Hey guys,

I recently bought a half finished project and am looking for some guidance. I bought this project from a dude that dropped a ton of money into an EG hatch with a built B18C. From what I've gathered from working on the car, it seems like he got it running, street tuned it, then let all the small problems become big problems over time. Simple things like the O2 sensor weren't secured and melted through, causing it to run like ****.
From what I've gathered about the previous owner, I think he had a knowledgeable friend that helped him build the engine and get it in the car and running, then assumed the owner would button everything up and then he just didn't do that??
You'll se below that there was a ton of money dropped on this car, but not much car was taken to really finish the car.


Questions at bottom.


The Bad:

• Leaky catch can spewing oil all over the engine bay
• Cracked Manifold (After I've already fixed it once)
• Street tuned (and no good Hondata tuner within 300km of me)
• Engines been ran without a filter for 2000km
• Electrical issues, bad ECU ground I cant seem to track down
• Wiring harness covered in oil in certain spots and needs to be secured
• Missing alot of fasteners from bumper, headlights and interior
• No Crash bar or CAT (Cant pass inspection currently)
• Spark plugs are pretty dark (Probably ran rich or lack of filter)

The Good:

• Engines only been ran for 2000km
• B18C
• Frame has zero rust and the undercarrage and engine bay was coated in rocker guard by 2nd owner
• Has built engine (see below)
• I have the receipts for all engine parts
• Compression tested at 160psi on all cylinders

Bottom end

• CP pistons
• Manley Forged H beam rods
• King race main and rods bearings
• ARP main studs
• High capacity Oil pan
• Type R oil pump
• Block guard

Cylinder Head

• MLS Head gasket
• ARP head studs
• Brian crower valve springs and retainers
• Brian crower Intake and Exhaust valves
• Crower Stage 2 turbo cams
• AEM adjustable cam gears
• Coil on Plug kit
• Skunk Pro Series Intake Manifold
• Billet Throttle body

Fuel System

• FIC 1000cc Injectors
• AEM 340LPH fuel pump
• AEM fuel rail and regulator

Turbo Kit

• Ebay GT3582 Turbo
• FF custom Turbo manifold
• FF custom down Pipe
• TIAL Wastegate
• TIAL BOV

Other engine stuff

• Aluminum Radiator
• An braided lines for fluids/ catch can
• Innovation Motor mounts
• ACT 6 puck clutch
• Catch can system with self drain to block
• BIG Intercooler

Electronics

• Hondata S300 V3 ECU
• AEM Wideband
• AEM oil pressure gauge
• AEM oil temp gauge
• AEM water temp gauge
• AEM boost gauge
• Rywire engine harness
• 4 bar map sensor

I've started with trying to deal with the electrical issues and made a decent amount of progress. Just trying to figure out an ECU grounding issue
New catch can is on the way, but how would I go about cleaning up all this oil?
I obviously need a new manifold and downpipe and was thinking I might as well get a smaller turbo while I'm at it. was thinking GTX3076R or non X, but I'm worried that might be too big.
I've combed through the forum and found HP estimates anywhere from 350hp to 600hp. I want this to be somewhat reliable and a fun street car that I might track in the future. So probably 400ish HP, Is that a reasonable goal?
This is my first project car so it's a bit overwhelming, I'm doing my best to learn, so if I missed something obvious, please don't be a dick about it.

 

You are a brave one to pick up someone elses project, especially knowing it has so many issues. I've been there, and it can be a long road trying to track down and fix all the problems an inexperienced builder can create. Prepare to have your patience tested with this one.

From what I have learned, do not simply take the previous owner's word for the parts that were installed if you cannot physically verify them yourself.

- What symptoms are you having from the supposed ECU grounding issue? How did you diagnose that's what it was? Could possibly be a problem with the ecu itself.
- Brake cleaner or engine degreaser will help with cleaning up all the oil, just careful with painted surfaces
- Do not drive in boost if it has a bad tune. You need to get it to a tuner, or at the very least you can get it tuned remotely with some street pulls and datalogging. You will probably need to start learning how to work in Hondata SManager so you can diagnose and fix issues with the tune yourself if you won't have a tuner available. I did this with mine, similar setup and street tuned myself. You can learn a lot online and looking at other peoples maps with similar setups.
- Definitely ditch the ebay turbo asap. What you go with depends on your goals and intended use of the car. I would err on the side of caution, you won't be able to run high HP without a good tune, so start smaller. I would look at a GT2860, would be a lot more fun and usable power band for a street car.

350-400hp is a formidable goal and will be very fast. I don't know if I would try going much higher if just running a block guard. Is it running E85? If not, you probably should.

Good luck solving all of the electrical gremlins. Mine had so many, I ended up tearing out and redoing a good portion of it.

I also question why the catchcan is spewing so much oil. I have a similar setup with lines off front of the valve cover and I get no oil in the can. Makes me wonder how much blow-by you are getting, and why it's being driven that hard in the first place when it isn't tuned. 160psi compression seems a bit low, are they low compression pistons?

It is a great looking car!

 

Thanks for the advice, I tend to dive into the deep end with projects and I've been casually watching automotive youtube for over a decade now and wanted to put that theory to the test. So far its been frustrating, but rewarding.

I do have receipts for the engine parts and the head rebuild, plus port and polish.
The bottom end was built by his friend who does work at a performance shop in the city where I bought it (I know.... still sketchy).

The symptoms for the grounding issue is the AFR readout in the ECU from the AEM wideband is about 2 numbers lower than what shows on the gauge.
And sometimes the main relay will buzz trying to engage when attempting to start the car, Seems to happen after moving the ECU around, If i press the harness wires into the ecu, the issue goes away, so I'm thinking the ground pin(s) might have come a bit loose as I've checked every other ground in the car.

For cleaning up the oil, in some places its pooled and stripped away some paint. being that its covered in oil it hasn't rusted, but I'm not looking forward to dealing with that.

Hard to say how bad the tune is as for the first few drives, I didn't notice that the ECU couldn't see the O2 sensor so it ran like ****. would do ok for a pull then break up. I only ran it like that twice before realizing what was happening. I have since gotten the AFR to show in the ECU but haven't ran it yet as I'm in the middle of replacing the alternator and ordered the wrong one....

I intend on towing up to the nearest decent tuner once its mostly buttoned up, the tuner I've been talking too keeps recommending a GT30 class or something like a 5858, but I had a feeling it'd be too big. I'll look into that. Where should I look for headers? I see alot of people recommend Go Autoworks. They are quite expensive especially paying in CAD, but after already dealing with cracked headers, I intend on getting something decent.

I can't run E85 as I live in Canada and don't really want to do daytrips down to Montana to get gas lol. Best I have easy access to is 94 pump gas

The catch can when I bought it wasn't mounted and was sunk into the battery tray area, so I imagine that a bunch of oil pooled up into what was already a leaky catch can. At least that's what im hoping...
Thinking about it now, being that the catch can was just sitting there when I towed it 10 hours home, that is probably what ground away the paint

These are the pistons:

 

Is the AFR offset intermittent or constant? If they are running the wideband O2 to the ecu it could be a problem with the parameters they set up for it. But that is concerning if you aren't sure whether the AFR reading is accurate or not, be careful.

It sounds like you have a good grasp on things and are working in the right direction to figure it out.

I'm sure it would make more peak power on a GT30, and be faster overall but it shifts the powerband higher and will have more lag which isn't always fun on the street. I say this having a T3/T4 57 trim which will make 400 at the wheels and is scary fast once it hits full boost, but my future plan is to move to something smaller. Off the line or first stepping on it, it feels slow as you wait for it to spool up and once the power hits, you have no traction.

Go Autoworks is the best option out there for quality and fitment, if you aren't able to to fab work and modify your own pipes. There may be some other options out there for manifolds, but it will move your turbo and you'd need to make new charge pipes, downpipe etc. If you do go through all that, I would recommend a short ram style manifold and bottom mount turbo, as oppose to the top mount. Shorter runner length equals faster spool and is more efficient, to an extent.

Makes sense on the E85, I didn't notice your location. 94 will work as long as you're properly tuned on it.

That is a good possibility with the catch can. Making sure the vents are up high enough in the bay, almost nothing should come out of them. I would recommend removing the drain line back to the block and just having the vent lines to the valve cover, and also eliminating the dip in those lines so they don't fill with oil and block air flow. You can use a manual drain **** on the bottom of the can vs. the drain line.

It's possible the 160 psi is normal for your pistons and cams, I know there are a lot of variables. Did you have the throttle opened when you tested?

Here is how mine is set up for reference.

 

I cant seem to get it to match the gauge, so it might be inconsistent, but its been on jack stands for a week as I've taken the alternator in and out like 10 times. I intend on being careful with it going forward, especially knowing the AFR might not be right. Was thinking I could just buy another O2 sensor and plug it in at the end of the downpipe where there is already a connector for it. Good idea?? or do you want O2 sensors to be close to the turbo?

Thanks! I'm trying.

That is what I was thinking as well, I'd way rather it spool early so it's more fun on the street.

Yea, the vents were originally below the inlet and outlet, I currently have it zip tied up higher so gravity can do its thing.
I have a new Catch can on the way with some extra lines, so I'll make sure it can get there easily.
Does your catch can not drain back to the sump? Should I not do that?

It was my first time doing a compression test and got my girlfriend to help, so no I don't think she pressed the throttle. It might have been climbing a little when I got her to stop, I'll try again and get her to press the throttle this time. At least they were consistent, which I'll take as a good sign

 

You generally want the sensor in the downpipe, maybe 12-18" from the turbo is ideal. You can go a bit further away if you have to. It wouldn't hurt to try a known working O2 sensor to see what reading you get, but question is which reading is correct, the ECU or on the gauge? If they aren't the same, then to me it seems like it either isn't wire to the ecu correctly or it's a problem with the parameters in Hondata. You can adjust the voltage offset to correct the gauge to match the ecu readings from what I remember.

My catchcan does not drain back, it has to be emptied but has never had more than a few drops of oil in it. I have had vents running from the PCV outlet in the past that always sprayed oil vapor in the engine bay, so now I run from the valve cover only and have had no issues.

Might be a good idea to try again. It is a good sign that all cylinders were consistent. Mine shows 180psi across the board with the throttle opened, cranking about 4-5 cycles.

 

So I think I have some bad news... I did another compression test and because i did it alone, I just held the starter for 5 seconds.


Cylinder 1

Cylinder 2

Cylinder 3

Cylinder 4



After doing the Compression test I drained out the catch can (which I haven't done yet) and got this



Then I let it idle for about a minute and rev'd it a few times to like 6k and drained this





Soooooo, guess I'm doing a rebuild....

 

That is somewhat concerning. It's possible there has been some ring wear due to running it without an air filter, or running too rich and washing down the cylinder walls

After testing the last cylinder, did you go back and test the first one over again? Possible that you started getting more compression once there was oil to help seal the rings

 

I did go back and retest the low cylinders, the pictures I took were actually my second time running through them as I didn't take pictures the first time.
I have a friend coming over later with a cylinder camera to see if we can see anything obviously wrong.
If the walls have no obvious damage, would it most likely be ring wear?
I guess there is a chance that the piston head doesn't quite fit to spec.
In either case, having an excuse to rebuild the bottom end isn't that bad of a thing. I made a deal with the previous owner that I would hold the last 1000$ till I verified the engine was good. And I'm pretty sure the rear main has a small leak as well, so going over it and giving it a good clean will be nice. Plus then I have a chance of getting all the oil out of this engine bay lol.

 

If there is visible damage it will probably need to be bored out. If not, then a machine shop will still need to measure it and hopefully just need honed, new rings with proper gap and be all set.

You are right though, having to do a rebuild will be the best way to take any guessing out of what was previously done, get it all back together right and not have to worry about it.