Hey all, I have a 4 door 2000 Honda civic SE, I want to get more power out of it and was wonder what I would do to get that, it currently has a 1.6l engine, was wondering if I should get a new engine and if I should what to get and how much would it cost? or if anyone has any thoughts besides a new engine that isn't too costly let me know, thanks

 

1st thing's 1st as always.

How much money do you have to spend? How much power do you want to end up with?

Your choices at this point are to either swap to a bigger motor, or turbocharge the current motor. Turbocharging will give you more bang for you buck, but swapping to a bigger OEM motor would technically be more reliable and would then also give you a higher power potential if you decided to build that motor down the road.

 

Rebuild/swap engine + turbocharge + reprogram ECU + emisions testing + modified suspension. Suspension must be modified to match increased power output (get the wheels to properly put the power to the road). Great if you could do by yourself + friends. I would get a Civic Si.

 

Well come income tax time im most likely gonna get around 1200-1600 so that's my limit, just wanna use it to fix my car up a bit, and I just want a bit more than I have now, cause the stock isnt what I want, I just want a little more power

 

Save your money, or put it elsewhere. I good thing to start with would be suspension. Coilovers, rear sway bar and brace, possibly a few eBay strut bars, and an alignment should run about $1-$1.5k depending on the parts you buy.

That will make a world of a difference handling wise, and looks wise.

 

lowered/camber kit+15's or 16's+rear sway bar=world of difference in handling.

is your car auto or stick? I'd only turbo/engine swap if it's a 5 speed, just my preference.

 

Its automatic, that's another reason I kinda wanna get a new engine, is for manual

 

Just do a AT to Manual swap, no need to replace the entire engine.

I would not attempt to add power to your car if it is AT. I should have asked about that in the beginning. The AT trans will not hold up from what I have seen.

 

Ok so swap that, is there anything I can do to besides swap the engine to get more power? I was thinking maybe a header or something

 

Header will give you about 1-2 hp. If that. Assuming you have a d16y7, installing a header would remove your cat converter as it is built into the header from stock. You would need to swap to the y8 style (EX/SI) exhaust to avoid emissions problems. See our exhaust section stickies for more info.

Bolts ons will not net any gains really. If you were to get considerable gains from them, your AT trans wouldn't be able to hold up as I already mentioned that the AT trans will not be able to hold the additional power.