Hi everyone, I'm looking into buy my first honda and was wondering if the civic si would be a good choice? (year 1999-?)

I want the si because:
1. It already has a good engin right? A b16a2 I believe.
2. It looks cool.

Also. Will this engine be able to be pretty flexibl in terms of going turbo or N/A?
Is installing a turbo a daunting task for someone who's never done it? I don't think i'll ever pay a mechanic to do any work on my car (I'd rather do it). I have mechanic friends, but they don't really know about turbos, just N/A.

BTW I have a lot more time than money, I'm in H.S.

Thanks

 

The 1999-2000 Civic SI is a great car, but also a popular target for thieves so security is going to have to be one of your main investments. Yes, it does have a b16a2 which is a great platform to work with, especially for your first Honda. You can make good power on stock internals with the engine, but if you don't know a lot about turbos, I'd do a lot of research. I don't think installing a turbo kit will be so difficult, but you most definitely will need somebody to tune it. If that is all too much for you, it does make a fun N/A motor. I will leave this for someone else to elaborate on more, I have to go to work lol.

 

LIKE DEVNEY SAID IT WOULD BE A GREAT PLATFORM TO START WITH. STOCK INTERNALS ARE PRETTY BEEFY AND CAN HOLD BOOST WITHOUT MODIFING THE BLOCK. DONT GET ME WRONG TO THROW HIGH BOOST AND MAKE A SICK STREET MACHINE FORGED INTERNALS WOULD OBVIOUSLY BE NEEDED BUT FOR A FUN LITTLE STREET CAR. THROW ON SOME BOLT ONS START SAVING AND GET A TURBO KIT. DONT GO EBAY YOU'LL RUIN YOUR CAR. YOU CAN PEICEA TURBO KITTOGETHER FAIRLY CHEAP OR BUY A KIT. GREDDY MAKE A GREAT STARTER KIT. JUST MAKE SURE TO GET AN INTERCOOLER, BOV, ECT. BUT THE GREDDY ALSO COMES WITH A FUEL MANGMENT SYSTEM THATS NOT TO BAD. A GOOGLE SHERCH FOR "TURBO CIVICHOW TO" WILL GET YOU MORE THAN ENOUGH INFO ON HOW TO HOOK IT UP. BEING THAT ITS YOUR FIRST TIME DONT PLAN ON DOING IT IN ONE DAY. GIVE YOURSELF A GOOD 3 DAY LONG WEEKEND. BUT THE MOTOR WILL BE GOOD FUN WITH JUST SOME SIMPLE BOLT-ONS. AND THOSE ARE PRETTY SIMPLE TO PUT ON. WORK YOUR WAY UP TO THE TURBO. ITS GOOD YOU WANT TO WORK ON YOUR CAR, I HAVE THAT SAME OUTLOOK. JUST MAKE SURE YOU GET WHAT YOU WANT ( I.E. COLOR, MOTOR, OPTIONS) OR YOU'LL BE SORRY LATER DOWN THE ROAD. THEY ARE ALL EXPENSIVE PAIN IN THE A** CONVERSTIONS.

B16A2 + BOLT-ONS + TURBO = LOTS OF FUN
THEN GO FIND A COBRA AND SHOW HIM WHATS UP! AND AT 25-30 MPGS

 

99-2000 si are cool cars dude my friend has a 92 si hatchback and a auto detective from the police department came up to him ask him if he wanted to relinquish his car to the police on weekends for 200 dollars a day they put camera's in his car and a killswitch activated by a button dont know if you have ever seen the show "bait car" but in my opinion hatchbacks are the most popular among the stolen id say 80% of all hatches have a motor or some fancy stuff on it

 

f*** bolt ons man, why get a header when your gonna throw it out when you get a turbo manifold? and f*** your all caps, it's ruining my day.

Like devney said, invest in security before anything else because Si's are stolen all the time.

Just start doing research, read up on homemadeturbo.com, it's got a lot of info on turbos

 

Thanks for all the input guys this really helped! First things first though gott actually get the si lol. Doesn't seem to be a lot in my area. Are they rare cars?

 

Have you thought of getting just a regular ex coupe and doing a swap or turbo the D? It'll be a LOT more cost friendly

 

I was thinking of getting something with a d series and boosting it, but I like the Si b/c it starts off with a strong engine and has all the goodies, a/c, p/w, moon roof, c/c. etc. and isn't the ex kind of like the basic model (no a/c etc.) also a engine swap + car would seem to be about the same as an si (assuming you swap in a b16).

 

B16 isn't a very strong engine. B18 is much better. If I were to do a swap, I wouldn't waste my money on a B16. For a little more I could get a much better engine. EX is the model below the Si. The one without goodies is DX, the base model. IMO if you want a budget build you should turbo the D and call it a day. For the price of a stock Si you could have a turbo D and be faster than the Si

 

The ex ( Comes with d series engine right?) + turbo sounds like a good option for me right now. Would I need to build the internals to handle a turbo? Also, just in a ball park range how much is a civic ex around 2000 with maybe 100k miles? (or is there a better year?)

If I could get one for around 3000 (just the car) that would be just about right for my budget atm.