The Honda bubble has long been burst, having seen its peak years ago and slowly deflated since. The scattered remnants of shoddily modified Civics float around alleys across the country with broken fiberglass body kits and fluorescent green windshield wipers, begging for a glance. The Honda craze was so all-encompassing that it's actually hard to find an untouched Civic in the used car market today.
With the long lineage of Civics produced, there are endless candidates from which to choose. But because of their likely previous owners, modifying one may be as much a restoration project as a customization effort.
In terms of pure performance, though, it's hard to argue the combination that Tong Noppakant chose. Of all the Civics produced, the EF has to be the most vaunted. It was the first with fully independent suspension and it was devoid of weight adders like airbags and side-impact beams. The Si received a nice rear anti-roll bar and four-wheel disc brakes that made it rotate and stop like a real performance car. This combination of goodies helped to make the EF the cult classic that it is today.
By todays standards, though, the 'ol SOHC D16 you can find under the hood isn't exactly a stump puller. The good news is, of course, the inherent swapabililty within the Honda family, the Civic in particular. From the popular B16 to the state of the art K20, if it's a Honda engine it's likely in the bay of someone's Civic.
On the other side of the equation, it's easy to dream of a B18C5 from the Integra Type-R under the hood of the vintage hot hatch. While it may not be the cheapest option, it does Honda history proud and cranks out more than 108 hp per liter straight from the factory. Importantly, it fits in the engine bay of an EF the way god intended engines to fit in Hondas - with header backed up against the radiator and intake manifold millimeters from the firewall.
If Tong had left well enough alone with stock Type-R gear he'd have an EF more than capable of surprising modern machinery at the stoplight. But that wasn't fate for this OG hatchback. You see, our man Tong happens to be an engine builder at All Version in Orlando, Fla. Before the Type-R heart transplant took place, the engine was split apart and sent over to Dover Cylinder Head for some reshaping. During surgery it was bored 40 over to accommodate Endyne rings and forged pistons, bumping compression up to 12.5:1. The crank was knife-edged and balanced before a baffled oil pan sealed up the bottom end.
Tong set to work on the head, porting, polishing and grinding his way to a three-angle valve job (many sources deem five-angle valve jobs impossible and/or unnecessary in Honda engines, due to lack of surface area and the inherent efficiency of the stock setup). Rev valves were installed, to be bumped up and down by Jun camshafts. Ensuring the valves make a safe return closed at high rpm are Jun valve springs with dual springs. Skunk2 retainers work in conjunction with stock keepers and rockers to guard against anything jumping out of the head at 10,000 rpm.
Keeping the 220 wheel-hp firecracker fed with fuel is a job addressed by RC Engineering's 440cc injectors and a (can you guess?) Walbro 255lph fuel pump. TWM's fuel pressure regulator ensures the new injectors see the right amount of fuel. On the other side of the combustion equation sits an individual throttle-body setup from TWM, comprised of four 50mm throttle bodies. The sheer diameter of the barrels combined with the miniscule carbon fiber velocity stacks indicates that this engine was built to rev.
If you're going to the trouble of installing individual throttle bodies, you're definitely in the market for some headers and an exhaust system. Spark Racing supplied its Version 2 headers and a stainless steel exhaust was sourced from Thermal Research. An Omni-Power test pipe ensures that the car barks and pops between shifts like a Top Fuel dragster banging through the gears on the way down the quarter-mile.