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I found a bone stock '97 Civic EX Coupe that needed a motor and managed to whisk it away at salvage yard prices. A few dents and dings and the clearcoat is peeling but other than that it's a clean little car. After a few years of being without a project vehicle I decided to try something I haven't seen in this area (Central Arkansas) and build a D16Y8 with the hopes of a reliably streetable 300 whp. I towed the car to my work and yanked the valve cover and sump off to see why it "needed a motor" and low and behold the previous owner managed to run it completely out of oil and threw a rod through the block.
Deposits under the valve cover tell me maintenance wasn't a priority for the previous owner. Snapped a rod and put it through the side of the block.
So yeah, not going to be able to reuse that block. No biggie. The few people around here that run Hondas do B swaps so finding a cheap D16 block and a usable crank took no time at all. Got the block all tore down and ready to head to the machine shop.
Off to the machine shop!
Ordered some 75.5mm Wiseco Pistons and Eagle H Beams and decided to throw a Golden Eagle Block Guard at it for good measure. Will have the machinist weld in the block guard, align-hone the cylinders, balance the rotating assembly and finish off with a micro polish.
Forged Bottom End
Machine shop said there'd be at least a 2 week lead time as he's trying to get caught up so I've got plenty of time to get parts in and yank the old motor out.
Out with the old....
Can't wait to start getting parts in and move on to assembling this thing. Decided to clean up and paint the valve cover in the mean time.
Matte Black Ceramic Paint, used a Dye Grinder with a red roloc wheel to polish the paint off the raised lettering.
So here I am, waiting for the machine shop to get my block back to me and all my parts to come in. Here's what I've ordered so far.
D16Y8 Block
75.5mm 8.5:1 Wiseco Forged Pistons
Eagle Forged H Beam Rods
Golden Eagle Block Guard
Cometic StreetPro Bottom End Gasket Kit
Cometic MLS Head Gasket 75.5mm bore, .030 thickness
Clevite Thrust Washer
4 Piston Racing Outlaw D16Y8 CNC Ported Cylinder Head
AEM Tru-Time Adjustable Cam Gear
ARP Flywheel Bolt Kit
ARP Head Stud Kit
Brian Crower Cam Stage 2 Turbo
Brian Crower Valve Springs
Brian Crower Titanium Retainers
Ferrea Valve Seals
Ferrea Competition Plus Valves, Standard Size
Honda Factory Valve Spring Seats
Competition Clutch Stage 4 6 Puck Ceramic Clutch Kit
Competition Clutch Ultra Light Flywheel
Skunk2 70mm Black Throttle Body
Skunk2 Black Intake Manifold
AEM 320LPH 1000HP High Flow In Tank Fuel Pump
Injector Dynamics ID1050x Injectors
AEM Billet Aluminum Fuel Rail
AEM Fuel Pressure Regulator
Go-Autoworks A/C Pro Turbo Kit
Tial 50MM Q BOV
2.5" Downpipe (Flared to 3")
Turbonetics T-GA Billet 5454 Ball Bearing Turbo
Tial MVS 38MM wastegate
Hondata S300 V3
SpeedFactory OBD2A-OBD1 ECU Jumper Harness
AEM Digital Wideband 02 UEGO afr kit
Omni-Power 3 Bar Map Sensor
AEM Air Inlet Temperature Sensor
Hondata 4 Port Boost Control Solenoid
Hondata Boost Control Componenet Kit
AEM Digital Boost Pressure Gauge
Manual Rack Conversion from Civic DX
Skunk2 Billet Honda Oil Cap Black Series
I still need to get my bearings but I'm waiting for the machine shop so I can get the right size in case he had to do any work on the crank. Also considering a catch can but I want to see what the engine bay looks like with everything else in it before I decide on which one to go with. Manual rack should be here by next weekend so I'll push the pig back into the shop and get it swapped in. Will update as things move along.
Boiled the rocker assembly parts in simple green and put them all back together this evening. Came pretty darned clean considering I literally did 0 scrubbing.
Rocker assembly cleaned and reassembled
Steering coupler and grommets all came in today. Steering gear is scheduled for delivery tomorrow. Plan on putting it in this weekend so I'll update again after that.
Tons of parts came in today. Still no motor or head to bolt them on to though. LOL Came down with a bad case of strep this week so I wont be putting the steering gear in this weekend. Will post parts pics over the coming week though. In the mean time, I'll leave you with this...
Skunk2 Black Series Intake Manifold with Skunk2 70mm Throttle Body.
So You mentioned your goal of a reliable 300whp, but that turbo is rated at 530 (crank?)hp. What is your actual goal? Pretty safe 400ish whp? Or a super safe 300whp? Looks like a great build so far. I cringed for a second when I saw block guard, but then was relieved to see welded and align honed. Did you consider CSS?
So You mentioned your goal of a reliable 300whp, but that turbo is rated at 530 (crank?)hp. What is your actual goal? Pretty safe 400ish whp? Or a super safe 300whp? Looks like a great build so far. I cringed for a second when I saw block guard, but then was relieved to see welded and align honed. Did you consider CSS?
I'm definitely overbuilding for my goal (300whp) in the hopes of improving reliability. It'll likely cost me a little grunt at the bottom end but I'm ok with that. Before deciding on the block guard I had considered both CSS and full on Darton MID sleeves. With the number of folks out there reporting 400+ on the factory sleeves I came to the conclusion that for my goals neither were necessary and am really only putting the block guard in for a little peace of mind.
Turbo parts arrived yesterday! Hooray! I bolted the turbo to the manifold as well as the wastegate, dump pipe and down pipe. Got it clocked as close as I could without it actually being on the engine. Still waiting for the block to come back from the machine shop. Was hoping for yesterday but I guess he didn't get her finished up yet. Should be done next week for sure. Also shipped my valves, springs etc to 4 Piston Racing so they can assemble the CNC ported head for me. Hoping to have it in within the next couple weeks as well. Until then, here's a few shots of the turbo setup.
Turbonetics TGA-5454 Billet Ball Bearing Turbo Tial 50MM Q BOV Turbo, Ramhorn Manifold, Downpipe, Wastegate & dump pipe assembly
Got the manual steering conversion done this weekend along with mounting the intercooler and changing the connectors for the fuel injector harness.
The manual steering conversion didn't quite go as expected. The passenger side bushing was D shaped as opposed to the round bushing from the power steering rack. I had to cut it off and reuse the original bushing. Problem was, there was a little over 1/4" difference in the diameter of the rack tubes which means I had to do a little re-engineering on it. A little PCV tape and liquid steel got the job done though.
I made the intercooler bracket out of a strip of steel I picked up from Home Depot for under $10. Cut it to length, bent and drilled out the holes then painted to protect from rust. Fairly straight-forward, nothing fancy. To add a little vibration dampening I oversized the holes for the intercooler itself and made a bushing out of some rubber plumbing washers as a short piece of vacuum line.
Also, I ordered my wheels and tires last Thursday from Tirerack and they arrived Friday. Absolutely blew my mind that they got them to me next day on free shipping. Decided to go with 15" Enkei RPF1's. At 9 1/2 lbs per wheel they were kind of hard to pass up. They're staying off the car until after paint of course but here they are...
Last but not least, Amazon finally got my new soldering iron to me so I got the boost control components soldered into my ECU. It's only a total of 5 components (2 transistors, 2 resistors and a diode) and took me about 30 minutes from start to finish to get done.
Overall it was a pretty productive weekend in the car department. My block still isn't back from the machine shop. If this shop didn't come so highly recommended I'd probably be raising 9 kinds of hell at this point but I'm trying to be patient. In the end all that matters is that it's done right. That's about it for the time being. Not much else I can do until I get a block and head to start assembling.
Imagine how much time would you lose, and money if you have gone to some low budget shop.
Better to be patient, and wait a little bit more, and be sure it works.
any updates on this build? looks amazing. Great job on the parts you've chosen. I also have a boosted D16Y8. Subbed for more
Good luck!
Thanks, updates have been slow due to waiting on parts. Specifically the cylinder head I ordered from 4Piston. I ordered it on October 28th and have yet to receive notice of shipment. I called over there and they told me that there's been problems sourcing quality cores to build on so I'm patiently waiting for them to get one and get the product to me. I have pretty much everything else on hand so as soon as I get that head in it'll be time for final assembly and a nice big photo-bomb on here. :D
I got a little more work done on the block today. The rotating assembly, oil pump, pickup tube, water pump, timing belt tensioner, water pipe, thermostat housing and head studs have all been installed to the block. Still waiting for my cylinder head... been just over 2 months now since I ordered it. As soon as it comes in though it'll be game on for real. Still need to put in the rear main seal, thermostat, PCV delete and timing belt tensioner spring some time before then. I can't seem to find the spring at any of the parts stores so I guess I'll be going to the dealer for it. Considered ordering it online but the shipping costs erases any savings over going to Honda for it. In the mean time, enjoy the few pics I took and I look forward to proving another update soon!
Last edited by adamhunsicker; 12-31-2017 at 02:03 PM.
Reason: Pictures were all fubbed up.
10-28-2017, 04:22 PM
New Build, D16Y8
