Mansers 96 Gsr Swapped Si Slow Build

Manser

New Member
Well guys, I am fairly new to this site, and I have never actually constructed a build thread. I do have photos on my facebook of the progress on my car but nothing specifically designated to the build process of the car so I figured here would be a good place to start. In saying that, again, I am NEW to this site, so uploading pictures for me in the beginning may be a bit strenuous, so please have patience, I will try to learn but if you could leave any sort of feedback, car or site related it would be greatly appreciated! Now, without further ado, lets get on with the car...


I bought myself a 1996 Civic Si coupe on November 18th 2010. At the time, I still owned my 2001 civic dx coupe, but I knew what I wanted, so I borrowed some money from a relative and bought the Si for 1800$. At the time, the car had roughly 220xxx KM'S(I live In Nova Scotia, Canada) and needed some tlc but I was ready to give it what it needed because I had wanted a 96-00 style civic since I was about 10 years old(I am currently 17). When I first bought it, the car had a d16y8 SOHC Vtev motor, aem ram air intake, t-304 stainless steel 4-2-1 header, stainless 2'' catback with stock axelback, Thundersprot 8mm yellow plug wires and an alarm system with keyless entry. Anyhow, I brought the car home from a nearby village where I had bought it and I had to let it sit in my yard for 3 months before I sold my 01 and had some spare $ to fix what it needed to be put back on the road. Here are a few pics of the car as/where it sat for 3 months:
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^only picture I could find of the old d16y8 engine bay, but still proof that I didnt start with an already fast car ;)

On February 2nd 2011 the car went into McNicols Transmission & Performance(a local garage with a mechanic who specializes in hondas. The only car hes ever driven from the age of 16 to 30 were honda/acura and he loves working on them so i felt it was a fairly easy decision on where to bring my car.) At the end of the day, the car had a new front subframe, new front sway bar bushings, a new skunk2 short shifter and extension rod, a new coolant ball valve, front pads and rotors, calipers and a battery. 1885.74$ later my 96 Si was road ready. 8 days later, the car returned to the garage and a 2.5'' RS-R Concept magic cat-back exhaust was put on.

As i'm sure you can tell, I am still in highschool, and working part time at our local subway(20-ish hours a week) isnt the best way to make lots of money to dump into a car ;). In the mean time I made a few simple mods because of how tight my money situation was. I bought a cheap Si replica grille off of a friend of mine, and then me and a few buddys of mine Joey modded my headlights.

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Money still being fairly tight, I simply daily drove the car to work and school and tried to save as much money as possible, then, on March 18th, a very rainy day i might add, while on our lunch break from school, me and my buddies were leaving the restaurant and when i hopped in my car and turned it over, it started, but was spittering and sputtering and I knew something was up. Once the car heated up however, the acting up went away and drove fine. Not overly pleased, I brought ym car back to the garage and got them to check it over to see what was wrong. Right away the mechanic knew where to look, he popped off the distributor cap and found that it was wet inside and so wasnt the rotor. He dried up the wetness and re-sealed it and the car worked great after that.

Then, in May, my mechanic approached me one day while I was visiting the guys at the garage and pulled me aside. He then offered me a deal I would never be able to say no to. He asked me if I wanted to buy his 94 Integra with a jdm gsr in it because him and his wife had a baby on the way and he needed the spare cash. As you can all suspect, I immediately said yes, but then realised I was broke.. This time, money was borrowed from my parents :P The car was in extremely bad shape, rust everywhere, falling apart around itself, but I knew what I wanted from it. Heres a few pics of us driving the car from the mechanics house to the garage without an alternator because his was shot.

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As you can tell from the pictures above, the car really was falling down around itself :P However, we removed the seats(and cleaned them up a bit) and the kenwood speakers from it, and all there was left to remove was my babys new heart; JDM GSR with a K&N Filter inside the stock airbox, Edelbrock throttle body and an Lsd Transmission. However, the stock header was in seriously rough shape with huge stress cracks all through it, so I saved even longer and ordered myself a 4-1 Megan Racing header from a local aftermarket parts company called Driftnami performance. Heres a few pics of the motor as it sat inside the teg waiting to be swapped into my coupe =).

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As summer approached, I applied for a job with a local day camp and i got it! A guaranteed 40-hour a week job for 8 straight weeks, I was pumped. I was also pumped because my debt to my parents for the motor was gone and I was getting closer and closer to swapping in the motor. Then, the inevitable happened. Piston #1 began to slap in my d16... Brought it to the garage, and sure enough, she was ready to blow.. Once again, begged and pleaded with my parents to borrow money, and sure enough, they lent me it again! So, on June 27th my car entered the garage and the motor swap began. Here are a few pics for you guys so ya dont get bored ;)

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New motor = 10X FASTER!! Now in saying that, having a motor with a fair amount of power, brings along a few haters/doubters.. So one day, during an annual mustang show out at our local ford, a company called Dynojet Performance brought down a dyno machine.. Now, I feel that I should tell you guys that most of the people from Yarmouth who are my age are all vw fanatics.. So when I arrive at the dyno, sure enough, the chirping starts.."hey manser, show us what that b18's got" "Hey manser, b18 aint got s**t!" "Come on manser, dyno it" etc etc.. So I told one of them that if they payed for my dyno, i would run it, because the dyno costs 60$ for 3 passes and I didnt feel like paying the fee.. Sure enough, ten minutes later the guy returns with 60$ and a dyno information sheet :P Anyhow, needless to say, I ran 146.58 max whp and 116.78 max ft/lbs of torque. Heres a picture for proof;

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And there she is as it sat right after the enigne swap. Very proud moment for me ;) hahah. Anyhow, since then I have removed the top half of the stock air box to allow for more air to be sucked through it which gave my car a deeper tone at higher rpms, especially when engagin in 2nd and 3rd gear vtec=). In saying that, it took me almost half of the summer at my new job to pay off all of my debt.. which meant very very little went on with my car. but on August 19th I placed an order through Password JDM for an Apexi N1 catback exhaust and for my Buddy Club P1 front and rear camber kit. 921.43$ USD later I began playing the waiting game.. See pictures below:

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Again, I was extremely pumped to get these! And then, at the end of summer, when all of my pay finally ended, I had enough to place my second oreder to Password JDM on September 22nd(still waiting for the first to arrive though). On my second oreder to Password JDM I ordered Buddy Club P1 Lower Control Arms, Ksport Kontrol Pro fully adjutable coilovers with dampening system and a Password JDM Type R red stitched shift boot. 1176.00$ USD later, I was playing the waiting game.. But this time, I had twice the amount of parts coming ;) And then.. On October 14th, all of my parts arrived at once!! it was like christmas morning times 2 in my house! I was in amazement..

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Also, I picked up a second hand set of Jdm style clear fog lights a couple weekends ago and me and my buddies took the time to put them on this weekend so here's a few pics of how they turned out;
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Sorry for the crappy quality pictures, my blackberry doesnt take them very good. Ill try and get some daytime and nightime pics of the car as it currently sits sometimes this week just to keep you guys updated.
 
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Manser

New Member
Well, I exceeded the 15000 character limit on my last message, so I had to finish it off on a new post.
Now, I dont know how much you guys know about Yarmouth, or Nova Scotia even.. But we get extremely terrible winters and our roads are covered with salt.. So the only shitty part about getting my parts so late was that I couldnt put them on because I dont want the salt/snow to rust them. My eventual plans are to buy rims come spring time(undecided on exactly what ones yet, but I'm thinking Stance Mindset - 16x8,4x100+26offset) and paint at the beginning of the summer depending on funds.. Anyhow, ive been writing this up for 2 hours now, so im gonna head out. Please feel free to leave any negative/positive feedback, it is all appreciated and will all be considered. Thanks!

P.S.I tried using photobucket to upload the pictures but quite evidently they didnt work seeing as theres huge gaps with nothing between each paragraph, so someone please leave me a suggestion as to why my pictures didnt work and maybe even a sugeestion as to how to get them to work or how you guys get yours to work. Thanks!
 


Shaaaft

FNG
Registered VIP
5+ Year Member
Pictures aren't showing up for me but after reading the whole post I'll gladly sit here and wait for them.
 

Manser

New Member
Well if you read my seocnd post I actually need help getting the pictures to work.. So if you knew of a way to make them work that would be amazing? But if not then I guess were both waiting around for someone to help me out :P
 


Manser

New Member
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Just posting this as a tester, because my girlfriend thought she knew how to fix the problem.. and guess what?! problem solved.. So let me re-edit this add and ill have the pics up within a few hours..
 

Manser

New Member
Pics are up. Enjoy! And please keep in mind, all of my end of summer parts havent been put on yet.. They'll only be going on next spring when the snow clears. That's when she'll be slammed ;) Thanks.
 

emerican

New Member
Registered VIP
Very nice progress so far
4-1 headers are more for raciong and 4-2-1 headers are more for street, but it really dont matter no that much difference
Looks good man i like it
What are you plans for the motor?
 

antie22

i
Registered VIP
5+ Year Member
Very noice! i :like: what you have done to your car so far...and man are you good at saving!!!
 

Manser

New Member
Thanks for the reply guys! Appreciate the feedback. I'm pretty desciplined with my money Antie22, I try to save as much as possible. And Emerican, my plans for the car are to go paint and wheels.. and then after that if I still have any spare money left over before I go to school I'm not sure if I want to chip and tune it, or if I want to get cams for it..
 

Osiris19

oilBurner
Registered VIP
Registered OG
5+ Year Member
10+ Year Member
Poor poor integra. :'( But, at least the engine still breathes.
 

Osiris19

oilBurner
Registered VIP
Registered OG
5+ Year Member
10+ Year Member
True haha. I hate seeing Integras like that. It brings tears to my eyes. hahah
 

Manser

New Member
Im not to sure what color paint im going with yet.. Im kinda thinking leavin 'er black.. Alot of people told me that fresh black apint on a nice set of gold rims would look sick, so I think thats the root im taking. And yes, the motor will still live on in the civic! Runs like a charm.
 

emerican

New Member
Registered VIP
black is harder to keep clean in that the dirt shows more on it thats the only real downside i personally love black cars
 

MistahJuice

100% real juice
Registered VIP
5+ Year Member
10+ Year Member
Haha nice man, reminds me of my own build lol.Rides looking awesome
 

Manser

New Member
Thanks guys. So I just sat down and planned a budget in ym head, and if everything goes as planned with no break downs or anything i'll be ordering my rims around the middle of march. Just looking for some feedback on what you guys think of the three that ive picked out and if you guys have any that you think would look good on the car feel free to post them up as well and maybe even a link to where I could find them. OR, Even better, if someone could photoshop these rims onto the car FOR me, that would be AMAZING! I suck with photoshop, but if you think you can do it then go ahead and then just post up the car with the rims photoshopped on when your done. Thanks! Anyhow, here are the ones I got in mind with sizes,offset and price as well as a few pictures of the car they'd be going on;
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Stance Mindset. Gold w/ polished lip. 16x8+26 offset. = 900$USD.
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Rota JMag. 16x7+40 offset. = 700$USD.
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Buddy Club P1's. White. 16x7+40 offset. =716$USD.
****NOTE: Rims will be going on this car;
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bigboy106

New Member
Loving the build so far, nice engine swap, and great progress so far. this is awesome for me because i am 16. and i also am trying to do a build but money is a problem (i dont have a job =/)
but your car will be mint one day keep up the good work, and welcome to CC!
 


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