Looking for input on making more power for my 00 Civic EX 5-speed

6thGeneration

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I am relitively new to cars in general but for roughly the past year I've been really interested and done quite a bit of research. I absolutely love hondas and my first car was a 97 civic EX coupe, I loved it but the only problem was it was an automatic and after doing research and watching videos and whatnot I realized automatic was not the way to go. I sold that one and now have a 2000 civic EX Manual which I love even more. Seeing that I love cars and driving is on of my favorite things to do and I'm a reckless teenager I want to get into the world of modifications and having a project type, clean car. I'm looking for some input on what I should do really... From what I've read and experienced based on my driving the d16y8 SOHC VTEC isn't the most sporty thing in the world and I've heard it doesn't respond to modifications well and boosting it would kind of be foolish, right? What I really want to know is how practical it would be to do up my Civic EX even if that means doing some sort of swap. I'm looking for realistic and wise commentary, don't fuel my teenage mind if you know what I mean. Thank you for your time if you took the time to read this... I'm new to this forum as well so let me know if I should go about this in a different way.
 

emerican

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why would it be foolish to boost it depending on the turbo setup it would be the same hp as a swap.
 


6thGeneration

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Well wouldn't swapping in then boosting it be more substantial? If you were to put a turbo on it then you'd have to do new manifolds and injectors and all of that I feel it would be really limited because it doesn't have a l arge amount of power to begin with. Maybe I'm wrong and It'd be cool to do seeing that no one really does right... but maybe that's for a reason.
 

emerican

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there are tons of boosted d series out there with loads of horsepower research on d series turbo builds.
200whp is easily attained on stock motor built motor its pretty much endless possbilties depending on how much money you have to spend.
What is your actual power goal, budget, mechanical knowledge.
 


6thGeneration

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What is a realistic power goal? There's more to it then just saying I want 250HP, right? The budget isn't a problem. I'll save for whatever I need eventually and it would be a gradual build. Mechanically I know a lot about how the components work and are set up and all that but I really have no hands on experience. I'll research boosted D series.

On another note: When people talk about all the things that are done to their cars how to I start to understand the gibberish more... I believe it's just the brands I'm unfamiliar with so I'd like to know which brands are reliable and good.
 

crash!

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It really depends on what you're after. Some people really enjoy boosted D series, and some don't. Personally I like the torqueyness of B series motors; hence why I went that route versus boosting my Y8. Also there are more options for B series motors, but that's just my honest opinion.
When I was looking into what I wanted to swap into my car, all I did was watch videos, search build threads and talk to my car community to see what was best for me. And test drive everyone's cars if I could (which it's fairly easy to do being a girl ;) ). Two years later I'm finally building my "ideal" basic swap.
There are tons of boosted D series out there, and you're thinking of it not being the best idea because punk ass high school kids think their D series with 210k miles on it can handle 22 lbs of boost. If you do it right it can be very reliable.
 

6thGeneration

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Well my whole thing is I don't want to put in a bunch of money into something that isn't going to reap any real benefits. I'm not looking to go a cheap route and boost my D series if that's all it is. If it is actually a legitimate opition then that's reasonable and I'd look into it but I want to spend my money wisely. How do I establish what's right for me?
 

crash!

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Well do you plan on tracking this? or do you want something just for fun on a freeway onramp?
 

6thGeneration

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This car would definetely just be for fun, something to keep me occupied and proud. I'm not looking for a drag car by any means but I want something that is impressive and not a typical ghetto honda you see driving around all of the time painted four different colors or primered with a fart can and Honda stickers across the windows, you know?
 

XpL0d3r

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This car would definetely just be for fun, something to keep me occupied and proud. I'm not looking for a drag car by any means but I want something that is impressive and not a typical ghetto honda you see driving around all of the time painted four different colors or primered with a fart can and Honda stickers across the windows, you know?
Sounds to me like you're in the right mindset..! :thumbs up

I ended up doing the whole B-series swap, then boost thing; I love it.BUT, I'm pretty sure that I would be happy with a boosted D-series too. It really all depends on how much work you want to do, and what YOU want to do with the car. If budget isn't an issue, your possibilities are endless, lol. Keep researching, and eventually set a goal for what you want to accomplish.Then, make it happen!
 

crash!

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Sounds to me like you're in the right mindset..! :thumbs up
This. I like you. You can stay :lol:

Honestly from what you're telling me, I would think you would be happier building/buying a B series swap. Call me biased, but I think there are way more options (B16/LS/LS-V/GSR/Type R/B20/B20-V/Poor Mans R....etc) and there's always room to grow. There's more routes you can take with them (all motor/turbo/supercharge) that you will get more bang for your buck. I think you would find yourself happier in the long run.
 

RonJ

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(Some helpful advice about tech threads - create a thread title that summarizes your tech question to attract more members who have interest and knowledge about the topic)
 

6thGeneration

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I'll be satisfied with any 6th gen. civic with a considerable amount of power. I used to daily drive my parents 2007 8th gen. SI and that was quite a bit of fun for me so I'm sure a B series swap with a turbo at a reasonable PSI keeping it realiable would be amazing. How realistic is it? How do I go about getting the engine to swap and the internet has so many differnet reviews and opinions about different brands and makers of aftermarket parts so I'm somewhat lost there too. I guess I just need to know where to start... How much would I be looking at financially at the end?
 

young_

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I'll be satisfied with any 6th gen. civic with a considerable amount of power. I used to daily drive my parents 2007 8th gen. SI and that was quite a bit of fun for me so I'm sure a B series swap with a turbo at a reasonable PSI keeping it realiable would be amazing. How realistic is it? How do I go about getting the engine to swap and the internet has so many differnet reviews and opinions about different brands and makers of aftermarket parts so I'm somewhat lost there too. I guess I just need to know where to start... How much would I be looking at financially at the end?
Reliable, name brand turbo build, and a b-series swap? Assuming you do all the work yourself I would say...

Turbo = 2200 (roughly)
Swap = 1200 (all depends on what you can pick up everything for. This is assuming you purchase a new motor online, like from hmotors.)

So you're at 3400. Roughly.

Once again it all depends on how cheap you can pick everything up for. But if you want reliability I would advise against cheaping out.

Cheap, fast, or reliable. Pick two.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

crash!

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I'll be satisfied with any 6th gen. civic with a considerable amount of power. I used to daily drive my parents 2007 8th gen. SI and that was quite a bit of fun for me so I'm sure a B series swap with a turbo at a reasonable PSI keeping it realiable would be amazing. How realistic is it? How do I go about getting the engine to swap and the internet has so many differnet reviews and opinions about different brands and makers of aftermarket parts so I'm somewhat lost there too. I guess I just need to know where to start... How much would I be looking at financially at the end?
I've been looking into boosting my GSR when I'm done with it. And even running 8-10 lbs I could potentially be running low to mid 300s on a good tune.
It's very realistic. You basically do anything with these motors. They're pretty sturdy for what they are and as long as you build the internals to support the power accordingly, you will be fine.
And I've been piecing my GSR together (while upgrading certain parts) and I'll be sitting around $1700 spent on it all.
 

6thGeneration

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That seems too inexpensive. A swap alone seems to be 2000 dollars alone without any other sort of modification. I want to take things one step at a time. How different are the bolt ons for a Dseries and a B series. Would something as simple as an intake be compatible with both? I know this is something I could research but it's just an example. A swap would be the first thing on the list other than aesthetics?
 

crash!

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That seems too inexpensive. A swap alone seems to be 2000 dollars alone without any other sort of modification. I want to take things one step at a time. How different are the bolt ons for a Dseries and a B series. Would something as simple as an intake be compatible with both? I know this is something I could research but it's just an example. A swap would be the first thing on the list other than aesthetics?
Well for one thing I've been piecing the swap together versus buying it as a whole. I've found it's cheaper but it takes longer. Two, I have bewbs :lol: it helps sometimes.

Some things are compatable between D and B series (speed sensors, MAPs, tranny mounts, fuel injectors, wiring harnesses...etc.). You just have to look and research. And intake could with a rubber fitting, but you would want an intake that's going to not starve your throttle body. So a D series intake on (let's say) a 68 mm TB wouldn't be the best idea. Plus intakes are really inexpensive.
 

6thGeneration

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Yeah I think I got it. Swap before anything alse performance wise. I'll start slightly with visual like you did and go from there when I'm ready. I'm going to start a thread in the other show off section tomorrow to show my progression and get people's input along the way through my build. thank you very much, I'm a lot more motivated now but we'll see how it goes =)
 


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