Refresh of 94 Civic Si w/ ABS after accident
03-04-2017, 07:52 AM
#226
Fish Twig
Join Date: Nov 2005
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Re: Refresh of 94 Civic Si w/ ABS after accident
Yes you can remove the timing belt without removing anything else, just loosen the tension and slide the belt of the cams. Make sure you line everything up before installing.
03-04-2017, 08:20 AM
#227
talks to himself
Re: Refresh of 94 Civic Si w/ ABS after accident
Pull the spark plugs otherwise it'll be a bear to turn the engine over. I wouldn't worry about the crush washers on them. People pull plugs and reinstall them all the time to check cylinder combustion status and gap.
If you have a pick, you can use it to pull on the tensioner rather than prying at it with a flat head screw driver. If you're not removing the crank pulley, you might have to get a little creative with how you get tension on the belt. Just remember that a little extra pressure goes a long way.
If you have a pick, you can use it to pull on the tensioner rather than prying at it with a flat head screw driver. If you're not removing the crank pulley, you might have to get a little creative with how you get tension on the belt. Just remember that a little extra pressure goes a long way.
03-04-2017, 07:33 PM
#228
Premium Member
Thread Starter
Re: Refresh of 94 Civic Si w/ ABS after accident
Thanks guys. I am cautiously optimistic here...
I re-torqued the head bolts as described earlier, and everything went back together nicely.
She started right up, no CEL, so I ran her up to temp with the cooling system burp funnel. I had cleaned the area on the block where I saw the leak before with brake clean and compressed air.
No leak. Granted, I am just running the burp funnel, so not a lot of pressure in the cooling system, but it just had the burp funnel when it leaked before.
Tomorrow I will look at everything and see if she leaked overnight. If not, I will put the radiator cap on and run her up to temp.
Wish me luck...
I re-torqued the head bolts as described earlier, and everything went back together nicely.
She started right up, no CEL, so I ran her up to temp with the cooling system burp funnel. I had cleaned the area on the block where I saw the leak before with brake clean and compressed air.
No leak. Granted, I am just running the burp funnel, so not a lot of pressure in the cooling system, but it just had the burp funnel when it leaked before.
Tomorrow I will look at everything and see if she leaked overnight. If not, I will put the radiator cap on and run her up to temp.
Wish me luck...
03-04-2017, 09:26 PM
#229
Fish Twig
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Re: Refresh of 94 Civic Si w/ ABS after accident
**** happens, I replaced a b16a2 with a b20b and when all was ready I started up the engine and started to have oil leaking out of the lower left corner of the block where the head meets the block. Took it apart, bought a new headgasket, used the copper spray, re-installed and torque to spec.
03-05-2017, 05:46 AM
#230
Premium Member
Thread Starter
Re: Refresh of 94 Civic Si w/ ABS after accident
**** happens, I replaced a b16a2 with a b20b and when all was ready I started up the engine and started to have oil leaking out of the lower left corner of the block where the head meets the block. Took it apart, bought a new headgasket, used the copper spray, re-installed and torque to spec.
03-05-2017, 06:41 AM
#231
Honda-Tech Member
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03-10-2017, 02:24 PM
#232
Premium Member
Thread Starter
Re: Refresh of 94 Civic Si w/ ABS after accident
I removed, oiled, and torqued head bolts one at a time in reverse order of the torque pattern described in the FSM.
First test was running engine to temp @ 2000 RPM with burp funnel. Area of block previously photographed stayed dry - nice!
Next test - radiator cap on, run engine to temp @ 2000 RPM - block stays dry - better!
Next test - drive her! She felt okay, not great, but I had just thrown the distributor in the middle of the adjustment range and did not set timing.
I drove her with varied throttle - on and then off and then on in order to give the rings the best break-in possible.
Then I stopped at a gas station to put some fresh fuel in and popped the hood...
The splatters you see are just above the block coolant drain. I think they are oil. Can anyone confirm that the ribs on either side of this area are oil return passages?
Next steps are to run some oil dye and then black-light the area.
Disappointing!
Last edited by TomCat39; 03-13-2017 at 04:49 PM.
03-12-2017, 09:07 PM
#234
Re: Refresh of 94 Civic Si w/ ABS after accident
Sorry to see the oil.
I can fix the orientation of your picture if you like. I believe the left side is the top? Seem to just see a touch of the exhaust header and the header bolt on the top and left?
I can fix the orientation of your picture if you like. I believe the left side is the top? Seem to just see a touch of the exhaust header and the header bolt on the top and left?
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03-13-2017, 10:19 AM
#235
Premium Member
Thread Starter
Re: Refresh of 94 Civic Si w/ ABS after accident
Unfortunately (or maybe it is for the better), I cannot mess with the Civic much right now. I did read a little over the weekend about people putting some Hondabond around the oil return holes when doing head gasket. I also read somewhere that you need to shorten the dowels if any material is removed from the head? I need to ask the machinist about that...
03-13-2017, 10:36 AM
#236
Premium Member
Thread Starter
Re: Refresh of 94 Civic Si w/ ABS after accident
My Civic got pasted by a Jeep last November, and now I should be able to spend a little time to get her back on the road.
I got my Si back in '97 and love it. The clutch started slipping @ ~140k miles back in 2002, and I had been reading up on the B18C1 swap, so I went for it.
Now she has ~266k on her, and I can tell the B18 is feeling tired, and the exhaust smells a little bit.
Funds are limited - I set the goal of completing the re-fresh with only the funds from the accident, but I think I can do it!
In my mind, the re-fresh has 3 components:
1) Basic engine rebuild. I intend to pull the head and send it out to the machine shop for surfacing and valve job. I will also tap out the rods and throw new pistons and rings on them.
2) Replace front end sheet metal - hood, both fenders, bumper skin. I think I will need to play with the radiator cross-member as well to get hood latch in proper location, hard to tell with mangled hood.
3) Replace passenger side knuckle as alignment shop can no longer get camber set on pass side after the accident.
Here is the fun picture of what happened:
I got my Si back in '97 and love it. The clutch started slipping @ ~140k miles back in 2002, and I had been reading up on the B18C1 swap, so I went for it.
Now she has ~266k on her, and I can tell the B18 is feeling tired, and the exhaust smells a little bit.
Funds are limited - I set the goal of completing the re-fresh with only the funds from the accident, but I think I can do it!
In my mind, the re-fresh has 3 components:
1) Basic engine rebuild. I intend to pull the head and send it out to the machine shop for surfacing and valve job. I will also tap out the rods and throw new pistons and rings on them.
2) Replace front end sheet metal - hood, both fenders, bumper skin. I think I will need to play with the radiator cross-member as well to get hood latch in proper location, hard to tell with mangled hood.
3) Replace passenger side knuckle as alignment shop can no longer get camber set on pass side after the accident.
Here is the fun picture of what happened:
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04-04-2017, 05:11 AM
#241
Honda-Tech Member
04-06-2017, 02:58 PM
#243
Premium Member
Thread Starter
Re: Refresh of 94 Civic Si w/ ABS after accident
You guys are awesome! I thought no one cared about B swaps any longer...
After I saw those little splatters all over the side of the block I was pretty bummed and just parked her for a while. I had to focus on a different vehicle so we could do some off-roading for Spring Break, so I did not do much with Civic. I set the timing and put some oil dye in.
This week I took her in for an alignment as things were a little off after I replaced the rack. My friend/mechanic said we could black-light the block while it was up on the alignment rack.
The good news is that we didn't even break out the light, as you could see the dyed oil leaking at the pan gasket, but looking up under the head, there is discoloration from the header flange, but it is not dyed oil, and it is not anti-freeze. The machinist that did the head had stopped by as well and was very confident my head gasket was fine, but I needed to tighten the header.
Wow!
Their advice was to torque the header when cold, tighten the pan gasket, change oil at 500 miles, and then re-torque head bolts at 3000 miles. But their biggest advice was to just drive it! It was very cool, I thought I did everything wrong, the head gasket looks clean (I'll put up pictures tomorrow), and I got the toe pretty darn close.
So I drove my little Civic Tuesday and yesterday, couldn't drive her today. I love driving her! New rack feels tight, she drives nice with the alignment. Shifter mod feels perfect. She loves to wind, very punchy, feels great on the interstate - perfect ~90.
Nice...
Things to do: find out why IAB does not work (dammit), replace suspension bushings as camber is not perfect.
Now that I know all my time was not in vain I will go back and start filling in some details on the rebuild.
After I saw those little splatters all over the side of the block I was pretty bummed and just parked her for a while. I had to focus on a different vehicle so we could do some off-roading for Spring Break, so I did not do much with Civic. I set the timing and put some oil dye in.
This week I took her in for an alignment as things were a little off after I replaced the rack. My friend/mechanic said we could black-light the block while it was up on the alignment rack.
The good news is that we didn't even break out the light, as you could see the dyed oil leaking at the pan gasket, but looking up under the head, there is discoloration from the header flange, but it is not dyed oil, and it is not anti-freeze. The machinist that did the head had stopped by as well and was very confident my head gasket was fine, but I needed to tighten the header.
Wow!
Their advice was to torque the header when cold, tighten the pan gasket, change oil at 500 miles, and then re-torque head bolts at 3000 miles. But their biggest advice was to just drive it! It was very cool, I thought I did everything wrong, the head gasket looks clean (I'll put up pictures tomorrow), and I got the toe pretty darn close.
So I drove my little Civic Tuesday and yesterday, couldn't drive her today. I love driving her! New rack feels tight, she drives nice with the alignment. Shifter mod feels perfect. She loves to wind, very punchy, feels great on the interstate - perfect ~90.
Nice...
Things to do: find out why IAB does not work (dammit), replace suspension bushings as camber is not perfect.
Now that I know all my time was not in vain I will go back and start filling in some details on the rebuild.
Last edited by 94 Civic Si; 01-19-2024 at 02:37 PM.
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04-07-2017, 06:02 AM
#245
Honda-Tech Member
Re: Refresh of 94 Civic Si w/ ABS after accident
Nice, glad you left us or sold the car haha. Awesome news on the leak. Can't wait to see more details of the rebuild. Are you all set with charcoal canisters? I was hanging onto a couple of em in case you wanted one but might chuck them if you don't need them. Let me know. I would love to see this car in person sometime!
04-07-2017, 11:21 AM
#246
Premium Member
Thread Starter
Re: Refresh of 94 Civic Si w/ ABS after accident
Nice, glad you left us or sold the car haha. Awesome news on the leak. Can't wait to see more details of the rebuild. Are you all set with charcoal canisters? I was hanging onto a couple of em in case you wanted one but might chuck them if you don't need them. Let me know. I would love to see this car in person sometime!
Thank you for holding onto a charcoal can for me, I mis-read your earlier thread. I will show you what I did with my current set up, but I would like to get one of those - thank you!
04-10-2017, 02:24 PM
#247
Premium Member
Thread Starter
Re: Refresh of 94 Civic Si w/ ABS after accident
You guys are awesome! I thought no one cared about B swaps any longer...
After I saw those little splatters all over the side of the block I was pretty bummed and just parked her for a while. I had to focus on a different vehicle so we could do some off-roading for Spring Break, so I did not do much with Civic. I set the timing and put some oil dye in.
This week I took her in for an alignment as things were a little off after I replaced the rack. My friend/mechanic said we could black-light the block while it was up on the alignment rack.
The good news is that we didn't even break out the light, as you could see the dyed oil leaking at the pan gasket, but looking up under the head, there is discoloration from the header flange, but it is not dyed oil, and it is not anti-freeze. The machinist that did the head had stopped by as well and was very confident my head gasket was fine, but I needed to tighten the header.
Wow!
Their advice was to torque the header when cold, tighten the pan gasket, change oil at 500 miles, and then re-torque head bolts at 3000 miles. But their biggest advice was to just drive it! It was very cool, I thought I did everything wrong, the head gasket looks clean (I'll put up pictures tomorrow), and I got the toe pretty darn close.
So I drove my little Civic Tuesday and yesterday, couldn't drive her today. I love driving her! New rack feels tight, she drives nice with the alignment. Shifter mod feels perfect. She loves to wind, very punchy, feels great on the interstate - perfect ~90.
Nice...
Things to do: find out why IAB does not work (dammit), replace suspension bushings as camber is not perfect.
Now that I know all my time was not in vain I will go back and start feeling in some details on the rebuild.
After I saw those little splatters all over the side of the block I was pretty bummed and just parked her for a while. I had to focus on a different vehicle so we could do some off-roading for Spring Break, so I did not do much with Civic. I set the timing and put some oil dye in.
This week I took her in for an alignment as things were a little off after I replaced the rack. My friend/mechanic said we could black-light the block while it was up on the alignment rack.
The good news is that we didn't even break out the light, as you could see the dyed oil leaking at the pan gasket, but looking up under the head, there is discoloration from the header flange, but it is not dyed oil, and it is not anti-freeze. The machinist that did the head had stopped by as well and was very confident my head gasket was fine, but I needed to tighten the header.
Wow!
Their advice was to torque the header when cold, tighten the pan gasket, change oil at 500 miles, and then re-torque head bolts at 3000 miles. But their biggest advice was to just drive it! It was very cool, I thought I did everything wrong, the head gasket looks clean (I'll put up pictures tomorrow), and I got the toe pretty darn close.
So I drove my little Civic Tuesday and yesterday, couldn't drive her today. I love driving her! New rack feels tight, she drives nice with the alignment. Shifter mod feels perfect. She loves to wind, very punchy, feels great on the interstate - perfect ~90.
Nice...
Things to do: find out why IAB does not work (dammit), replace suspension bushings as camber is not perfect.
Now that I know all my time was not in vain I will go back and start feeling in some details on the rebuild.
This is obviously not dyed oil. It is not Honda blue anti-freeze either. I did not clean the inside of the header and my friend the pro-wrench said all kinds of old funk is on the inside of the header and some is just oozing out at the flange now that she is tight and hot (!?!).
So I will re-torque the header flange a few times and hope she seals up. I cannot detect any loss of oil or coolant with under hood checks. I do need to check all my oil pan bolts for tightness and clean everything well with some brake clean - hopefully next weekend.
04-11-2017, 07:20 AM
#250
Premium Member
Thread Starter
Re: Refresh of 94 Civic Si w/ ABS after accident
Thanks! My problem is that the header is a bitch to get out of there w/ A/C condenser in front of it. If I pull the O2 sensor it gets easier. I am lazy, so I am going to try re-torquing and cleaning things up with brake clean and see how things look...
