1997 Civic preparing for winter
Honorary Moderator Alumni
Joined: Sep 1999
Posts: 8,735
Likes: 0
From: Someplace with cones=AUTO
if you have coilovers raise it up about 1-2"
if you have summer tires buy some snow tires and put on stock wheels. Narrower the better.
Make sure your battery is newer than about 4 years old. Most car batteries start to have problems after 4 years.
Make sure you have a snow scraper
I usually take off my header and exhaust and put stock one back on
Also put on stock intake.
if you have summer tires buy some snow tires and put on stock wheels. Narrower the better.
Make sure your battery is newer than about 4 years old. Most car batteries start to have problems after 4 years.
Make sure you have a snow scraper
I usually take off my header and exhaust and put stock one back on
Also put on stock intake.
__________________
Sponsored by: KAM Racing Sports, Falken Tires, Progress Technology, Brady's High Performance, Taggart Performance Engineering, Rotora Brakes
Autocross is: 90% driver, 5% car, & 5% CRAZY MOJO!
Autocross Help Page
Sponsored by: KAM Racing Sports, Falken Tires, Progress Technology, Brady's High Performance, Taggart Performance Engineering, Rotora Brakes
Autocross is: 90% driver, 5% car, & 5% CRAZY MOJO!
Autocross Help Page
v-card member alpha
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 4,010
Likes: 0
From: Assplosion, NE
If you run a short-ram, I'd actually leave that on as it will draw more warm air from the engine bay than even the stock setup.
Make sure your coolant has the right amount of antifreeze (should be 50%), they sell cheap testers at many stores, very easy to use. Otherwise you could just drain and replace the coolant w/ the proper amount if it's old anyway.
As well as checking the battery's output (or just replacement), I'd take a look at your belts to see if any are on the loose side or are full of cracks. They tend to be more likely to slip in cold weather.
Good idea to change your oil just as it gets to be cold out, so you have fresher oil (of proper weight) during the winter - as it ages it tends to thicken up more when cold, or so I've read.
On those civics, I believe you can run 5w20, which performs very well in the cold. Not sure if it says that in the manual/on the fill cap, etc. though. As long as it's of the 5w variety you'll be fine. 10w30 would be fine also as long as it doesn't regularly get below 20.F where you live, or if it's synthetic.
Make sure you keep your tires at the correct pressure and that they have enough tread, best to have the 2 tires with the most tread on the front.
Make sure your coolant has the right amount of antifreeze (should be 50%), they sell cheap testers at many stores, very easy to use. Otherwise you could just drain and replace the coolant w/ the proper amount if it's old anyway.
As well as checking the battery's output (or just replacement), I'd take a look at your belts to see if any are on the loose side or are full of cracks. They tend to be more likely to slip in cold weather.
Good idea to change your oil just as it gets to be cold out, so you have fresher oil (of proper weight) during the winter - as it ages it tends to thicken up more when cold, or so I've read.
On those civics, I believe you can run 5w20, which performs very well in the cold. Not sure if it says that in the manual/on the fill cap, etc. though. As long as it's of the 5w variety you'll be fine. 10w30 would be fine also as long as it doesn't regularly get below 20.F where you live, or if it's synthetic.
Make sure you keep your tires at the correct pressure and that they have enough tread, best to have the 2 tires with the most tread on the front.
