I have a 97 civic ex 5spd and the torque sucks especially in first gear , which is understandable. How can i get more torque out of a stock engine.

Turbo ;)

Honda and Torque don't go together to well.
Your running a SOHC you wont get to much outta that bad boy.

yeah, the 1.6L 127HP is lacking. what should i put in its place. would a K20A2 or b16a2 fit? might as well get a new engine rather than pay for turbo. turbo with an intercooler cost almost the same as an engine

Man you're smoking crack. You think a turbo kit w/intercooler will cost more than putting a K20a2 in your car? My advice is to not touch your motor until you do some heavy reading.

If you want to swap and lookin for torque...i'd say gsr is pretty dOpe if you want the vtec. Or you can get a b20 and turbo that bitch up ;)

Just so you know i had a b16a in my rex. I got rid of the shortblock and swapped it out with b18c5 shortblock with CTR pistons. IT made a HUGE difference over my b16a cause of more torque and of course HP. It shaved off a second of my time lol ;)

And a turbo kit can cost you anywhere between 2500-3100 depending what comes with the kit and what company. Thats good enough for a gsr motor.

junkyard turbo buddy. cheaper and good improvement. and like civicspoom said dont tounch that motor beforeu do some reshearch.

yeah definitely not screwing anything up

a turbo or a swap is somthing that i have been looking at dooing my self. of course with a new engine you have a lot more base power. but a turbo could be just as nasty.
i'm not sure what way i will go yet

id say go with the engine swap. I have a site that you might be interested in and it tells you everything about the engine it is totaljdm.com id say go with the b18bg1 or 2 because its only like 1000 with shipping and you get alot more out of it because its no piece of crap sohc. have fun and i hope you see it my way.

good site but i didnt see any engine for 1000.

http://www.totaljdm.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/engines.displayengine/item_num/JDMHONDAB18BG1/jdm_engines.htm
No tranny, shiftlinkage, ECU, mounts, or axles (other than the intermediate shaft). And those are all things you'll need to do the swap.
The only other place I've seen a full LS swap was at www.Hmotorsonline.com (http://www.Hmotorsonline.com) and they have it for $2200+shipping. But honestly like mellowboy said, you might as well just go with the GSR engine for about 30 more hp (or jsut turbo your motor).

Hmotorsonline ask way too much for the LS motors. Better off buyin it off from ppl online classifieds.

Get a donor car.

Yeh whatever is clever ;)

what is the stock engine in the SI?

what year Si? 92-95 is the D16z6, the 99-00 b16a2, 01+ k20a3.