gloryaccordy: 2009 Honda Civic EX

[gloryaccordy]

5 speed of course. It does feel a lot like my first CB, but with 30 MPG, 200-300lbs less weight, and ~20 more (real) stock HP. It's pretty fun. Plans are pretty simple:

Tein S-Tech/Koni STR.Ts
Update OEM brakes (Porterfield C4S, Centric 125s, SS lines)
Get some lightweight 17s (I am feeling gunmetal Kosei T1s)
Save my pennies for a turbo a few years down the line

Not much on the horizon I am interested in and I'd rather put that money to a new bike (Z1000). But it would be nice for the Civic to have some oomph. I like it though. It's got a lot of potential and is pretty fun out of the box. Lighter than a lot of cars out too (~2750lbs), especially for its size.

EDIT:

Mods so far:

Ebay CAI
ST Coilovers (KW's budget brand)

I have a second set of headlights I am going to retrofit and I would like to upgrade the stereo. So far so good though.

[AccordWarrior]

Looks great.

I have to ask though, if you've got a 350Z and a bike, why are you looking to lower and/or turbo it? I would think if you wanted a daily driver, you'd want something that was practical. I get it being fun, which is why sticky tires/light wheels/good brake feel is nice, but why lower it and make it a PITA to drive everywhere and / or turbo it and kill the reliability?

I remember you being slammed back in the day and tearing up cars doing it. Maybe I'm just getting old, but the lowered car thing for a daily seems to me to be more of a hassle than it's worth. I actually have the STi's lowering springs I purchased years ago for sale, still in the original package, and that's for a car I drive 600 miles a year. I just threw a lift on the Tacoma and while I love how it looks, it's been nothing but a headache since I did it.

[gloryaccordy]

Those pics are old... I sold the Z long ago.

Lowering tore my cars up up North because the roads were complete crap. My Z would not have survived up there either and rode awful on highways. I'm in NC now and the roads are comparatively excellent thanks to the absence of frost heaves. Plus I would keep the drop light. My last CB was probably dropped 2.5-3", on a suspension that was used in NYC. Just a stupid build all around. This go round I am keeping it light... 1 or so inches on brand new Koni stuff.

I feel you though. That is part of why I didn't mod my Z and ultimately why I sold it. It scraped over speed bumps stock. Handled awesome stock too. Your STI is also in that realm of cars where mods can hurt more than they help. Coupled with all the attention LE was showing me, and its impracticality and all I had to let it go. I had the Z and the Civic at the same time for about 3-4 months and drove the Civic 90% of that time.

Turbo will be way way down the line, like around the time I'd be looking to replace it. Engines are dirt cheap... I would bore/stroke/build one up, keep the boost low and keep pushing. Only cars on the horizon that pique my interest are the Fiesta ST, GTI and maybe an M235i or 335i. I trust a built Honda more than those for reliability. We will see though. In the interim I will probably just do little bolt ons and keep it DD friendly.

I have put 12,000 miles on this thing since January

[AccordWarrior]

Those pics are old... I sold the Z long ago.

Lowering tore my cars up up North because the roads were complete crap. My Z would not have survived up there either and rode awful on highways. I'm in NC now and the roads are comparatively excellent thanks to the absence of frost heaves. Plus I would keep the drop light. My last CB was probably dropped 2.5-3", on a suspension that was used in NYC. Just a stupid build all around. This go round I am keeping it light... 1 or so inches on brand new Koni stuff.

I feel you though. That is part of why I didn't mod my Z and ultimately why I sold it. It scraped over speed bumps stock. Handled awesome stock too. Your STI is also in that realm of cars where mods can hurt more than they help. Coupled with all the attention LE was showing me, and its impracticality and all I had to let it go. I had the Z and the Civic at the same time for about 3-4 months and drove the Civic 90% of that time.

Turbo will be way way down the line, like around the time I'd be looking to replace it. Engines are dirt cheap... I would bore/stroke/build one up, keep the boost low and keep pushing. Only cars on the horizon that pique my interest are the Fiesta ST, GTI and maybe an M235i or 335i. I trust a built Honda more than those for reliability. We will see though. In the interim I will probably just do little bolt ons and keep it DD friendly.

I have put 12,000 miles on this thing since January

Ah, okay. That makes a whole lot more sense. There's a huge difference between a 1" wheel gap killer and a 3" or lower stanced deal.

Turbo situation makes more sense too the way you explained it. If you can build the spare engine, swap it in and then go forward, that seems a lot more reasonable than throwing a random turbo on it and going that route.

It's funny, the older I get, the less I appreciate heavily modded cars. I mean, I still can respect a well built car, but the Subaru world is all about stance now, running an 18x10 wheel on a 225 tire or something silly like that. I've actually been slowly going back to stock, my bigger wheels are off because the tires were getting loud, my mudflaps are long gone and my Supertones are gone. I'm basically left with a mild front lip, a bunch of auxiliary gauges, audio and a few mild power adders, and I'm completely okay with that.

[DCB7]

Pics aren't big enough, lol.

Nice grab, looks good

[gloryaccordy]

Ah, okay. That makes a whole lot more sense. There's a huge difference between a 1" wheel gap killer and a 3" or lower stanced deal.

Turbo situation makes more sense too the way you explained it. If you can build the spare engine, swap it in and then go forward, that seems a lot more reasonable than throwing a random turbo on it and going that route.

It's funny, the older I get, the less I appreciate heavily modded cars. I mean, I still can respect a well built car, but the Subaru world is all about stance now, running an 18x10 wheel on a 225 tire or something silly like that. I've actually been slowly going back to stock, my bigger wheels are off because the tires were getting loud, my mudflaps are long gone and my Supertones are gone. I'm basically left with a mild front lip, a bunch of auxiliary gauges, audio and a few mild power adders, and I'm completely okay with that.

Yea there is definitely a growing gulf. I guess car modding is like anything else though. Things just tend to get more and more extreme or liberal over time, it seems, which I suppose isn't always a bad thing. I barely post on 8thCivic... I just lurk for information. I can't relate to those guys at all.

Plus I have too much shit going on. I remember when I was like 22 I would spend so much time on my car. Washing it, cleaning it, doing maintenance, modding it, meeting up with other CB people... I don't have the time. It was funny because the Z was my first car after not having one in about 4 years, and I thought I would get right back to my old ways with modding and meets and all that... but I just had a reluctance. My priorities shifted. It was a real eye opening moment.

And yea I have been burnt too many times to go rando. I'm gonna do this build 100% right. I like the OEM look too. Goal of this build is a "Civic ST" like the Fords. Just a quick but well done and super low key sleeper build. I don't have the desire to own fancy cars or anything like that... cars are just too expensive. If I can drive this thing into the ground I will be happy

[gloryaccordy]

Got ST coilovers... will fix the pics in the OP

[gloryaccordy]

Some more updates... fake Momo knob and a headlight projector retrofit. Morimoto Mini D2S 3.0s... was an adventure.



I'm not crazy about the final aesthetics though so I'm gonna do another retro with these:



Since literally the week I wrapped these up TRS came out with a 2.5" projector that would work. No worries though.

Just wanna do sway bars, solid shifter bushings and my stereo.... I may do an R20 swap once the miles get up but no turbo shit. Rather just sell the car at that point. Having fun though

[AccordWarrior]

Looks good from what I can see...some close up pictures would show off what it actually looks like.

The future mods sound good. Upgrades to the shifter will really change how the car drives. When I did the bushings on my old STi I instantly wondered why it wasn't my first mod.

[gloryaccordy]

This thing has been a nightmare, mostly my fault. I spun a bearing and got a junkyard engine replacement.... but the engine they put in had a broken P/S mount which broke like a week after the warranty ran out. Got another junkyard engine, has a coolant leak and has been running weird. I'm in for more than Honda would have charged at this point, and now I'm probably going to go to Honda for them to fix it. I'm hoping it just needs a new water pump.

Even outside of that, it wore thin on me. Very loud and unrefined, but also very slow with the A/C on. I still don't regret not getting an Si as I really hate that power delivery... I'm contemplating keeping this and maybe turbocharging it? Most rational thing to do though would just be get it fixed and put it up. The body is very clean and it's solid otherwise.... just hope the engine issue is an easy fix.

[verothacamaro]

This thing has been a nightmare, mostly my fault. I spun a bearing and got a junkyard engine replacement.... but the engine they put in had a broken P/S mount which broke like a week after the warranty ran out. Got another junkyard engine, has a coolant leak and has been running weird. I'm in for more than Honda would have charged at this point, and now I'm probably going to go to Honda for them to fix it. I'm hoping it just needs a new water pump.

Even outside of that, it wore thin on me. Very loud and unrefined, but also very slow with the A/C on. I still don't regret not getting an Si as I really hate that power delivery... I'm contemplating keeping this and maybe turbocharging it? Most rational thing to do though would just be get it fixed and put it up. The body is very clean and it's solid otherwise.... just hope the engine issue is an easy fix.

May I ask what you think caused you to spin a bearing?

Is this a common fault on these engines?

[gloryaccordy]

May I ask what you think caused you to spin a bearing?

Is this a common fault on these engines?

Stupidity. I was low on oil, and I overrevved on a downshift. Perfect storm

[AccordWarrior]

Even outside of that, it wore thin on me. Very loud and unrefined, but also very slow with the A/C on. I still don't regret not getting an Si as I really hate that power delivery... I'm contemplating keeping this and maybe turbocharging it? Most rational thing to do though would just be get it fixed and put it up. The body is very clean and it's solid otherwise.... just hope the engine issue is an easy fix.

A turbo isn't going to fix your dislike of the car. If it were "I love the car but it's slow", that's one thing, but if you think it's loud and unrefined, adding in a home-built turbo system isn't going to do you any favors.

That's not a knock on your ability or anything, it's just a case of a home built turbo will have bugs and teething issues you'll have to work through. In addition, I'm assuming you'd want a larger exhaust which would me even more noise, etc, etc.

I'd say get it in as good of shape as you can and flip it for something else if you truly don't like it.

[gloryaccordy]

You are probably right. I'd rather put that $$$ into the bike or in the bank anyway. The dream would be to sell the bike and car and build an Exocet but that will probably remain a dream.