1st post and solicitation of opinions

slo_eg8 said:

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Sailor said:

Do the sedan to start with. It'll be less obvious on the road, ie: a better sleeper.

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dfb399 said:

-Check out siliconeintakes.com
They have good-better quality B.O.V.'s, Intercoolers, silicone couplers, and beaded aluminum piping sections, for VERY competitive prices.
I built all my piping/intercooler/B.O.V. set-up using their stuff. Definitely saved me a few bucks, and little-to-none parts wasted/unused.
Bonus, they are an actual company, with customer support in the Americas (North, anyway).

-For the T2-T3 adapter, checkout benzforce:

T25 to T3 Turbo Adapter - Stainless Steel

T25 to T3 Turbo Adapter - Stainless Steel

www.benzforce.com

Another company with quality products, but might be hard to find for 'Us' since they are Mercedes Benz-based.

-Can't comment on Meth (never run it, or done it).

-Not a necessity, but I purchased a Thermal intake gasket from SpeedFactory and its saved me TONS of time, and I'm sure a few IAT's too. Biggest advantage being its reusable and damn near indestructible. I would only buy a Name brand unit. Cheap materials in the Nylatron/Delrin department tend to fail.

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Slow-D said:

In my most humble old-school opinion the CRX is a dish best served naturally aspirated. You can really enjoy the rev happy high rpm Honda engines in that light little platform. The sedan as stated is more covert and less suspect. It is also probably less likely to get stolen and being OBD1 and MPFI you are at a distinct advantage versus the bs you would deal with in the CRX. If you do want AC then the 4th gen civic platforms are some of the biggest pains in the ass due to the old system. R12 I believe. It is your call. Ideally think about it in the long term. In 5 years do you want a boosted CRX or sedan? IMO the CRX is best for some beefy NA HP. High comp D series can push 160whp-200whp. That is basically a B16 or B18C without the torque of one.

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kgt said:

I like the idea of a high reving NA CRX. Is the cost to power ratio of an NA D-Series worth it though? I know Bs are getting more expensive, but Ks can be reasonable.

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dfb399 said:

I'd say the 30-40 lb. (of a K series), added to the Front of a CRX, will likely ruin anything enjoyable about the CRX chassis.

10-15 years ago in my Integra (DC) coupe days, many people passed on K swaps into the DC chassis, because of this very reason.
Obviously this added weight, would only be more noticeable in a lighter, shorter chassis (CRX).
Can't say the K swap into DC trait held, because it didn't, and now every Honda seems to be getting the K treatment.

Though I do not know, but I'd place a small bet the K swap into small, FWD, Endurance racing builds, is less common, because of the added weight.

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Slow-D said:

Typically you can expect around 160whp and 110 ftlbs of tq. Sounds like a B16A swap to me. The biggest factor that I consider these days is the cost of the transmission. I just scraped up an L3 Cable trans for my current project of pain, you should be able to find S20 and S40 transmissions in junkyards still for around $250 ish. Goodluck finding any manual B series or K series however depending on where you live they are out there. I happen to be in an area where they are non existent aside from the occasional D series manual trans. I saw about 4 or 5 today in 3 different junkyards total. Turbocharging is always more HP per $ so is Nitrous, NA is the most expensive way to play. Realistically based on long term life experience I would say think about what you want down the line. You can build a 200whp engine all stock and junkyard with a turbo from China and then in 5 years you can do a fully built vitara build with a garret or something. With NA D series it is still going to be "Slow" but it can be very fun. I had a 96 Coupe, DX MT with an EX trans, a D16Y7 block and a rebuilt Y8 head. Just lightweight flywheel and a stage 1 exedy clutch with speedfactory shifter springs and detents, short throw dual bend shifter and metal bushings. That thing was QUICK off the line, only once you started to get into the gears did the slow start to come out but that car would do burnouts all day long no problem. The short gears mixed with the tough clutch lead to easy launches. If you want a properly fast car then go turbo. I used to have an FK7 L15B7 Turbo civic that was stock at 180hp and that thing would fucking move. It would give mustangs a good run for their money even though it wouldn't win it was still fun. Even hung with a McLaren once however I am pretty sure that he was not giving it the full juice.

TLDR NA builds are expensive and require you to put the engine on a stand and Turbo builds are expensive, require the same thing and yield better results. It really is more about how you want to drive the car and use it. The short gearing on the highway kind of sucked but it was fun just a bit loud when open header. I switched to a longer gear Y7 trans after having a slight mishap (bearing exploded due to being punctured upon my installing the CV axle seal on the trans.) The long gear trans on the highway feels really good and right at home, with some boost it would be a nice highway ride. Short gears are always best for acceleration and for racing however think of it as the difference between a Turbo highway car like a Supra or a Skyline versus an NA car like a 3rd Gen Civic Si with a DOHC D16 ZC. What kind of experience do you want to have? You can do turbo and short gears, it is all up to you. If you want to win races then short gears and lots of boost is what you want. If you want a zippy backroads togue monster then go short gear and NA. If you want good fuel economy don't do any mods and get the 5th gen Civic CX transmission. Think about what you want the final result to be and do. It is up to you. If I or anybody else was to build you a car it would be our idea of the car not yours. What is your idea for your car?

These two videos contain two different perspectives and philosophies.

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kgt said:

Lots of good info there, thanks. I have all of the parts and a goal in mind for this build. It's going to be turbo for sure. I'm just not sure which car to stick it in. I'm definitely leaning Sedan. Small turbo, high compression, Z6 Trans. It will be built to take way more power if I get the ich for a bigger snail. I'm after a quick, balanced car. I'll probably hit some track days. I'm not interested in a drag car. My favorite aspect of the EF/EG's is the handling.

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