ReedMann

iTrader: (11)

Thanks man. Gotta have your priorities straight. Hopefully I'll get back to this project after school.

bandrew96

Nice

Corey_2F

nice build man this thing is gonna turn out sweet!

ThePooh

This was an awesome read! I was happy when things were going right and I was sad when they weren't going the way you wanted. You've definitely have given great advise, links to reputable companies, and have overall given great useful information! Subscribed and cant wait to bother you with wire tuck questions! Congratulations on school and you only have a year left!

ReedMann

iTrader: (11)

Thanks guys.

Thanks man! I'm glad you've enjoyed it and found it useful. Not much has been going on with the car in awhile, but I've got more plans for it someday. That's right, just finished junior year. Hard to believe...

doomguy

Great work!

◄HATCHZILLA►

Love the build so far! I'm definitely taking some pointers on my project.

DAN30S-B16

Hey Reed, I had a bad idle and it turned out to be a bad TPS. Hope your idle issues are all resolved

sal101

wow I feel like a total douche I remember getting an email about this build a while back and I followed it religiously I lost track of it over time and the other night I was with the guys who purchased the b16a2 from you and when we were backing up the truck the hatch happened to catch my attention and it had PA plates... after briefly talking about the car I remembered you saying it had a b16 the next day and I freaked out about it being the same car ...now I'm kinda pissed I didn't get you to pop the hood to look at this masterpiece in person I'm happy we got to meet you and now I feel pretty stupid about all the questions we asked about the engine by the looks of it you're a pretty honest guy so I apologize on our behalf lol once we get my cousins car running we should meet up and go for a drive there's some cool people out of roanoke and the new river valley here's the car you're helping bring back to life

ReedMann

iTrader: (11)

Thanks guys.

Thanks for the tip man. My idle's been pretty good since cleaning the IACV.

Wow small world haha. It was good meeting you guys too and I'm glad to help out with your cousin's car. I don't blame you for asking a bunch of questions about the engine. Let me know if you have any problems. It's pretty funny that that's your cousin's car. I was actually looking at it on craigslist awhile back. That thing is really clean man. Let me know when you get it up and running and maybe I'll try to meet up with you guys one day.

eg_bseries

Bump for a possible small update?

ferio-ichi3

@reedMann where in PA are you located man? I met up with one guy from Honda tech and I'd like to meet up with others and get something going.

ReedMann

iTrader: (11)

Well, it's been over a year since I posted anything on here. I graduated from college in the spring and finally have some free time and a little bit of money to spend on my car. Its the first time in about 4 years that I have had either... The Civic is still running strong and is at roughly 192k miles now - almost 25k since the engine swap. I can't wait to cross 200k with it. Its my daily driver and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. It's reliable, fun, fuel efficient, and I don't have any car payments. That being said, I've got a few performance enhancing modifications I would like to make and am in the process of making to the car, but its almost to a point of "completion" if that really exists.

First of all, here are some pictures of my senior design project and the car I spent the entire past year of my life on.







After graduation, I moved from PA to NC to start a new job. My new place has a garage, something I haven't had in 4 years so that is a nice change as well.





The first thing I did was catch up on maintenance. All I had been doing for the last four years was basic fluid changes and tire rotations. I fixed an exhaust leak with some new gaskets, fixed my broken rear seats, and a number of other little things around the car. I also installed an Si steering wheel I had laying around.



After making a little bit of money I bought some new tires and rims for my car. GSR "fat fives" with Yokohama S-Drives in 205/50/15. The tires woke the car up. It was an amazing difference compared to my old Yokohama all-seasons. There is a little bit of rubbing on the inside of the fender well at full lock, but nothing serious. I went to remove my old wheels and tires and unfortunately, 2 of the studs on the LF were messed up. The last time this wheel was off was when my car was at the shop for an inspection so I can only imagine they were cross threaded and run on with an impact. Quite annoying. I ended up driving, very carefully, to the auto parts store 2 miles away on 2 studs. Hammered out the stripped ones and hammered in the replacements.

















I made a panel to block off the opening left with no A/C components out of a spare carbon panel. The car was overheating a little bit in traffic in the dead of summer so I was hoping this would help. I haven't seen it overheat since, but its hard to say if this is the reason why. Either way, it also helps to keep the engine bay clean.



When I was younger and stupider, I pulled off the vapor barriers behind the door panels. I've always had terrible problems with the windows fogging up in the rain, especially with no A/C so I decided to add some vapor barriers back.







Finally, the biggest performance project I've been working on is a brake upgrade. The plan is to go to Integra calipers in the front with an Integra 1" master and a 99-00 prop valve. I already have rear discs. I'll also be getting new rotors and pads (likely Hawk) all around. I went to a local junkyard and was able to find the OEM front calipers and master cylinder I needed. One of the nicest parts of being further south is that the cars around here are far less rusty than what I'm accustomed to. I started cleaning up the calipers and realized I wasn't going to be able to get them to the OEM look I desired, so I decided to paint them. Pro tip: use yard sale stickers to mask off circular features!

















The results:











I rebuilt them with all new seals. The dust boots are very annoying to install and I accidentally shredded one in the process so I had to wait for another one to come in to finish everything up. The pistons were in good condition. The picture shows the worst spot on each which was just some surface discoloration with no actual pitting.











I mocked them up on my Si knuckles.





The master cylinder and prop valve.





To complete the brake upgrade, I still need some more parts:

- front lower ball joints for the Si knuckles
- four rotors
- pads for each corner
- rebuilt and painted rear calipers

As far as future modifications/repairs go, the list is small. Like I said, this is and will continue to be my daily driver for a while.

- repair Honda rot - I've got a little bit of rust on the RR quarter panel
- install CTR anti-roll bars - I've got the bars themselves and the CTR FLCAs, but I need endlinks and a rear subframe brace before they can go on
-maybe an HID headlight upgrade - mine are kinda crappy

Other than that just maintenance. But stayed tuned because I'll post any work I do to the car from here on.

johnkilo3

iTrader: (2)

Hey Reed, happy to see an update. The fat fives look nice on the EK and you did a good job rebuilding the calipers. Congrats on finishing school and the new job!

DSMAddicted

Nice update, man. It's amazing how quickly time goes by. Can you share a brief description of your senior project?

Regarding the HID upgrade, I'd like to suggest you look at LED bulbs first.
A buddy of mine (BrakeExpert) just got a pair of these for his EK, and he really likes them: Pair 160W 16000LM LED Headlight Bulbs Philips H4 9003 Plug Bulb White 6000K Hi/L | eBay

Good luck, keep us posted on your progress.

ReedMann

iTrader: (11)

Thanks John! Glad to hear from you. How is the Integra running?

My senior design project was a program called Formula SAE. It's an international competition sanctioned by the Society of Automotive Engineers. Every year, teams from around the world design, build, then race an open wheel car at a number of events around the world. The program is designed to develop automotive engineers and get them hands on experience before entering the workforce. It is an immense amount of work and takes a lot of dedication but the end result and the friendships you make with teammates are totally worth it. You should search YouTube for some onboard videos. There is a lot of stuff out there about the competitions - you can even look up the technical regulations if you're interested. Feel free to ask any other questions you have about it too.

Thanks for the tip on the LED bulbs. I did a little bit of research after your mention and it seems a lot of people are happy with these. Plus, they are cheaper than the HID kits I was looking at.

CX-Adam

Props to a fellow FSAE alumni. What an experience. I spent more nights at the shop than at the bars my senior year. And, I don't regret it.

DSMAddicted

That is badass man. Learning these things makes me regret not trying Mechanical Engineering.
I'll look FSAE up on YouTube, looks super interesting.

Indeed... no problem man.

That's a great thing.

ReedMann

iTrader: (11)

Same experience entirely and I don't regret a thing.

ReedMann

iTrader: (11)

Time for another update! First of all, I decided it was time to address the rust on my RR quarter panel before it got any worse. I took the car to body shop to have the panel patched and the quarter resprayed. It looks pretty good, the only problem is that the quarter panel's paint is much nicer than the rest of the car. So I've added paint correction to my future to-do list...

Before:





After:





Then it was time to finish off the brake upgrade I had started months ago... So, new parts:



Centric blank rotors, front and rear
OE spec rear pads
StopTech sport front pads
Moog front lower ball joints
Timken front wheel bearings
86-89 Integra rear wheel studs (more on these later)

Hammered out the hubs





Pressed out the old wheel bearings with the Harbor Freight FWD wheel bearing tool (I actually got the tool on eBay for $60 compared to Harbor Freight's $120 - Front Wheel Bearing Adapters)



Pressed in the new wheel bearings





Circlip installed



Pressed in the new lower ball joints with a rented tool from Autozone



Had to cut the old outer races off the hubs with a Dremel



Clean vs. dirty hub (didn't get pics, but I pressed the old wheel studs out at work)


Wheel stud comparison. As I mentioned, the studs I used are for the rear end of 86-89 Integras. They are basically the same spec (slightly larger knurl diameter, but doesn't effect much - its only .005") The main difference being the length, 48 mm vs. standard Civic at 36 mm. Basically an OE spec extended stud. I opted for these so I could run front spacers in the future. Right now, with the 205/50/R15s on stock Integra wheels, they rub the inner fender well at full lock.

Specs from Rock Auto of both lug studs:

More Information for DORMAN 610269


More Information for DORMAN 610408





Old (Civic DX) vs. new (DC Integra) front setup









The front brake lines didn't fit the new calipers correctly so I had to tie the lines up for now. I've got new lines coming in the mail to fix this for real.



The rears had already been converted to discs, but I pulled the calipers off, cleaned them up and painted to match the fronts



I also installed the Integra 1" MC and the EM1 prop valve while I was at it. Me friend came over to help me bleed the brakes and I was all set. (Ignore the dirty wheels)





Sorry for the lack of pics, but I was working hard to get this all knocked out in a weekend since its my daily. More to come...

CX-Adam

As always, looks good. You make it all seem so easy.

jdblock

Good idea about the longer studs. Thanks for sharing.

I've broken my fare share of the ARP studs and don't want to keep using them.

johnkilo3

iTrader: (2)

Good work as always, Reed.

doosua

Glad youre back! I'll be around checking for updates.

Lith ium

Wow... I just spend about 3 hours reading through this thread- your persistence is remarkable and to me, inspirational.

I just picked up a 98 4 door a few months ago and while it won't be quite as perfected or extravagant as your build here, I hope to have a good story for you soon. I'm sure I'll be using and appreciating a lot of your lessons learned from building up this car.

Way to go, man. Congrats on all of these accomplishments that you've made since beginning this thread- graduations, everything. Way to freaking go.