You have 1 car? That’s never good.
If I were in your shoes I would think hard about selling the car as is and start from scratch… By the time you spend the money to pay someone to put it back to stock including the ECM (tune) and then try to sell it, you might as well just sell it as is…
Are you set on a FWD tuner, or do you just want a fast car??
And with your budget, is that paying someone to build it for you (checkbook build) or are you doing all the mechanical work yourself??
The cheapest way to own a non stock fast toy is to buy one that is already built or almost built and the owner wants something else or as to sell it for whatever reason, very rarely does a seller get out what has been invested in a build…
If you are building one and you are doing it yourself, research, research research the total package before you spend a penny on anything 1st…
If you are doing a checkbook build, then discuses your goals with the builder and let them do all the work…
Researching includes the transmission, don’t build a engine making 500HP when the transmission and or axles can only handle 400HP, it is a waste of money…
BTW, I am a Mopar guy through and through, but if I was going to build a car from scratch just for red light to red light or the drag trip, it would be a Fox or SN95 Body Mustang and do a LS swap, TH400 and a 8.8" or a 9"
I have tons of tuners locally, problem with the civic it’s automatic FWD and either half the shops don’t tune hondata and the other 40% said like automatics can slip off their track or not tune right. So was stuck with 1 shop.
Honestly I just want a plug and play car you can modify. Dont want rats nest of never having CEL but constantly dealing with problems. I rather have reliable than HP.
(Aka I wanna procharge something without having to come to cartalk)
For research so far in my price range
2012 Audi A6 3.0 supercharged v6 $13,000
2015 Jetta GTI 2.0 turbocharged v4 $16,000
2019 civic type R k20c1 2.0 turbocharged $16,000
Then if I can procharge them for $3,000-$6,000 more I’m sure they would be beast.
You already.like Civics. The Type R seems like your cup of tea.
1 Like
Are you wanting a super charger or leave it as a turbo and add more boost??
As far as your 3 choices, Honda all the way…
And trust me when I say, CarTalk is not a good or friendly (most of the time) place to ask for help for a hopped up anything, it is 99.98% about all stock, very few of us even like hot rods… lol
Well s***, the tuner doesn’t even know lol. 99.99% now.
But yes the R18 single turbo has horrible heat soak, and I either want double turbo or supercharged and turbo to help with the spooling and to add just a bit more juice as long as it doesn’t endanger the engine or transmission.
I guess my last thing before we wrap it up is, I tuned an eco motor and later down the road after 10 years it had misfires no cel, after money time down the drain still don’t know. Probably valve stuck or gasket leaks when cold. (It’s fixed if in gear)
But say I get this 2019 type R, get compatible supercharger for the engine and tune it, is there strong possibility of I’ll end up with same/similar mysterious problems? Like only tuners can solve, Or just random hiccups. Or is it once I get K series vs R18 eco motor I’ll be fine?
Just my 2 cents. a 2019 type R is going to be in the 30k price range. The one above for 16k has to have problems with it.
Relooked it up, picture of its backend and next picture front end damage lol. I decided to try to look up average pricing on eBay real quick to compare and got trolled.
But as long as I can modify without the headache of unknown problems, I’m all for it, money won’t exist when I’m gone 
You are just going to have to slow down and do some major homework, buy some books on some of the build(s) you want to do like from S-A Design (probably nothing on the R18) and maybe others, they have some great info on the D/B and K engines and swaps… Talk to guys that have built them and still own them, join a club and online forums, be careful though, a lot of bad info so you got to do your homework… I know the K24’s are making some great power, you can even buy some high end CNC machined Billet blocks from Noonan for about $8500.00, but you can probably (just guessing here) throw 70+ psi of boost at it all day long, haven’t seen those spec yet but their Procharged Hemi’s are putting down around 4,000 HP in ProMods…
And BTW, there are a lot of Fox body and SN95’s out there in great shape with a very reliable LS swapped in them as daily drivers throwing down 1200-1500 that can be driven anywhere… And probably cheaper to build then what you are after… lol… or get you a late model 5.0 Mustang or Scat Pack or even a WRX STI…