prjct92eh2

Well its Friday and I don't feel like doing anything at work, so i believe its time to start a build thread since the hatch is about 2 months from being back on the road hopefully. I'll try and update this thread daily until i get up to the current status of the car.

I'll start with some history. When I turned 16 my mom handed me down her 94 Accord LX Sedan. Doing as any teenager usually does, I started with the cheap stuff and built that car with bolt ons, minor suspension stuff and exterior only. I was happy with this until my freshman year of college when I wanted to go more into the performance side of things. The main problem here being the Accord was an automatic. This is the accord right before I got rid of it.


So in 2004 I started looking for hatches. I found one on a used car lot for a decent price and picked it up. Here it is the day i got it. My Milano Red 92 Civic CX 5 speed with black vinyl interior, A/C and 124k miles.




I then sold the Accord and put some cash from that towards suspension and wheels for the new hatch. Picked up Omni Power sport coilovers (12k front, 10k rear spring rates) and Rota Group-N's (please spare this thread any Rota debating). And of course once you have a decent suspension you have to hit the mountains


Luckily the only harm done was a AAA membership, heat shield rattle and scuff on the front bumper from a reflector pole. This is one of many lessons learned with in the saga of this build.

Shortly later, I had the windows tinted because summer+black vinyl interior=burned legs. Then I got an OEM si/ex lip. I also got spoon stlye mirros because my passenger side broke.This was about 2005 i think.



The car stayed like this for a while since i was in college and broke as hell. It was also my DD at the time.

Next installment: the post college years.

haveaniceday

Next installment please.

92teginsc

ummm? dude! wheres the rest of it? put down the beer and quit being lazy!

r_Senik

Decatur is greater...

mono6

nice eg...

THE GUY

Ok sir, I KNOW you have way more to post of this car. Come on now Jimmy, bring them up to speed on the almost other build and the current state.

92teginsc

hes in love right now jon.

CDecker0218

GL wih the build

Black R

Subscribing jimbo.

maxwellmercer

veryyyy clean.

prjct92eh2

haha, its been a busy weekend. Time for the next chapter: post-college.

So I graduated spring 2007 and moved from Atlanta to Greenville, SC to join the real world. I did the common "now that i'm making money, time to get a car I may or not be able to afford." Bought a CPO 04 Acura TSX 6 speed. Like any good hatch owner, hatch goes in the garage and TSX gets parked in the parking lot.


Long story short, nothing really got done to the car for the next year. I paid off bills and moved into a house. This moved into the house in March 2008. Later that year my roommate moved out, and while i could afford the TSX, i didn't have any spare cash to build the hatch like i wanted to. In December of 2008 I bought a white 92 vx hatch shell that had some extra goodies on it. The intention was to sell the TSX, daily the read hatch and build the white hatch. But the more I thought about it the red one was in better condition externally and internally. I didn't want to ruin it driving it daily. I decided to put the almighty D15b8 from the red hatch into the white one before I sold to TSX to make sure it was in goos shape for daily driving. Before I pulled the engine I put the following from the white hatch onto the red one: black cloth Integra front seats, JDM SiR cluster, carbon hood, carbon duckbill, Vision smoked amber corners and ITR front strut tower bar.



I rocked the car like that for a couple months and then swapped the engine over a put the red hatch up on jack stands to prepare for the big build. Also sold the TSX (for a huge loss, damn economy )



Alright, so now that the back story is out of the way, we can get to the good stuff. Now that the hatch is just a rolling shell, here is the rough outline of goals for the build (back then at least):
1)Swap the brakes out: drum to disk in the back and bigger disks in the front. Upgraded master cylinder and 40/40 prop valve to boot.
2) Stock GSR swap. This fits my budget the best and will suffice considering i've never driven or owned a swapped Honda before. (spoiler alert: this changes a good bit)
3) Paint the engine bay. The outside of the car was painted by the used car lot before i bought it (except for hatch and roof). Its not the best job, but its definitely a brighter red than the bay. I like Milano red, and am not a big fan of bays a different color than the outside of the car, so i'll just be getting a fresh coat of Milano Red put on the bay. The itch is definitely there to drop an engine straight in, but now is the time to paint since the engine is out.
4) Tuck the wires and fuel lines in the bay. Don't really want to put the effort into shaving it, and want to leave the brake system easily accessible.

Basically i want it to be a well rounded car that i can track, but it still looks good, and I can beat the **** out of it.

Next installment: parts start arriving

_Justus

And then...???

prjct92eh2

lol, i started a new post and my roommate hit submit without it being done. Post updated above!

THE GUY

Damn it Jimmy you tell the build thread story like a tv series. haha I'll roll over later if you need a hand with it. Just hit me up.

prjct92eh2

Spoiler alert!
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Got to keep the audience on the edge of their seats! lol. yeah, i'd like to get the bottom end done this week. I'll be doing some tonight and maybe tomorrow, but if you're available Wednesday i'll be out there after work until bed time.

92teginsc

that garage was clean in that first pic. lol. now not so much.

96accordsir

iTrader: (1)

clean hatch and accord

xSteve_Ox

What percent tint is that?? Normally I don't care for window tint but that looks really good man.

prjct92eh2

Now for the fun part: parts!

I decided to tackle the brakes first. There is no point in going fast if you can't stop the damn car right? I was initially going to go with the tried and true Integra brakes all around....But that's no fun and entirely too....normal First i placed a nice order with Summit racing (btw, they have some of the best prices on the limited parts they carry for our cars and super quick shipping). This was quickly followed by parts hunting. Here's what I gathered at this point: Integra booster and 1" master cylinder, 40/40 prop valve, rear e-brake cables (which look like they were down with the titanic), Hawk HP Plus pads for the rear, stainless lines and speed bleeders.


A couple notes:
1) I had speed bleeders on the front brake swap I did on the Accord and from that point on I was hooked. These things make things MUCH easier and are only $10/pair. I even ended up with one for my clutch slave cylinder.
2) At first I couldn't decided between the bolt up 15/16" master cylinder from the 91 civic ex sedan or the Integra 1" that requires modifying some hard lines, but you will see why i went with the 1" in a minute.

A couple extras seen in the above picture:
1) Hard Race rear trailing arm bushings. My stock ones are shot and these are cheaper than OEM and since this isn't my daily i'm not concerned about the stiffer ride these tend to cause.
2) OEM A/C delete duct and firewall plug. I'm pulling the A/C since this isn't my daily and the system that was in the car was some aftermarket madness. If anybody wants this, they can have it for a case of Coors Light.
3) OEM Radio antenna block off. I don't listen to the radio and the car has an Alpine CD/MP3 player I put in when i first got it, so out it goes.
4) Scarebird rear disk conversion. Some of you may be asking wtf is that?! Well let me show you:

1) Go to ebay and search for the conversion brackets. If i remember correctly they run about $95 shipped and come with hardware and of course a sticker.
2) Remove your whole rear drum assembly. Sorry, didn't take pics of this until it was all off. First you take off the rear wheel bearing and if I remember correctly it is 4 bolts holding the assembly on. Undo the e-brake cable and brake line and off it comes. (if you need help with this PM me or refer to the Helms manual)
3) Put the bracket on and tighten 4 bolts and lock washers that came with kit. It should look like this


4) Put the wheel bearing back on


5) Put on disk and rear caliper


6) Run brake line and e-brake cable.

I went with this kit instead of swapping the whole trailing arm to avoid potentially buying a bent arm, seized bolt headaches and because the overall cost came out about the same.

Now those of you with good eyes may notice something strange with those rear calipers. *Pause for you to go back and look at pic again* Those are ITR rear calipers with non-ITR pads and disks. I ended up with these calipers due to a purchase gone horribly wrong (that's for another installment). They have larger pistons than regular Integra rear calipers, hence why I went with the 1" MC. BUT, I would not recommend this setup for one big reason: you have to grind them in about 4 separate places for them to clear the trailing arm, brake hose, and rotor hat with the smaller non-ITR rear disks. If I hadn't already bought my pads and rotors I would have sourced ITR pads, EP3 rotors and caliper brackets and had 10.3" rear brakes instead of the 9.4" Integra ones. This is still an option if i need more rear brake in the future, though.

In order to get the ITR calipers to work I did the aforementioned grinding and used regular Integra caliper brackets. Caliper brackets before = Titanic style


The e-brakes brackets were in the same shape and seized onto the cable. This prevents you from passing them through the trailing arm I had to cut them off and order new ones from Honda. I took the caliper brackets to work for some blasting. Mmmm, fresh metal.


One problem I did have was that the disk on the passenger side was rubbing the caliper bracket on the outside


This was easily solved with a couple washers between the Scarebird bracket and caliper bracket to space the caliper outwards. I did it on both sides for good measure. Whether this was due to my Frankenstein rear caliper setup or the Scarebird adapter I'm not sure.


So that's the rear brakes. On to the fronts. I was planning on swapping over front knuckles from an Integra and calling it a day....until I came across this: http://hondamarketplace.com/showthread.php?t=2569691

For those of you too lazy to click the link, it is a 11" S2000 front brake conversion for the stock front knuckle for civics with 9.5" front brakes (aka mine). At the time it was tax return and bonus time at work so I said f it and splurged on it. It's also nice that I once again didn't have to risk buying bent parts and messing with potentially seized suspension bolts since it bolts right up.

Went down to Atlanta and picked the kit up from Mike along with Hawk HP Plus pads to match the rears. Comparison disk size to stock


Mock up



In those pics you can somewhat see the vents on the inside of the rotors. This is the first rotors i've seen like this. Looks like it should help a good bit with cooling.

Clears the wheels. woot!


Cleaned up and painted everything with VHT caliper paint and threw it in the oven to bake on per VHT instructions


Ready to go!


While installing the front brakes I noticed my wheel bearing on the drivers side is shot. So that is some fun awaiting me before the car gets back on the road.

That's all for today! Next installment: engine debacle.

prjct92eh2

Thanks! It's 20% all around.

Thanks for the compliments and feedback guys! Keeps me inspired to get this pos back on the road.

Also, I apologize for the mixed quality of pictures. I didn't have a digital camera at the beginning of the build so I had to use my phone. I picked one up a couple months ago so pics should get better as the build progresses.

prjct92eh2

Next up: engine debacle.

I had planned on putting a stock swap in the car, and at the time my budget allowed for an ITR swap if I bought it from a private seller. Around March I found a really clean ITR swap (Brewer's old engine) in Alabama that was a good deal. Only problem was the seller was waiting for a local buyer to come up with money while I had cash in hand. Well while I was waiting I came across a built B20/VTEC in Charlotte for $500 less than the ITR swap being sold by username FerreiraCompetitions on here. While I really wasn't looking to buy a modified engine, it was too good of a deal to pass up. It was supposed to have the following:

Skunk2 cams in the engine, Toda C's extra
aftermarket valvetrain
Port and Polished GSR head
Block guard
forged pistons
MSD billet distributor
MSD ignition box and coil
ITR intake manifold extra
header
GSR tranny with LSD and ATS gears
ACT clutch
Hondata S200
a few other odds and ends

Me and _Justus went to get the engine, pulled the valve cover, nothing looked burnt up and seemed to be in good condition so i paid the seller and loaded it up.

Here is the night I got it home


All good right?

Well a couple nights later Jon (THE GUY) came over and looked closer at the Toda cam and found this




It's hard to see, but one lobe had a groove worn down the middle of it and another looked a little scarred. This prompted us to pull the head and make sure everything else was ok. This is what we found:








What I actually bought was a bone stock GSR head that looks like it ran without oil with B17 cams in it and a bone stock B20 block. Needless to say i was pretty pissed. We didn't even both opening the tranny, but could tell from the diff opening it didn't have a LSD. I called the seller that night (wednesday) and got no answer and e-mailed him the next day. Fast forward to Saturday and I still had heard nothing from him after leaving several voicemails. Jon and I decide to throw the head in the car and take a trip to Charlotte. Conveniently enough he is working on his car at home and we confront him about the condition of the engine. He passes blame saying he never ran the engine and it must have come that way from the guy he bought it from. I ask for a full refund and of course he has already spent my $2800 cash in a matter of 5 days. So I agree to keep the crap I have and take parts to make up the difference. We load up the car with a K20 6-speed tranny, DSS axles, ITR rear calipers, a B series tranny case, main and countershaft and some other odds and ends.

The intention here is to sell these parts to get my cash back. Well I either use the parts (as in the ITR calipers) or sell all the stuff except the K20 tranny within 2 months. I FINALLY find a buyer for the tranny. One of the local guys that does a lot of K-series work says he'll buy it after he checks it out and it looks good. Well low and behold, look what a gem this K20 tranny is





Magnet full of shavings, synchros and gears chewed up, etc. Not even close to the "mint condition" he said it was. I confront him about this problem and he basically says he "isn't Wal-Mart where you can return stuff after 2 months" and he doesn't know what i could have done to it. At this point I sick of dealing with the scum of the human race and write it off as a very hard lesson learned.

At some point during this BS we took the case off the GSR tranny and of course it is bone stock on the inside (but looks to be in good shape)



Sooo, there are SOME parts that I salvaged out of this mess:
Toda cam gears


The header had header wrap on it when i bought the engine, and to my surprise this gem was underneath



It should clean up nicely with some tlc with a wire wheel and polishing compound.

ACT clutch and pp (also came with an ACT sprung 6 puck)


Another nice surprise was the extra gearset that came as part of my repayment. I noticed that 3rd-5th looked different ad didn't have the same casting pattern as the GSR gears. So after counting teeth and calculating gear ratios I went Googling. Turns out the extra gears are ITR 1-2 and Kaaz 3-5 close ratio (probably the "ATS" gears that were supposed to already be in the tranny)


In addition to the above I have the B20 block (bare block, not even the crank is good), head studs (no idea what brand, no markings), oil pan, pickup, windage tray, oil sandwhich adapter for vtec oil line.....and that's it.

So now that plan is to take the random crap I am left with and build my own B20/VTEC with a goal of 200+ HP and throw the ITR/Kaaz gears along with an LSD into the tranny. Needless to say my budget is quite a bit tighter since i threw a bunch of money out the window.

At some point during this the garage looked like this


Next installment: parts arrive for the engine!

MLRtime

In for updates!

prjct92eh2

slow day at work = trying to get this thing caught up to present day.

PARTS PARTS PARTS!!!!

Traded the Toda cams for these


Bought a B16 head off of Travis (_Justus) along with a Skunk2 Pro Series Intake manifold


Blox Type-C cams


And the pile of crap which includes in addition to the above: Omni 70 mm throttle body, OBX LSD, Golden Eagle block guard, thermal gaskets for IM and TB, and other odds and ends


So here is the new engine specs:
Head:
Omni 70mm throttle body
Skunk2 Pro Series intake manifold (port matched to throttle body)
Thermal gaskets for the above
B16 head (valve job and mill 0.02")
Blox Type-C cams
Toda Cam Gears
Supertech valve springs and Ti retainers
New valve stem seals
JUN Header
RC 440cc injectors
GE fuel rail

Block:
Bored/honed to 84.5 mm
Wiseco Pistons (12:1 compression with head milled)
Eagle rods
Balanced rotating assembly
ACL Race bearings
GE block guard
VTEC oil and water pumps
Fresh gaskets

Tranny:
OBX LSD
ITR 1-2, Kaaz 3-5
Fidanza 7.5 lb flywheel
Omni Quicklutch (hopefully it works)

Somewhere in getting screwed hard by FerreiraCompetitions I realized i needed a little extra cash. I had planned on getting a new dd after this build since, honestly, i was sick of driving a turd with 70 hp, power nothing and missing interior pieces. So I sold the white hatch and bought a new DD


Yup, a chick car haha. So the cash from it went towards other goodies.

Innovative black anodized mounts with 75A bushings (middle stiffness)


Exhaust (kteller 3" with black vibrant muffler)


Also ordered my AN fittings and lines from summit along with new flywheel friction surface, plugs, plug wires, shifter bushings and other knickknacks. Started on the fuel lines



Bought intake, engine harness, and injectors from NYtoSC on here


After being scammed by Dkhan18 (chargeback in progress) on here for a water and oil pump, bought brand new OEM ones with ITR valve cover from Travis ([EnnisD]).

Whew, that's all for now. Another installment or two and we'll be caught up to present day.

Next installment: freshness and wiring fun!

bks84

iTrader: (9)

Seems like you've went through a lot of bullshit. Sucks to hear man. More info on the dkhan story?

xSteve_Ox

Wow dude, that sucks about getting screwed on the motor. Looks like at least you got a handful of decent parts to use though. I've got a kTeller piping kit on my hatch, it's good stuff