I just bought a 89 crx. Wut are some wayz I can lighten this thing. It has a 170,000 miles on it, putting a cold air intake and cat back on it. Would that mess it up any or would it be actually good for it? Sorry for the newbie questions I tried doin the search but couldn't get nothin. I used to be anti-honda, and now I got one so I dont know too much about them.

 

Welcome to the magnifiscent world of hondas. And welcome to our forum.. Always great to see another crx'r. Nope, the cold air and cat back shouldn't mess anything up. To lighten your car up... hmmm... alot of people are going to say rip all the interior out... but I don't think your in for the my car is ugly as sh!t on the inside look. Theres always a carbon fiber hood. Also I think your year CRX came with the seat belts mounted into the doors. You could get the doors from the 88 crx that doesnt have the seatbelt assembly in the door, but then you'd have no belts.. could always get racing seats and harnesses.... If you have a sunroof, you could replace it with a fiberglass panel. Removing all the A/C components will take quite a bit off and give you some more notisable power, did on my car . Thats all I can think of for now.. Hope that helps a little... Welcome again.

 

hey, i got a crx, and i bought it knowing the a/c was broken...how much does the ac weigh? how hard is it to take out!?

 

I would have taken the A/C out of my car but I've noticed to get to the compressor you need to just about lift out the whole engine or take the bumper and radiator out to get to it. Seems more trouble than its worth unless you already have it all out.

 

taking out the ac really doesnt do much for you, its only a weight issue and not a performance issue. since the ac is driven off a clutch when the ac is engaged then you will notice performance decreases but with it off it wont matter

 

To remove the A/C is cake actually-just takes a good amount of time and patience. The 2 hardest things to remove will be the condensor and evaporator under the dash (not required but a good idea anyway.
To get the condensor out you need to move the radiator back towards the engine. There are connecting tubes that you have to undo-one may need to be cut as that is the easy way-unless you take the radiator completely out. You have to take the AC fan off as well as the wiring harness for the system. As to the compressor-it mounts on a bracket and you need to remove the belt first-it is not hard to do once you undo the pulley bolt and then the tensioner bolt.
The 4 bolts for the compressor take a wrench easily enough. Then you can remove the mounting bracket from the block.
Under the dash is a different animal-you have to take the glove box and the cross bar out to get in there to remove the evaporator case. You can go to a yard or the dealer to get the piece from a CRX or Civic of that year that goes between the blower and heater housing. If you can find an HF without AIR like I did-I got this piece and the 2 rubber grommets for the firewall. (They can be bought from Honda). You can take the A/C wiring harness completely out of the car this way. The rest of the piping is easily removed with standard wrenches.
Took me a bit more than 1 hour to do everything.
Make sure the FREON is out of the system before you start.

 

a/c system weighs around 45-50lbs...it consists of the a/c belt (when off frees up more hp in the engine), condensor and condensor bracket, aluminium lines, aluminium a/c radiator, evaporator, a/c wires, and switch

 

what model rex is it? the Si is the heaviest.... but it's not really worth lightening it 50 lbs or so just by taking the a/c out... better to spend the time and/or money on making it faster. they aren't heavy cars... it almost isn't worth the time....

 

oh, and the exhaust and intake stuff will be a good thing. assuming the exhaust too big... but opening it up helps a lot, and the cold air intake will give it a good lil boost too. and i believe the 88-89's didn't have the side impact beams (someone please correct me if i'm wrong), which makes then lighter than the '90- '91'a at least... But yes, welcome to the beautiful world which is Honda =D you can find all you need to know within a few websites really...

 

50lbs may mean little if you just consider acceleration...it does help acceleration...but it also affects other aspects of the cars performance including better braking better cornering via more agility...just adding power to a car makes it straightline fast but does little to help other areas and actually makes other areas look more deficient

anyway...stripping stuff out of the car is free where adding hp costs money