building car. help
 

well after reading a shit load of peoples forums ive came to a conclusion.
making a d17a1 fast is very unlikey..... it would cost a shit load of money and be a waste of it. so i think i might build my car for handling. more for like autox and things like that...........

let me know your inputs

thanks!

01 honda civic lx

Re: building car. help
 

People always come on the site and complain about how its to expensive to build big power on a d17 and it drives me crazy, because outside of a dyno or drag strip a 500hp fwd car is a bit pointless. The 7g Civic has an almost endless list of great mod options and there are many things you can do to improve suspension and braking without spending crazy amounts of money..

Strut bars,
Struts,
Springs,
poly bushings,
SS brake lines,
Big brake set-up,
Rear disk conversions,
5 lug conversions

All possible for less than $500 and most for less than $200.

Re: building car. help
 

im glad i spent $$ on suspension and look-good mods instead of speed. you hardly need to go fast on the road anyway. and you get better gas mileage from the stock motor. ive gotten so many compliments on my leds and hids ive lost count. even the smog guy noticed lol. you could still go with intake and exhaust if you want some more sounds.

Re: building car. help
 

I wish I bought manual trans instead of the auto. I looked up SCCA Detroit region website and found they host many fun event. I think I need a new used car if i want to participate the autox.

Re: building car. help
 

any car you have is good fun in an autoX, you see lots of different stock cars out there, like a GEO kicking A$$ (not smoking fast, but having tons of fun).
I used to try to catch subaru wagons and always beaten by a saturn (with good drivers, that is...).
Another with a 06 civic did believe i had a powerful engine under the hood, since i beat him in 2-3 sec.
so, no, you don't need another car. Better, it will allow you to dial in your car to be much better (testing ground :))

Re: building car. help
 

One of the best answers i've seen! Haha +rep to you my friend!

Thats why i always tell people i don't care if i'm not the fastest car because all i need it to do is take me from point A to point B, and look good doing it!

Re: building car. help
 

On a DD you will never need or use big power, all it will do is make you look like the guy with the biggest wallet and the least common sense on a forum or a drag track.

Suspension and brakes you'll use constantly, ever time you make a turn you feel the suspension upgrades and every time you hit the brakes you feel the difference. Those upgrades are also totally practical, right now my super stiff suspension is helping my plow through snow instead of riding on top of it and my brake mods have saved me from accidents more than once.

Re: building car. help
 

yeah i agree, even on the street you use suspension and brakes way more than the motor. i can keep up with traffic just fine in the civic without even beating on it (under 4k rpms). if i floor it, i leave everyone in the dust. maybe if you live in the mountains and need something to constantly be climbing hills, the civic prolly isnt as practical for that if youre always staying in 2-3 and near redline.

Re: building car. help
 

I drive on a lot of steep mountain roads and I actually find my Civic handles them pretty well, once vtec hits I can pull hard up any hill and keep up or pass almost any car. Especially since I don't need to slow down for curves with my suspension, when everyone needs to if they don't want to slide off the edge of a mountain.

To each their own, but I think the couple former members who built 300hp+ turbo d17s are missing a few brain cells. Especially considering they could have just bought a 350z or M3 for the same price as a full motor build and had equal or more power and complete reliability.

Re: building car. help
 

These brake upgrades you speak of sound interesting!

Suspension and brakes are both on my list, but because i want to do a bunch of things to my car first, unfortunately they're lower down :( but when i get money they will be done! I don't really know anything about it though so i gotta do up some research

Re: building car. help
 

Brake upgrades are cheap.

Wilwood makes a $500 kit, that offers ss brake lines as an option for $35.

or go OEM, which makes buying pads and caliper rebuild kits way easier.

Like most things Honda makes the caliper brackets are fundamentally the same for every model and they bolt up to the knuckle in the same positions, just re-drill the rotors and your set.

Re: building car. help
 

thanks for your inputs

Re: building car. help
 

Probably, I wanted to upgrade the suspensions but they resist to die : ) For now, I am going back to the suspension thread and find some good autox mod.

Re: building car. help
 

well im going to get some lowering springs today.....

eibachs only lower 1.4 with the sportlines though.... give me some advice weather thts good or needs lower


-thanks

Re: building car. help
 

thats about as low as you should go if you want better handling. anything else and you will be scraping up your car and causing greater suspension wear on all the other parts.

Re: building car. help
 

Scraping the bottom? I would like to get my car low enough for people to see that it's lowered, but not too low so that it scrapes speed bumps, etc. Is 1" enough?

Re: building car. help
 

1" will scrape the front bumper only on the higher sidewalk entries, so they are fine

Re: building car. help
 

Tein S.tech and Eibach sportlines are perfect for someone not into major suspension mods. Drops it just enough to show that it's been lowered, but not to much so that you need to start building the whole suspension.

Re: building car. help
 

thanks guys i just ordered eibach sportlines!

Re: building car. help
 

1 inch will not scrape the bottom but you need to be careful how you park or you can bust up the front bumper pulling into a parking space with a curb lol. also ive scraped my lip pulling out of a deep driveway before. and scraped my exhaust tip and bent the midpipe on a speedbump :lol:

Re: building car. help
 

Thats all i'd need to order to lower my car enough to notice but not enough to build the whole suspension? Or are other stuff needed?

Re: building car. help
 

You will need new struts as well. The stock ones aren't set for the lowered car.

Re: building car. help
 

Springs, struts and a camber kit are the minimum. You will also likely need to replace a few other parts like tie rod ends, strut mounts and LCA bushings. Most suspension components are wear items that need to be replaced eventually, but since a lowered car is hard on its suspension it hastens the need to service everything.

Re: building car. help
 

im going to pick up my sportlines this week and i was just wondering if there is any likely problems ill run into while installing them.

-thanks

Re: building car. help
 

You should probably replace your outer tie rod ends, those are usually destroyed while doing a spring install and they are what turn the wheels. If they fail, you lose steering and..

Other than that the only other likely problem would be seized bolts so pick up some good penetrating lube and soak all the bolts the night before.