Project Civic – importnut.net

Project Civic – 2016 Refresh, Part 2

importnut — Sat, 29 Apr 2017 23:00:08 +0000

I had originally intended this story to be covered in one post. However, I ran into several issues that needed to be resolved from the original work along with a few more issues that reared their ugly heads. There was enough content to justify a separate post. On with the story:

It’s never a good sign to see a handful of gear heads carefully looking under the hood during an event!

One last thing that wasn’t finished before the first race was my door cards. Out of all the work completed, it was the thing I didn’t need to go racing.

The red suede door cards were looking rather ratty. I freshened them with black jersey material.

Breather Problems

The first issue that reared its ugly head involved my new catch can setup. If you recall from Part 1, I installed an engine block breather kit that vented through ports in the back of the block. I liked the idea of using the rear ports in the block to keep the installation clean and save myself from having to modify the valve cover. The installation went smoothly. Sadly, at my first event, I discovered that this configuration was not going to work.

If you look closely, there is quite a bit of oil around the catch can. During each autocross run, oil was being siphoned out of the engine. I lost nearly 2 quarts of oil in 8 runs. I’m glad I have the high-capacity oil pan…

What happened? If you look at the location of the rear block ports, you’ll notice that they bolt into the channels where the oil returns from the head down to the block. Under most driving situations, the oil flows on the inside of that path. During autocross runs, that oil has a chance to pass over the openings where the vent lines are attached. Considering the constant pulsing of air that this area experiences, oil was being pulled into the hoses. Add to that the fact that I mounted the can low in the engine bay, the oil had a one way path out of the engine. Now what?

Since I was unwilling to go back to OEM venting, I had to modify the valve cover. this location makes the most sense especially since there is a baffle in that part of the cover. Between the baffle and the fact that there is no steady stream of oil in the area, I knew this would be the solution.

After ordering additional fittings, I met up with a local guy who would weld the fittings to the valve cover. I was really pleased with the Mad Max look so I skipped refinishing the cover. With the modified cover in place, I moved the can to the firewall. I had to notch the battery tray a little but otherwise, it fit in that tight spot well. To simplify the mounting, I used rivet nuts. The first autocross after the modification proved that this worked well.

Transmission Seal Problems

Feeling confident that my breather issue was resolved, I headed out to Gingerman Raceway. I finished all of my runs and the car ran great! I drove home, parked the car and called it a night. The next morning I went out to my garage and noticed oil under the car. Oh no! I opened the hood and saw quite a bit of oil around the passenger side…just under the catch can! I wiped the oil and it was purple. Since I use Royal Purple manual transmission fluid, the source was obvious. After a little digging, I discovered the source of the leak as the passenger side transmission seal. Other than the oil slick that covered the entire bottom of the car, the repair was straight forward.

Once I replaced the seal and topped off the case with fresh transmission fluid, I raised the car on jack stands and degreased the entire bottom of the car. That was fun…

A test drive confirmed that the new seal was working.

Block plug problems

The day after I replaced the transmission seal and degreased the entire bottom of the car, I ran an autocross. Earlier in the day, the work on the transmission seal proved to be a success. After several runs, between two drivers, I headed out for my last run of the day. Roughly 3/4’s of the way through the run, I heard something bounce out of the car, lost control for a moment, and noticed that something wasn’t right. I finished the run and as I came to a stop, the car was engulfed in smoke. I pulled off course and jumped out of the car. The heavy smoke cleared quickly and after a quick inspection, realized there was no fire. In the back of my mind, I knew exactly what it was.

The block plug.

Once I open the hood, I looked towards the back of the engine and saw oil. At first I though the transmission seal catastrophically failed, which makes no sense since that area is under no pressure. Looking back a little further, my suspicion was confirmed when I saw the gaping, oily hole in the back of the block. The plug popped out.

I will have to say that I was grateful that I bought a bare aluminum plug. I could actually see it glinting in the sun from across the course. Other than few dings, it was relatively unscathed. I slipped the plug back into the block and cleaned the giant oil slick as well as I could with rags and brake cleaner. I was not looking forward to another round of degreasing the entire underside of the car.

I have to be honest and say that I was always skeptical of the fact the plug was not held in place. There are options of the plug that include a fitting to drain back oil and include a small bracket. With my suspicions confirmed, I came up with a plan to hold the plug securely in place. I realized that I wouldn’t need a significant bracket considering the fact that the block is not under pressure especially considering the large vent holes in the valve cover. I also decided that I did not want to bolt a bracket to both the block and plug to avoid sealing issues as a result of changing temperatures.

For my solution, I drilled and tapped the plug. I threaded a bolt into the plug and cut the bolt head. I then used a heavy rubber pad that slipped over the stud. Next, I used bar stock from a hardware store that I bent into a “Z” shape and drilled bolt holes. After painting the mild steel bracket, I slipped one end over the block plug’s new stud and bolted the other end to the block. As added insurance, before installing the plug, I added high temp sealer.

The stud and rubber pad on the plug side of my bracket was intended to allow for expansion and contraction of materials, especially between the steel bracket and plug. The stud would ensure that the bracket would not slip off in the event the bolt holding it in place ever loosened unexpectedly. Was all of this overkill? Yeah, I think so. I really didn’t want to have to degrease the bottom of the car again!

Misfire Problems.

Early in the season, the Civic started randomly misfiring. The distributor was an original unit which was now over 20 years old. I picked up a replacement distributor from Rock Auto along with a set of NGK plug wires and Denso plugs. I bought the plugs recommended in the service manual. The Denso plugs were half the cost of the NGK plugs, which were already half the cost of buying the same plugs through Hondapartsunlimited.com. A full set was $10. After installing the fresh ignition, the Civic ran smoothly.

Axles Problems

When I replaced the outer CV boots, earlier in the year, I was concerned that hammering the CV joint to remove it would have negative results. A few short months after the work was complete, I could hear the dreaded CV joint clicking sounds while cornering. Oh well. Drive Shaft Shop no longer makes a Race spec axle. They offer a base axle that is a considerably better option than buying re-manufactured axles. The next level axle was designed to handle nearly 300 horsepower at a considerably higher price. I called Drive Shaft Shop and they explained that any axle can receive their “Road Race” treatment. All internal components are micro-polished before assembly. Higher temp grease is also used along with vents for the boots. I chose their base axles with the Road Race upgrade.

Although they are nothing glamorous, a good pair of axles is critical to long life and reliability.

Installation is straightforward and I was back in business.

Clutch line problems

This season….seriously…

The day before an event, I took the Civic out for some spirited driving. Shortly after, I noticed that the clutch pedal wouldn’t return or just generally felt, “off”. A quick inspection revealed that a strange goiter on the rubber clutch line had finally ruptured. I will have to say, embarrassed as I was, that the goiter had been there for a couple of years. I should have changed this years ago. Old car problems….

I found a braided stainless steel hose through Goodridge. I was surprised to discover that there were not that many options for this part beyond OEM. Surprisingly, it was only listed as an Acura part even though the stock Civic transmission uses the same hose. Regardless, problem solved.

Computer Freshening

I’m happy to say that by this point in the season, work performed on the Civic was voluntary. I had been eyeing capacitor refresh kits for the ECU for the past few years. I picked up a kit from Xenocron Tuning. Their kit came with all of the capacitor needed to replace the more than 20 year old original pieces. They did an excellent job of labeling all of the capacitors making it even easier to perform the work.

Replacing capacitors is a great way to refresh old electronics. Although I had no issues prior to this work, I had piece of mind that I would not experience capacitor failures.

On to more mundane things…

Wiper Sprays

I take pride in maintaining a certain level of civility in my Civic. The AC is still there and works along with the ABS, power steering and cruise control. Functioning wiper sprays are just as important! After my front wiper pump failed, I decided to refresh nearly every part. I picked up a used pump and then purchased hose, brackets and fittings from Honda to wrap up my wiper spray restoration.

Although there is nothing exotic about wiper sprays, having fresh clips and hoses ensures that everything works and stays where it belongs!

Last but not least…

Rock Auto sells this liner for less than $10. It is not a perfect match to the OEM unit. I had torn mine apart years ago by clobbering a cone at an autocross. Another mundane part that helps keep rocks and other misc debris out of the door and surrounding crevasses.

Wrapping up my 2016 refresh:

I like stickers as much as the next guy. I keep mine under the hood so as to avoid unwanted attention.

After a long night of track fun at Autobahn Country Club, I swapped tires for an autocross the next morning.

2016 Recap

Downside:

I wildly blew my budget for the year. Between scope creep in the early part of the project and the corrections and repairs that followed, I spent considerably more money than I had intended. Was it all worth the investment? No, not all of it. Looking at the list of parts I installed, there were definitely things I could have skipped and saved the money for another project. Parts like the oil pan. The pan itself did not resolve oil starvation issues. I still had to keep the oil level at the top mark or higher to prevent starvation at track events. Had I simply used the valve cover to properly vent my block, I would not have replaced the intake manifold gasket, studs and other misc parts. All with additional cost. Changing the valve seals did not resolve my oil burning issues during deceleration. The cost of the tools, seals and misc gaskets added up to no value.

Upside:

I replaced many worn out parts. I replaced several seals, boots, gaskets, and hoses. I also replace several considerably worn out bushings. Once corrected, my new crankcase breather ensures that I stop sucking oil into the wrong part of the engine as well as eliminate the chronic breather can leak from which older Hondas suffer. Although none of the work would make the car faster, I know it will keep going for years to come.

Read about the continuing adventure in the next installment of Project Civic!

Project Civic – 2016 Refresh, Part 1

importnut — Mon, 05 Dec 2016 00:00:17 +0000

During the 2015 autocross season, I started to see the impact that 22 years of use had on random components on the Civic. As the season wore on, I found more maintenance items and knew I had to devise a plan to tackle every one of them before the 2016 season started. The final straw was a throttle cable failure during the last event of the year. I addressed that issue last fall but the rest still had to be resolved.

So…what did the Civic need? While swapping tires for events, I noticed that one of the steering rack bellows was torn and wide open. That was the first item on the list…the first of many. Knowing that the rack would have to be removed to replace the bellows, I decided to replace my crumbling, 12 year old poly bushings.

Moving along…

Proper Venting

A few seasons ago, I installed a creatively engineered catch can that involved a lot of vacuum tubing, a used MTF container. I cut the check ball out of the PCV and plugged the nipple on the intake manifold. The “hack” worked and I stopped sucking oil into the intake manifold that was sloshing into the breather canister on the back of block during very hard right hand turns. This had always intended to be a temporary fix and I decided that the permanent solution would be part of my maintenance work. With that in mind, I knew that accessing the block ports would greatly be simplified if I removed the intake manifold. Since I would be removing the manifold, I decided to install a thermal barrier gasket. I had used one in the past and wanted another. What I remembered from my past experience was that the original studs were not long enough for the nuts to be fully engaged. I found extended studs and added them to the list.

Over the past two seasons, I started to see that I was blowing smoke when decelerating from higher rpms. My 20+ year old valve seals were losing their edge. I didn’t feel the need for a full valve job and elected to replace the valve seals with the head still attached to the engine. A friend of mine found a great tool designed to make quick work of the job.

Better Pan

One other problem I was experiencing was oil starvation during hard right hand turns. Sadly, I do not have an oil pressure gauge to prove my experience, however noticing that VTEC was dropping during those turns was enough for me to realize that I was losing pressure. In order to avoid the issue, I had to overfill by at least a half quart of oil. I ordered a Moroso 5.5 qt. pan which includes trap doors and baffles for better oil control. When I dropped the original pan, I discovered that my oil pick-up was dented. I’ll get into more detail shortly.

In The Back

Moving to the back of the car, I found that rubber in my adjustable camber links had dry rotted and needed to be replaced. They were ten years old and served their purpose. While I was working back there, I decided to replace my original compensator arms (toe links) as well as replace the poly urethane pivot bushing and lower control arm bushings. More on that shortly.

My lengthy intro aside, here is the short list of all the work I completed.

Valve seals
Intake manifold studs and thermal gasket
Injector o-rings and seals
Catch can crank case venting
Radiator and hoses
Oil pan and Oil pick-up
Steering rack bellows and bushings
Rear lower control arm bushings, Camber link, compensator link and pivot bushings
Front brake pads, calipers and rotors
CV boots
All associated gaskets and seals
Gas pedal stop
Door card fabric

The Work

Starting on the rear suspension, I worked my way through removing most of the bolts with no issues. Years of maintaining the car, and liberal use of anti-seize, have prevented the bolts from rusting in place. Unfortunately, the inner compensator arm bolts had never been removed and required the use of a cutoff wheel. Once everything was removed, it was time to install the new bushings and arms.

Once I pressed all of the original bushings, it was time to install the new Hardrace components. Shortly after, the arms were reinstalled.

When using rubber bushings, it is imperative that bolts are torqued with the suspension at ride height. Nearly every bolt is accessible except for the outer upper control arm. Taking advantage of my extended lugs, and flipping my steel wheels, I was able to reach every bolt.

I refreshed the steering rack with new bellows and Hardrace bushings

For the engine block breather kit, I decided to go with a kit from B&R fittings. They were willing to assemble a “back of block” kit that didn’t include hardware to drain back to the pan. I was going to mount the can low and wouldn’t need the additional hardware. My though process for using the back of the block was that I could vent the block without having to modify my valve cover. With no fabrication required, the installation was relatively easy.

To gain better access to the rear block ports, I removed the intake manifold. Once the manifold was removed, I pulled the plugs,installed the adapters and installed the breather plug. I attached the fittings to the catch can hoses and ran them to the front where I mounted the catch can.

In order to completely eliminate the original breather, I pulled the vacuum port out of the intake, drill and tapped the hole and then plugged it. I did the same to the valve cover. I also plugged the port just over the original canister.

While I had the intake manifold off, I decided to add a Hondata thermal gasket, Blox studs, calibrate my TPS and install new injector hardware to freshen the 20+ year old o-rings and seals. I also removed the IACV and flushed it thoroughly with brake cleaner; Also reinstalled with a fresh gasket.

My Fluidyne radiator was almost 16 years old and was starting to leak. To replace it, I bought a Skunk 2 radiator. I also picked up new OEM radiator bushings. I also had to order new hoses and elected to use HPS’s silicon hoses. I thought the red hoses were a nice touch!

In hopes of cleaning up an oil burning issue during deceleration, I replaced the valve seals. I picked up a tool from EuroExport to help me with the springs and a compression testing hose to pressurize the cylinders. Once that was completed, I adjusted the valve lash, installed fresh gaskets and new plugs.

In hopes of ironing out an oil starvation issue while driving on a track, I bought a Moroso high capacity oil pan. While I was replacing the pan, I noticed that the original pickup has dented. I bought a new OEM pickup and installed everything with new gaskets.

While I was digging through the car, I noticed that the CV boots had deep cracks. Although they were not leaking, it wasn’t going to be long. Rather than replace my good working Drive Shaft Shop Race axles, I ordered new boots and installed them.

The front brakes were refreshed with new rotors, pads and calipers. This is the poor man ITR brake setup utilizing Mini rotors and the Type R caliper. The rotors and calipers are from Rock Auto and the pads are Carbotech XP10’s.

Once everything was installed and tested, I headed over to a friend’s shop and had it aligned. One thing to note is that I went through and replaced several bolts in the suspension to ensure everything would continue to be easily serviceable.

Here it is, the night before the first autocross of the season. Another minor detail was modifying the air intake to try and push it away from the radiator. I bought a 45 degree aluminum elbow from Summit Racing and managed to get the filter right where I wanted it. Before I turned in for the night, I went over all of the work one last time. Next step…off to the races!

Prior to the first race, I also needed to wrap up my throttle cable replacement. The last step involved creating a proper pedal stop to prevent the cable’s rubber damper form being damaged. You can read about the work here.

At this point, the first part of the refresh project was completed. The project stepped well beyond the original scope at this point. For the most part, on a car this old, I didn’t mind having to order more parts to ensure future reliability. Parts like the oil pick-up, CV boots, fresh brakes, radiator hoses as well as several ancillary “nuts and bolts”. I had hoped that the work and expenses would drop off as I worked my way through the season. Alas, the Civic had other plans. Read about the continuing adventure in the next installment of Project Civic!

Project Civic – Suspension Upgrade and More

importnut — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 23:00:26 +0000

(This write-up was originally written and published in 2006)

After a long weekend at Putnam Park Raceway in Indiana, I realized that my hatch needed a far more aggressive suspension. As great as it was on the street, it was severely lacking on the track. For the 2006 season, I planned for a massive suspension overhaul. While I was selecting parts for the suspension upgrade, I also included extra bracing and tackled a few maintenance items.

For starters, I was never happy with my Ingalls camber kit and knew I needed something better. Omni-Power makes a kit that allows for adjustment at the ball joints rather than the inner mount. My alignment guy was much happier with the Omni-Power components. I also installed the adjustable upper link in the rear. (Update, Omni-Power is no longer in business. Skunk 2 along with other manufacturers, now make the same part.)

Having addressed camber adjustment, I needed to resolve the issue of the Eibach Pro-kit springs not holding up to track use. I turned to Ground Control for their coilover conversion. The Ground Control kit allows for nearly any aftermarket shock/strut to be used with minimal to no modification. I also elected to buy the optional spring hats which moves the shock shaft mounting point higher. The new hat helps maintain proper shock travel on lowered car.

I wrapped up the suspension upgrade with a new set of wheels and tires. Details below.

Later in the year, I installed a Walbro Fuel Pump, B&M adjustable fuel pressure regulator and an MSD external coil.

I thought the ground control setup made a nice mantle piece decoration, but my wife didn’t think so…that and the fact that I really wanted to use them…moving along!

The complete list:

Omni Power front and rear camber kits
New hood release
New inner bushing mount for the front upper arm
ASR rear sub-frame brace
Fast Idle Control Valve
Ground Control Coil-over setup with 400 lb/in front springs and 450 lb/in rear springs
16″ Rota Slip Streams & 205 40 R16 Falken Azenis RT615
Password JDM front 3 point tie bar
Password JDM rear 2 point tie bar
Schroth Ralley 3 Harnesses
JDM front fenders and side markers

This picture represents nearly everything that went into the hatch during this upgrade.

I had ruined the front fenders the year before so I ordered a pair of new fenders from Password JDM with JDM side markers. Why not?

Front Omni Power Upper Control arm with adjustable camber at the ball joint. A significant improvement over the Ingalls camber kit.

Rear Omni Power adjustable camber link.

Along with the springs and camber kit, I installed an ASR rear lower arm brace/sway-bar mount. This area of the uni-body is very flimsy and needs the extra support.

I also upgraded my springs to Ground Control’s coil-over springs. I utilized 400 lb/in springs in the front and 450 lb/in springs in the rear. I used all front length springs in case I wanted to swap the springs from front to back.

Password JDM 3 point front strut tower brace.

Password JDM 2 point rear brace. The impact of this bar is questionable, but it was fairly inexpensive.

No project is complete without a few seriously lowered pictures for the fun of it!

Finally, all of the new parts are installed and the ride height has been set.

The handling of my hatch was truly amazing! Between the LSD and the tighter suspension, I was able to drastically improve my lap times! Body roll was minimal compared to the milder suspension that I had replaced. A two day driving event at Gingerman Raceway was the perfect proving ground for all of the new equipment and it did not disappoint!

I attended a HPDE event at Gingerman Raceway hosted by the Audi Club.

Beyond the suspension upgrade, I added Schroth Rallye 3 harnesses. Read more about them here.

Racing harnesses do not have much to do with the suspension, but they make one of the most important upgrades. By utilizing the rear seat belts upper mount, the harness works at the proper angle for maximum safety.

As I mentioned in the intro, I later installed an MSD external coil conversion, a Walbro fuel pump and B&M adjustable fuel pressure regulator. I was trying to address a strand high rpm misfire. I will discuss the outcome in the next installment of Project Civic.

Project Civic – Back On Course

importnut — Fri, 29 Apr 2016 22:00:45 +0000

Race, Race Race!

This was the year that I really came back to autocrossing. After I destroyed my Civic coupe in late 2002, I hadn’t felt comfortable racing. I attended one event in 2003 and never even tried in 2004. With the work that I had completed, I needed to get the car to the track!

When spring rolled around in 2005, I had a fresh set of Bridgstone SO3’s mounted and installed a new set of Powerslot rotors and Porterfield RS4 brake pads, I headed to Putnam Park Raceway for a weekend with NASA’s HPDE program. I had never been on a track before and couldn’t wait to try out the Civic! By the end of the long weekend, I was completely exhausted having maxed out on fun and educated myself with the understanding of what makes a fast car. Handling!!

After that weekend, I went to nearly all of the local autocross events and dominated Street Modified in the North West Indiana region SCCA and came in 2nd overall in the South Bend Region.

I was thrilled to come back to the sport and reap the benefits of all the hard work I had done to the Civic.

Fresh brakes and tires.

Drive Shaft Shop Race Axles. Designed to handle the heat generated during road racing.

Tearing it up at a local autocross!

Freshly bathed!

Hanging out in the paddock waiting for my turn on the track.

Lined up and ready to go!

After a successful return to autocrossing and my first track event, I started planning an aggressive suspension upgrade for the 2006 season. Check back for my next installment of Project Civic for details.

Click Here to read more about Project Civic

Project Civic – Sway bar Upgrade and Bushings

importnut — Wed, 11 Nov 2015 23:00:37 +0000

After I installed the upgraded power plant, covered here, it was time to sort out the suspension. Since the Civic already had upgraded springs and shocks, I decided to focus on bushings and sway bars.

The Civic Si was equipped with a front sway bar but no rear. With the existing suspension, I needed something to help with the excessive body roll. I didn’t want a huge 21mm rear bar like the ITR. Eibach offers a kit that seems to fit what I was looking for. The stock front bar is 20 mm and the Integra’s rear sway bar (if I were to chose an OEM solution) is 14 mm. Eibach’s kit includes a 26mm front bar and a 17mm rear bar. Since I did not have a stock rear sway bar, I needed to pick up the hardware necessary for the installation. In this case, I needed new rear lower control arms, sway bar mounts and end link hardware.

Eibach’s Integra/Civic sway bar kit plus the additional OEM hardware necessary to install the rear bar.

The installation is tedious, but something that can be accomplished within a few hours. I cover the details of the installation in this write-up.

Before I could install the rear bar, I needed to replace the rear control arms. This was an excellent opportunity for me to finish swapping out the rear bushings. I also ordered energy Suspension’s rear trailing arm bushings since they were not included with the full set. With all of the bushings replaced, that can be replaced, and the rear sway bar installed, the rear suspension was finally up to my expectations.

The new control arms, with sway bar mounts, are loaded with new bushings and ready for installation.

The rear trailing arm bushings are not part of the Energy Suspension package. I had to buy it separately.

Rear sway bar installed with OEM mounts.

Engine Mounts

Even with my homemade poly urethane torque mounts, I was still experiencing excessive engine movement. My homemade engine mounts were doing well but I wanted to try Energy Suspension’s torque mount set. The low cost of the set makes it worth trying even if I didn’t like them. I decided to reuse one of my home made torque mounts along with one ES torque mount and rear engine mount bushings. The feel of stiffening all three mounts is excellent! Take off is much smoother. The only disadvantage is a fair amount of rattling in the interior at lower rpms. Leaving out the rear torque mount will still give you a substantial advantage but without the excessive interior rattles.

Although my window weld home made engine mounts worked out well, I wanted to try out Energy Suspension’s option. The cost is only a few more dollars than the home made version.

The new bushing and sway bars made an excellent addition to my Civic. In my opinion, the ride quality improved with the poly urethane bushings. Sharp bumps can be a bit harsh but for the most part, the improved control of the suspension arms made typical road imperfections much smoother. Since sway bars are only evident during cornering, there is no impact to ride quality. The sway bars really made a difference during autocrossing! The reduced body roll helped maintain the front contact patches which in turn allows my Quaife to work more effectively.

In my next installment of Project Civic, I will share my experiences with the upgraded suspension and extra power from the built engine.

Read all about Project Civic Here

Project Civic – Hot Rod Engine Build

importnut — Tue, 19 May 2015 22:00:17 +0000

This story starts out with a little garage mishap by a close friend of mine. As with most projects, one thing leads to another and a fully built engine emerges…or at least, in this case it does! This write-up discusses my thoughts, research, parts sourcing, and final production of my Civic’s hot rod engine.

The entire project started out when the distributor was installed incorrectly causing the camshaft to bind, the timing belt to slip and every intake valve to be bent. At the time, I felt it would be easier to remove the entire engine than it would be to remove the head on it’s own. With that in mind, why not rebuild the bottom end with fresh bearings, and piston rings? Then the process goes to “why not pick up some mild cams, a set of JDM ITR pistons and a Hondata?”

Good idea. I called up Tom Payn at Payn Technologies and started to talk about what I wanted to do and how I wanted to go about doing it. Very quickly, Tom talked me out of using OEM pieces. With the idea of useful power in mind, we set out to make my B18C1 a real autocross monster.

During the first call, we decided to go with a set of Wiesco forged pistons, Eagle forged H-beam rods, Comp Cams state two cams, RC Engineering’s 370cc injectors, Hondata S200 ECU, Hondata thermal intake manifold gasket. Rather than perform a simple valve job, Tom also sold me on having the bowl portion of the ports reworked. He preferred thoughtful bowl reshaping to a full port and polish. More power came from opening up the bowls!

Very quickly, I sent Payn the cylinder head. While waiting for a set of pistons, Tom talked me into a few more details. First, his attention to detail regarding bearing and other clearances sold me on the idea of sending him my block and rotating assembly in order to have his shop do the assembly on the short block. An engine that can spin up to 9000 rpms needs to built well! Along with that, we decided on balancing the crank, add a new oil pump and a Mugen oil pan. One of the final details include the ceramic coating on the pistons.

After several weeks, the assembled short block and reworked head arrived on a neatly packed pallet. Within a few days, I had the engine completely assembled and dropped back into the engine bay. It quickly and uneventfully fired up. Once I ran it casually for about a thousand miles, it was time to head up to Payn’s shop and have the ECU tuned. The base tune seemed considerably rich after 5000 rpms. Fortunately, the tune was adequate at lower rpms to allow for proper break-in. Once I drained the break-in oil and refilled with Mobil1, I headed out to Payn’s shop.

We discovered that my suspicions of a rich tune were confirmed. The base tune went wildly rich after 5000 rpms. The peak whp was 145, but at 4800 rpms. After ten or so runs, on a Mustang dyno, the engine peaked out at 197 whp at 8250 rpms and 133 ft-lbs of torque at 7500 rpms and the engine tops out at 9200 rpms.

For its time, the engine was a beast. Under the hood, it looked stock. For daily driving, it felt like a normal B18C1. It made nice smooth torque that would pull without having to downshift. Working with Tom, we designed and built an engine that would function comfortably as a daily driver and handle track duty without breaking a sweat.

After finishing the engine installation, I realized that my half shafts needed to be replaced. I installed Drive Shaft Shop’s stage I axles. They are rated for horsepower up to 225 whp. This should be more than enough for my new power plant.

Drive Shaft Shop Stage 1 half shafts. Using brand new parts and improved to handle more power, they are worth the extra cost.

Check out a few of the project build pics below along with a few dyno pull videos. The next installment will cover the suspension work completed after the engine was built and tuned.

Read all about Project Civic Here

Project Civic – Swap-O-Rama

importnut — Wed, 22 Apr 2015 22:00:59 +0000

This installment of Project Civic covers the major upgrades that came after the initial clean-up, general repairs and minor upgrades I discussed in the project introduction. For the most part, this car became the continuation of the work I had planned for my coupe. The engine swap and brake upgrade were carried over from the coupe allowing me to essentially start where I left off on the last car. Swapping the dashboard, steering wheel and steering rack were in the works prior to the accident. I even had some of the parts on hand.

Although the engine from my coupe was damaged, internally it made it through the accident with no issues. I elected to removed the head and have a machine shop inspect and clean it for peace of mind.

This is the mess that came out of my coupe. As bad as it looks, it didn’t take much to get it back together.

As I dismantled the engine, I took inventory of the damaged parts and decided what needed to be replaced or what could be repaired. The valve cover and some of the valvetrain components were scrap along with the intake manifold. The wiring harness was damaged but repairable. The mounting point on the transmission, for the rear engine/transmission mount, was destroyed.

With most of the damaged parts removed, it’s easy to see the bulk of the engine is sound. Somehow, the engine was off before the final impact. Note the leftover parts of the intake manifold and the broken transmission case!

Taking inventory of damaged parts and reusable parts. I had sent the cylinder head to a machine shop to have it cleaned to ensure all of the chunks of metal were removed.

A close friend of mine had the valvetrain components I needed to get the head back in working order. I ended up buying a brand new case half to fix the transmission. The only other part I needed was a complete intake manifold which I bought through a used Honda parts shop.

Once everything was apart, I took the transmission to a local shop to have it rebuilt with the new case half. The cylinder head was inspected and cleaned by a local machine shop. Once the head was given a clean bill of health, I started reassembling the engine.

The head was thoroughly cleaned and decked.

While the transmission was off being rebuilt, I started fitting new parts.

As the parts started rolling in, I assembled the engine. Slowly, it started to resemble a complete working engine! I also decided that I had had enough with ACT’s clutch. The Extreme pressure plate and heavy duty disk were too much especially on a stock engine. I decided to give the Clutchmasters Stage 1 clutch a try. Click here for my thoughts on clutches.

A Clutchmasters Stage 1 Clutch installed…waiting for the transmission.

At this point, all I needed to do was repair and install the wiring harness and wait patiently for the transmission.

While I was sourcing parts to reassemble the engine, I also included a few additional projects that could be completed at the same time. I chose to swap out the steering rack and brake MC since they were going to be significantly easier to accomplish with the engine out of the way. Why would I want to swap out the rack? The stock Civic Si steering rack is a powered unit with a mediocre steering ratio. The rack from a 3rd gen Integra is a much faster and well worth the effort.

Click here for the steering rack swap write-up.

I had always wanted to swap the Integra rack into my coupe. While gathering parts for the hatchback, I decided to commit to the steering rack swap.

The brake master cylinder swap is another inexpensive and worthwhile upgrade. I had the 1″ Integra master cylinder in my coupe and knew how much it improved brake feel. I ordered another booster and master cylinder along with the steering rack. The installation is straight forward especially if you have an ABS equipped Civic.

Click here for the brake master cylinder swap write-up.

Once the steering rack and brake booster were installed, it was time to drop in my B18C1. My transmission was built, picked up and bolted to the engine. Other than a few small issues, the installation went smoothly. I also picked up an Integra GSR AEM intake and modified it to fit in the Civic. Within a couple of days, I was back on the road!

Engine swap complete. I remember doing my first swap and thinking about how long it took. Once I had all of the parts together, this project was completed within a few days.

Sub Frame Dilemma

Shortly after I bough the Civic, I discovered a strange handling issue. It would pull hard in one direction while on the gas then jerk back off the gas. It wasn’t torque steer, but I couldn’t figure out what it was. The problem was rather unnerving. I took the time to install Energy Suspension’s bushing kit up front (the rears were installed later) Sadly, the bushings didn’t solve the problem.

To freshen the suspension, I ordered a full energy suspension poly urethane bushing kit.

I did discover that the bushings made a tremendous difference in road feel. I was expecting a harsh ride but instead, gained a more comfortable ride. Rather than experiencing a vibration, caused by the soft bushings, the components do their job quickly and efficiently with no negative effects.

Front control arm bushings installed.

One day, while doing some spirited driving, I was braking heavily heading down a bumpy hill. I heard a massive pop up front! My steering was completely erratic. Once I made it back home, I quickly discovered that my right front lower control arm mount, in the sub frame, was broken.

With a new sub frame and a fresh alignment, the Civic felt rock solid.

Steering Wheel Swap

Shortly before the engine swap I started the the steering wheel swap. It was a project I was preparing to do in my coupe. After I installed the Momo steering wheel in my 240SX, I knew I needed the same performance advantage in my Civic. Not only does the new wheel freshen the look of the interior, the lighter and smaller wheel provides much better feedback. The first part of the process was swapping the dash to a ’92-’93 dash that didn’t have a passenger side airbag.

Yanking the dash always looks like a bigger deal than it is.

Completed dash swap. The ’92 dash eliminates the hole left by the passenger side air bag.

The last step in the swap was modifying the wiring to retain the cruise control and horn functionality.

Many may believe the aftermarket steering wheel to be a cosmetic upgrade however the smaller size and drastically reduced weight greatly improves feedback.

Click here for the steering wheel swap write-up.

Recaro Seat

A friend of mine was selling his Recaro racing seat and I jumped on the opportunity. It had all of the necessary hardware to mount it in a Civic. After I did a couple of adjustments and acclimated to the shape of the seat, I was hooked! The extra support is phenomenal giving me the confidence that I never expected.

Since the EM Si wheels were used for snow tires, I needed another set for summer tires. The same friend selling the Recaro seat was selling a set of Rota Sub Zero wheels.

My first set of bronze wheels. 15″ Rota Sub Zeros. This started a long love affair with bronze wheels.

Within the span of a year, I was able find a replacement for my coupe, rebuild the engine that mostly survived the accident, perform the engine swap among many other projects. I recreated the my first car and made something even better. The next installment of Project Civic covers an engine mishap that lead to the hot rod engine build.

During a power outage, I thought I would try some night time photography.

Project Civic – Introduction

importnut — Mon, 16 Mar 2015 22:30:51 +0000

From The Beginning

Writing a project introduction roughly twelve years after starting the project can be challenging. Recounting all of the details is dependent on how well I documented my work. Back then, documenting my projects came down to sets of pictures and possibly a few thoughts. On that note, the story…

I’ve been a Honda guy for as long as I can remember. I remember playing in the hatch of my mom’s ’79 Honda Accord when it was new. It was no surprise that my first car would be a Honda and my loyalty to the brand has been fairly consistent. The story of my Honda Civic hatchback starts shortly after a rather significant accident in the fall of 2002 when I totaled my ’95 Civic coupe. I had owned the coupe since it was new in ’95 and put a lot of money and effort into it. After the accident, I pulled the engine, which was one of the only salvageable parts from the entire car, sat back and wondered what I was going to do. Winter was right around the corner and I had no intention of driving my then freshly painted 240SX. I had considered a few options but in the end, I wanted to stick with the 5th generation Civic. I knew a great deal about it and I really wanted to do more with it.

What’s Next?

While looking for a replacement, I decided to go with a hatchback. It was a little lighter than the coupe and had a shorter wheelbase and overall length; all qualities that help with autocrossing! My coupe was ABS equipped and considering the fact that its replacement would be daily driven through winters, I wanted a hatchback with ABS as well. A few weeks later, I found a ’94 Civic Si hatchback that would suit my needs.

Here it is! One of the pictures from the ebay listing. A 1994 Civic Si hatch back with ABS. Aside from a set of KYB AGX Shocks, a set of Eibach Pro-kit springs and an Apexi World Sport exhaust, this Si was relatively stock.

I couldn’t honestly tell you if I was excited about the prospect of having a leather interior from an Integra or if I looked at it as an opportunity to sell them and put the money to better use.

First things first. Giving the newly acquired Civic a bath.

Aside from the gray over spray that covered the entire car, the only other cosmetic issue was the dry rotted door sills. The overall look of the car really improves with this simple replacement. While I was replacing the sills, I took the time to clean and wax all of the paint that is normally covered.

While doing a bit of shopping in a local junk yard, I managed to find a hatchback with a full interior in good shape. The donor still had all of its glass which protected the seats from the elements. For a whopping $90 I had a clean, matching set of seats.

Although the Civic looked great with no rust or damage, it was covered in gray over spray. After trying several different tricks, I ended up wet sanding the entire car and polishing it. It was a substantial effort but the end result was a great looking car.

The ’99 Si wheels I used for snow tires took care of the steel wheels that came with the car.

Wrapping up the work completed in 2002 was the installation of the B&M shifter I pulled from the coupe. Since the B&M shifter works on both the B and D series engines I threw it on while I was preparing my engine for the swap.

The stock D16Z6 isn’t a bad little engine but it isn’t going to be sticking around for long.

Read all about Project Civic Here