R18 Story's R20 Civic
Getting ahead of myself as I rebuild my r18 transmission. I want to explore a different path that most Americans don’t take. So, I want to be as self sufficient as possible and keep things simple. A turbo is just natural for the r18a1, but this r18 Story channel from Thailand keeps giving me bad ideals!
My bad ideal is getting an r20a5, which is around $300 locally. I want to get r18a1 lower block, crankshaft wheel, and the Shunk2 camshaft to make this motor my next one to swap in.
I have plans for clutch upgrade, mfactory lsd, so when this time comes I could swap in this r20. It should be comparable with r18 ecu and I could get it tuned for more torque and power. Potentially this would give me plenty of power for touge runs and amateur racing.
Simple r18 with Turbo
Or would just taking the transmission out again when I have my racing clutch and mfactory lsd ready, then bolt on a Chinese turbo kit, run the TSI turbo base map with the Flashpro untill getting tuned, and skipping the r20 be the best way?
There’s still turbo kits in US warehouses. Or do I wait to put upgraded clutch in now and skip lsd?
These are the issues I’m debating. Here’s Bullikid’s Trubo Civic:
No Turbo, No LSD, No Clutch, No r18
Or is it better to use my Exedy oem clutch I have already? Then spend more money on the suspension and brakes instead. Then get some nice tires? Power is useful, but my car is very unbalanced now. There’s so much I could do to improve the chassis, suspension, braking, grip, and doing more practice runs.
The biggest thing I’m sacrificing is style. Taking care of the dents on roof, re painting trunk, lip kit, side skirts, interior mods, seats, etc. There’s so many thing I want to do and I miss that type of tuning where I didn’t worry about the performance so much and only the looks.
Too many configurations to choose from
I think it comes down to trying things. If I’m really happy with the handling and performance from a full bolt on r18, then I can focus on this for awhile until I decide to upgrade.
It would be nice to do the clutch upgrade now while the transmission is off the car. It would be nice to work on a r20 on the side or to start stockpiling the turbo parts. I’m afraid of spending money, so I always give up on the stuff I really want due to sticker price shock. However, then I end up spending more money on cheap crap I don’t really want or care about! Saving up for something nice and building the car that I want is important.
I still debate though which next steps I should take.