Help Me Spend Money on My CRX

The CRX currently has a disintegrated clutch. Since I have to remove the transaxle to fix it, I am naturally planning on some "while I'm at it" upgrades. Specifically, I'm thinking a much stronger clutch, lighter flywheel, and LSD. Before you go on telling me about the down sides to all of this, please know that I've owned a CRX with these mods in the past and am quite familiar with the results. However, the parts I used on that car are no longer available, and I'm not up on what's currently the hot setup. Any suggestions?

Those mods sound absolutely terrible. I mean if you have to pull the transaxle, why not the motor too, then I think you should drop in a B18C5(TypeR) motor at the very least, but if you're up to it a built K motor.

Is that better? :)

What's the purpose of the car? Daily? Or a track car?

The purpose is anything I want it to be. Seriously, I'm not getting into that discussion, as that information isn't necessary to answer the questions. Let's try to stay on topic, k? And the engine is staying put.

Okay, I'll say this. I don't buy junk, but I also recognize value when I see it, so I don't always buy the most expensive part either.
So overall,who makes the best LSD for this car? Who makes a good lightened flywheel? Or should I just lighten the stock flywheel like I did on my last CRX? And the clutch? I used a RAM clutch that was supposed to be one step up from stock and it blew up after less than 5k miles, so not going with that again.

Still the stock Si motor then? Honestly, I'd just drop in a good Torsen type diff, and drop in a stock clutch/flywheel. I've got 100K+ miles out of the stock clutch/flywheel on my '91 Si, and it's a dream to use. I would see about upgrading the clutch forks though they've been known to bend/break under abuse.

I had a fidanza aluminum in my crx. Never had an issue, and it and the puck clutch were used when I got them. Were on five engines in my ownership, and thousands of laps at cmp, plus about 50k street miles.

In reply to tpwalsh:

Your '91 has a larger flywheel and clutch than my '88. Every stock '88 clutch I've ever used slips going into 2nd gear under hard acceleration. In fact, regardless of what flywheel/clutch I use, I'm going with the larger '90-'91 style, which is all the more reason I want a lighter flywheel. And the engine isn't quite stock.

In reply to Dusterbd13:

Was yours like this??

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fidanza-Aluminum-Flywheel-Civic-CRX-D16-D16a6-D15b2-D15-/260620736663

bravenrace wrote: In reply to tpwalsh: Your '91 has a larger flywheel and clutch than my '88. Every stock '88 clutch I've ever used slips going into 2nd gear under hard acceleration. In fact, regardless of what flywheel/clutch I use, I'm going with the larger '90-'91 style, which is all the more reason I want a lighter flywheel. And the engine isn't quite stock.

Ahh! that makes a difference, sorry. My Si is 100% stock save Koni shocks since it's just a daily.

For most uses, an OBX Helical differential like this would work fine. For cost-no-object, heavy-duty motorsports use, I would go with an OS Giken differential (like this).

In reply to jstein77:

What about MFactory or Quaiffe? How do they all compare? I should add that although the engine is currently making around 120hp, I want to build the trans for more in case I decide to do something different (turbo likely) in the future.

That looks exactly like my old flywheel.

bravenrace wrote: In reply to jstein77: What about MFactory or Quaiffe? How do they all compare? I should add that although the engine is currently making around 120hp, I want to build the trans for more in case I decide to do something different (turbo likely) in the future.

I'm not familiar with the MFactory diff. The Quaiffe and the OBX, both being helical designs, should perform in a similar manner. The factory helical diff in my Spec V has no problems putting down the 270 whp that my turbo makes.

this guy makes some pretty darn good ones … only problem is how quickly he can get it to you

https://www.facebook.com/steve.eckerich?fref=pb&hc_location=friends_tab&pnref=friends.all

Sylvain Tremblay of SpeedSource uses these … FWTW

In reply to wbjones:

That's a link to his facebook page - No other info given. How do I find out specifics about his design?

wbjones wrote: this guy makes some pretty darn good ones … only problem is how quickly he can get it to you https://www.facebook.com/steve.eckerich?fref=pb&hc_location=friends_tab&pnref=friends.all Sylvain Tremblay of SpeedSource uses these … FWTW

Steve makes awesome LSD's. Phantom Grip is a take-off on what he makes. Big difference is he takes your diff, and measures and machines everything to tolerance. The plate material is also proprietary.

Mine only has about 10k miles on it, but there are some out there with over 100k and still pulling strong. The LSD has made a MAJOR transformation in the FX16.

PM me!

No rocket science here. Just a great, simple design with high precision manufacturing. He makes everyone himself.

In reply to trucke:

That's just like the one I made for my other CRX, long before you could buy them. Chuck Noonan used to make one like that as well.

When you say plate material, are you talking about clutch plates? Because the lack of any is the actual reason that Phantom Grips suck.

If someone is out there machining the inside of diff carriers and side gears to spline in clutch plates and make a 'real' LSD for any kind of reasonable cost i probably know a fair number of people who would be interested.

In reply to Vigo:

I didn't use clutch discs, just blocks and springs. It did work pretty well considering that it was the only option at the time, but once I added a turbo it would give up in hard tight corners. Even with the turbo it was fine on a road course. I probably only put 10k miles on it after that point, so I don't know how it would have held up over a longer period of time.

Yes, Steve's diffs of all styles are awesome.

Vigo wrote: When you say plate material, are you talking about clutch plates? Because the lack of any is the actual reason that Phantom Grips suck. If someone is out there machining the inside of diff carriers and side gears to spline in clutch plates and make a 'real' LSD for any kind of reasonable cost i probably know a fair number of people who would be interested.

No, the square metal plates you can see in the photo there. Steve doesn't use regular metal, it's some kind of fancy stuff that works very, very well.

Okay, I'm not going to go with the block and spring style, because they wear. So does that leave me with the helical style, and how do those perform? I've pretty much ruled out OBX because of too many horror stories about stuck axles, and I don't want to pay the price for Quaiffe if I don't have to. So I'm looking mostly at MFactory, since they seem to have a pretty good rep in the Honda world (from my brief searching this afternoon), are designed like the Quaiffe, but are a couple hundred bucks cheaper. Anyone want to weigh in on my thought process?

bravenrace wrote: In reply to trucke: That's just like the one I made for my other CRX, long before you could buy them. Chuck Noonan used to make one like that as well.

Chuck made cars go fast.

bravenrace wrote: In reply to wbjones: That's a link to his facebook page - No other info given. How do I find out specifics about his design?

by contacting him … you might try to message him on his FB page