Mike's JDM H22A Integra GSR... It's ALIVE!!!!

[DC2.2GSR]

While shopping for a "new" car, here's what I figured out about myself:

I want the drivability of high torque... the economy of a 4 cylinder... the high revving reliability of an OEM Honda performance oriented motor... the economical parts, both aftermarket and OEM. I want luxury that I can afford... I want air conditioning and heated seats.. I want a decent stereo that won't interfere with trunk space... etc. etc. etc. This pretty much means that I have to build something myself.

Answer?? JDM H22A powered Acura Integra GSR.

But why not stick with a B-series?!? I've heard they make a lot of power! Turbo It!!! Type aarrRrgghh!!!!

The reason I went H series is simple: driveability without much effort. To build my idea of a proper turbo GSR would cost about $7000 just under the hood (including price of the motor because I bought my car as a shell). Would it be an amazing car? F**k yeah. would it be worth putting all that money into a FWD honda? No. Not in my opinion. I don't want a race car. I want an everyday car that is fun to play with.

I'm sure all of you have at one point or another seen or read bits and pieces about people swapping Hondas and Acuras. What's the stereotypical thing to do? Put them on bouncy coilovers, drop 'em to the ground, bolt on some cheap parts and of course, the ever-present fart can exhaust. 'hella tyte JDM yo!!!11!'

just so we're clear... this is not one of those projects.
I hate loud cars, 4 cyl cars especially.. I hate "rice".. I hate trends.. I hate body kits.. I hate people who drive like tools.. etc. I think that's clear enough .


Based on the parts I've chosen, I guess you'll see where this project is going soon enough. This will not be a flawless showroom build, and it's not going to be a 500hp monster, but I promise you it will be a complete and proper project build!

Onto the car itself............

[DC2.2GSR]

Day One: First Impression
What did I get myself into?


Overall, the car was in good enough condition that it could easily be put back together and driven the way it sat. A few minor issues here and there, but definitely a good solid car.

The exterior body panels are all straight, and without body work. This is what I do for a living so I was all over it searching for mud-work. The only spot I found that had been repaired was the passenger quarter, right in front of the wheel. The work was done well, body filler is thin and the area is small so I'm not concerned with it. Obviosly something happened to the front end, because of the different color body panels. The first thing I did was measure the vital areas for squareness, and everything checked out. perfectly square.

Aside from being real dirty, the interior was complete and in pretty good condition... much better than many other mid-nineties Hondas I'd say. The original 94-97 GSR black leather seats were a bit faded and cracked, but well taken care of and looked great for their age. I'd say they're probably the cleanest old-style GSR seats I've seen yet. The dash is perfect.. carpet was filthy and stained (nothing a little effort with the extractor couldn't fix).

The engine bay was pretty bad. Faded paint and leaves and GREASE.. man the grease was everywhere. One or both of the now destroyed B series axles must have gotten ripped boots when the car was still being driven because all their contents were thrown into every possible place from the framerails down. The good part is that everything was there and there was NO RUST!

There aren't many aftermarket parts that were on the car, except for the exhaust, wheels, and lowering springs. The exhaust is a real APEXi N1 (with the resonator cut out). There's a 'custom' cat-delete too. Springs are some no name rusty things. The wheels? Your guess is as good as mine.. they're 14's.


Here are a few pics of the car the day I bought it:

[On Sale]

hey thats LJ's old integra

[DC2.2GSR]

yes sir.. i bought the car from LJ late last summer and I've only now gotten past some money issues and been able to start some real work on the car.

[Blkmax]

soooo is it just sitting, or have you began collecting these parts?

[DC2.2GSR]

Originally Posted by Blkmax

soooo is it just sitting, or have you began collecting these parts?

yeah i actually have a lot of stuff done now, i'm in the process of gathering up all the pics i've taken and typing it all up. i need to post the basics up to where i'm at now.

[DC2.2GSR]

The first bit of actual work that was done was to the engine bay. I don't know why, but to me the engine bay of a car is a BIG deal. IMO, it should be color matched to the exterior of the car or dipped in black. Not rattle-can black, but BLACK. but again, this depends on the exterior color.

My first job was cleaning. I spent literally hours sitting on a 5 gal bucket in the middle of the engine bay tearing everything down and cleaning with degreaser and a toothbrush. i know, it's rediculous. Anyway, after a few hours of cleaning before a few hours of prep work, here's what it turned out like:

The paint is Sherwin-Williams Honda Granada Black Pearl underneath 3 coats of DuPont ChromaPremier Clear Coat.





this was last summer, and i don't have any un-taped pics, but you get the idea.

[redg2]

dam dude nice job g/l with it

[hb420]

Looks like the start of a nice project

[jdm free]

Originally Posted by hb420

Looks like the start of a nice project

x2. waiting to see how this turns out

[Spocknasty]

Better tuck that **** while everything's out!

[Vtecepidemic]

wow.. i love the engine bay paint... is the rest of the car getting the same color?

[TurboGSR96]

Nice, good luck with it!

[DC2.2GSR]

Originally Posted by CRXed

Better tuck that **** while everything's out!

i was thinking about it, and i still may do a mild wire tuck, but i'm not sure how far i want to take it. with how picky i am about engine bays.. i have a feeling that i'll tuck it and then be pissed that all the holes are still in the sheet metal. i could shave everything but that would require a full respray and i'm not a fan of that idea. haha.

Originally Posted by Vtecepidemic

wow.. i love the engine bay paint... is the rest of the car getting the same color?

honestly, aside from money, this has been the biggest issue i've faced with this car yet. exterior color. working at a paint shop is HORRIBLE when you're as indecisive as i am! it's not like going to a dealer and picking from 5 or 6 colors offered, i can choose only one of thousands of colors... to me it's a big pain in the ass! lol.

anyway, yeah it'll most likely be painted the same color. i've narrowed it down to a handful of colors and granada black is the main one i'm leaning towards.

[DC2.2GSR]

So.. a JDM H22A. What's it look like? Here's when I first brought it home:




The engine was actually really clean right from the importer. JDM Engine Depot in Kearny, NJ is where I got it from. A few of my friends have gotten engines and transmissions fromthere (2 RB25DET's, D15B's, B-series's, an RB26DETT, among others) and they've all worked out just fine so I wasn't worried.

It's easy to tell that they hadn't pressure washed it because the owner took a blow gun and blew off about a half an inch of JDM dust when i pointed to the one i wanted. I checked it out top to bottom.. made sure the trans ran through all gears smoothly, checked the plugs for any bad signs, felt around and inspected for any oil leaks, etc etc. Of course I asked the owner to run a compression check and all 4 cylinders tested high and even . Good sign already.


If you haven't been able to tell by now, I like stuff to be extremely clean, i'm a good example of OCD . I cleaned the motor and trans until I thought i was going to start stripping away the damn metal! It still wasn't clean looking enough for something I'd just spent $2K for, so after checking out their catalogue at work, I took a 10 min ride to Eastwood and picked up a quart of their AlumaBlast acryllic enamel. It's supposed to duplicate the look of blasted aluminum. pretty cheesy huh? maybe a little bit. okay yeah it's lame. but... i want the look. I already personally know that the motor is REALLY clean, so what's it gonna hurt?




I dumped about 3 oz. into my SATA HVLP mini detail gun and went to town. I turned the pressure way up, the fluid flow down, and turned the fan pattern to 'point'. Voilà!! I've got myself an airbrush! I dusted on the alumablast so thin that you can almost see through it. it's tough to see in the picture, but honestly this motor looks very natural, not blue-ish how it looks here, and not cheesy at all. I'm very impressed with that Eastwood stuff.


The engine is going to stay stock for now. down the road a little i may go back and rip everything apart and do a mild head-build, but for now this motor in its stock form is going to be plenty for me. i'm a simple guy .

Obviously being out of the car, new stuff is a must. I replaced the clutch and flywheel with an XTD Exedy 'stage 1' clutch and a matching 11 lb. flywheel. A few of my friends have gone with XTD already, and even though they're a cheaper brand, the quality is great. i've got a real Exedy disc, so i'm sure it'll last like the others have.

The starter, alternator, clutch slave cylinder, timing belt (OEM Honda), water pump, and all accessory belts are all new as well.

[DC2.2GSR]

With the engine choice out of the way, my immediate next task was the buy the motor mounts. Innovative took over (and greatly improved on) the designs from HCP. Since Innovative mounts are all the rage lately in all the magazines and such, i figured for nearly HALF the price of Hasport mounts, i couldn't go wrong.

Wrinkle black was my choice of finish. billet aluminum would defeat the purpose of the OEM style build i've got going, so that was definitely out of the picture.




I've got more about the mount installation later.



My next issue was suspension and brakes. After finally getting the wheel locks off with a special lug nut remover from Matco (anyone ever seen 5 sided lugs ), I started a complete teardown. Of course the rear shock bolts were frozen, so there go the stock control arms. there's no way i'm paying $45 for 2 OEM Honda bushings . Replace with aftermarket--- check.

The front stuff let go fairly easily. The tie rod ends were decent, but I decided to replace them right away to avoid problems later. Both Inners and Outers were replaced. The ball joints are trash. The lower's don't really need to be replaced yet so I'll let em go for now, but the uppers are bad. The Skunk2 Pro Series camber adjustment kit is high on the list of next purchases, so that'll end that problem.. it comes with the ball joint and new bushings and all sorts of goodies! I prepped and resprayed most of the bare metal solid components with etch primer and flat black.

The brakes seem to be great actually. LJ probably just replaced the stuff before he parked the car, so after new front and rear rotors, and a proper prep to the calipers, I resprayed them black and reused the front EBC greenstuff pads, they're basically brand new! yeah, i did the hats in 1200 degree black too Brakes--- done.




The suspension that was in place when i bought the integra was holding up the car, and that's about it. Stiff stuff is the fun part. I decided to go with H&R Race Springs over KYB AGX shocks. My friend Mitch has the same setup on his BB4 Prelude and i LOVE the ride, so for me this was the obvious choice. Stiff, yet not bouncy. I finished up the spring/strut combo with new KYB bushings for the upper shock mounts. Here's the new compared to the old




Along with the Skunk2 lower control arms, I'll also be picking up an ASR rear subframe kit with the 24mm swaybar, so that'll round out the rear end pretty well. more on that later though.

[Danronian]

Granada black is really nice. It must be a hard decision.

Good luck with the project.

[jdm free]

wow that thing is clean. gotta paint that valve cover tho for ultimate jdm freshness. this car is definitely going to be a nice ass build. good luck wit it and im checkin this thing evryday

are u going to be swappin to the 98+ front?

[DC2.2GSR]

Originally Posted by teggsr925

wow that thing is clean. gotta paint that valve cover tho for ultimate jdm freshness. this car is definitely going to be a nice ass build. good luck wit it and im checkin this thing evryday

are u going to be swappin to the 98+ front?

Yep I've got an OEM Honda 98+ front bumper in my garage... shaved emblem and licence mount holes too. i've gotta keep the 'Integra' logo though!

I've also contacted LPC about powdercoating the valve cover JDM tYtE wrinkle red haha. it's going to have to wait until after the motor is in though, i don't want to mess it up while wrasslin' that beast into the engine bay!


thanks for the comments guys! more to come as quick as i can type haha

[jdm free]

Originally Posted by 95_GSR

Yep I've got an OEM Honda 98+ front bumper in my garage... shaved emblem and licence mount holes too. i've gotta keep the 'Integra' logo though!

I've also contacted LPC about powdercoating the valve cover JDM tYtE wrinkle red haha. it's going to have to wait until after the motor is in though, i don't want to mess it up while wrasslin' that beast into the engine bay!


thanks for the comments guys!

good luck finding headlights. ive been searchin for a while now lookin for clean used ones and i havent had any luck and when i do it was too late.