eHMxhACk

iTrader: (17)

15 lbs. I weighed one I took from a salvaged VX before I bought it (the flywheel). I believe a normal civic flywheel weight is 18 lbs.





eH.

Bradshaw

we'll there we go then.

sadly i'm pretty sure my old one ended up in a dumpster somewhere and this flywheel from autozone is crap. we'll see how the d15z1 likes a 10lb flywheel. i thinking it should be nice when i'm not using the a/c. hopefully the rpms won't die on me between shifts when the extra strain from the a/c compressor. maybe i'll just need to get a short shifter so i can switch gears quicker i'm a granny shifter for sure dont' want to be forcing gears in on my nice new $750 synchrotech trans

NotARaCist

iTrader: (1)

You should be fine on a 10 pounder. IF you want any lighter than that, I'm about to be pulling out a Fidanza ultra lightweight...7 pounds

aaronhume

looks like a fun project!

one quick question though, why the hasport mounts? Are you racing this?

my previous experience with solid mounts has made me a skeptic because of the extra vibrations in the car, and random dashboard buzzing sounds... I had to get the mounts though to allow for a B16, which I got used to but I would never recommend them for an OEM setup.

Mad props for the NGK wires though, and I use ZFR5F-11 plugs on my Z1, they are supposed to be a hotter plug which may yield better gas mileage, and that's what my JDM engine has a sticker for even though O'Reilly's recommends the colder plugs. I guess what is typically a better idea though is going off of the sticker on your engine for the exact model spark plugs.

Also, using a light flywheel can be an interesting adventure, haha... I had one on a B18A and it was probably a bit too light for that car so if you get something in between the ultra lights and OEM you should have a more normal driving experience. when it comes to having A/C on you might need to bump up your idle speed to keep from stalling your engine when the compressor kicks on.

Bradshaw

well, i replaced all motor mounts before with the basic stuff and had a lot of clutch chatter/engine movement during take off. so i went with the softest 62A hasport mounts and hopefully it will get rid of that. also the better mounts in theory should help to convert power to the ground better and increase efficiency a little bit. plus they're so shiney

also i went with the NGK ZFR4F-11 which was the main recommendation for the vx i got from ecomodders forum. they've done well so far i think but i might do some experimenting later on and see how the ZFR5F-11 do. i still need to get an mpguino installed so i can really track that stuff. although i'm a bit hesitant to put anything that looks like gauges and stuff in this car in fear people thing it has something fast in it and try and break in. i'd like a vacuum gauge as well.

i'll mess with the idle speed if i have any problems using light weight flywheel and a/c. when i was cleaning parts on my intake manifold i noticed my idle screw was siliconed in for some reason. i just went ahead and ordered a new one with a new o-ring just in case. never had any idle problems before so i thought that was odd.

Bradshaw

oh photobucket, where did we go wrong? i guess after 8 years i finally hit my free bandwidth cap and they want me to feed them money. or i could just wait till the end of the month for the bandwidth to reset. i might just throw them $10 and call it good for a year.

other than that just waiting on one more box from majestic that should arrive tuesday. i forgot to check my work schedule but i'm hoping for some morning shifts to give me the afternoons free to get this buttoned up before school starts next week. its gonna be close. hoping to put in some good hours tomorrow with most of the new parts depending on how many snags i hit.

would have liked to get more done this week but these afternoon shifts i worked the past 3 days left me little time for the car. and the fact that we've been ridiculously busy and i am completely worn out when i get home.

on another note, the extra hours and extra $$ will be very nice. scheduled 39 hours next week and we ALWAYS get more hours than scheduled. will make for a nice final paycheck before school starts. and i should have some spare cash from financial aid. now to figure out what to spend it on... i'm thinking suspension and extra security. body work can wait.

Bradshaw

so i went and bought a bunch of brake cleaner and had the engine upside down cleaning the intake and exhaust ports on the head. cylinder 2 exhaust port has a layer of **** about 1-2mm thick and was coming off in chunks. which worries me a tad. enough that i think i'm gonna pull the head and take a look see. no way in hell i'm gonna pay $50+ for honda's head gasket so i've got one from fel pro on the way. i trust them. oh, and decided to splurge for some arp head studs as well (which i'd rather spend the extra $ on). total overkill, 0 ***** given. who knows, maybe one day i'll upgrade the piston rods make a small turbo mpg build out of this.


also picked up a hood and pass fender from certifit. they look nice but need paint. also radiator support is clearly going to need more work to align right. so i'll probably just get a new one of those from certifit as well. and a front bumper and driver fender. hopefully i can find a good painter who can spray some oem milano red paint on it and not some mixed crap and do a good job at it.

other than that, just been pulling **** apart and cleaning it. already put in 30 hours at work this week so progress has been slow. its definitely not going to be finished by the time school starts (monday) but i'm okay with that. the tahoe is running good and has nice cold a/c even if she is a thirsty bitch. but with the extra work i'm putting in i've got some extra $ to throw around which is nice. plus i'm not sure i want to park the honda at school when i'll be on campus for 12 hours straight. especially downtown. tahoe has full security upgrades and no one cares to steal those.

thats all for now.


edit: threw in some new valve seals in the parts on order list as well. i have a feeling thats all it is for cylinder 2. if not, its a peace of mind. can't wait to see how well this thing is gonna run.

NotARaCist

iTrader: (1)

**** photobucket. Use imgur.

sidewayz2013

Nice ride man! I'm up in Round Rock, it's nice to know I'm not the only Texan lol

Bradshaw

agreed. but no way in hell am i going to go back and reupload all those and fix the links. i'll probably head over there and throw them $10 so things will keep working. only used 7% of storage but my bandwidth is maxed out

in the mean time, here's a working picture of her in the crowded garage space with the new hood!

jmaze

I made the mistake of also exchanging my oem vx flywheel for one that was already resurfaced from an auto parts seller when I changed my first clutch. My gas mileage was never the same and when I found out years later that mine was a lighter version that really pissed me off. Lesson learned!

Bradshaw

yeah not a very fun mistake. i don't think i returned mine as a core charge, pretty sure i just tossed it in a dumpster or took it to the recycle yard. problem was, the old flywheel took a beating from the previous owner. here's the old original clutch when i replaced it.



the flywheel surface was also pretty beaten. which is why i replaced it. i probably could have gotten by getting it resurfaced and having them just take off a bit more material than usual. hopefully the 10lb exedy flywheel does a good job. only one way to find out!

Bradshaw

this parts collection is getting insane! and i have literally zero time to get any of it done

new parts on order:
ignition cylinder (going to use my existing key, but the bracket on mine is busted from long ago when someone attempted to steal it)
new steering wheel covers (also broken during attempted theft)
new drivers knee bolster and fuse panel (straight up missing when i got it)
more stuff for my alarm (details of which are better left anonymous. adding as much theft prevention as possible is all anyone needs to know)

also pulled the head off today and man i'm glad i did. it wasn't too bad, but definitely a good amount of build up in the cylinder area. hit it with some carb cleaner and then wd40 to keep it nice and oiled up. need to make another trip to the store and pick up more carb/brake cleaner (6 cans of brake cleaner and 2 cans of carb cleaner down, with more to go i'm sure!) also need to grab some single edged razer blades.

also checked the head and block with a straight edge and its as perfect as can be. going to double check it after i get things cleaned up but i'd say it looks perfect. hoping the new valve stem seals are going to fix the buildup issues i was having.

still have a lot of parts i want to install but the parts pile is getting ridiculous. gonna wait till things start coming together more before i order more **** haha

here's the head and block after some light cleaning. notice the head is still a bit dirty on cylinder 2 which i believe is the one with the leaky valve stem steals

Bradshaw

well it was my girls birthday today so no progress unfortunately. but i do have more parts on order.

first of all, i was looking at the fram pcv valve i ordered from rock auto. looks like utter crap. fitment was off, doesn't even look like it would work. i understand how pcv valves work and how the vx has an elbow that goes straight through and the pcv plugs into the breather box. either way, no way in hell i'm putting this fram crap in my honda. so i found the part number for the oem pcv and put one on order. also apparently they updated the part number from 17130-P2M-A01 to 17130-P07-A01. i'm hoping they are identical.

got some new interior parts. my ignition switch assembly was broken by a previous theft attempt so i ordered the beck arnley 201-1853 ignition switch assembly to replace it. they also broke the shroud around the steering wheel and i've been missing the drivers knee bolster so i ordered those as well.

the other main goal for this build is to replace all old rubber parts in the engine bay area. upgraded the small rubber clutch line to a stainless steel line (russell 684730). still working out the details on all the coolant hoses. there is zero information online on the hose sizes for the smaller hoses and i've worried that all of mine are streched out and won't be good for comparison at the store. its about $200 for oem replacements for all of them and that doesn't include some that are discontinued. rubber hose is rubber hose so i may try a stop by the parts store eventually and try and work out the sizes.

vacuum hose i was able to determine is all 3.5mm hose so i just ordered a 10ft roll of that.

last i got the master bushing set in black from energy suspension. most of it won't go on till later when i order new struts and matching energy suspension trailing arms but i wanted the bushing for the shifter and steering rack installed before i put the motor back in. also didn't want to buy the shifter and steering rack bushing kits individually when i planned on getting the master set anyways.

welp thats all for now.

jmaze

New ARP headstuds may be less expensive than oem head bolts and cheap insurance since the head was off.

Bradshaw

they were a bit more expensive, but thats where my thinking was.


anyways, i went a little deeper into the rabbit hole

pulled the pistons and here's what the rod bearins look like




cylinders 1 and 2 have a bit more wear on them than 3 and 4.
the main bearings all looked quite nice.

according to the codes on the rods and such all my bearing clearances are either color code green or one color away. upon further research looking at the ACL race bearings, these bearings are all made in the green tolerance measurements so looks like i'm gonna throw some ACL main and rod bearings in the mix.

i also run a melling oil pump in my tahoe and they are fantastic units, so i ordered one for the honda as well.

right now i'm deciding on what i'm going to do about piston rings. what i'm unsure about is whether i should have my cylinders honed or not. they all are in great condition but i should probably mic spec them just to verify. cross hatching still looks great.

going to bring the block to a shop to get hot tanked and i'm going to see what they say. if they sound competent i'll see what they think about the piston rings and honing if its needed.

thats all for now

Bradshaw

well i'm sad. ran out of spare cash from this summer and school started. so free time is zero. block still needs a nice bath and hone. want to send the injectors off to be flow tested and cleaned as well.

till then, i have about 5 large boxes full of nice shiny new parts and cleaned up old parts just sitting there waiting. looking at me. feeling abused. i'm hoping this winter break i'll get some more time/$ to continue the build.

any suggestions on engine block storage till i get it to the shop for a bath and hone? i'm thinking some wd40, wrap it up, put it in a box and keep it inside in a controlled environment.

and this was supposed to be a quick summer job. and here i am now with a bare block LOL

weatherall123

Haha, seems to always be the case with me too! One little project turns into something HUGE!. Keep up the good work.

Bradshaw

Finally making some progress.

Dropped the block off at the machine shop earlier this week to get cleaned, decked, and a fresh hone.

since i was feeling productive, i also started taking apart the head so i can drop that off for cleaning as well. might throw in the intake manifold for good measure. want this engine to look nice and shiny when i throw it all back together!

My problem i have now is that i've taken apart the entire head but i was never able to get the cam gear off. That wouldn't really be a big deal except i have a new cam seal i need to install and it required me to remove the cam gear to do that. if anyone has any suggestions for removing the cam gear from the bare cam feel free to let me know. Otherwise i may run by a local shop and see what they can do.

either way i need to wait on my valve spring compressor tool so i can get the head 100% apart before the hot tank.

some pics i took



this bugger was a pain to remove. i was also being extra careful. when i found the pry spot i wasn't too difficult though.

Also make sure to leave the 2 bolts closest to the distributor in so they can keep the rocker arm assembly together! the other bolts i don't think are needed but i left them there for good measure. Otherwise the whole rocker arm assembly will fall into a ton of pieces and is a huge pain to put together.

underrated

iTrader: (3)

Clamp the cam in a bench vise in between 2 pieces of wood. That'll hold it so you can remove the bolt holding the cam gear.

Bradshaw

Fantastic idea! Thanks for the suggestion! i was thinking about trying to use the vice to hold just the end but that's a much better idea.

This build is giving me bad ideas about wanting to go turbo. Sure would be nice to do a set up that would only give me a couple psi right around when vtec kicks in on these vtec e's. I just really don't want to have to upgrade injectors now that i just sent mine to be flow tested and cleaned as well. Also the tuning would be a nightmare since the vx has all the extra crap to deal with (egr, 5 wire o2, among other things). It was just such a dog trying to get on the highway especially after i added a/c would be nice to have some extra power to do those kinds of things. We'll see what the drive-ability of this thing is after it's put back together and go from there.

baller status

Getting on the freeway isn't so bad. Keep it in low gear and build up momentum. Good suspension helps so you don't have to slow down on onramps. If cars are in your way it sure sucks though.

Everyone I know who has put a lightweight flywheel on a daily has hated it. I had one that was just under 12lbs that came with an Exedy clutch kit on ebay, and it was fine, but it made a lot of noise. I wouldn't go any lighter than that.

I don't think a turbo really makes sense on a VX. The ECU can't be chipped since it has the built-in wideband controller. The throttle body and intake manifold are tiny, as are the intake and exhaust ports on the head. Replacing the TB and IM makes sense and gets rid of the EGR, but at that point you're really getting away from being a VX and you might as well upgrade the engine.

My friend turbo'd his VX, but he ended up replacing the head. He's kind of a weird guy. He's a tuner so he has access to all kinds of parts. He put an old AEM EMS on it, tuned it for e85. He put a cheap Chinese turbo kit on and his car his engine is over 250k miles. 280hp. He doesn't care whether it blows up, he'll just throw some more parts together and keep going.

Bradshaw

Traffic is pretty bad around here as well as on rams with about 3 car lengths before you get on the highway. ******* dangerous but its what we have to deal with sometimes and thats when having some power is nice. On a side note, every civil engineer in san antonio who designed our roads needs to be hung till almost death and burned at the stake. The roads themselves aren't half bad but the design of the highways and on/off ramps and highway intersections is just insanely terrible. Moving on.

We'll have to see how the lightweight flywheel does. It may suck, it may not. Just gonna be a big surprise i guess LOL. They're balanced from the factory right? And a heavier flywheel just smooths out some of the engine buckle if i'm also correct? This motor SHOULD purr as smooth as can be once i've got it all buttoned back up but we'll just have to wait and see..

As for the turbo, think i've ditched that idea now. There was an article/build done by some online magazine with a vx and the whole thing just gets me ridiculously hot and bothered. Totally worth the read. They don't go turbo but spent more than i would allow myself to ever spend on a d15z1. I'm already past the point i thought i was going to hit with this build.

Links to the article "Project Sipper"
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5


As for progress on the build, the valve spring compressor tool came in today and i got to work!

's the tool i ordered from amazon. Highly recommended. OTC 4572 is the part number.

After removing all the valves, labeling them in individual bags of course, and pulling the valve stem seals, it was time to clean everything up.

Following video for the cleaning process. Only done 3 exhaust valves so i got some work ahead of me still.

I can see some decent pitting/marks on the valve seat area that isn't really going away but i'm probably just gonna roll it.

Engine block is still at the machine shop, and i'll more than likely be dropping the head off to get hot tanked as well and the surface checked and decked if needed.

Bradshaw

Got the an email back earlier this week with info about the injectors. Had them flow tested and cleaned at cruizinperformance.com. They weren't really all half bad and probably didn't even need the service, but its a good peace of mind and with everything else this build entitles i wasn't going to not get it done.

Preliminary Test Results

Test pressure = 43.5 psi	Injector	No.
	1	2	3	4
Test 1. Injector Resistance	11.6	11.6	11.5	11.5
Test 2. Leak Down Test (Pass / Fail)	P	P	P	P
Test 3. Spray Pattern (Good / Fair / Poor)	G	G	G	G
Test 4. 90 Second Pulsed Flow Delivery (mL)	77	77	77	78
Test 5. 100mL Pulsed Volume	99	99	99	100
Test 6. 20 Second Static Flow (mL)	77	76	76	78
Test 7. 100mL Static Flow	99	98	98	100

Test Results After Service

Test pressure = 43.5 psi		Injector	No.
		1	2	3	4
Test 1. Leak Down Test (Pass / Fail)		P	P	P	P
Test 2. Spray Pattern (Good / Fair / Poor)		G	G	G	G
Test 3. 90 Second Pulsed Flow Delivery (mL)		78	79	78	7
Test 4. 100mL Pulsed Volume		99	100	99	100
Test 5. 20 Second Static Flow (mL)		78	77	78	79
Test 6. 100mL Static Flow		99	98	99	100

Tomorrow i'm gonna run and pick up some mineral spirits and some brass dremel adapters to do a final clean on the valves since i wasn't 100% satisfied with the work the scotch bright pads were doing. Also want to use them to clean up the ports and combustion chamber in the head as well. Not looking to port the head since i want to keep it as factory and mpg so just a polish to help improve air velocity

update: fuel injectors have returned and my god you would NEVER guess these things were 20+ years old. they look BRAND spankin new. there were even returned in sealed bags with my old seals in a separate bag to feel good about how my injectors have all fresh new seals. i am 1000% satisfied with the service and only wish the rest of the engine was as clean and shiny as my fuel injectors LOL. here's a few pics



old parts

Bradshaw

Well here's a bump to this thread LOL. Engine block and head went through the machine shop for some refreshing. both were decked, cylinder walls honed, and they threw in the new valves and valve stem seals for me.

Engine is actually nearly 100% put back together now. I got some new braided wire loom and just waiting for summer to get some free time to loom it all together and make it look nice. Its only going to be a semi wire tuck, as a full tuck is just too much work for a daily driver.

But really whats up next on the list is to clean up the engine bay, remove the front core support, toss the motor in while its nice and easy with the core support out, get a new one, have someone help me weld it in, fix up the suspension and install all the new bushings, get some new struts, and drive it. LOL still a lot of work to do. maybe one day i'll finish this project and get some miles on it.