Brownman's EM1 build?

[BrownMan]

Hey, I’m Kay from Kennesaw, GA. Welcome to my EM1 build thread?

IG: @brownman.km

My old Civic 97 EX. Regret selling this thing 7 or 8 years ago.
SiR goodies
Apexi coilovers
Jline wheels
etc…

My last build that I recently sold. 2006 Lexus LS430
LS430 build

My current rainy day vehicle or whenever I don’t feel like driving the Civic.

Here are some pics from day one. Bought this thing from a guy in Cumming, GA.
2000 Civic Si with 270k miles on it. The mileage scared me at first but then realized I’m going to be replacing everything to make this thing into a fun daily/ mild track day car. The car for the most part was factory, the only things I could find aftermarket were the headlights, header and factory style muffler.

March 2020

First order of business was to fix all the small issues with the car. The previous owner sold the car to me saying “this thing needs NOTHING, its mint…” blah blah blah. Well we all know thats bs.

Every single motor mount was broken or split, oil was leaking out of almost every seal.
All the seal were replaced with OE parts from Honda. The mounts where replaced with some cheap World pac mounts, mainly bc I wanted to do a kswap in the future.

The car had been repainted by the previous owner, and they really didnt take car of it. There were some deep acid rain spots and a whole lot of orange peel. With the help of a coworker, we wet sanded, heavy cut and polished the whole car. It looks alot better now but still not the best. Here is a before and after of the roof.

Alright now to the fun stuff. 275k mile factory suspension had to go. After some research I decided to go with BC racing, Hardrace and PCI.

Parts list
-BC racing BR series coilovers
-PCI front upper control arms
-Hardrace front lower control arms
-Hardrace roll center adjusters
-Hardrace rear lower control arms
-Hardrace rear camber arms
-Hardrace rear toe arms
-Hardrace trailing arm brushings
-Circuit hero front and rear strut bars

Shout out to the guys a BC Racing

Forgot how easy alignments are on civics. The LS430 was a beech.

New windshield installed, old one was crazy pitted.

[BrownMan]

Started working on the interior next.
-PCI seat mount
-Recaro SPG-XL
-Circuit Hero steering hub
-Circuit Hero shift boot delete
-Momo Monte Carlo 350 mm steering wheel
-Hybrid racing shifter with Battlecraft shift knob
-Zoom racing carbon fiber rear view mirror
-OEM airbag delete
-Edm ashtray
-Pioneer Apple Car Play radio
-Rockford Fosgate front and rear speakers

[BrownMan]

Finally got my first set of wheels for the car

-Dunlop Rozest SS-01 (Made by Work wheels Japan) 16x7 +35
-Dunlop DIREZZA DZ102 205/45/16

Bought a set of OEM fog lights, hood bra and sunroof visor.

[BrownMan]

Need some engine noise in my life, so I picked up a header and catback exhaust. and another axle back… lol

-PLM Toda style header with test pipe
-Apexi World Sport 2 catback exhaust
-Fujitsubo RM-01A axle back (when I want to be a lil louder)

The Fujitsubo axle back is actually meant for a DC2, so I found this titanium pie cut tip that slips over the RM-01A tip perfectly to extend the exhaust enough to work

For the intake I really wanted to keep a clean look. I always liked the Spoon elbow, but I cant stand waiting for parts. So I decided to make my own (with the help of buddy). First got a new OEM intake tube from Honda. Then went on summit racing to find a 3inch tube with a 45 degree bend.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-294542b

Cut the tube to the proper length and had my buddy weld on a tab so it would bolt to the shock tower.

[BrownMan]

Brakes!

Got some parts to refresh/ upgrade the brakes.
-Centric rotors
-Hawk HPS pads
-Goodridge stainless steel lines

Before and after pics

[BrownMan]

Swap time.

The 275k mile b16a2 was old and tired. It also smoked pretty bad so I started looking into doing a swap. Originally the plan was to go K, but after adding up all the parts to do it the way I want to, it would have been $8k to $9k. I wasn’t willing to spend that kinda money right now or have the car down for soo long. So a local buddy offered me a b16b with full accessories, CTR ecu, harness, Hasport mounts and a ITR trans with factory LSD. He bought the swap from HMO and ended up never Installing it in his project. It was too good of a deal to pass up.

Before swapping the motor in I decided to round up a bunch of maintenance parts.
Timing belt, waterpump, seals, spark plugs, ACT flywheel, and Southbend stage 2 clutch…etc.

Started the swap on Thursday, worked on it a few hours a day till Saturday when it was done. I’ve always worked on my own cars for the past 15 years and have worked at a Lexus dealership for the past 10 years (4 years as a tech), in all this time I’ve never pulled/swapped a motor. I’ve pretty much done everything else to a car but never actually pulled a motor before, so it was a lil nerve-racking at first. But with the help of a buddy, we got the old motor out and the new motor in. The rest of it was pretty easy. Only issues were the power steering belt was too small and the fuel return hose needed to be longer. Well there was also the small issue of the gas being low when I went to go start it up for the first time… I guess bc the car was still on jack stands and the gas was at 1/8th of a tank when I pulled it in… well u get it.

[BrownMan]

Replaced the radiator, radiator hoses and heater hoses. Removed the OE air box and added a cone filter just for the the hell of it, probably going to go back to the OE box or make a air box.
Installed a new charge harness and gounds as well.

[BrownMan]

Another set of wheels and found a OEM optional rear lip.

-Volk te37 16x7 +33
-Firestone Firehawks indy 500 205/45/16

[Scott]

in for this brotherrrrrrrrrrrr

[Nashville]

How’s that b16b pull? I have one going In my project and I’m getting anxious!

[BrownMan]

Man it pulls great! It definitely likes to be revved out. Shifting above 8500 has taken some time to get used to, if I don’t shift that high it falls out of vtec in the next gear.

[dopeitsjuan]

Nice progress brotha! Beautiful FBP EM1, will be giving you a follow forsure
Keep it coming

[OGKOOPA]

Awesome!! I like that you shared your other builds too! … is that 8k-9k Kswap budget a recent number? Using low end or higher end or mix of both parts?

[Vince]

Beautiful build, love how you are restoring this older tired EM1 to it’s former glory and beyond.
Following so keep posting

[Bman562]

The build is coming along great! What’s next?

[BrownMan]

8K-9K was a estimate from getting motor/trans from HMO and rest of the parts from hybrid racing/ Hasport. I’m sure you can do the swap for much cheaper but from the information out there it seemed like the best set up for the money.

[BrownMan]

As of right now I would like to replace the axles or rebuild the axles. They leak a little bit of grease.

I am on the hunt for a EK9 cluster, mainly so I can have the proper redline. It still feels weird revving the motor out to 8500 rpm ,

[thtloudteg]

Well done build man!

[EJAYSICKS]

You know I’m in for this!

[EM1_Panchh]

Nice build man! How do you like those pic front camber arms? I’m thinking of getting a set for my em1. Being that they are solid mounted and don’t have a bushing, are they significantly harsher?