Rep Power: 0

Okay, I am an 18 year old college student who works two jobs and still does not have enough money. I am slowing trying to upgrade my 1997 Honda Civic Ex to a superior driving machine. I am clueless when it comes to upgrades on engine and performance. I was needing a couple of ideas on what to do to my civic to gain horsepower. I have heard people talk about engine swaps. I am clueless on those as well. I know that my dad knows people in the junkyards so I could easily get a donor car for an engine swap. Plus, I have heard people talk about Turbos and nitrous. I'm just really clueless on the whole upgrading performance thing. I already have a cold air intake, Matrix header and exhaust. That is pretty much all of the performance upgrades that I have done so far.. If anyone can help please give me some advice...

 
Rep Power: 584

drop in a GSR (B18C1), tear the motor down, sleeve the block, put pistons and rods in, turbo, new clutch, engine/fuel management. and thats just starters

 
Rep Power: 412

The quesion becomes, why are you upgrading your car? Drag, show, road racing/autox? We need to know why you are doing this before we can drop a b18 in there and turbo it.

 
Rep Power: 397

^^ says who?

 
Rep Power: 412

Says me!

If he is planning on legal racing, there are guidelines he has to adhere too. So before he does anything he will regret later, he should tell us the type of activities he wants to do. Sure a fully built, turboed b18c5 is great and fast, but that doesn't guarentee that he will be happy with it doing what he wants to do. Besides, there are so many ways to upgrade a car it is rediculous. You can end up with a car that isn't street legal or a car that doesn't resemble the way it started. We could sit here all day and list things from pistons to coilovers, to motor mounts to fiberglass bodies.

My advice to you is to learn as much as you can before you jump into this scene. I jumped into it and made some mistakes. They were horrible but they were mistakes. Don't take people's opinions of things to heart, learn the facts and the theory. You want us to explain all of import tuning to you and we really can't. You must take the time to learn for yourself then ask about things you are unclear of. here are some website to start learning

www.howstuffworks.com
www.honda-tech.com
www.honda-acura.net
www.vtec.net

 
Rep Power: 397

Now, I'm all for yuor statement above, but many of us, including me (and I don't understand how this could NOT include you ) have parts on our car that render it not street legal. Now granted the ENTIRE car is street legal besides mabey my exhaust and some other crazy do-dads but you see what I mean. Now if hes wanting to be able to smoke that porsche that just pulled up next to him and the yuppie givin' him the run down, and be able to cruise the strip at night with his lady, the b18 would be his weapon of choice, but if I was gonna autoX, we all know the old saying "The car's not fast, the driver is." Thats for you robb buddy

 
Rep Power: 412

Why buy I/E/H if you plan on turboing your car? Why get a set of 18's if you plan on racing? Why put audio stuff in there if you want to reduce weight?

I never said anything about "street" legal , I said LEGAL RACING. As long as the car meets the guidelines of the class it will be placed in then by all means go for it. Even draggin has classes. you put a b18 in there, he will be up against all the other swapped civics, regardless if it is tuned correctly or stock. Slap a stock b18c1 in there with a turbo and it only boosts up to 10psi, he is gonna get it *** whooped against a 15 psi, bored out, sleeved, port and polished LS non vtec any day and yet they are most likely in the same class. Mod within the guidelines. Once you think you have accomplished that class, then move up a class. If he wants to mod just to mod, then we could spit out tons of stuf fhe can do, but he has to be willing to spend the cash for it.

You can start with intake, header, exhaust, short shifter, some lightweight rims and sticky tires, strut bars, sway bars, etc.

 
Rep Power: 413

This is WAYYYYYYY to broad of a question.... There is an amazing amount of things you can do to your car... Everything that Robb has said.... Also, look into the links robb has posted, there is a TON of information out there for your car....

 
Rep Power: 397

^^ =*(

 
Rep Power: 301

I suggest reading lots of mags. You won't understand what they're saying but soon enough you'll realize what the hell is going on. Honda Tuning does a pretty good job. Well they used to I stopped buying it because I'm into the show scene (if you want to go fast don't turn this route).

Also go to www.howstuffworks.com or something like that. Type in engines, you'll learn a lot. Read about turbochargers. Read this forum a lot because you can learn a lot.

Yeah there's lots of reading. Good luck.


edit: yeah here's the link for autos, I'm a nice guy. http://www.howstuffworks.com/inside-engines-roundup.htm

 
Rep Power: 350

Honda-tech has mad amounts of information everywhere. If you're looking at forced induction, I would recommend picking up a book on it. There are books out there on Honda high performance motor building and alot of good resources everywhere. Just get out there and look, you'll find something.