WhiteSlips

I decided late 2012 I was ready to finally put a swap of some kind in my car and concentrate on getting the engine bay cleaned up. I got a 94 LS longblock in trade for the labor/technical assistance with my friends B20 swap in his CRX. That was the first thing I acquired and started working on it right away. I worked on the motor little by little while still keeping the car functioning and able to be driven with the stock SOHC for as long as possible. The final goal of the engine bay project was to have what appeared to be an OEM engine bay with little hints of cleanliness and aftermarket. OEM+ if you will.

Page 1- Intro to the car's history etc. Start of the tear down of the motor and restoration of individual parts and removal of stock SOHC.

Page 2 LINK- Car is back from getting the bay painted and parts are starting to roll in. Towards the middle of the page the new motor is in the car.

Page 3 LINK- Received my big order from AFH with all of the little OEM parts to freshen up the bay. Recap of the suspension/brake refresh from earlier this year. New Rywire harness and the bay moving toward completion.

Page 4 LINK- Engine bay all completed and a recap of the build. Also a little documentary style video about me and the car that my buddy put together.

Page 5 LINK - Test fitted some Kosei K1s.

Page 6 LINK - Changing out the water pump and freshening up the timing side of the motor.




A friend of mine shot some nice pictures before I took the car off the road for the swap-




Where all the magic was to take place-



Here's how the bay looked with the stock engine/trans and lots of hours in just little upgrades here and there. All of this was spray paint except the valve cover which I thought was pretty cool considering how good it looked and how little everything cost.







Day I brought her home in 2005/last picture I took before she got torn down.


The turd of a motor the day I got her home.





I stripped the longblock of all it's accessories etc. to get it ready to clean up and threw it on the stand-


Bagged/tagged every little thing just in case-


After that I picked up an S4C 2000 SI trans from an OG Honda buddy of mine (same friend that sold me the Regas about 6 years ago)

Generic picture I found on the web, but this is pretty much what it looked like. Mine might have looked worse honestly...


Cleaned it up with a wire wheel/drill and degreaser the best I could.



After some careful masking, some crevice cleaning, sanding, a few coats of "Aluminum" Duplicolor engine paint and a little stenciled OEM stamp it came out like this.





Stay tuned for more. I'm sure some of you have already seen the finished product since it's been up and running for a few months, but figured I'd organize everything on here and share the steps I took through the process.

Sebba

Holy **** that thing is GORGEOUS.

WeakSi

iTrader: (2)

Love your car, forever and always.

WhiteSlips

Thanks guys!

At this point I plugged up all the holes on the motor and started cleaning, cleaning, more cleaning, a little more cleaning and finally some paint.

Before-


After-


Before-


After-


Before-


After-


Before-


After-


Before-


After-


I polished up the distributor using my bench mounted polishing wheel and some stick polishing compound.


Picked up an OBD-2 valve cover with the PCV system built in to it (which I didn't utilize) and made a big order with Autofair Honda Parts for refreshing the engine/trans.


Innovative Tuner Series Mounts-


After of the valve cover-


I then put the motor back together using new seals, belts, hardware etc. and ended up with this-

Chef Andre

iTrader: (1)

SUBSCRIBED!!!!! I've always liked this car.

WhiteSlips

Thanks man! What are you driving now?


At this point I took the car off the road and took everything off of the front of the car to get it ready to go to paint.








I put tape on everything I didn't want painted and wrote little notes here and there on the tape so he could stick them to the walls of the shop and get it just like I wanted. He's an old school mini truck guy and does amazing work and being an old high school buddy of mine didn't charge me much at all to prep/paint the bay.


Day she went to paint. I was extremely nervous, but knew my buddy would take good care of her while I was out of town. He came and picked the car up with his trailer and I left for a business trip.

dopesk8er87

great thorough job and attention to detail

Sebba

No axle stubs in the hubs? EEEEK.

94doorgsr

Always liked your car, like how you're making the LS swap look like the SOHC. Awesome detail!!!

WhiteSlips

Thanks! I really tried to do everything right and take my time getting it the way I wanted.

I had one in the passenger side, but we just rolled it up on the trailer real quick and in to his shop. No biggy and nothing bad happened.

Thanks man! I really liked the look of the old bay and wanted to mimic it the best I could.

Autoworks

Beautiful detailing

RotiEatter

iTrader: (1)

Nice man.

Brice.Hayden

iTrader: (15)

Wow dude. I wish you would do this to my car

mr.bronx75

I can see it now this is going to be as clean and as beautiful as the SOHC.

WhiteSlips

Thanks!

Pictures the painter sent me while I was out of town on business.

sh!ft

NOICE!

navin

iTrader: (1)

Hope you replaced your wheel bearings in the front hubs after rolling it around w/o axles.

WhiteSlips

All those pictures and comments and the only thing you noticed was an axle missing in one picture. Thanks....

The passenger side axle was seized in the hub, so I had to replace that hub completely anyways. I had my buddy press in new wheel bearings and ball joints on both sides before I put all the suspension back on the car.

Brice.Hayden

iTrader: (15)

Some people are only here to point out the flaws. I've been guilty of it myself.

Car and the work looks top notch. Can't wait to see you finish it.

WhiteSlips

I am guilty of the same thing on the final product, but the car wasn't even close to being back on the road at that time so it wasn't a big deal. No ones life was in danger or anything, the car didn't even have an engine in it...

Thanks!

-Todd-

Good to see you still have it.

BLANCOh22a4

awesome work man love the simplicity.

siblueg

Always a fan

bks84

iTrader: (9)

I don't think rolling a car 25' at most without axles, or a motor for matter would be detrimental to the wheel bearings...

Nice car btw

(teh)H2OUUP2

In for the awesomeness !!!