94 sol, ground up

[caffeind]

Hey i'm seriously looking into buying a 94 honda del sol. Does anyone here own one, and if so what mods do you have done. I'm looking to spend 5-7grand on one and have about 1.5-2grand to spend, after that i'll have to wait a while before futher mods. Looks arnt really a concern but racing wheels arnt out of the question. I'm looking for max acceleration, top speed means nothing to me. Any input at all is welcome.

Luke

 

[E_SolSi]

if you looking for a mostly drag car ... id say get the 93 S model ... its the lightest one ... it will be a lot cheaper too... look into an LS engine and start building it for boost ... while your at it drop as much weight from the car as you can... put some serious thought into some light weight wheels

read this

that will get you off to a pretty good start

 

[HondasHateMe]

My plans exactly...except I'm looking for an aggressive street car rather than strictly a drag car. I've got a 93 S...going to look at a 95 LS swap soon...turbo when I get the $$$ someday.

If you want pure acceleration and willing to sacrifice handling and a little more swap work, an H22 may be what you're looking for.

 

[pills_PMD]

i couldn't disagree more. while the 93 is light, it is structurally weaker than any of the other sols. i would say a 94 VTEC. dont waste your time with a motor swap since you only have 1500 to play with. that'll get the LS in your car, but the VTEC del sol will still smoke it. get a 94 VTEC and with the 1500 buy an LS block and toss some ITR pistons in it and some new rods while you're at it. put the block on there. and run a 14.5 (not guaranteed, just an estimate).

 

[posol]

how is the chassis different?

 

[asmallsol]

Adam, The only thing that is bad about your statement is that you have to spend like 8k for a bone stock del Sol VTEC. Dont know about other places in the US but here in michigan they go for 7-10k. Adam i know that you can back me up on that. I would say go for the SI and do an engine swap. It will be about the same price as buying a VTEC sol but alot easier to find (DOHC sols are so rare) The SI is already wired for vtec (SOHC VTEC) Go with that one. What is diffrent in the chassis. Other than breaks, what is diffrent on the car

 

[caffeind]

i left out the part about handeling, i do want really good suspension but the sols are supposed to have that stock so i wasnt worried about it as an immediat upgrade. I didnt want to tear the engine down. I was thinking cold air intake, cat back, and an intake manifold. I'd be a little over 200hp from that dont you think? This isnt going ot be a drag car or anything, just a daily driver i can take to the tracks if i want to. And i dont really wanna do an engine swap, the b16 is nice enough for my needs

Luke

 

[pills_PMD]

brian... do we still have anything from ecds? or i think it was on the original hondaswap... it was a comparison between all the del sol's year by year and i GUARANTEE there was something about the 93 chassis being weaker.

 

[E_SolSi]

i guess just look around for a del sol VTEC and drop on the basic bolt ons you mentioned... i dont see that getting you to anywhere near 200hp at the wheels though and i doubt that those mods will even get you 200 at the flywheel

 

[paragus]

200whp?? with those mods are big dreams that wont come true. and im with e_solsi your probably not gonna get that to the flywheel, to get that your gonna need to do some more mods

 

[posol]

Originally posted by pills_PMD@Oct 14 2002, 06:45 PM
brian... do we still have anything from ecds? or i think it was on the original hondaswap... it was a comparison between all the del sol's year by year and i GUARANTEE there was something about the 93 chassis being weaker.

93 vs 94 possibly... but you were making it sound liek the VTEC was stronger than the Si which is stronger the the S for any given year.

I too remeber that post you are tlaking about..... form the old posts txt file.. i found this. sorry its not formatted well

---------------------------------------------------------------

'Here are the differences between all the sol\'s:\r\n\r\n1993: came with 1 airbag, and the AC used the old Freon...so if it leaks, its goign to be expensive to refill.\r\n\r\n1994: added passenger airbag, and the AC now uses 134a, which is 5 bucks a can at wal*mart.\r\n\r\n1995: changed the name from Civic del Sol to just del Sol, they added a fuel light and a remote trunk release.\r\n\r\n1996: they went from OBD1 to OBD2, changed the front bumper so it no longer has the auxillary lights and also widened/changed the airdam to give it a more aggressive look. Anything on the del sol that was compatible with the 5g civic was changed so its compatible with the 6g civic. The S model gained 4 hp, bringing it up from 102 to 106.\r\n\r\n1997: They changed the interrior quite a bit in this year. They changed the material used on the seats, and got rid of the racing stripe on the seats. They also made the doors pure black(instead of that grey part up by the window).\r\n\r\nHow to tell the difference between the S, Si, and VTEC:\r\n\r\nThe easiest way is to look at the first 5 characters in the VIN numbers.\r\n\r\nJHMEG1 - del Sol S 102 HP - cheap insurance\r\nJHMEH6 - del Sol SI 125 HP - cheap insurance\r\nJHMEG2 - del Sol VTEC 160 HP - expensive insurance (about the same as the Integra GS-R)\r\n\r\nIf you can\'t check the VIN number of the del Sol you can tell what each model is just by looking at pictures of the car.\r\n\r\nThe del Sol S has 13" steel rims with hubcaps (stock), and a tachometer that goes up to about 6300 before the redline. This model has AC, and power windows, but it does NOT have power steering, power doorlocks, or power mirrors. If it is an automatic, then it does have power steering. The del sol S weighs almost exactly 2300 lbs. \r\n\r\nThe del Sol Si has 14" Alloy rims. The Si weighs just shy of 2400 lbs. The difference in weight between the S, and Si is mostly in the power steering. The tach goes up to about 7000.\r\n\r\nthe del Sol VTEC has the same 14" alloy rims that the Si has, and looks exactly the same as the Si, except that on the trunk lid on the right side, there is a DOHC VTEC emblem. The tach goes up to 8000 before the redline. The del sol VTEC weighs 2500 lbs. The reason this car weighs more than the Si, is because it has the b16a engine, which weighs about 100 lbs more than the d16z that comes with the Si.\r\n\r\nJust little notes of interest:\r\na del Sol Si, with a b16a engine swap will weigh exactly the same amount as the del Sol VTEC. A del sol S with a b16a swap will weigh about 2430 lbs

 

[SnailOnARampage]

muwahaha I wrote that

I'm glad somebody appreciated it.

I say we make a reference section specifically for del sol's. I'd be happy to contribute info/web design to it.

I do webdesign in my spare time.

 

[SnailOnARampage]

Originally posted by pills_PMD@Oct 14 2002, 09:45 AM
i couldn't disagree more. while the 93 is light, it is structurally weaker than any of the other sols. i would say a 94 VTEC. dont waste your time with a motor swap since you only have 1500 to play with. that'll get the LS in your car, but the VTEC del sol will still smoke it. get a 94 VTEC and with the 1500 buy an LS block and toss some ITR pistons in it and some new rods while you're at it. put the block on there. and run a 14.5 (not guaranteed, just an estimate).

eh pills, I'll have to disagree with you on the 93 sol being structurally weaker than the 94.

the '93 S weighs 2277 lbs
the '94 S weighs 2301 lbs

Thats a difference of 24 lbs

the passenger airbag takes up about 12 lbs, and the rest go into converting the type R-12 freon airconditioner to the less efficient 134a.

Honda sold del sol's in japan from 1992-1998, and would have most likely fixed any problems by the time they began marketing them in the US in 1993.

 

[asmallsol]

a few things to add about the diffrance in the del Sols is that in 95 they put new wheels on the si/VTEC. also in either 94 or 95 they change the seals on the roof so it did not leak as much other than that there is not much diffrance. (i know the si in 93 had a diffrent valve cover than all the other models, was that the same engine (d16z6) just diffrent valve cover than all the other years or is it a totally diffrent engine with just the same amount of hp?

 

[E_SolSi]

93 has the same D16Z6 it just doesnt say VTEC on the cover ... its also a black cover not the brushed aluminum... i havent had any issues with leaky roof seals ... but i keep up on the conditioning of them so that probly helps

 

[caffeind]

Thanks that was wonderfull info, and i was talking about fly hp. 160 stock, 10ish cat back, 10ish cold air, 20ish for intake manifold. The b18 has 180 stock if i remember. Would it be worth it to buy a 94 Si, and do the swap? I'm looking for max hp min cash (isnt everyone?). Also did i read it right about 5gen civic stuff being compatable on the sols?? Thanks guys this is a wonderful resource

Luke

 

[caffeind]

Oops, i feel stupid, let me rephrase that last part. What of the 5gen civics were compatable on the 93-94 sols?

 

[SnailOnARampage]

Everything under the hood of a 92-95 civic will fit into a 93-95 del sol without any trouble. The engine bays are identical. anything out of a 94-95 integra will fit into a 5th gen civic/93-95 del sol.

Don't believe what people tell you about cold air intakes, headers, and exhausts. A cold air intake will most likely not increase your power by more than 2 hp. Same goes for header/exhaust. The total of all 3, in my best guess will free up something like 5-10 hp. If there was really a big potential for increasing horsepower by adding bolt ons, Honda would have already done it. Honda is the master at squeezing every last ounce of horsepower out of any given engine...and i don't think the engineers for the after market parts are any smarter than the $500k/year engineers honda has.

There are only two ways of increasing horsepower output of ANY engine.

1. Increase RPM

2. Increase torque.

A cold air intake may increase torque slightly because it *may* allow more air into the engine...which makes a slightly bigger boom every time the spark plugs fire.

Headers may also increase torque by allowing more air in/out of an engine.

Exhaust does basically the same thing as the header.

Pretend for a moment that all those mods added 5 ft lbs of torque on a b16a engine.

btw the equation for horsepower is RPM X torque/5252= HP

sooo... if at the power peak of the b16a...you had 5 more ft/lbs of torque

you would get a 7.2 HP increase

5(ft/lbs tq) X 7600 (power peak) / 5252 (horsepower constant) = 7.2 HP


I hope this helps...

BTW adding a turbo to your car can increase your torque by more than 50 ft lbs no problem.

use that same equation with the 50 ft lbs instead of 5...see how it turns out.

 

[SnailOnARampage]

LS/turbo is the most hp/least cash option.

1000 for b18b swap

2000 for a "do it yourself turbo kit" injectors hondata 2b.

that would be good for up to 8 psi on stock internals as long as you run synthetic oild and 91 octane fuel.