New member looking for advice

[budjet civic]

Hi guys/girls, I picked up a 89 civic hatch back 2 years ago for a wooping price of ( free ). Mt son and I decided to use this car for fun, we have started to run this car in an Auto cross club here in NH. as of right now I have the suspension completed and handles great, Last season the club placed me in a SM street modified class because we pulled out the back seat, But thats ok because we seam to be pretty competative, this car has a stock 1.5 with 260k on it and is not a power house by any means but handle awesome, We are looking to take the class this year with the smallest cubic inch motor to show up for events ,I took 3rd over all last season so I believe we can become even better.
First question I have is will a ajustable cam gear sqeak out a few more HP and if so has any one here done this and what was your results and are there any timing points to start with-cam and ignition.
Thanks to any or all responses to my question .I am sure I will be doing some more brain picking in the future , but as my name says, this is a budget project. I am just trying to prove something here, you don't have to have many thousands in a car to have a good time with it, Dennis

 

[pgarner]

hey and welcome to torquecars mate.
not 100% but im pretty sure the cam gear will allow you to advance the timing and give you a bit more power but youll need to watch you dont go too far, also run on super unleaded, yup its dearer but its less likly to pre-detonate and if the engines set up for it a bit more power.
have you already changed the cam ( is 1.5 is sohc ?)yet? might be worth getting both done togeather.

 

[obi_waynne]

Hello and welcome. Good to have you along. Free eh! Thats just not fair!

Are you allowed to use superchargers or turbos?

 

[budjet civic]

Free was a nice gift. a customer had me do an estimate on some repairs,as his grand daughter was going to be using this as a first car, he decided he didn't want to put a lot of money into this and decided to give it to me instead.,
So far I have about a thousand bucks into it and I am having a blast with it. 40 plus MPG and driving the crap out of it on the auto cross tracks on the weekend.As my name reflex I want to keep this as cheep as possible since we run with guys who have many thousands invested in the cars and are baffled by this little blue car that looks like nothing and keeping them scatching thier heads trying figure us out.
Yes I can run a turbo or supercharger, but that will defeat the low budget plan on this. I have the bucks to spend, I just don't want to put much into this motor,we want to run this untill it blows and the a swap is in the plans.Just looking for 5 to 10 HP for this year and was looking for cheap small mods for this up coming race season.this motor is still bone stock.So if any one knows a few little things we can do that would be great, Nice to be in this group, I have joined other honda groups and No one thought my questions we good enough for any responses.

 

[Nightwhite]

be carefull when puting a a terbo if it is to powerfull got the engine it go by by...

i new a kid who put a twin terbo into his coursa and blew it down the road, dont want that happening on the track but u should be fine if u make sure u reseach it well!

5 to 10? air intake and exausts? lose wait in the car? lose wait ur self XD every little helps! even low wait clouths!

gz on 3rd !!

 

[pgarner]

yeah full exhaust including exhaust manifold and sports cat is its being used on the road, decat if its on the track only. and induction kit again for the track or a panel filter if your using it on the road as well, better spread of power.

when you change the engine is this what your after, you will need to change the exhaust anyway so just look at getting a basic custom made one save some cash compared to off the shelf items.

turbing a car isnt dangourous as long as you stick to low boost, however your not looking at much gain