new to prelude! embracing the noobness

[prelude87si]

Long story short.. I bought what I thought what would be a temporary car for my sister. Ended up giving her my camry once I found out what I got myself into. so I have a 87 prelude 2.0 si.. let me make something clear, I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT CAR, PERIOD. never too late to learn . so far I've been dealing with leaks (oil pan gasket, head gasket and another gasket lol) that I'm having fixed and getting the piston rings replaced. after that the car will be in great shape and runs great.

I wanna basically make it a toy car and go as far as adding a turbo kit in it. I was going to start by lowering it.. what kind of springs would be good to use? I want to drop it 1 1/2 to 2 inches from stock.

[spiffyguido]

It's an older car, so availability of aftermarket parts will be a bit of an issue.

I'd try to find a set of Tokico or Koni struts and springs for it. Eibach also makes a set of springs (or used to anyway) that will fit your car. I believe Ground Control also makes some coilovers that will work.

[prelude87si]

ok cool thanks for the help. I know I'm going to enjoy working on the car! I'm getting new bearings and pistons replaced right now. after that the car will be ready to go for fun stuff! what would you think would be a good next step for the car?

[spiffyguido]

What are your goals? Increase HP? Autocrossing?

[prelude87si]

whats autocrossing?

[spiffyguido]

Informal time trialing on a makeshift road course. Often done in mall parking lots, airfields, etc. Great fun, and very safe.

Search on youtube and you'll see what I mean.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af2zJAOAqWQ

[prelude87si]

haha that looks pretty awesome actually. But I'm leaning more towards increasing hp and improving the looks on it. now that I have the car back and runs great, should I replace anything else on the car like the water pump or wait till it fails on me? or can I start on the improvements on the car?

[spiffyguido]

Do you know when the timing belt was last done? You want to make sure it is maintained. Otherwise, you can move onto other things.

[prelude87si]

I dont but the belts aren't In bad shape.. I had someone look at it

[spiffyguido]

In that case you can start focusing on other tune-up things.

Make sure your spark plugs and distributor are in good shape. Run some injector cleaner through.

For performance, simplest places to start are the intake system and the exhaust. A cold air intake paired with a header and a cat-back exhaust will give you a few extra horsepower.

[prelude87si]

awesome! that helps a lot! ill keep you updated