Recommendations on Civic EX

[L-U-R-C-H]

Okay, if and when I get a 96-98 Civic EX, can someone make a recommendation of what I should upgrade on it first? A friend told me to replace the breaks and then move to the suspension. Any thoughts?

[93speed]

It depends on what your goal is.... Speed, looks, tackiness, handling, etc...

Lowering it is always a good thing to start out with no matter what you're going for. A lowered car handles good and looks good.

You might want to wait and see what you need to do to the car to get it in normal running condition. It might need a new tires, new suspension or new brakes in which case you might as well upgrade.

[Pilot]

96-98 Coupes come with the ugly red/yellow/white tails...it be nice to change em to clear(up)/red, if they even exist for that model...just an idea
post some pics when u get it

[VTEC_boi]

If they exist? Dude just get them off of a 99-00 coupe.



Also, your friend is a bit confused. Why upgrade brakes when the car doesn't have any engine performance mods to make it travel more quickly than stock?

Most people lower their car and get an intake and then they flood message boards with questions about what motor they can get. LOL


Decide what you want to do with the car. Go ultra fast or just have a more spirited daily driver. A more show oriented car? A more race oriented car?



Decide these and things will fall into place for you.

[L-U-R-C-H]

Well, I would like to go for speed. But I need to be real careful that I don't get caught speeding, because I already have SR-22 Insurance. Yes, I will probably change the tail lights to the clear ones but I really want to make the car a "sleeper". I don't want a bunch of people to know that it has a bunch of modifications done to the car. If the exterior of the car looks real sporty and "beefed up", this would increase the chance of theft to the car or theft of parts from the car. So basically do things to the engine and stuff like that first and maybe do a body kit on it last. Of course I want rims to make it look nicer too. So you guys say to lower the car first? Well after that I will probably install an AEM Cold Air Intake. I know it's dangerous but I am thinking about putting NOS in the car once everything else is all set.

Well anyway, I need to say that I am still in highschool (going to be a senior next year) so I don't have a whole bunch of cash. Any of you guys know where I can get these parts for cheaper? Or where I could get the car cheaper? I want to just start out with a used stock 96 or 97 Civic EX. Then I plan on applying modifcations when time permits.

[rendog24]

if you want to save money then you should try and do most of the mods yourself. by that i mean installing them urself. that way you get to know and educate yourself about cars while doing your own work on ur car. for getting the parts cheap i dont know an exact place but just browse the internet and i know that www.groupbuycenter.com can get you some good prices.

[L-U-R-C-H]

Yeah, I had planned on installing the parts myself. Thanks for the link.

[Pilot]

Originally posted by VTEC_boi
If they exist? Dude just get them off of a 99-00 coupe.

good point...the tails are the same size
I've never seen a 99-00 coupe with clear(top)/red(bottom)...i wonder how that looks

[HXCivic97]

I know it's dangerous but I am thinking about putting NOS in the car once everything else is all set.

Before you go dumpin happy gas in there, you might want to consider a few things. Depending on your shot, your engine might not be able to take it - so you might need to beef it up a little bit. And your clutch isn't gonna last long with NOS in there either. I'd spend that $700-$2000 getting your car ready for stuff like that. I/H/E, brakes, gaskets, stronger rods, that kinda stuff. But it's your car, and whatever you want to do with its cool. I'm not the be all and end all of NOS info - check out some posts in the forced induction forum. They'll have all kinds of info.

[rendog24]

yeah on the 99-00 coupes it is red on top and clear on bottom. when i got new tails i gave my stock ones to my bro who has a 97 coupe.

[L-U-R-C-H]

Oh yeah, I definitely plan on beefing up the engine before I would install Nitrous. I'm thinking for the fuel system, use Holley products since they are the prime source of Nitrous Injection.

[piscorpio]

Originally posted by VTEC_boi
Also, your friend is a bit confused. Why upgrade brakes when the car doesn't have any engine performance mods to make it travel more quickly than stock?

Why wait until your car is too much for the stock brakes to handle? If you plan to build up everything around the engine, this is one of the things you can get to, and its pretty important in my opinion.

As far as speed, I think the two best options are turbo the D16 you have now, or swap a bigger B series engine in. How fast you want to be, and how much time and money you are willing to spend in the long run will be a major factor in your choice.

[madtownhonda]

swap or turbo

bolts ons are do do on a D16

then do suspension, brakes are just fine the way they are.

[rendog24]

yes i have finally realized that my d series engine will never be fast unless a good amount of money go into it. so i decided to make it a show car per say. just the average bolt ons and exterior and interior work for my civic. with all the extra money that i make i am saving for an s2000.

[L-U-R-C-H]

Will I want to drop the stock engine if I want to install NOS in the car? If that is the case, then it will be a while before I install NOS cuz an engine costs a lot of money. Do you guys think doing a B16 engine would be good enough?