3DD

Just bought it last Tuesday, in excellent condition. 167k miles. Haven't done anything yet, but I do have plans for it.

02civicsi02

Welcome and it looks good man. Whats your plans for her?

3DD

For performance I'm going to get a CIA and headers in the near future. Im a newbie at modding cars, so I'm going to take it slow and as money allows. Rims and window tint, lipkit...I'd like to really tune it up and improve its looks. It is a manual btw.

If yall have any suggestions, Im all ears.

02civicsi02

Sounds like you got some good things planned for her. Some of my sugeestions would be definitely go with body and suspension first. First gets some coilovers or whatever suspension set up you prefer, and dont forget the camber kit. Rims wise I say go with rota. Rota always looks the best on the older civics. Get your lipkit to make her look good. And whats your brake setup, are they all disk brakes or do you have drum brakes in the back. if drum brakes it would be good to upgrade to disk brakes and get rotors and good pads.

Then after that you can go with performance wise. CAI, header, exhaust, maybe get her cammed or something. What are you planning on going with on performance wise. NA, FI, or Swap?

3DD

Brakes are all disk, front and back. Ill definitely start looking into suspension then, I dont really have a set up preference, no experience in that area. And Im afraid I dont know what NA and FI stand for. If swap is referring to an engine swap, that would be way a long ways from now and I'm not sure I'd want to do that.

Rota does look pretty good. Im looking into 15's or 16's.

02civicsi02

NA stands for natural aspiration or known as all motor, and FI stands for Forced Induction which is either turbo or supercharger. If you are going to get coilovers then there are alot of good brands, Tien, Progress, Megan, and a couple more. Tien is my personal fav but if you want the real deal on stock wise suspension and yet with sporty looks go with mugen sport suspension.

And its good they are already all disk brakes saves you some trouble. But anyway you can reach some high hp with your stock motor with a turbo but really it will never reach the potential of the better motors like the k, h, and b series. If you go with a swap the easiest and cheapest but best motor to swap in would be the GSR (b18c1). Very great motor, I had one in my old EG hatch. Another good choice on motor swaps would be the k series motors. They will be alot of work to put into it but once they are in its nothing but rah power. The best of the k series are the k20a2, k24a2, or the k24a1 with k20a2 head. Ya the k20a is the best of the k series but I did not mention it cause it is way to expensive.

Just go and look round on forums and learn bout all the different kinds and motors and everything else. These car forums are very good places to learn how to modify cars but doing it the right way. Make sure you get yourself the service manual for your car. It comes in handy big time. It shows you how to do everything.

3DD

Okay thanks, yah at this point id say NA. How much does the GSR go for? Ive searched online for it and havent come across one for the Civic yet.

Also, and yes I did read the cold air intake faq, what brand of CIA would you suggest? I know that most say their all just pipes and are very similiar, however I would think different brands would work better on different vehicles.

02civicsi02

You can find a gsr with tranni for bout 1800 or so. And ya the intakes pipes are all the same it just varies on the size of the piping. I use either Injen or Aem. Lately I have started making my own intake pipes. I have a welder and I have a buddy that has a pipe bender so it just comes out to be cheaper that way. I just buy a filter for it.

3DD

Oh thats not too bad. Yeah I'm most likely going to go with an AEM, I was told by a mechanic that if you go with a cheaper brand it may not come with everything and the 'check engine' light will stay constantly on. Thats pretty sweet, they come out good?

02civicsi02

I dont know bout a check engine light with an intake. You usually always come with everything when you buy it.

And ya they come out good, it took me a while to get the bends just right but I am pretty good with my hands. But I just go out and buy a 3" round pipe and bout 2' long with the short ram just to be safe and I got one of my buddys and just copied it lol. cut it to the length of his short ram and then started with the bends. Got them done and got my drill and drill bits and drilled the 3 holes needed and I also bought smaller pipe for the other parts of the intake. Drilled the holes and welded the other pipes on and then painted it black.
Here is a pic of it installed.

Wolfman887

pretty nice car dude.

3DD

Thanks wolfman.

Looks good man. Btw, this is the engine you were referring to, correct? http://www.jazzproparts.com/B18C1_GSR_p/b18c1.htm

That one goes for 3500, but comes with everything.

02civicsi02

Ya thats it but damn thats a little expensive there, the b18c that goes in the ITR goes for that much and hell the k20a goes for 4500 with ecu and wire harness and such. Try looking on Tiger Japan website, there is one on there for like 1600 and it is like 300 to ship or something like that so.