[KoTT]

So, I got a '96 Integra and Im tryin to get it to move a bit faster. The car already handles like magic, just need to make it pick up better.

Main goal - make it keep up with my buddy's 300ZX in a drag race

So far its got the 1.8L 4 cylinder, an after market exhaust system from previous owner, one of those K&N intake kits, and a brand new racing clutch. I want to get a lightened flywheel soon as I have the money to. After that, I dont know what to do. 6-speed transmission? A turbo kit? But I dont have anywhere close to that kinda money... Any ideas?

I think the flywheel should help out quite a bit, since the power band of this car is at like 6K + rpm...

 

[joe_padavano]

.. Any ideas?

Nitrous...

 

[rtyauch301]

Nitrous...

turbo kit their cheap and easy to install on those cars and those cars can handle around 12 psi factory with a good dyno tune

 

[matt167]

lightened flywheel will not help a stock engine.. it will take the powerband and cut it in 1/2.. save up and buy a turbo kit off Ebay.. then substitute the cheap chineese turbo with a good Garrett turbo... best bang for the buck

 

[4 Jaw Chuck]

For the money your going to spend on turbo kits etc. you could buy a faster car. Some food for thought.

 

[KoTT]

and then spend more money on suspension parts tryin to make it handle like mine does... its not all about straight away speed

 

[rtyauch301]

For the money your going to spend on turbo kits etc. you could buy a faster car. Some food for thought.

i wish i could find a faster car for under 2k

 

[Johnunit]

Honestly, find a good Honda site like Honda Tech or the like and ask the question there. There are some serious engine builders on here, but they're domestic guys, it's just not their area of expertise or passion. If you're ever building up a 460 or a chevy small block though, this'd be the place to ask.

 

[61bone]

If you push it off a high enough cliff, it will make approximatly 225 mph in 7 seconds. This may be repeatable, but I would think that aerodynamic failure from repeated runs will cause some loss of acceleration and top end. Possible loss of mass would also be a factor, but it would be quick for a while. :welcome:

 

[redlightning]

Those are great cars and there are a lot of after market support for the 1.8.Like has already been stated.Turbo or nitrous are the way to go.

 

[Blazin72]

My first thought was also nitrous.

Which 1.8 do you have? There were several available and there is close to a 50hp difference between the base 1.8 and the top option 1.8.

 

[speedfoos]

Gah. Do not boost the 'teggy until you have enough saved up to do it properly, and have an equal amount in reserve to counter the horsepower side effects that inevitably crop up. There's a lot more required than just "buying a turbo kit off Ebay" and slapping it on. If you do that, you're going to end up with a giant money pit that hardly runs and when it does, is not reliable.

For your budget, bottle-feed it with a 75-shot and call it a day. Don't go down the turbo road unless you've got at least $5K in your pocket and a good working knowledge of how turbos work, and how to make them work on 4-cylinder motors that were never designed for boost.

 

[dinger]

There's some good advice here. My neighbor is building a Vtech in his Honda, I know he has headers, larger fuel injection set up, a hot cam, and who knows what else. I will say it sounds like nothing you hear on the streets, it is wicked. He has told me he would be lost without the program in his computer that fine tunes everything for him. He has told me with these cars, if your not computer savvy with the tuning, you are lost. So, I would look into this, and like Johnunit says, find a good honda tech forum, research. You've asked the cavemen the question, now ask the modern man.

 

[speedfoos]

I've tuned my share of Hondas and they're not terribly difficult to get a safe street tune on if you've got the right gear, but as others have said, nothing beats a professional tune done on a dyno. I was still getting 32 MPG on my 380whp Civic with the big fat GT30 strapped to the noise with a mild pocket port job and nice low duration Crower turbo cam. HT is a decent site, but there is a lot of ash and trash over, but the main moderator Matt (SN is toyomatt) has been pretty good at keeping things productive lately.

Standard supporting stuff on a Honda turbo build is ARP head studs, stock MLS head gasket, bigger injectors (DSM 450s are common), plus the rest of the turbo bits and bobs. Depending on what you're running and want to pay, there are multiple tuning options for that ECU - Crome, Neptune, Turboedit, and the Hondata suite all allow full control over the operating parameters of the ECU. Stock internals are good to about 7 psi, add a set of ARP rod bolts for up to about 12 psi, then look into a nice set of H-beams and forged pistons for bigger boost. The stock forged cranks have supported well over 600hp without batting an eye. Good thing is that the B-series motor in that teggy has almost as much aftermarket support as an SBC.

 

[KoTT]

I got the 127 hp one.

yea, Im not really lookin into going down the turbo road. If anything, I would rather save up for a few months and drop a Type-R engine in it. Looks like a swap would cost somewhere near 6-7 K tho... but then again it will work for sure unlike the turbos.

Also, I have read a buncha stuff about swapping the header from a VTEC engine. Any one ever done this/seen it done? Is it worth it? Even if that would not be nearly as effective as a new engine, by far cheaper, thats for sure.

 

[speedfoos]

Bolt pattern is the same on all the b-series heads so swap away on the header if that's what you want. You won't get a whole lot of gains though. They aren't V8 motors that can gain gobs and gobs of power just by re-configuring the exhaust. Apples to apples is probably the same from a percentage standpoint, but a 1% gain on a 138hp motor is a lot less than a 1% gain on a 338hp motor.

 

[81Meano]

Wow, I didnt think id find a honda guy on this site.

YOu are in luck, I have built and do build honda stuff for my other project. (91 honda Civic Hatch.. mainly being built for road raceing) I am currently building a 1.8LS for my hatch.

IN short.. what you have there is one of hondas best motors as far as power and torque go. You can get alot out of that motor if you really want to. just remember that the farther away from stock you go, you will trade off reliability and you will need to make sure that it is tuned correctly or you could have problems.

I will assume that you have the LS version (non Vetc) which is about a 145hp 130tq motor stock, pretty respectable. that being said, you can swap the head off of a B16 Vtec which will bump up the compression ratio and the head has good flow. I dont have any dyno sheets but this should get you close to 200HP and still be reliable basically a stock set up. this set up is very popular and easy to do (search LS-Vtec or even better Frankenstein) on a site like Honda Swap or Honda Tech (see links below) and you will find all of the info you could ever want. Oh, and for the money, a typeR is not going to gain youmuch overy what you have fr the money... there are more effective ways to go and get solid power out of the motor without doing anything that intensive.

My build will be a 1.8 bored out to be a 1.9 Fully forged bottom end (crank, rods, pistons) ported and polished heads (using stock LS heads) 2.5" custom exhaust, Intake , a bit hotter cam than stock and an Apexi SAFC-II and a few other goodies. all said and done it will be a solid 200hp motor with room to improve. It will be trubo ready should i ever want to go down that road.
Right now, i have the machine work done and the parts, just need some rod bolts and a few other things and i can start to assemble it.


Let me know if you have any specific goals, or what your budget is and i can point you in the right direction... also your elvel of experience and what you or anyone helping you is comfortable doing... and I wouldnt go with a turbo unless you have alot of cash and tuning experience or things can go BOOM easily and you can kiss your $3-7K good bye.

Oh, you said you want to keep up with your buddies 300zx, does he have the standard version or is it a twin turbo set up... this will help to diagnose how to beat him in a foot race ...

Here are a couple sites that you can look at for alot of good info.


http://hondaswap.com/
http://www.honda-tech.com/index.php