Picking a chassis. By Ben Ogle
New to the Honda community?? Want to get an 88-91 civic or crx? Well, if you answered yes to these Q's then you came to the right place. This is about the basics of the 88-91 civic chassis and what to look for when buying. So read on, brotha (or sista. heh).
EF - An EF is an 88-91 civic or crx. It is the chassis code for the Japanese 88-91 civics and crx's. Over here in the states we got the ED chassis (which is really the same) but people call them EFs anyway.
Choosing a chassis.
First you have to figure out your goals for the car. What do you want out of it? Are you going to be drag racing? Autocrossing? Road racing? Driving around looking like a dork? What do you want to do to it? Motor swap? Suspension work? Wheels that are too big for a civic? Answering these questions is essential in the picking of a chassis. And I urge you to figure it out before you even start looking for a car. If you just go out and find a car then you might end up spending your cashola on something that you really don't want or will regret getting (like if you have a 91 ex and decide to build drag car out of it; its not really the smartest thing you can do).
EF come in a variety of flavors. They come 4 different body styles: civic hatchback, civic sedan, wagovan (pimp mobile!! But it really isn't included in this discussion), or CRX. In each of those body styles there are a few trim levels that have some notable differences from each other. Aside form the options and the weight (which is covered later) there are differences in motors, injection systems, trannys, sway bar configurations, and brake sizes. The body style you choose is really up to your personal preference (and money situation as some are more popular than others). There are some dimensional and aerodynamic differences between the body styles but they aren't THAT big of a difference.
Injection and motors: You got 2 choices: MPFI (Multi-Point Fuel Injection) and DPFI (Dual-Point Fuel Injection). MPFI is where each cylinder has its own injector. The main EF MPFI motor is the D16A6. This 1.6l motor comes in all Si's and EX's with a bone jarring 108hp and ~100ftlbs torque. The other MPFI motor is some D15B variant in the CRX Hf. It doesn't really matter because it makes about 10hp ( ;) ) and is mated to a tranny with the tallest gears known to man. All the motors you would be putting in an EF are going to be multi point. Because of that you'd think that a MPFI car would be more desirable, right? Well, not really. Most of the MPFI cars come with a whole bunch of extra weight (Hf definitely excluded).
DPFI is like throttlebody injection. There are 2 different injectors placed somewhere in the intake manifold but I don't know exactly how it works because I don't care (DPFI sucks). So now you know that all the motors you would swap in would be multi point why would you want a DPFI car? Cause of the weight. "Well," you ask, "can I convert to MPFI?" Yes you can and it is pretty easy. Go here to learn how. The DPFI motors are all D15B2's (I think). The motors themselves aren't that bad, it's the dual point that slows them down. The DPFI D15B's come in all EFs that aren't an Si, Hf, or EX.
Trannies: There are four main different manual trannys. There's the ever common DX tranny, the favored Si tranny, and the loathed civic std and Hf trannies. The DX trannies are by far the most common d series cable tranny. Unfortunately they have fairly long gears. But they aren't so long that you can go 90 on the freeway at 1500 rpm. These trannies come in all cars that aren't an Si, EX, civic STD, or an Hf. The Si tranny is the most popular and definitely has the shortest gearing. The Si tranny comes in Si's and probably EX 5-speed cars (anybody know??). The civic STD tranny has obscenely long gears and only 4 speeds. Poop. This tranny comes only in the civic STD hatchback. The Hf tranny also has really really long gears but it comes with 5 of them. The Hf tranny only comes in CRX Hf's.
Sway bars: All of the EFs except the Hf come with an 18mm front sway bar. Hf owners are lucky enough to get a 17mm front sway. Rear sway bars are a completely different story. Most of the cars don't even come with them. The only EFs that do are Si's which have a 15mm bar. This sucks because it is a bit of a pain in the ass to bolt up a rear sway to an ill-equipped car. There are no nice spot welded nuts in the frame rails or threaded holes in the control arms for the rear sway. So the mount up of the bar is up to you.
Brakes and other crap around that area: All cars come with 9.5" front disc brakes except for the EX models which have the Honda-common 10.3" discs (that's right, the same size as 90+ integras). In the rear there are a few models without drums, these being the CRX and Civic Sis.
One thing I think is worth mentioning is the axle spline size. On the civic STD and CRX Hf the knuckle-side axle splines are smaller than all the other cars, which share their spline size with 90+ integras and newer civics. So if you do a B-series swap into your STD of Hf you need to use knuckles from some other EF (or DA) in order to use the requisite B-series axles.
So now that you read all that you probably want an Si or an EX. They have a bigger motor, better injection, a better tranny, a rear sway bar, possibly rear discs and potentially larger brakes. This is all fine and dandy if you want a car you just drive around town. BUT you must realize that all the cool stuff they higher models have is easily swapped onto lower model cars. Another negative of the higher models is that they come with more weight. Weight is bad. Weight slows you down in the corners and on the straights.
Stock weights: All values in lbs.
| Hatch |
STD |
DX |
Si |
| 1988 |
1933 |
1993 |
N/A* |
| 1989 |
2013 |
2088 |
2161 |
| 1990 |
2127 |
2165 |
2291 |
| 1991 |
2127 |
2165 |
2291 |
| Sedan |
DX |
LX |
EX |
| 1988 |
2039 |
2138 |
N/A* |
| 1989 |
2147 |
2211 |
N/A* |
| 1990 |
2262 |
2322 |
2374 |
| 1991 |
2262 |
2322 |
2374 |
| CRX |
Hf |
DX |
Si |
| 1988 |
1819 |
1922 |
2017 |
| 1989 |
1834 |
2048 |
2138 |
| 1990 |
1967 |
2103 |
2174 |
| 1991 |
1967 |
2103 |
2174 |
* N/A means that model was not available at that time.
Major dimensions:
HB:
Length: 157.1 in.
Width: 66.3 in.
Height: 52.5 in.
Wheel Base: 98.4 in.
Sedan:
Length: 168.8 in.
Width: 66.7 in.
Height: 53.5 in.
Wheel Base: 98.4 in.
CRX:
Length: 148.5 in.
Width: 65.9 in.
Height: 50.1 in.
Wheel Base: 90.6 in.
Wagon:
Length: 161.7 in.
Width: 66.1 in.
Height: 56.1 in.
Wheel Base: 98.4 in.
Now you know the major differences between all the cars and you should decide which one you will start looking for and how much you want to spend. There are a ton of EFs out there so you shouldn't have to "settle" for something you don't really want.
My recommendations:
Drag racing - You are probably going to do a motor swap and you need a light car so my pick would be a CRX Hf (88 preferred).
Autocrossing - This depends on your choice of class. If you choose to be in a class that allows motor swaps (well, swaps that dont come from another EF) like SM, then I would get a old civic STD or DX. The fact that they have a crappy motor doesnt matter because to be competitive you will pretty much have to swap. The CRX's are not legal for this class because they have 2 seats and you will get stuck in SM2. Poop.
If you are planning on running in STS (suspension mods, street tires) then I would try and get an 89 civic Si. You need the Si motor in STS to compete, the DPFI just doesn't cut it. Also, a DPFI car with an Si motor is legal for STS, you just need the whole swap. If you are going that route then you can get away with a lighter, lower model civic. Yay! Once again the CRX's are not legal here, sorry guys.
If you plan on going for a stock class I would suggest an 89 civic Si again. Why not the CRX Si? Because the civic is in H stock while the CRX Si is in G stock and the G stock cars are typically faster than the H stock cars (look what you would be up against here). With the civic you will be at the front of the pack and if you opt for the CRX you may be struggling to be really competitive. Also, all of the rest of the EF's are in H stock, so IMO the civic Si has a nice advantage.
Driving around, king of the town - I dunno. I'm not you. This is entirely and completely your decision based on a lot of things. I'll let you pick.
Things to look for.
Every car has its idiosyncrasies so don't be surprised if you cant find a "perfect" car. They are old, cheap commuter cars and a lot of them weren't very well taken care of. Your job is to find one with the parts you are not going to change in good condition. For instance, if you are just going to swap in a motor you try to find a car that runs like shit (or not at all) but has everything else intact. If you were going to only do suspension stuff (an STS car maybe?) you probably would want one that has decent running gear. See, it really is a good thing to know your plans when looking for a car.
I planned to have a bunch of specific problems that plague these cars posted here but I just couldn't really think of any. IMO, EFs are pretty problem free and are really cheap to fix if anything should arise. I was told that wheel bearings like to go out a lot (something I've never experienced), I know that the Hondas I've had have had alternator problems, and some cars have crappy master cylinders (mushy pedal and lots o' play! But that could be the fluid too). Other than that there is nothing beyond the typical problems that every car can have. These include problems associated with lack of maintenance, hard driving, driving on shitty roads, and cars modded by rice boys (hack jobs).
I think I should mention something about that last potential problem cause. Rice boy cars are the WORST thing you can buy. Why? Rice boys are massively cheap and usually arent very smart. Cheap and dumb == hack DIYer. If you get a car like this you will end up spending a lot of time (possibly money too) diagnosing and fixing problems that the rice boy caused and you didn't catch when you test drove the car. Then you will probably have to undo all the "mods" the rice boy put on there. Some rice boy mods that potentially cause problems are: 1st time DIY alarm install, big ghetto stereo install, 1st time engine wiring (a lot of people hack this up), some other DIY wiring, DIY "custom" body work (*shudder*), heated springs, and cut springs (not bad in itself but some people do a bad job). Rice boy wiring is, by far, my least favorite rice boy activity. Hacked up wiring can cause muy problemas and those problems are hard to trace. So my advice is to stay the hell away from cars with a lot of DIY wiring (unless you know FOR SURE that the guy who wired it knew what he was doing), and rice boy cars in general.
Now after my blabbing on about riceboys what do you want? Yeah, an unmolested EF. Don't we all. They are out there and many of them are cheap.
What have we learned?
We've learned that we have choices when buying one of these cheap little wannabe race cars. We've learned that we have to make some decisions and shouldn't just buy the first car we drive because it is easy and available. We're hopefully a little more informed on which models have drawbacks and advantages in certain areas and maybe even why. And finally we've learned that we should try and not buy rice boy cars.
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