I have an automatic'99 EX coupe with basic mods: 17" motegi mr7 rims, magnaflow cat converter, dc-s header, tsudo catback exhaust, buddy club body kit, AEM V2 short ram intake. The car has 130,000+ miles on it, I've had it for 6 years now. Nothing serious has ever been replaced besides the modifications, and the car still runs great, but I can tell that it's getting old. I'm debating whether to do a big internal upgrade swap or run it for another year or so and buy a new car instead. I also have an '86 RX7 Turbo that I'm selling as well (which is what inspired me to go for a turbo boost). Here's what I'm thinking for the swap after doing a little research:

Japanese import B18C / 5-speed Transmission combo (looking at osakajdmmotors.com), complete the auto-to-manual conversion, and turbo boost the thing with either a Stage 2 or Stage 3 (not sure if I want to part with my A/C or not for the Stage 3). Later on I'd probably buy a new hood and fenders for air flow and aesthetics.

Or should I just turbo my stock engine and still complete the auto-to-manual conversion?

It's all a lot of guess-work to me, so it'dbe really helpful to get opinions from people who have been in this predicament before, whether to do a big upgrade, small upgrade,or just sell it and buy a new car. I've been with this car since its stock days, so it holds a special place with me. I'm thinking if I upgrade, I'll sell and part out all the pieces to make some money back from the purchase and installation. What do you all think? Any suggestions?

 

Three questions.
What is your budget?
How much do you know about working on cars?
How much free time do you have to spend on a project like this?

 

If you are going to go turbo, you will probably want the B18C1 since it has a lower compression. As far as stage 2 or stage 3, read on the website if this turbo is safe for a stock engine. Too much boost on a stock engine and you will blow the motor. A swap like this costs quite a bit of money especially if you cannot do the labor yourself. What are you power goals? It would be cheaper to rebuild the engine you have and turbo it but the auto trans will give out. Auto to manual conversions are not that easy.

 

i'd go with the swap, that way you wouldn't have to deal with the auto to manual conversion with your stock motor. the engine you're looking at is fine, definitely worth the money. but again, will you be able to do the swap and all the work yourself?

have you checked what the shipping prices are, because the price they list is actually lower than hmotors, which is quite surprising. i would like to know how it really compares to hmotors.

 

Q1: Right now, I know I don't have enough money to do all that I want. This will probably be a project for the winter or spring. I'm the kind of person who wouldn't mind spending more money for solid quality. I've cut financial corners on car stuff before in terms of parts and you always wind up not getting exactly what you want unless you go all the way. I'd say after parts and labor it shouldn't be more than $10K.

Q2: I know moderate things about cars. I installed my own exhaust, the intake, and the body kit. I don't think I'd be able to trust myself with doing a serious change-over like this unless I was supervised though, which leads me to my next answer...

Q3: I have free time but not huge blocks of days at a time. I don't have a garage or anything with a car or engine lift. Ideally, I'd like to do this project with someone who has a shop and is either willing to do all the work through my vision of what I'm looking for or would let me work with them to complete the project.

 

B18C1 is actually the one I've been eyeing too
Blowing out the stock motor is what I'd be afraid of if I put too much boost into it, definitely. My curiosity leads me to wonder though, which would be better: turbo boost and auto-manual conversion (need to also buy a 5spd tranny, etc.) or getting the engine combo package with much lower mileage and doing the auto-manual. I havea feeling that in the longer run if I sell my car, it'll retain value better if I replace the engine with that package deal because of the lower mileage rather than modding around the stock engine with 130K+ on it.
Power goals? Lots of fun on the road, but not seriously for racing at meets. After driving my RX7 Turbo for awhile, it got me hooked on a thing for boost.
The Auto-to-Manual is definitely something I want to do regardless of the swap or not. Whether it's with this car or a different car, it definitely needs to be Manual shifting. That's really one of the things I want to stick to.

 

I compared the 2 pages to see what you get for the price. It looks like for hmotors there are more things that are included, like the LSD, axels, exhaust manifold, clutch, flywheel, starter, fuel rail, etc. Some of those are extra add-ons at osaka and some aren't included at all. I know for my auto-manual conversion I'll need the clutch and whatnot anyway so maybe you're getting more for your money at hmotors. Looking up shipping would be interesting though to compare. I guess I'd need to make out price outlines for every possibility to see which is the best bet financially.


I think my biggest battle through this whole thing though, besides paying for it all obviously, is to find someone trustworthy who can do the work. That's going to be hard to come by.

 

no, they're required. and for the manual conversion, you'll need all of the clutch components with the pedals and requires modification. and if you're getting someone else to do all the work, you might as well buy a new car considering you'll probably have to double the cost of all the parts.

 

Drive it another year. Buy a new SI.

 

I did more research after that last post and you're right, those parts are required. If I do the conversion, I'm leaning towards the B18C from HMotors, a T3/T04B Turbonetics Turbo with a GT30R Dual BB upgrade, and if I'm still up for more upgrades a Hondata s200 OBDI system, as well as the additional parts for an auto-to-manual conversion.

For cost, I'm selling my RX7 Turbo for $4K and already have a buyer. I'd also like to sell my stock engine, transmission, and SRI since I won't need them anymore. That should cover at least a little something. Ideally I'd like to find someone who I could team up with to do this project to save some money on installation. I just hope that if I decide to go through with this process, I can find someone trustworthy and knowledgable like that in my area (eastern NY).

Have I missed anything while running through all the parts I'll need to make this happen?