Hey guys, name is Josh and I just joined up here after checking stuff out for the last week or so. I found this site because I found a Civic on Craigslist that was dirt cheap and I thought it would be a fun little car to get into the tuner scene with. I admittedly know very little about these cars as I am very into older cars. I own a '53 Chevy 2-dr hardtop that is getting the full custom treatment in a 50's style and I also own my Grandpa's old 1950 Chevy 5 window pick-up. I recently traded for a 1929 Ford Model A coupe and my daily driver has been a 1999 Grand Am which I hate. As far as older cars go I love traditional style cars. Cars that are modeled after "hot rods" of the late 40's and early fifties. Please don't confuse these with "rat rods", as this is just as derogatory as the "ricer" term that you all seem to loathe. Rat rods are usually thrown together piles of crap that are unsafe.


Now as far as the Civic goes it was misadvertised on Craigslist as a '91 Civic that needed a new window and dash pieces because someone had tried to steal it. No price on the ad so I sent them an e-mail as I was a little curious as to what it would take to buy it and what all was wrong with it. I got an e-mail back with pictures of a '95 Civic EX coupe and an explanation from the guy that owned it that he had his wife list it and she didn't know for sure what year it was so she just picked '91. Asking price $200, yes that's 200 as in only two zeros. The car was broken into two years ago and he got it fixed. A week and a half later it got broken into again and he pushed it into the garage and hadn't gotten it back on the road since. I went to look at it and it needed a new passenger side window; dash piece that goes around the radio, ac, and steering column; and as soon as I figured out what they did to the wiring I will be buying that loom so I can get it started and start putting some speed parts on it. Gave the guy the $200 and got the title for it and today I got to go pick it up. Got it home and put a new window in and got the dash piece pulled from the local U-Pull-It. Haven't put that in yet as I figure I might as well leave it off until I get the wiring all straightened out. My son and I did wash it tonight and it cleaned up real nice. Definitely worth the $200.

The specs on the car are that it has the D16Z6 motor and the 5-speed transmission. From the VIN I found that it was made in Canada and is the Horizon Gray Metallic. I don't want to get to carried away with the mods on this car as I would like to keep the fuel efficiency there somewhat as this will now be my daily once I get it fixed up and I can sell the beastly Grand Am. I would like to make some suspension mods for better handling and will eventually do the brakes and rims, but first on the list will be exhaust and intake. So my questions are: What brands specifically pack the most bang for the buck as far as exhaust and intake go? I've heard all the gripes about E-bay parts so I will stay away, but what part will help my d16Z6 breath better. Also, anybody have any idea what wiring they have cut into on this car to hotwire it? They snapped off the steering column cover, but I don't see any cut wires or anything there. The only wiring I see that is cut is where the radio used to be as they did steal the CD player he had installed.

Anyway, thanks for any advice you guys can give and hopefully I can get some pictures up in the morning.

Josh

 

Wow great deal dude, wish I got mine that cheap.

As for the d16z6, great motor, 125 hp in a light weight eg...enough to have some fun.

For the intake, many people buy intakes online and then put a K+N filter on them. that would work fine. Any AEM or Simota or Injen or anything like that would be great as well and they cost more because they have actually put money into research and development. I don't know whether you want a cold air or a short ram. you don't have to worry about hydrolocking with a short ram because it isn't in the wheel well so it is protected from water, a cold air will get cooler air away from the engine. Honestly though, you don't really have to worry about hydrolocking (I have driven through many storms with my AEM V2 with no problems) unless you are drving through more than a foot of standing water. Technically cold airs might produce slightly more power , but you won't really notice a difference in performance between the cold air and short ram unless you get an AEM V2, Secret Weapon, or Comptech Icebox. These intakes are substantially more expensive (if you can even find a comptech considering they went out of business), but provide the greatest gains in the market. They work on the principle of coordinating resonating soundwaves so that the pulses align with the intake of the engine to push extra air through. But even then, that might be like 5-6 hp instead of 2-3.

In terms of exhaust, it all depends on what you want. Do you want it to be quiet as stock, slightly loud, or to scream. Anything on ebay will be very loud and ricey sounding, any of the quality exhausts by megan, dc, rsr, apexi, magnaflow and the like will not sound ricey regardless of the volume. If you are looking for good bang for the buck with average sound output, the megan and magnaflow are a sure fire bet. If you want something loud, the apexi N1 is about the nices loud exhaust you can get (in my opinion). If you want relatively quiet, unless you mash the throttle, check out the greddy evo2. The apexi ws2 and greddy sp2 are another step down (slightly) in volume from the greddy. And if you want a really quiet, almost stock levels, just with better tone and power, check out the rsr exmag (ordered mine tonight). All of the exhausts will be near indestinguishable from eachother in terms of power so don't really worry about that.

I know this was kind of drawn out, but I felt obliged to put in the efford when you did such a great job of introducing yourself. Welcome to the forum and good luck.

 

wow man what a steal that was, haha. its very rare to come across a deal like that

 

Hey josh,do you have you civic running yet?I would see how much a steering column is from that pull apart if it has a key to the inginition the ingi on your car alone is over 200 bucks.Good first post and upload ussome pics if you can.Welcome to the forum nate.

 

Thanks for the advise on the intake and exhaust. As for exhaust I think headers and a little louder than stock muffler will do. It's good to know the different levels of sound the mufflers will produce in real world applications.

Nate, the keyhole and wiring up into the column all look fine and the only thing that "looks" broken to me is the plastic cover that goes on the bottom. Do you still think that I should replace the whole thing? I will get pictures of it this morning and get them up here so you guys can see what I am talking about.

Thanks

 

Oh and I forgot to mention that the steering column was already taken out of the junkyard Civic, so that won't be an option, although I could go down to Des Moines and check their yards.

 

i'd mod the hell out of a $200 car. lol.

 

Well here's a couple of pictures of it today after we got it all cleaned up.




And here is a picture of what happened to the dash. Any ideas what was done to hot wire it. Is the actual key mechanism what I need to replace? How do they hot wire cars like this? Is it just a screwdriver in the key hole or do they actually have to short wires on each other? The keyhole doesn't look damaged, but when you put the key in and turn it, it doesn't seem to do anything. Also, the battery was dead when I got it. When I hook up the charger to it there is a buzzing sound and I can use all the electronics in the car. It's like it's stuck in accessory position. If you don't want to post an answer here for fear of someone learning how to hotwire one of these cars, then you can PM me if you want. Anyone live in central Iowa and want to come have a look-see while enjoying a few cold ones?

 

omfg that's one heck of a steal (get the pun?).

I would suggest getting out a Hayne's manual and going through the wiring entirely to make sure it's all there and it's all right. That's the only way that you can be totally sure about it.

Also, that dash might be difficult to replace. Having that manual will make it so much easier.

 

Looks good. How many miles on it?