can I do anything with this?

figured this looked like the forum to ask. I have a 90 civic hatchback in the most bare bones config. I mean this sucker only has the 4 speed and everything. 70 alleged HP out of the box bare bones commuter mobeely. Now the car is fine, rolling 160K and getting ready to retire her before engine fixes get more pricey around the 200K mark. BUT, I'm thinking of making a little toy out of it instead of just selling it to some brat kid who will just throw a stupid loud muffler on it, some goofy miscolored body panels and beat the piss out of it.

Question for the gear heads is this, is there anything REAL that can be done with this drivetrain or would I have to start with dropping the entire drivetrain because this motor is just too dog? Example, is this a simple head swap, new fuel system kinda deal or is this block altogether a boat anchor?

Hell the Std(what your civic is) motor can have some stuff done to it. best is a MPFI swap but a swap would probbly be best you can put in a SI motor for not much at all a B series a D series ive seen Hs been put in them also Zcs drop in so don't junk it hit up the 88-91 civic forums loads of info for your 4g STD.

main draw back of the std civics is the tranny. its basically an HF tranny less 5th gear. easiest way to gain more performance is to switch out the tranny to either an si or dx tranny. to motor itself is not a dog. best bet by far would be to just drop a b series engine into it. dont get me wrong the lil d can do lots. im pushin 220whp on a 55shot of zex. all done under 1g total. anyways still my opinion to drop in a bseries engine. if you cant afford it, find yourself a d16z6 out of the del sol si or the d16y8 from the civic ex and drop it into you civic...bolts right up. just need to do a little re wiring which isnt hard at all. also i concur on the mpfi swap. its will by far be the best upgrade you could ever do for your car...BTW i have a complete MPFI swap for your car you will need nothing else for $125+shipping.

i have the same car, n what i did was do a head swap, i got a d16z6 vtec head n did the mpfi swap n put a intake n header on it with a cat back eshaust....made a big diffrence but like he said the trans sux, so now im replacing it with a zc trans n a new clutch-now ill have equal length axles n a 5 speed so more fun....but it all dident really cost me that much...got the parts at junk yards n ebay...

std civic if im not mistake has a 23 spline axle....the zc shafts may not go into you hub.....but i cant remmember if thats true or not....