this is my build thread on my 1991 civic hatchback. sorry for the lack of progress pictures, i just dont like to stop working to take pics. i need to break that habit.
story of the car: a couple years ago, my dad (mike@ostdyno.com) bought the car from a man at our church for $125. it was bone stock and had a broken timing belt and 134xxx miles. he was going to fix it and sell it but never got around to working on it because the idea of having super fast jetta intrigued him more. so the car sat for a year. the next summer i worked for my dad and asked him that, instead of paying me, if he would give me the car. he did, and i got to work.
we learned that this car is one of the lightest honda made and a common swap was the b18a. we found an integra on craigslist and drove to Philly to get it. pulled both motors and started cleaning.
car when it was sitting
got it in the garage finally!
wanted to see if the head was any good. it was but just ended up scrapping the whole motor.
heres what the integra looked like
motor out! man is it crusty
all cleaned up
cleaned the civic too
found the neuspeed bar brand new in trunk of a car at a junkyard for $25!
with my dad and a friend helping, we put the motor and tranny in. it was a tight fit!
while the motor was out of the car my dad and i put an obx lsd in the tranny (EXTREMELY easy compared to his jetta, germans…) then installed a sprung 4 puck clutch and pressure plate, and a 8.5lb flywheel.
here’s the motor all wired up. we cut the shift linkage ourselves and welded it back together. i also installed Energy shift bushings and an ebay short throw shifter (came with the integra).
then i got some coil sleeves for basicly free and put those on. it rides pretty rough though and i cant wait until i can buy some real coilovers. up until now i had been running an open header (not on the street…too much). and since i didnt have near enough money to but an exhaust system ad i didnt like th ones that i saw, i made my own 2 1/2" header-back exhaust with a stick of pipe from advanced auto. its strait through with no cat or anything except a tsoodo muffler (came on integra). i cut out the rust to repair it but didnt get around to it. by now i have put new metal in and primered the rust spots but dont have pictures of that yet.
i put a 100 shot of nitrous on it and went racing at sunset dragway in mercer. the track’s an 1/8 mile. i couldnt even get into the 8’s but my dad, who had never driven the car before, went 8.90 on his second try. also he spun all the way through first and missed third. my passes were with 100 shot but his was with just a 75 shot. if he made another pass he could have easily gone deeper in the 8’s.
this is a vid from my 16th birthday party. my dad had asked jason to come and bring some of his buddies along so that i would have some people to race. that was a really fun day. the driver from the in-car footage is my dad.
[ame=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMmN6hw7prk”]YouTube - Micah’s 16th Birthday Drags[/ame]
^my brother likes making videos. hes not bad either
now i wanted boost, so i started collecting parts. i got a log manifold from Omen Speed Works. he does great work but it took him over 8 weeks to do the work. i dont recommend using him. and BIG, BIG thanks to jason (gearhead) for selling me dsm injectors and a t3/t3 turbo for dirt cheap. he alslo sold me wheels, and lent me some much needed stuff. he’s really an amazing guy!
i aslo used an srt-4 intercooler that came with the integra. jim C. from peetry salvage gave me an amazing deal on a dsm bov.
so now i had all the stuff i needed. i pulled my car into the garage and started working. the front end came off along with the header. my dad (BIG help) helped me fab up a 3" downpipe and the charge piping. once it was all together we put everything back on the car and pulled it into the next bay and strapped it to the dyno (very nice feature to our garage!).
i dont have any pics of this yet, but they’ll be up shortly along with dyno vid’s. the motor is still bone stock and id like it to stay together for more than a few passes so we kept the boost low…to 13 psi. actually that was an accident. it over boosted to 13 and i let off at 5500 rpm. the car still made 320hp/307tq, and climbing. we lowered the psi to 9.5 (highest stock MAP can read) and made 280hp. thats where the car stands now and i am so pumped for the FLD’s!!!
