D16Y7 Advice

[Carbon Tuner]

I just picked up a 1999 Civic DX Hatchback. It's in excelent condition and I can see that nobody's even been into the motor yet. It's a blank slate. I'm looking to build it up a bit but I've never worked with one of these motors before and I was hoping for someone who has to tell me a bit of what to expect in terms of dyno numbers and problems. I'm not looking to make street monster, just something thats fun to drive and has enough power to walk on a few of my buddies cars (lightly modified 92 escort LX-E, 92 civic Si, and others in that category). I've seen a few comments and posts refering to the Y7's as money pits and paper weights, kinda like you hear about old chevy 305's. I'm guessing it's somewhat true due to the lack of aftermarket parts and tuning advice. I'm not going with a motor swap unless I can find one for decent enough value. I'm gunna start by rigging up some kinda of cold air intake and installing a new exaust system from a set of headers back. I'm considering a TB if I can find one as well at this point.
Any info or advice you can give me would be great. Thanks.

[kommon_sense]

I wouldn't spend a single dollar on engine mods for that car unless you have a CLEAR direction on what you want to do.

Start researching suspension. No matter what route you pick for the motor, you get to keep the suspension. Also, a slow car that handles well is still a lot of fun to drive.

If it were me, I'd do the following :

1 - Convert to Ex/SI/GSR front brakes (FastBrake Enterprises, LLC - Intro)
2 - EX/SI front swaybar setup (22mm bar from EX)
3 - SI rear swaybar (13mm - fun for street use, get ASR 22mm for track use)
4 - Front strut tower brace
5 - B&M Short Shifter
6 - Change Tranny Fluid
7 - Wheels and Tires (15" wheel, 195/55/15 or 205/50/15 tire)
8 - Shocks/Springs or Coilovers (really takes some research to determine whats best for your setup).

Items 1-6 will run you less than $600 *COMBINED* and make a more noticeable difference over *any* engine mod you can do for that price. And if you swap, the only thing I mentioned that you can't keep is the tranny fluid