Celica Forums General Discussion General project car

Ok so my and a friend of mine are looking for a project car. He originally wanted to build from the frame up but reality kicked in and we realized we lacked so many special skills and tools it would be impossible. So we are looking at your average tuner car that we could build/swap the engine. So prety much whats on the line now is civic, intergra, talon, or eclipse. Somehow the possibility of a 5.0 but we would like to avoid that. So I guess what Im asking is what do you think the best tuner car is to do it yourself and which has the most potential.

how much money you looking at spending?

no real budget. Nothing over 10 grand with car cost included. But we want all power no show at all a pure race/track car

Get a Civic Ex and make that bitch RWD and put a small block chevy in that hoe.

... ok lets go back to reality here.

for 10g i say get a 5.0 buy the vehicle for about no more then 3 gs. and spend 6g of it on a nice s/c motor. leave 1 g aside for tuning and other goodies.

I think that a project car will heklp you learn and develop technical skills. Winging it is kinda fun when you really don't have to care about having the car run the next day.

I'd suggest a Civic HB EG6 or EK9, do a B18 conversion with full raing suspension and individual throttle bodies, gutted to hell, extra stiff chasis stich welded, with a roll cage and Type R tranny w/LSD, etc.

get a civic and put a b20 on that bitch and bost the shit out of it.

with $10,000 you could have a low 12-high 11 sec DSM

What would be the better engine for a honda to run high boost off b18n or h22. I would think the h22 just because its bigger with a stronger block but other than that i dunno.

^^^I think the b18 cause it has a lower compression stock.

I just did some research and the biggest problem im hearing is the sleeves wont take much boost 7-10 psi on stock with a generous 250-310 hp. But resleeved and with some engine work 400+ isnt out of the question.

I suggest you go with a 91-95 MR2 NA and drop a gen 3 3SGTE, I've found 91 Mr2's good body shape high mileage for less than 4K, I was about to pick one up but I found a good deal on a yamaha R6 I couldnt pass it up, yeah the Mr2 would of been my project car, In total including the cost of the car it would have been $7,000-$9,000 depending if you did the motor swap yourself, it would have been nice!!! 240HP stock with no mods!!!Thinking about it I might just sell my R6

that came into mind too... but were just weren't feeling it. Hondas are so much more practical and easier to work on with a huge aftermarket support.

Dude I don't think you have done your research well enough theres plenty of aftermarket support for the Mr2's Check these sites out
www.mr2.com [mr2.com]

this site shows you how to tune your Mr2 with little investment to 275rwhp!
This guy is very respectable in the Mr2 world.
http://www.mrcontrols.com/primers/power.htm

Any other comments?

old school 240z with a chevy big block.

i cant stand the 240z

I say the mr2 with the 3sgte engine trust me you can make that a killer car with the power to weight ratio.

i want to get a mr2 for a project car

yea the MR2 is nice even just for the RWD aspects. Hmmm... so much to think about.

The best performance for the money?
I'd say get the smallest, lightest car you can find that will accept the biggest 4 cylinder you can turbo the heck out of.

That'd probably be a CRX with a used H22, but I'm not a Honda fan...so

yea thats what im thinking h22a engine with a t3/t4 turbo

a good friend here has a crx that is lowered on 17s, its slow and pretty much stock, but looks good and its clean, really clean, no rust. He is pretty desperate at a grand.

yo man get the eclipse that has the turbo in it stock..sorry i cant remember the name of it..its an older model..my cus just got one the other day and he said its faster than the new civic si's...he bought it used for around 4 grand or less...i'll ask about the details from him later...stay away from domestic...the AWD eclipse would really be nasty..and it looks sweet in stock form...

You should get a 1st gen Eclipse. Those came with the 4G63. I think that would be pretty easy to tune.

how heavy are the eclipses?
A turboed built H22 in a CRX should be able to score in the 12's at least.

1st gen eclipses are faster than the 2nds, but the 2nds look better. You can pick up a 97 turbo for like $4Gs...

I didn't look very long, just wanted to show you an example of what is out there for sale.
Here is a 92 Civic, GSR swap, fully built motor, direct port nitrous system, 17" wheels, Ground Control coilovers w/ Tokico adjustable struts, DC sport strut bars, racing seats, VAFC controller, all carbon gauges. He says there is too much to list and the car runs 11.90's in the 1/4 mile. $8,295.
Tons of deals like this or better out there. Civics are perfect project cars. I would go with something like that. www.traderonline.com [traderonline.com] .

Well, the picture won't load for some reason, but it looks like a nice car.

MR2

93 civic hatchback with H22A and T3/T4 turbo...i've seen 1 or 2 done and i mean...think about it...that's gotta be fast...a 2000lb car with that motor..

or if you want pure racer...1st generation DSM talon/eclipse turbo. The 1st gen 6-bolt 4g63 motors are more solid than the 2nd gen's which have crankwalk and oil flow problems etc. a beefed up 4g63 with 20g turbo and AWD if possible...mmMMmm

I don't know much about MR2's but...lightweight + turbo + RWD = Possibilities and tons of fun in my book

whatever you choose to do...let us know and keep us posted!

personally I think the CRX's look better than '90s hatches. here's a writeup on the different CRX models and their weights, among other things in the article:

http://www.sportcompactcarweb.com/projectcars/0012scc_projcrx/

1988 CRX HF: 1800 lbs before weight reduction.

I've ridden in a CRX with ITR swap, and I'll tell you it was a blast. With just intake, header, exhaust, Apexi V-AFC, light rims (rota subzeros): it took out an Evo 8. The CRX driver made $100 haha. now imagine a turbo on that car.