Most waste little time in pulling the spare tire to drop a few pounds. Others delete their rear interior completely. Then there’s Jorge Hurtado, of San Antonio, Texas, and his ’86 CRX. Jorge (George to his friends) and his Si are originally from Cali, he states, I purchased the CRX back in ’05 for around $300 in Oxnard… I can’t remember how many people made fun of the car, including my friends. The car was indeed rough around the edges, but Jorge loved it more for what it didn’t have, namely a few hundred pounds of unnecessary gear found in newer-model cars.
That was never the case for Jorge, although although the CRX has long been praised for its lightweight chassis, the homely mug of the first-gen was often a put-off for tuners. An LS-VTEC came together, a paintjob, and wheels. The CRX was fun to get, and it wasn’t that nasty anymore. Jorge had a blast with the little Honda until boost together with a missed shift ended in a blown B series. That’s when he got an understanding for something bigger. The H22 was just sitting in my garage, and whenever I pulled the blown motor, I saw these were roughly the identical size, plus I already had a B-series trans. After digging through the Internet and some measurements of his very own, Jorge learned that the proportions of the H22 were almost the same as the outgoing B series. He also found that to his knowledge, an H2B swap had never been shoehorned into an ’86 CRX. He recalls, I got a new QSD H2B kit and started focusing on fabricating. Using all of the B-series stuff fits better, and also you don’t must cut anything up. Employing a custom-designed bracket system and HaSport mounts, he found the swap required no frame modding, and after severaltire and chassis size, the CRX put down a respectable 11.88 on 24-inch slicks. Jorge states, Afterward run we drove the car home together with the slicks rubbing the shocks and rounded off lug nuts on one wheel…time finally arrived at give the CRX suspension some attention. The existing-school Si was treated to a set of Tokico five-way adjustable shocks and Bilstein 996 coils from the rear. Some much needed corner balance and toe corrections had the suspension dialed in for the new Spinwerkes wheels covered with 23-inch M&H slicks. With the car down for your suspension changes, he proceeded to pull off a few hundred pounds’ worth of extraneous metal, though jorge had already removed most of the easy stuff to save some weight. He then went further, and shaved an additional 40 pounds with a custom rear axle. After the crash diet, the svelte CRX tipped the scales in a mere 1,375 pounds!
To take further advantage of the load loss, upgrades in the power department were next on the list. A set of 450cc DSM injectors added more fuel, while breathing was improved by using a custom ported intake manifold and 74mm throttle body. On the hot side, a custom Bisimoto V2 Prototype header was bolted on, and 225 hp at the wheels was achieved. Known as the weak point on most H-series engines, the timing belt tensioner was something that Jorge was determined to work around. His solution involved using all Honda parts. He adds, The T-belt tensioner on this engine is actually a B-series tensioner. Both the tensioners are exactly the same dimensions, and I customized it to work with my H22. Now it’s fully adjustable. The custom B-series piece paired with Bisimoto cam gears gave Jorge significantly more control over the tuning of the H22; his new setup delivering consistent 11.30-second runs with trap speeds a hair under 120 mph. Very impressive numbers for an H22 sporting bolt-ons and a ton of weight reduction. In the wake of newfound success, his higher trap speeds gave him a fresh problem in the form of dreaded lift. He states, The rear of your CRX would lift and sway when I’d release the throttle above 100 mph. I used iPhone cases to create wind cuts in the rear window, and from now on it stays straight without movement. It’s so much easier to manage.
Jorge is treading in uncharted waters with his first-gen CRX, making headway for others to follow in their footsteps. He’s not resting on his laurels, though, and plans on stroking this motor in search of 300 naturally aspirated horsepower and consistent 10-second runs. Finding so much success with such an easy recipe to date, there’s little doubt that he’ll reach his goal in no time.