As you can all probably guess from my username this is a build thread of my EM1. For those who don't know, EM1 is the chassis code of the 99-00 Civic SiR, which came stock with the twin cam, vtec, b16a2
I picked this car up on May 12th 2007 off a fellow beyonder, bone stock with the exception of a sub-par sony head unit and two 12inch subs in the trunk. I was in Grade 12 at the time, and life was awesome. I had a reasonably decent looking and somewhat quick car. I was on top of the world in my V-TAK
After owning the car for a few weeks I got sick of the stereo and put in most of my old setup from my previous car I had laying around, nothing special. Alpine speakers front and rear, 10 inch sub, Rockford Fosgate amp and a Pioneer premier head unit, which was later swapped out for an Alpine 7 inch flipout (Currently for sale BTW!!)
Shortly after I did my first "Performance Mod" if you can even call it that, a K&N drop in filter.
I drove the car for months like this, through the winter and everything.
In very early 2008 I purchased an AEM cold air intake for my car. It did pretty much nothing for performance but it sounded damn awesome, I was content.
Unfortunately I only really have one photo of my car in this state:
one of mboldts first car shots right there!
In early-mid April a shop in the states called "King Motorsports" was having a blowout sale on skunk2 products. I bought a Megapower Catback system from them, mostly on impulse.
While waiting for the exhaust to arrive something awful happened, I was involved in an accident. I was sitting in traffic, the car behind me was rear ended, who hit me, and I hit the car in front of me. Luckily I was not found at fault for hitting the person in front of me and got the car repaired by insurance. Finally more then 3 months later my car was fixed and returned to me. I installed the exhaust and got rid of that god awful Honda emblem on the hood.
One of mboldts first rig shots
The exhaust pretty much got me hooked on modifying my car, as dumb as that sounds. I went on to order quite a few things for my car:
-Password:JDM Oem style foglights
-Stance GR+ coilovers
-16" Rota Slipstreams with 204/45ZR16 Toyo Proxes4 tires
-Skunk2 Shiftknob
-Civic Type R shift boot
-6k HID kit
-and of course, purple T1R lugnuts
This is how the car sat for most of 2008:
another mboldt photo (he's getting better!)
The winter of 08 the car sat parked in my garage when i got my first winter car, a shity 88 civic, it was free so who cares.
Over the winter I found a set of used Spoon seats for a very good price, so I snatched them up. To go with the seats I picked up a set of memory fab ultra low rails.
(taken in the spring)
Spring 09 rolled around, I couldn't be happier cruising around in my EM1. Then the time came when I figured it was time to address a fairly major part of the car, its huge lack of power.
I paid a visit to my friend Shoaib over at JDMsource. After a lot of talking and decision making, I decided to go with a 97 Spec Integra Type R motor. Along with the new motor I picked up some goodies for it: Samco rad hoses, ACT stage2 clutch, T1R test pipe and a PW:JDM whale penis intake. The replica foglights were also replaced with REAL OEM Raybrig foglights.
The swap was completed with the help from a few friends, as well as my Dad. (this next bit is fairly pic intensive)
The arrival of the motor
Hanging in all its glory
Draining the fluids
Installing the new ACT cluth and flywheel onto the ITR (thanks speedtech!)
Unhooking everything from the B16 with Craig
Pulling the motor with my Terence ("Infected" on here) and my Dad
BAM! empty engine bay
Unfortunately I don't have any pictures dropping the new engine in. So here it is:
At the point we filled up all the fluids and got the engine ready to start. It couldn't have gone better, engine started like it had never been removed from a car, sounded amazing and had a perfect idle, I couldn't be more excited......until I took it out for the first test drive. The car had no 4th, 5th or reverse. and engaging 3rd was quite the process. I tried changing out the shift linkage, didn't help. The transmission was boned, I was PISSED. But since Shoaib is such an awesome guy he helped me out and gave me a new tranny when he very easily could have just said too bad and made me buy one.
Me and my Dad swapped out the transmission the next day. Finally, time for a test drive. Took the car out and loved it right away. Even not being able to give it full gas because of the brand new clutch I could tell the new motor had A LOT more "go" then the old B16. With the clutch broken in and being able to drive the car to its full potential was amazing.
Thanks to Reggie for those shots.
The car was amazing. Drove it all the way to Vancouver and back without a hitch (where I picked up a T1R titanium shift knob). I loved it.
I experienced my first track day on Sept. 12 2009 (thanks Speedtech!) which really gave me a chance to give my car a proper shakedown. I could not be happier with how it preformed. Quick shot with Terence riding shotgun:
My radiator exploded shortly after the track day, it was replaced with a Koyo rad with a T1R cap
That pretty much finishes up 2009 for my car. I picked up a few things for it late in the season, so I'm going to cheat a bit and say they are 2010 mods.
Here is a quick preview
Thanks to Weksos for the next bit:
Thanks for reading guys! I will update this thread as soon as more mods come in