K series.

 
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In my opinion, the E36 was the last good 3-series BMW. E46's are notorious for electrical problems. My old neighbour has an E39 M5 which has been pretty good for him, but if you look at the E60, you'll see it's riddled with issues.

If you're going to buy German, buy the least technologically advanced one you can find. I bought a MK3 Jetta roughly 2 months ago. It's idiot simple to work on and it's a tank. Bulletproof little 2.0 8v in it, super easy and cheap to maintain. Much cheaper if you want to turbo, too. Lots of the TDI turbo parts are a direct bolt-on.

If you want a project car, I suggest (for now) that you keep your civic as a daily.

 
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As an owner of one of the most modified D17s on this site, at this point it would be more cost efficient to buy a manual rsx.

back in 2009 when I started my build this was not the case.

If you stick with the civic, I'd recommend (to start)
-i/h/e
-stage 1 camshaft
-exhaust port matched to header
-coilovers
-rear swaybar upgrade

all of these can be used later if you want to boost.

.......

if you want to swap the engine and transmission, just sell the car and buy an rsx, since that vehicle is nearly the same price, has what you need in it already, and you'd save the time and some money, which you could funnel into other mods.

 
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Not to thread-jack, but I swear to god I met you before 09...

 
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I think I've found my home... Been lurking EVERYWHERE looking for an active forum for about a year now! Finally - LAND HO!