Hello! My name's Kenny and I'm 26 year old. I'm new this forum. I would like to know if anyone here can help me choose a civic. I'm planning to buy one. It will be my first car for project. It have to be a manual civic and 4 doors. I'm looking to buy a cheap civic year between 96 to 99. I'm planning to do engine swap too, so i don't have 10,000 to spend but lower than $4000, but first i need a civic but need to know which one would be good and why.. Sorry i don't know if i posting in the right thread..

 

If you're doing an engine swap, then it doesn't really matter what body you get. Though if you get an EX or SI you'll have some nice features.

 

I personally favor the 5th gen civics, 92-95. easy to work on, no OBD2 crap to deal with for tuning (96-00 needa conversion harness to work with a chipped OBD1 ecu)

and they are lighter then any newer civic by a noticable amount. only problem is that they almost require strut bars. the 96-00 civics dont need them nearly as much as the extra weight form the 5th gen to the 6th gen is in body bracing and a slightly heavier interior

 

One major problem with 5th gen Civics is rust. I've owned 2 95 Civics, and both of them rusted through.
Any Civic 96 or newer (6th gen or newer) doesn't have rust issues.

 

I say nice choice in the 6th gen but then again I may be biased. I had a 5th generation Civic EX coupe a few years ago, a LOT like the sedan basically, but I like my 6th gen a lot better now.

Both of them were EX trims and that basically just means they have cruise control, pwr windows, pwr locks, sun roof, tachometer, color matched mirrors and... what esle.... oh yeah VTEC making the engine good for a whopping 15 extra HP! You can read all the finer details here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_C...xth_generation)

 

Well i'm not worry anything about rust because i can do body work. I thinking to spend around $1800 for a use car to do work and project. Is that too much or less? It will use for driving but no daily use. Is there anyone here from Ontario, Canada know about engine swapping? Does anyone here brought engine from JDM.. Here's the link http://www.torontojdm.com/lite/cart.php

ANyone have any experience from buying from this seller? Please help...Need info...

 

IMO dont buy a JDM motor. for the added price, you could easily take the stock motor and make it much better performing

head swap, tuning, small turbo, you can make a beast with all OEM honda parts

 

I agree with mattliston. Spend the money on your stock engine. Turbo it, do a mini-me swap if you have to, get a nice exhaust, and you'll be good to go. :chuckles:

 

know what? strive for a cheap honda with the 1.5 in it. they go cheap cuz they are generally the slowest available. throw a d16y8 head, switch out the exhaust springs for another intake set, get some aftermarket rods, ZC dome pistons, and you have 12:1 with a little bit of head shaving. the Y8 head has the best quench pad and makes the most efficient power of all the honda single cams. that and combatted with the 1.5's awesome RTSR you have over 130 WHEEL hp and over 10k rpm goodness.

seriously, the single cam hondas are way underrated for their potential. I know a guy who made a 215whp beast and it kills any swapped motor that wasnt modified, for much cheaper.

I myself dyno'd my d15b7, found in del sol S 93-95 and civic DX 92-95. 84whp stock. a d16a6 cam, header, and cold air intake jumped that up to 97whp. head swap would have gotten me another 10-15 easy no work, and higher compression pistons add even more. all OEM parts, all OEM reliability

 

UHmm, i see what you mean. I will be getting and hopefully new header and exhaust. I'm bit concern about the engine. I live in Ontario and don't know anyone here much about buiding engine and tuning it. That why I'm here. There are other forum out there too but not eveyone willing to give hands. I can keep the oem engine a swap the head of it. The problem's that i don't have tools to much on building the engine head. I was thinking to just get another engine instead building it from the stratch. I don't mind doing that but like i said i don't have tools how-to do it.

I not sure if I'm going to add intake because it doesn't do much of HP but probably make the engine roar aggressive. I'm not planning to do turbo as yet because i heard most of it cannot pass emission test. Another problem might be the motor. A good turbo can bad motor don't mix. I might have to leak down to see if can my motor can handle it.

First thing i want to do is an engine swap. I want the engine to performance good and have a Hp between 200 to 250. Not more than that because i don't think it will be using all that, plus it would be too much spending. Curious to know why some peoples say not to buy from JDM? What does this mean? Need more info...