dylspil

started getting into the cabin wiring this week. i've got the layout all neatly in place including the new ecu and conversion harness, and ready to cut the engine harness connectors off to feed into the amphenol connector.
soldered all wires into the rear of the cabin side quick disconnect plug. all the wiring shown here has been cut at the correct length to connect up to the existing engine loom wiring once i've labelled the individual wires and configured what wire goes to what pin. ignore the colours, they're just ones i had laying around at home so they're in no particular order.

Chef Andre

iTrader: (1)

Looking good!!!!! Nice to see another EF8 coming together.

CroSi

Nice

dylspil

thanks guys, much appreciated!

dylspil

got to working on the gearbox over the christmas/new year break, as well as buying a few things that should be arriving shortly.

new input shaft bearing and seal installed



cleaned and put back together. moved through the gears and it all seems to be still working which is good news. still need to reinstall the vss and cable bracket

crxaddikt

found this build, and reading through it, good job with all the detailed, intricate work your doing on everything to cover all the different areas of the car, it should be great once its done!,

my 90 crx si with original transmission with 258,000 miles on it, had problems where it had a 3rd gear grind at higher rpm's for a while, and i was always using honda manual transmission fluid that was recommended, until i was reading different posts online about people saying how good GM synchromesh transmission fluid with friction modifiers worked on their honda or acura transmissions and how their gear grinds went away after using it,
so i ordered some and gave it a try using that fluid instead, and i was skeptical, but surprisingly, it did work really good and my 3rd gear grind went away totally at any rpm range !

crxaddikt

when i read you were "converting the power steering to manual", i was surprised, cause i had no idea any model crx's ever came with power steering?, so the SiR models had power steering only ? or any others ?

just out of curiosity, .... why did you want to get rid of the nice power steering in favor of having manual steering anyway ?, i know it can sometimes be a struggle manoevering the around some tight spots doing u-turns with the manual steering, and seems like would be nice relieve doing that with power steering?, but on the other hand, i seem to like the "road-feel", driving with the manual steering, cause the wheels feels as though it is planted in one place more, opposed to how power steering wheels feel more loose from the left and right movement holding it, but since i've never drove a crx with power steering, i really don't know how it is, cause i might like it way better ?, who knows ?

dylspil

thanks! interesting to hear about using the different transmission fluid, i will have to look into trying something similar depending on what i can find for sale over here. I did change the gearbox oil maybe only a year before taking the car off the road and even that average 75w80 or whatever oil i had at the time did improve it a bit, so hopefully it gets even better.
I havent really looked into it but as far as i know all of our AUDM crxs came with power steering, as well as the JDM imports like the ef6/7/8s - could be wrong though. to be honest i had just heard good things about the conversion and couldnt be bothered to clean up and buy new power steering gear if anything broke. This won't be a daily driver once it's back up and running anyway so i dont think i'll mind too much about the issues when parking etc. I'll be sure to post my thoughts on my "conversion" once i drive it a little bit just in case anyone else is interested

lonelyhighs

This is awesome.

bbarbulo

This is a positive build, stay motivated!

dylspil

thanks guys

received my intake manifold a few days ago so i've put that together ready to install yesterday, as well as documenting all my rewiring of the cabin/engine harness to minimise the chance that i've messed something up. will post an update in the next few days

dylspil

fitted the aeroflow hardline to -an fuel fitting. looks good, as long as it works i'll be happy.


picked up a used skunk2 intake manifold from a guy parting out his delsol around christmas time, and it was just delivered a few days ago. had to switch out the IACV with the one from my oem intake manifold as my wiring harness has the obd0 connector and the delsol this was running on would have been obd1. no big deal since i was planning on taking this one apart to clean it all up anyway. cleaned everything up nicely and installed bosch 750cc injectors, aem rail and fpr, and turbosmart pressure gauge that i've had waiting for the last 6 months. tried but was unable to rotate the position of the fpr vacuum line nipple because apparently the only allen key missing from my set is the one needed to disassemble the fpr




should hopefully finish up the interior wiring harness this weekend if all goes to plan

bbarbulo

nice job as usual, hope the wiring all goes without a hitch

dylspil

thanks mate, got the wiring mostly sorted out yesterday. only thing left to do is position and mount the fusebox in the driver's side footwell which will allow me to avoid cutting any of the fusebox wiring, and to lengthen the necessary accessory wiring to run along the wheel arch to the lights and rad fan etc. should get that done today before posting more progress pics

dylspil

tidying up the interior and wiring situation over this last week. aiming to have all wiring loom covered in braided sleeve and heat shrink at all junction points. not exactly rywire-spec but definitely better than the bulky oem plastic conduit stuff. i wasnt planning to get into the rhs accessories harness but ended up doing it just to get it out of the way so i could start putting the dash back in.

cabin as it sits now. ended up leaving the fusebox until i put interior back in too so i can fit it somewhere accessible. all amphenol connector wiring is done, all laid out loosely in place, large gauge wiring routed through the oem engine harness firewall grommet (for alternator to fusebox, 12 volt to fusebox, wideband o2 cable, oil temp and oil pressure sensor wiring, and shielded distributor wiring).


alarm siren rewired and relocated out of the way under the master cylinder



routing of the accessories harness through the frame using grommets where necessary. left it there as i'd rather wait to reconnect the plugs/bulb holders when the rest of the front end is on so i can get the exact right lengths for each wire.



kind of ran out of things to do that dont require the engine to be dropped in first... so i put the car back on the ground (well with bricks under each tyre) for the first time in about a year and a half. upgraded brakes just clear the wheels by 2-3mm, and the front UCAs were at maximum positive camber so i had to adjust that out as best i could.


the plan was to mate up the engine and gearbox over the weekend some time, then drop the engine in the car early next week, but i just got parts in that i've been waiting on to work on the Silvia so i'll be trying to do that as a first priority next week while i can afford to have it off the road for a few days in a row

dylspil

havent made too much progress on this, got caught up working on the silvia this last week. got the mounting hardware for the amphenol plug, riveted the import compliance plate back on the bulkhead, trial mounted up the gauges, fitted the clutch throwout bearing, and did some rough portmatching on the intake manifold since i finally received my new throttle body in the mail. unfortunately didnt get a chance to mate up the engine and gearbox and drop it into the car, but that's top of the list when i get time.






I head off to Cambodia for 3 weeks tomorrow where i'll be doing some volunteer work with Engineers Without Borders, so i wont have any updates until after then unfortunately.

AZCRXSI

Good update.


Safe travels.

dylspil

straight off the plane coming home from Cambodia last weekend, got home and put some time into cleaning up the Silvia for All Japan Day here in Adelaide. still not on the new enkei's yet sadly, and this really shows off the poorly "colourmatched" paint that i was sold


managed to get some spare time on monday before i was due to return to uni on tuesday, so focused on lots of little bits and pieces on the b16a so that i could prepare to drop the motor back in the car. after sorting out all the intake manifold and throttle body heater and vacuum lines, i made the trip with the engine stand from the spare parts room to the garage


engine off the engine stand for the first time in 2 years, flywheel fitted and torqued, and remembered to torque the crank pulley bolt while i was at it


clutch disk and pressure plate roughly aligned (without aligning tool) and hand tightened. i'm just reusing the old heavy duty clutch which still has some life in it, saves me from flywheel machining too. the plan is to run in the engine like this and see how the cleaned up gearbox runs. if there are any issues then i'll do new synchros and clutch all at the same time when im doing the turbo build. instead of getting an alignment tool i just eyeballed it close enough to get the gearbox installed, then once it was all mated up i used the starter motor hole to torque down the pressure plate bolts. also installed the rear engine mount bracket, intermediate shaft, lower flywheel/clutch cover plate, and lower gearbox/block support strut things


heres the first (of many) attempts at dropping the engine and box in together. would have been a much quicker job if i had a crane leveller, but i did pretty well not to scratch or chip too much paint in the engine bay as it went in


eventually got the gearbox mount bolt inserted, but still had to deal with the LHS mount and the rear crossmember mount. i dont know if it was the stiffer mounts or if the aftermarket mounts themselves were out of alignment but it took a lot more effort in twisting and pivoting the engine around to get the LHS mount bolt in. for some reason the rear crossmember mount has 1 hole and 2 slots where it bolts to the crossmember. i assume the 2 slots are for adjustability, but the standard sized single hole negates any adjustability that the slots would give. i had to use a dremel to lengthen the bolt hole to allow the mount to slide back on the crossmember so that the mount lined up with the mount bracket coming off the block/gearbox. so now it has 3 slots, and works. probably wouldn't recommend these mounts, given the issues i had with the LHS mount that i mentioned a few pages back. hopefully they perform well

i'll just leave this low quality teaser pic here

AZCRXSI

Wow, you had some fun! Looks good!

Did you get all this done by yourself?

dylspil

thanks. yeah i've done every bit of work documented so far by myself. the only things i will be getting done professionally is a dyno tune eventually, and possibly some welding since i dont have a tig setup.

signalpuke

What year is your car? I'm trying to figure out how many SiR models were produced, so if you know of anyone else with one local, I'd be interested in their last 4-5 digits of the VIN and the year. Thanks, and nice build

dylspil

thanks, and mine's an '89. good idea, i've tried to look into that a few times but never really got anywhere with it, so i'd be interested to hear how you go. unfortunately i don't know anyone in my state with an SiR, but if you join up to the CRX Australia facebook group there's a few on there who might be keen to help out

dylspil

here's a few better pics of the engine bay as it sits now



got under the car and installed the shift linkage and stabiliser bar with the new bushings. shifter and gearbox feel nice and tight from in the car now.

with the engine in place i got to working on the wiring harness while there's as much room in there as possible before i start dropping in all the other bits and pieces.
soldered in all the amphenol connector cups




all the oem plugs to be routed. a lot of time was spent going back and forth from the garage to my desk while mocking up the lengths for each wire, where to cut what, what to extend, where to branch off the harness...
it's no rywire harness but it's looking pretty good at the moment. just have to solder it all up to the quick disconnect plug now and finish up the labeling once i get some more label tape.

BETaEF

Love your attention to detail! Looking real nice man, waiting for more

dylspil

much appreciated! more coming soon, just finished soldering up the engine harness. also realised that one of the wires for the coolant temp sensor has broken right where it runs into the back of the sensor plug so i'll try to depin the plug to see if i can fix it. otherwise i'll have to go looking for another plug from a wrecking yard or something