Mr Shaggy

Evening Ladies and Gents!


I'm Shawn! I also go by Shaggy! (Or Dumbass, to my friends

I wanted to make a profile here because this seems to be THE place to go for all things Honda!

Allow me to introduce myself!

I'm a 22 year old with a nice diverse employee history in different fields, and I have quite the mechanical mindset!

Before I go into saying that recently after saving up a nice chunk of change from my full-time job that I quit, due to ***** management and belligerent staff policy, I wanted to say that ever since the 6th and 7th grade in middle school, I had quite the love for Honda Civics! The movie Fast and the Furious came out, and I FIRMLY believe we all know which honda civic's we're talking about
(spoiler: 1995 Honda Civic - The Fast and the Furious Wiki - Wikia)

Anyway- I met a guy in the 7th grade who was a diehard RC drift racer (and his RC actually used gas and No2 boost)- he had an orange supra that him and his dad built based off of the movie. Well, i started having a love for cars, and that led my parents to buying me a Dark green 93 vtec civic hatchback model car with interchangeable parts (wheels, body kit, engine, muffler, etc)- I spent so much time making that model car look amazing- anyways, since then, i've had a love for civic hatchbacks, and i told myself i WILL buy myself one

when i turned 19, i inherited the 2001 town and country
( http://images.thecarconnection.com/m...00028661_m.jpg )
I happened to total it in "rush hour traffic" in the snow, going 30 mph when some jackass in a red monster of a truck cut me off with 15' of space between me and the next car, after slamming his brakes because he had no room- well..... the ****** got rear ended- i got a ticket for it, and i went to court by myself, after studying traffic law for two weeks, had the police officer dismissed for lack of evidence and i came off scott-free (an awesome feeling beating three points, if you guys are unaware)
i easily dropped 500 bucks in upgraded parts for it, and it went to scrap
(pic related)

so, with that being said, my mom was like "you need a car, honey- and youre saving money for your own, and your brother will need rides and i cant take him, and when he gets his license, you can give it to him-
she bought a used 2000 4.6l v8 dakota... that whipped hard
in fact, it was so awesome, that whenever it rained and the roads were wet. you can always slide corners... literally every time, to where going around a curved road made me do a 360* fishtail only going 25 mph with NEW tires!!!

(pic related)


so- with that being said, i saved up $2300, went to virginia and bought a 1999 Civic DX hatchback for 1600 that instantly passed MD inspections (which is practically unheard of for that price, supposedly)!!!

Get it home, and she instantly became my baby.
Here are a few pictures!






Hallelujah!!!! Dont worry, this 16 year old doesnt look NEARLY as clean as these pictures do- theres paint chips, a nice dent in the driver door, some shitty bumper sticker on the back that cant be removed without paint coming with it, and she had a bunch of small issues i've fixed myself.

So anyway, when i got the car, i was the 7th owner, under a rebuild title (which is no longer considered rebuild, since it is through a new state)- supposedly it got FUCKED in a rear-quarter panel accident which totaled it.

the russian i got it from, who spoke little english wanted 2100 for it, but my mechanic friend haggled him down to 1600, because he pointed out a lot of things that need repairs, which i'll list off-

oh, she had 159k miles when i got her. its an automatic 1.6l SOHC D16. *(inb4 people complain about autos- ive never driven manny and didnt want to, tbh)*

so, immediately, my friend pointed out a few things.
-there is a crack in the passenger side spring towards the very bottom of the spring, which i dont care about yet, as it makes no difference (he just used it as a haggle point)
-the driver side inner tie rod boot is separated from the bellow (ill fix that eventually
- paint damage
-dent in the door
-stereo console overlay is an OEM from a 97

rofl, well... he brought him down 500 bucks, so i bought my buddy a nice dinner.

_______________________________________

i slapped my trucks tags on it, drove it from VA to the tag / title near my place, and got it tagged, registered, insured, inspected and such, which in total cost something like... oh..... 600 bucks or so i guess

out of spite, i went out and put new spark plugs in, new wires, new oil.

get her home and start noticing some issues-
radiator fluid pooling up on the fan-

first diagnostic was that the cap was bad and spewing coolant-
replaced the cap

happened more-

replaced the hoses

didnt notice it anymore- thought it was okay, until the car overheated, and she konked out driving home from gf's house- realized the fan wasnt spinning
replaced thermostat, coolant temp sensor, fan switch sensor...
fan STILL wasnt spinning, but car wasnt overheating- because its winter. said screw it- drove and filled res.

master mechanic uncle comes to town "youve got yourself a nice little hairline crack in your radiator- your hoses arent bad- youre just not building enough heat pressure in your radiator to kick the fan on because theres a crack!"

got a radiator for christmas, replaced it- car runs super clean now

well....... one day, im driving on the highway, everything lookin good, everything feels nice... welll......
car lost all motor function after i hit a bump in the highway exit
waited for a tow with blinkers on, and the battery died.
after a week of waiting for no crank, no starts to magically be fixed, i replaced the battery (it was from 2008), and got cranks, no start.

went to my best friends, theyre like "aww its gonna be your fuel pump, dude"
well.. it wasnt, because i could hear it priming and theyve been fixing cars forever- i diagnosed it myself on a whim when i watched an ErictheCarGuy video on crank, no starts.... he said if youre not getting spark, (and it wasnt the plugs, because i just replaced them 2 weeks before) its most likely in the distributor cap / ignition coil.

well, i rolled the dice, after looking at the cap, and the cap was clean, so i replaced the ignition coil. mother ****** started.... such an amazing feeling.
( i plan on making a post about this later to help people with the same issue, as i couldnt find a SINGLE post with a solved title)

yes- so the car runs now..... however, 100 miles after i fixed that, the CEL comes on.... god DAMMIT!!!!

p0420.... catconv. bank 1 threshold nonsense..
well... multiple things could be causing this issue, which i hope someone can shed light on.

the car is 16 years old, has stock headers, stock cat, stock o2 sensors, and a brand new ignition coil, plugs...
the diagnostics said it can be one of four things:

a/f ratio is bad
ignition issues
bad cat
leak in exhaust before cat (havent checked this yet)

either way, the car has such **** power getting to highway speeds, i plan on replacing the heads, cat, and exhaust anyway.
___________________________________


So as a rundown, as a child, i wanted a civic hatch based from a model car
got a civic hatch
and i love modifying / working on her.

a few small questions for those who stuck around to read completely:

Will new heads / cat / exhaust give me better speeds getting from 30-75, from stock parts? if so, what should i go for that wont annihilate my bank and wont make my car sound like a complete ******* popper

what other modifications can increase HP / higher speed gains that are cheap?

what do you all think about the car so far?!?!

and should i get vanity plates, what would be a really fitting tag?
(i was thinking prjct99, byebank, mrshagy/shaggy)

_____________________________________

Anyways, guys!!! thanks for checking out my new profile!!!
I'll be making a journal here, someplace so i can keep everyone updated!

i'll pretty much re-share all of the tech details / upgrades as i go

-Mr Shaggy

electronblueej8

Nice hatch my d16y8 is throwing a p0420 code also I am believing its a dirty catalytic coverter we will see soon lol. A cat and exhaust I dont think help your speed in anyway just preference and sound you can youtube your engine with different exhausts to hear them I like magnaflow deeper growl keep up the work!

Mr Shaggy

Hey man! thanks for the reply!

yeah, im believing mine will be a bad cat too-
in fact, im almost sure it is, because the heat shield rattles like hell going anything over 30mph.

Ive heard a few things on replacing everything as far as heads, cat and complete exhaust system- i hear better high-end pickup, but im also totally new to these kind of tunings, so i'll keep looking!

-Shaggy

electronblueej8

When I got mine the exhaust had a bad leak making it loud as hell so I replaced it but not the cat so I know my exhaust is straight just gotta figure out ive heard u can clean it or if i should just buy one. Also hows your engine bay look??

Mr Shaggy

im gonna say this to get it out there, as im just now discovering this, but.... my hood latch cable fell off the hinge. im gonna go see if i can fix it now..... hopefully some asswipe cop wont be like "STOP RIGHT THERE CRIMINAL SCUM, LEMME SEE YOUR HANDS" ..... "sir, this is my car"

god dammit... just what i needed at 11:30pm on a 30*f night w/ bronchitis

electronblueej8

Just one problem after another, but you gotta love them lmaol

PJHennessy203

Hey sweet dx. I recently picked up a 99 dx that was already swapped and its turned into quite the adventure already.

Mr Shaggy

Aww, sweet, man! And thanks!

Yeah, MO problems, MO money!
Luckily, for my new love, my girlfriend and I and splitting tomorrow, so I'll have all kinds of alone time with my lovely blue lady ;D

I've got a bunch of things to do with this car, and it keeps racking up. Kinda sucks, but that's life, ya know?

Your car says a lot about you, and so do blackened fingers!

Someone mind pointing me in the direction of making a progress journal on this site?

I'd like to keep everyone posted on my newfound hobby

On a different note, im gonna get a whole new exhaust system. Probably ebay, to be honest. Im not rich or flip cars. I take pride in the work I can do myself but 2k in parts is a little redundant for a car that's only 105hp

Any suggestions on an exhaust setup that sounds with a low/muffled growl ans not loud, obnoxious and poppy? Also, I could use advice on cats too, because I need one and want to replace the manifold cat it has

-Shaggy!

PJHennessy203

your best bet is getting a solid header and then going to an exaust shop and just have them fit a straight pipe all the way back if you dont care. if you dont need to worry about emissions this is a cheap solid solution. I have a catless setup on my wrx and after i tore my invidia catback off (cause im to low) i ended up just running a straight pipe with the blast pipe style at the end. cost me about 100 dollars in the end.

Mr Shaggy

Fortunately, here in MD, smog laws require 2 year emissions testing.
With that being said, I will have to go with a cat.
And I've heard that heads and a hf cat can make a little difference with higher end output.
Ialso hear I should get a 2.5-3" system.

Im in a frugal spot atm, but I have to have all of this done by 2-15-16.

The faster taxes come through. The better.
I quit my day job and am living on $92 till whenever taxes are through which could be end of month...
Luckily I'm 3 payments ahead in insurance

Mr Shaggy

fixed my hood latch

back at it!!

so hey guys, im seriously looking into redoing my entire exhaust manifold back, as well as an air intake.

im trying to put about $400 total into this project, as i only have limited funds at the moment. im okay with ebay parts (sadly). thankfully, im doing the work myself, so i wont need to pay labor.

if you guys have any ideas, please let me know

PJHennessy203

I'm in Oregon and it's pretty much the same. I just had my new exhaust put on with a cat. I can break down what I paid. I needed a full exhaust system with sensor.

Custom header-$200
High preformance Cat/straight pipe(with full install)- $500
o2 sensors x2 $197


I also had to extend my downstream sensor because its father back than stock placement. In theory once Intall the o2 sensors and re set the ecu I shouldn't have any codes. *crossing fingers 😬

Ps. I went with 2 1/4" and it's loud as hell. once I get through my emissions 1/31 I'm more than likely putting in a nice muffler