My 2000 Integra LS build thread

[aw614]

I had written a post and I lost what I had wrote, weird...but I'll start it off again.

Here is my 2000 Integra LS that I've owned since 2012 that I bought from an estate sale after the original owner passed away. Interior was in really good shape, but exterior was decent, your typical 12 year old car with normal door dings, on the outside. Currently, not dailyed but dailyable if necessary. Though if Florida roads weren't so full of horrible drivers I'd gladly daily it. Most goals is something functional and fun to drive street car that has been able to hold up 2-3 autocrosses a month and the occasional track day. Stuff like AC and Power steering are retained for a reason. Still debating on cruise control, needed because of the loss of the closest autocross site, has left the region with longer drives to events requiring highway driving, but I really want a smaller steering wheel.

Currently B18c1 swapped. Originally had a B18b1, replaced with a spare GSR short block my friend. He was over it and was moving on from the Honda stuff. Traded my original B18b1 and cash for the block, head and an ITR LSD swapped GSR transmission. Though I do regret trading my original vin matching LS motor and transmission, not having the space hurts.

Decision was to go B Series VTEC because of the opportunity my friend offered and with my LS motor burning oil, Purchased the car at around 120k, and it didn't start burning oil until around 135k, prior to that consumption was minimal, but at the same time I probably should have performed a severe oil change interval vs a "normal" interval 5k interval. Motor started smoking at high RPMs and consuming more oil, yet never felt down on power. Did an oil analysis after about 1.5k miles and it mentioned the wear I was getting was equivalent to about 4k street miles.

Rebuilt that GSR shortblock, hoping I would solve my oil consumption issues, instead, I get the same consumption as before. With normal street driving, I consume probably about 1/4 every 500 miles or so, maybe even less. Throw in a few autocross and highway driving to those events and consumption is about 1/2 quarts every 500 miles, but it goes up if I do consecutive events, so I plan for 1/4 quart topoff after an event and 200+ miles of driving. Basically I upgraded to a more powerful motor with the same oil consumption My guess is either I did not break in the motor correctly, the ring gaps were too loose (My friend wanted slightly looser gaps than I wanted, or I scored the walls during initial start up, or a combination of all of that.

Motor swap was done during the summer of 2017 at around 144k, right now I have 158k, so the motor has been solid minus the oil consumption. Survived two track days without an issue. And I traded my LSD GSR trans for the JDM 4.7 LSD.

Engine/transmission:

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B18c1 with 81.5mm USDM itr rep pistons
GSR head with 96-97 ITR cams
Skunk2 intake manifold with ITR throttle body(though I want a gen 1...)
JDM ITR 4.7 transmission
JDM ITR 4-1 header with car sound cat and USDM ITR Catback
Mugen Intake (Pain in the ass to install)
Spoon Engine mounts
Baffled OEM oil pan done by Devon M back in 2015.
Hondata s300
OBD2b evap components are still installed on the car
Skunk2 LMAs


Motor made 177 WHP and 128 WTQ at the dyno with a comptech icebox and GSR throttle body, tuned by phearable in Tampa.

Suspension/Brakes Wheels:
Bilstein B8 Sports OTS valving with ground control conversion, rates of 440 F/ 400 r.
Stock 2000 LS/GSR/ITR front sway bar
Eibach 25mm rear sway bar
Mugen front compliance bushing
Skunk2 UCAs
8x (4 SSR Competitions 15x7 and 4 SSR Type C 15x7) - Competitions have Continental Extreme Contact sports that do well for Rain autocrosses and street driving and the Type Cs have currently on BFG Rival S 1.5 205/50/15, but I've previously run RE71rs.
Spoon Twinblock calipers with mini cooper rotors
RSX Type S rear calipers with EP3 rotors
ITR trunk wall brace
Power steering cooler line out of an EG

Exterior/interior:
OEM ITR/Optional front lip (it's beat up and I have a spare)
JDM 98-01 integra taillights
Stock confetti seats
OEM radio and cassette deck
Various shift knobs, currently using OEM Optional RSX five speed, but have various knobs including spoon duracon, OEM ITR titanium, Integra LS, etc.
Wingless hatch

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Autocross stuff:
Youtube of events I've run: https://www.youtube.com/user/aw614/vide ... subscriber

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Future Plans:
Need to address the body work, while the interior of the car was in good shape, the exterior was average, the driver's door was repainted and there are a lot of door dings as it was obvious it was previously used as an everyday car. I want to respray the it the same color tafetta white with shaved moldings and painted sideskirts. I recently got my integra ceramtic coated by a friend to give me time. He was able to recover most of the paint by buffing it back as tafetta white is single stage. Dreading getting the body work and paint done. Plans later in the year are getting everything PDR out, but finding a body guy I can trust is the main source of my dread...

I want to build another motor and refresh and/or buy another transmission. I think a GSR with a 4.7 or a B16/4.4 ITR trans would give me what I want. I think the 3rd to 4th gear speed/rpm drop is annoying on the JDM 4.7. Finding another transmission reliability in Florida is sketchy. When I think I am ready, I might as well pay the money to get a solid transmission from a known builder.

With the motor, I have a spare GSR block that I want to use with eagle LS rods. I really want to try that GSR block with an LS crank combo. Additionally, I scored brand new endyn mid compression roller wave pistons off facebook marketplace so I have some parts. I also have a spare B16 head, but am not sure if it is still good to use, but the plan with that was upgrade the LMAs, springs, retainers as I have Spare ITR valvetrain components I got from a friend + 00-01 cams. Really just want a motor that doesn't burn oil

Suspension is the part I'll take longer to decide, I used to run bilstein shocks with ITR springs for about 4 years, but recently switched to the ground control conversion so I'll be driving on that for a few more years.

Missing some stuff that I had on the lost post, but this should work as a start.

[aklackner]

Sounds like a fun project!

If not dealing with rust and just about dings, I highly recommend embracing the history. The investment and downtime required to repaint and rebuild really doesn’t make a lot of sense for a car that sees the track or much mileage. It’s much easier to accept what is than to invest (heavily) and have to eventually face accepting what isn’t. With cost and limited availability of things like moldings refreshes are a much larger problem than they once were.

That being said I didn’t listen to the same advise when I started my LS or current ITR project so I’ll just say good luck and I look forward to watching the project progress down the paths you choose.

[aw614]

Thanks!

Most of the body is fairly solid, some of the very minor rust issues I need to address, but being in Florida and away from the beaches, it isn't bad. I'll see if I can take some pictures later, but it looks addressable. But I am kind of concerned about "Florida" rust, where cars seem to rust from the roof area then downward. The roof is fine, but part of the sunroof itself concerns me

The hood has a few spots where it hooks to the rad support, guess either water collects there or paint chipped off over time. Going to probably just touch up that portion b/c the rest of the hood is fairly solid.

Some of the spare tire area has some minor surface spots that I need to tackle from the sunroof and seam sealer cracking. Stopped the leaks from the sunroof so it hasn't been bad. I was also getting leaks from the seam seal area around the tail lights, seems like there were some cracks there, sealed it up a few years ago and I've been getting no water, but that area does seem to get musty/humid more so than other areas of the trunk.

I've thought about keeping it as is and embracing the history while just addressing the body dings. There is something about driving an older car that shows its been driven, but also has an assortment of high quality parts/mods on it. Definitely not on the show car side of things

[aw614]

Rotated tires today. Here's a comparison shot of the 205/50/15 bfg rival us continental extreme contact sport, both on 15x7

[Gotin]

What a cool toy. That is a perfect score you got. Congrats.
The Mugen intake is a pain in the but to install. I pierced an ac line doing it

[coolhandluke]

Rotated tires today. Here's a comparison shot of the 205/50/15 bfg rival us continental extreme contact sport, both on 15x7

Great example of how tread width from two different tires, even from same MFG, vary.

[aw614]

Need to post some more updates but here is a question. Has anyone experienced this on their driver side wheel well? Looks like I am rubbing through the under coating and straight onto metal. Been putting plastidip for now to protect it but still comes off after a few months.

Edit it seems attachments aren't working ill upload it in a few

[Stin1]

I think you could get lower quality paint job for a few thousand if you really wanted to . I wouldn’t go to the extremes ack went through for a track car. You will probably then want new moldings. I didn’t run into any discontinued exterior moldings but I spent a fortune trying to get all of them before they were discontinued.

[DC2Iggy]

Need to post some more updates but here is a question. Has anyone experienced this on their driver side wheel well? Looks like I am rubbing through the under coating and straight onto metal. Been putting plastidip for now to protect it but still comes off after a few months.

Edit it seems attachments aren't working ill upload it in a few

I think this is pretty common. Mine has the same and so did my old gsr. I think it's the wider sitting tire that's contacting the inside.

[aw614]

I think you could get lower quality paint job for a few thousand if you really wanted to . I wouldn’t go to the extremes ack went through for a track car. You will probably then want new moldings. I didn’t run into any discontinued exterior moldings but I spent a fortune trying to get all of them before they were discontinued.

I think this is where I tend to be uncertain, but I like aklackner's suggestion of keeping it as is, but maybe just treating some of the annoying paint chips to prevent rust. I also know that my integra won't be converted to a caged track car. When the AC, power steering, and all the creature comforts still work, I rather not remove it. But it has crossed my mind to just buy someone elses track car instead. With autocross, I can still keep it very street friendly since I am not SRS BZNS about it

On to another update, I found a set of 15x8 Enkei PF01s for 500 dollars, luckily the owner was driving to Orlando to visit Universal Studios vs me driving to Daytona, which was a perfect halfway meet spot. They look alright from 5-10 feet away, but they aren't perfect, but are perfect to go ahead and try 15x8s out and are Spoon Caliper friendly. Lots of space for a +35 offset wheel.





I do have a question with those that have run 15x8 wheels, can I get away without rolling my fenders and rear quarter panel? Mine are unrolled and I'd like to keep them that way, Everything I've read is it is possible if you have camber in the front, but the rears I am not sure. Currently I run about -3 degrees up front and around -1 to -1.5 in the rear with the stock arms.

A friend of mine told me he had issues with the upper rear control arm hitting full load in the rear, did anyone experience this before?

No pictures, but I also picked up a skunk2/blox gen1 gsr intake manifold without the skunk2 plate on it, Going for that stock eventually