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Re: You Can't Polish a Turd (98 Civic HX build thread)
Originally Posted by slowDB7
What size is the gsr bar, looks so tiny next to the itr one
The small bar is a 13mm, the new one is a 23mm. Quite the difference.
Even with the small bar, the feel over having no bar is huge.
I'm exited to see how the 23mm feels on the car, but I think I'll need an EM1 front bar to even the car out.
Re: You Can't Polish a Turd (98 Civic HX build thread)
Alright, let me try to catch you guys up on what's been going on with this thing.
So after having rechecked valve lash and addressing a few small oil leaks here and there, my car started to run like garbage.
Mind you, I was still running a very half assed setup:
Y5 block/head
Y8 valvetrain
Z6 cam
0 degrees on cam gear
I decided to take this as an incentive to get off my *** and finish doing the full conversion.
First thing that came up was a knock sensor code, so I went out and got a knock sensor and pigtail to wire in.
The location for this made it a huge P.I.T.A. but I eventually got it to thread in place.
After that, I elongated the wire for the sensor so that I could run it with the engine harness and into the cabin
Then I went into the cabin, and placed the wire onto the proper pin after having depinned a plug that I had cut off of a car at my local junkyard.
After that, it was time to convert the 7 wire primary 02 sensor to a traditional style 4 wire 02 sensor.
It was a fairly straight forward process, and I replaced the old sensor with a new NTK sensor.
Even afer all that my car still ran sorta like crap, so I started calling around places that deal with D16 engines in the area to ask them about the difference in camshaft degree between Y8/Z6 engines since that was the only thing that had left me feeling kinda iffy when I first did the cam swap.
After a handful of phone calls and no real answers, I decided to advance cam timing 2* and see how the car reacted to it.
Went out in the parking lot, and it got a lot peppier, but not quite there, so I dialed in the full 4.5* difference and things got a lot better.
Yet still, the car would only run at its full potential when I was really getting on it. At any partial throttle it seemed to be boggy and held back.
Then I went out and got an AEM wideband to see if I could try to figure out what/when/why my car was running poorly.
Decided to mount the gauge right up top so that I could constantly monitor the AFR and offset it at an angle that still allows good visibility of my gauge cluster.
I did have to drill and weld a new bung onto the lower portion of my header since the sensor would have been too close to my axle if I had used the pre-made hole
Real quick I found out that the car was running far too lean. It operated mainly past 18:1 and would only get close to 14:1 under full throttle conditions once the engine was already in the higher RPM range.
The culprit? 190cc injectors.
I cross referenced the part numbers for Y5 and Y7 injectors compared to Y8 ones.
Luckily I had a set of 240cc injectors from the Y8 head and manifold that I had laying around.
I had no idea on what condition they were in, but I decided to give them a good clean and try them out.
On the left is the cleaned injector, and on the right is how they were when I pulled them.
All cleaned up and assembled. I decided not to run the filters that were on these since they looked kinda clogged up and used the ones that were on the 190cc ones instead.
What came out of my engine was a little terrifying...
Those are still good, right?
After the swap, I let the fuel pump prime a couple times by cycling the key, and once I started the car the difference was night and day.
She idled nice and smooth, right at the 14.7 range, and the driveability was better than it had ever been before.
Re: You Can't Polish a Turd (98 Civic HX build thread)
Of course after all this greatness something bad had to happen...
I was about to head to work one morning and as I'm pulling out of a parking space and putting my car in 1st gear to move forward after having backed up, this old lady backs into my car trying to back out of her parking spot.
The damage was not bad at all, but it still was bad enough to ruin my day (gotta love mondays!)
Luckily I was able to buff all of it out and have yet to mess with panel fitment.
I really don't care about that rear bumper too much as I want to replace it with a 99-00 rear bumper anyway.
Somewhere in the mix, I replaced the god awful Nitto NT450's with some 205/50/15 Dunlop DZ102's.
They sit a lot meatier than the 195/50 Nitto's did and they are worlds better too.
-Close to zero road noise, when the Nitto's were so loud that it sounded like a bad wheel bearing.
-Tons of grip in both dry and wet conditions
-Much less flex on the sidewall
-Far more confidence inspiring
I'm super happy with them although it took almost a month to get them in that sizing.
Would totally recommend them to anyone looking for a sporty tire that is still DD friendly.
Here you can see my friend's ITR swapped EF that we Dyno'd at King a few weeks back, along with my dirty hooptie on the new tires.
Then I found a set of new Hard Race LCAs to replace my worn Emusa units that were on the car when I bought it.
The old bushings were so bad that they literally crumbled to pieces and the metal sleeve fell on the floor once I took the bolts off.
These were the exact ones I was looking at buying, and I got them for a steal as well.
Ricer boy VatoZone shot, because why not...
Then I finally got around to installing the "new" gas tank that I bought months ago.
Since I had already taken the tank out of the car once before, everything went by real quick and pretty much painlessly.
Here's our "Shop Safety 101" on how to empty a gas tank:
Ran the car, checked for leaks, and all was good. On my way home I finally got to fill the car up all the way for the first time since ownership!
That means that I can finally calculate MPGs too, which will be pretty cool.
Then I found someone wanting to trade one of my favorite set of wheels for RPF1's, so I contacted the guy and did a little test fit.
They are 15x6.5 et43 Volk CE28's.
I have loved the CE28's for years since I first started getting into tuners back in my high school days.
I remember seeing S2000's and EK9's with rocking these and thinking to myself, "Man, one day I'll be able to afford cool things"
The specs could be a bit better, but they will looks a lot more aggressive when I transfer my tires onto them.
The owner still has to sit on it and let me know, but I'm really hoping that I can make it happen.
Next on the agenda is getting my brake setup finalized as it is the last thing I need to do before my car is ready for the event I am helping host on July 12th at Madison Speedway.
The idea is to give the car a good shakedown at Madison before hopefully doing 1 or 2 real track days before the season is over.
Re: You Can't Polish a Turd (98 Civic HX build thread)
Originally Posted by TallKyle
finally found it.
Thumbs up!
Thanks man! Will be coming to you shortly for intercooler piping needs.
---
Also forgot to mention this, but at the same time that I bought my LCA's, I put down a down payment on a Y8 trans with carbon synchros, new bearings, and an MFactory LSD.
I was able to pay it off and pick it up last week, so now I'm just waiting on time to slap that thing in - should hopefully wake this thing up!
Also got a LSD motorsports clutch as part of the deal and plan on using a stock weight flywheel to complete the setup.
Re: You Can't Polish a Turd (98 Civic HX build thread)
Finally got to calculate my MPG's!
Without being careful, driving like I normally do which includes a lot of passing of idiots and getting on it on corners (even did a nice half hour of 100mph+ on the highway one night) I still managed to average 32.39 miles to the gallon.
I wanted to be right at the 32 marker, so I'm super happy with it.
Yes, I know I could be doing a lot better if I drove more carefully, but that's no fun.
Re: You Can't Polish a Turd (98 Civic HX build thread)
So I still haven't gotten my bushings...this is getting ridiculous...
In other news, I decided to mock up a custom sub-woofer enclosure in between jobs at work since we had a few people cancel their appointments.
My goal is to keep as much usable trunk space as possible since this is my DD, and still have a nice woofer and amp setup in the trunk.
This is what I came up with:
It will basically make everything from the trunk hinge to the inner side of the quarter panel into a sealed box for added air space.
My plan is to dynamat the metal behind the liner, then fiberglass the liner to mold onto the wooden piece that I will cut using the cardboard template I created.
There will be a 10" shallow mount sub on the right side and a 5 channel amplifier to power everything (including interior speakers) molded onto a beauty board on the left side.
Re: You Can't Polish a Turd (98 Civic HX build thread)
Originally Posted by TallKyle
Yup, coupe will even have working AC man.
I'm too much on this build. haha
Comfortable DD is where it's at! Race cars are over rated!
Originally Posted by tony_2018
So your injectors were the issue? Probably needs a good cleaning.
It was a multitude of things including cam timing being off and 190cc vs 240cc injectors.
Details are up there^
Originally Posted by EJtypeR
really digging the silver wheels. I have a 2000 white ex with black TE37 knock offs.
Thanks man!
Let's see your ride!
I love the look of the silver wheels on the silver car.
I had flat black TE37 look alikes on this for a tiny bit, but I wasn't a huge fan.
I think they would've looked a lot better in a bronze color.
Re: You Can't Polish a Turd (98 Civic HX build thread)
Anyone still use this site? Bueller? Chyslerkid?
Anyway, I figure now is a good a time as any to update you on the fate of this car.
I drove the **** out of it and enjoyed every mile I ever put on the damn thing.
It was the perfect mix of DD and performance and is to this day one of my favorite cars I've owned and I got to learn an awful lot in the process.
One rather cold fall morning as I was heading into work, the person in front of me stopped abruptly at some train tracks and I tried to stop in time but locked my brakes up instead and slid right into them.
Their car wasn't all that bad, just a scuff on the rear bumper and the tailpipe trim piece had been screwed a few degrees but twisted rick back into place.
My car on the other hand didn't fare too well since Civics are made of paper mache and held together by unicorn farts.
It was a huge bummer, although 100% my fault.
My EDM headlights were destroyed in the process, grill was cracked, radiator support tweaked, and hood badly dented.
After a couple hours of massaging, cleaning up an old set of headlights and throwing the stock grill back on, this is what she looked like.
Not too shabby for a quick repair.
Told myself this was the push I needed to do the '00 front end conversion as a silver lining, and not a week later someone had different plans.
Car was parked in front of my second job, off to the corner of the lot where I usually parked to keep away from the busier spots, when some dude in a pickup truck decided to back straight into my car.
Driver side quarter to smashed in pretty good, rear pillar got creased, it was bad.
Dude came into my work asking if it was my car (people from Subway next door let him know) and was an absolute *** about the whole thing.
He came in guns hot, asking that I drop everything I was doing as if somehow him hitting my car was an inconvenience I was causing him. **** that guy.
I ended up getting a decent insurance check for the damage, bought another shell to build up, took all the aftermarket parts off the HX, and sold the car shortly after.
I still see the car around town every now and then (I think the last time was a year or so ago)
The white coupe sat for a long time before I moved to a place where I had the room to work on it.
I got it road worthy, did a bunch of prep to get the car track ready, and was pretty much an alignment and some brake pads away from doing an event in it but I just wasn't happy with the car.
The car was an ex drag shell and all brake lines/hvac/wiring had been messed with and hacked.
I just wasn't happy with the white car and how modified everything had been and how far from stock everything was.
For whatever stupid reason, I decided to buy a 97 hatch shell on impulse and tear everything back out of the white car, then sell it.
I will be starting a separate thread to document the build and restoration of my hatch, and adding the link here when that happens.
I guess it just goes to show that you really can't polish a turd.
Re: You Can't Polish a Turd (98 Civic HX build thread)
Also the y5 camshaft is more aggressive than the y8 or z6 and has better valve springs. The y5 pistons though are lower compression. So best swap would have been y8 pistons and y8 head with y5 cam and springs. But I don't condone modifying a d-series for daily driving comfort
06-23-2015, 01:38 PM
Re: You Can't Polish a Turd (98 Civic HX build thread)
