Re: My EM2
 

Yep, sorry, I meant sleeves are about $400, that does not include struts and shocks

Full on coilovers are prolly twice that

Re: My EM2
 

$375 would be coilover sleeves, in American, without shipping or border duties thats not cheap lol..
Tokico blues with stechs is the best set-up possible, if your budget is under $1000 IMO.

Our cars have struts, not shocks.

Re: My EM2
 

Well, whatever :P

I havent even touched my suspension yet, so I haven't looked into it.
I probably plan to just go OEM suspension with stechs sometime....

Re: My EM2
 

that sub is going to make your rear SAGGGGGGGG. ur gonna have a big o gap in front and no gap in rear. looks lame imo. not a clean stance.

Re: My EM2
 

It's okay, scraper status :D
I live near the ghettos anyways, so I'll fit in with all the caddys :)

Honestly, the sub is like 15 lbs, not even more than a 5 year old sitting in the back seat

Re: My EM2
 

y not look into getting ground control sleeves kenny?

Re: My EM2
 

y not give me $500 :D

Re: My EM2
 

Love the rims and exhaust
you should drop it though it would look sweet

Re: My EM2
 

So, here's a small update, seeing as how I had to have done something with my car since January...

I sold my rims and tires and have been rocking the winters all summer, thanks to me getting fired in march (total bs, btw) and needing the money, but, because I have started school for the second time, and I now live within 15 min walking distance from it, the 'vic is going into the garage for the winter and I'm getting things done! Primarily, I'm going to clean up the engine bay, replace my rusty vibrant air filter, paint a few things, and rearrange the aftermarket wiring I have done. So far, I've painted my valve cover:

Attachment 81674

And I've replaced my blown 80 amp alternator with a new 160 amp unit to cope with all of my extra electronics, some of which have been upgraded a bit.

The next step which I'll likely do before the car goes away, is hit the engine compartment with a ton of de-greaser and a sturdy brush, and dress a few things up. On that note, what is good to use for cleaning and shining up the rubber under the hood and the coolant hoses, etc? Along with that, I'm going to give the car a nice clay job and waxing before I get a cover for it to keep her shiny all winter long.

Once the car is stored, the fun begins, and I need a few opinions.

Originally, I was just going to have my front and rear bumper refinished, as the front has been sand blasted from the highway and so on, and because the rear is all scratched from idiots carelessly chucking crap into the trunk. I have since been wondering, should I refinish the bumpers and eventually get a lip kit, or just get a new aftermarket bumper I like? The car is hopefully going to get a bit lower next summer, but the front bumper obviously sits a bit high, so what do you think?

Other than that, I'm replacing the headlights with projectors and all of the other bulbs are being replaced with LED units.

The final question I have, is that I was considering slapping a turbo on the car and running a few psi for a summer, and then replacing the intake mani, head (I have a D17A1, so no VTEC), valves etc, everything I can without tearing the engine out and milling the block, replacing pistons, sleeves, rods and so on, and then upping the boost some more. What I want to know, is that really worth spending 4 grand on? My other option is to just grab a used Megan Racing header and slap that on until I'm out of school. In either case, theres one issue I have with the bolts holding the exhaust manifold on - The look rusted to shit, and I'm not sure how to go about loosening them without breaking something.

Anyway, that's my update, hopefully you more experienced EM2 modders can offer me so help with these decisions and not get lost in my ramblings! :P

Re: My EM2
 

The bolts on my exhaust manifold were rusted to shit as well, I soaked them generously with pb blaster for a week every time I had the engine hot. Then I used my impact wrench to remove them, since impacts are far less likely to break bolts than a breaker bar.

Should you turbo the car, if you have an extra $4000-5000 to spend then I'd say go for it. I'd like to turbo my car, but the gains aren't significant enough for me to do it while I'm still busy with and paying for school. A good middle of the road option would be k-pro, stage two cam and d16y8 im; that would put you a little over 150whp and cost half what the turbo would if your on the fence about it.

Lip or aftermarket bumpers are really your choice. Personally I love the look of the tsunami front bumper and the 04/05 rear bumper is difficult to improve on.

Attachment 98819

Re: My EM2
 

Where did you get the steering wheel?

Re: My EM2
 

Yea I have definitely been thinking about the y8 manifold, whether I turbo or not...and seeing as how I am in school as well and don't really have 4 or 5 g's just hanging around, the intake mani and header are probably the route I'm gonna take, and likely next summer would be the upgrade to the a2 head, stage 2 cam, and the kpro.

And I got the steering wheel from someone on torontocivics.com, and the horn button I got on ebay.

Re: My EM2
 

i considered getting one like that till i realized how much shit was involved in swapping it out

Re: My EM2
 

That's a sick steering wheels.Looks like something off the NSX GT500 cars.

Re: My EM2
 

Yea, the momo adapter hub I got was for older civics too, and wouldn't accommodate for the "spool" style wiring hub for the horn and cruise (if I had cruise, that is), but it took forever to find a momo hub that fit for a good price, so I ended up tearing the wiring adapter off and custom fitting a spring that made contact with the ground strip on the back of the adapter so my horn would work...if I had cruise buttons on my old wheel, I would have had to relocate them to my steering column, which would have been a pain in my ass. My only other issue is that I have no airbags whatsoever, because in order to reset my srs, I'd have to put some sort of resistor in the air bag connector to trick the car into thinking there was one installed, and I was feeling lazy so I just plugged the hole where my srs light is and called it a day :P Yea, I know I'll pay for it when I crash and my seat belts don't retract and my passenger hits their face off the dash, but I'm gonna just try and be optimistic on that one lol.

Re: My EM2
 

lmfao optimism is the way to go.

Re: My EM2
 

Mmmmm what are those

Re: My EM2
 

Those are Konig Bumps....but they are discontinued. What I am looking into getting in the spring are 5-ZIGEN Fn01r-C 's instead.

Re: My EM2
 

I would definitely put together a Kswap for that kind of money, especially without vtec.

Car looks pretty nice. I just used basic simple green and it worked wonders on my engine bay.

Re: My EM2
 

Unfortunate my em2 is currently red and was going for as much black add ons as possible and those would have been sweet with black housed headlights and a dark tint. Pretty much need to rework the entire body before repaint though. Dunno if I wanna keep the classic Honda pull-my-ass-over-plz red or do a quiet looking gunmetal.

Re: My EM2
 

The kswap is something I have considered, but swapping an engine is a bit more complicated and a lot more work than slapping on a turbo, but I would really love to do a k24 + k20a2 turbo setup with that lovely 6 speed LSD trans, but that is going to cost both arms ans half a leg, so its going to be a project I start once I'm out of school, and until then, the header and intake manifold upgrade is the way to go for me, and then I'm going to focus on small aesthetic upgrades, such as paint, rims, and headlights.

also, ill give that simple green a try, its not too expensive at Wal-Mart so I'll pick some up.

Re: My EM2
 

I had big plans to do a turbo k20/24, I put together a price list for parts and did a ton of research. Then I realized, if I spend just a little bit more than that would cost I could buy an s2000.

Re: My EM2
 

Stop that, you're killing my dreams! :P

But still, I would rather spend the money and have a 400+ whp civic that's unique to me, than spend the money on an s2000 that any retiree can buy and think he's a hotshot. (no offense to anyone who loves the s2000 or is retired lol)

Re: My EM2
 

Strange how reality slaps they hell out of your dreams isn't it?

Re: My EM2
 

That made me lol.

I agree with OP about having a unique high HP civic over a stock generic high HP other car. But then again, i'd probably sing a different tune once I actually see the numbers down on paper lol.

Re: My EM2
 

same. even had the basic engine peiced together from a couple sources for under 2.5 k... it was the whole converting the front end thing that dampened my spirits

Re: My EM2
 

Yea, the new axles and wiring harness and whatnot makes it a bit more complicated, and for a dd, something you really don't wanna mess up - just another reason why I am limiting the mods to my engine until im out of school and have more money.

On another note, I finally got some new headlights, thanks to cyberphox. Ill be putting them in once I order new HID bulbs for the new sockets. No more reflectors throwing light into everyone's eyes :)

Also, after checking out the LED thread, I have discovered that I have a trunk light - something I never realized before, because I've never really had my head in there, and because there was no bulb in the socket. I've gone ahead and ordered some blue smd led strips to put in there.

*edit*
Headlights are in and adjusted! I am running stock halogens until the HID bulbs come in, but I will try to have pics up tomorrow.

Re: My EM2
 

I'm sure you've all seen these lights before, but here they are, in my car!
Very excited to get my replacement HID bulbs in when they arrive!

Attachment 81746

Attachment 81747

Re: My EM2
 

Those lights are pretty common, but they always look great. Especially on a black car since they blend in so well.

Re: My EM2
 

Nice EM2 :tup:

I really like those silver interior parts ... I also want them in my interior :coolgleam: