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So to start off. It had been a while sense I'd had a project car and I didn't have a lot of money to throw at buying a car to start with. Plus I've always wanted to be able to take a car that was on the verge of death.. rotting away never to be seen again and restore it to it's long forgotten glory. That being said my gf was not half as happy as I excitedly showed up at the house with this gem now firmly in my possession
As you can see I had found myself quite the project to undertake. Which while that was exactly what I had been after I didn't realize what I had truely gotten myself into.
Throughout the last almost a year I think. I've been slowly piecing things together here and there as I go along and can find the extra cash to snag parts that it was desperately in need of. Especially considering when I bought it I had almost no interior, half of my console, and it wasn't running (for a very irritating reason that I will explain later) So I went about doing things like cleaning and adding parts as I could. (as well as removing parts such as those very stylish tail lights and head lights)
At this point I had found myself a wrecked 92 prelude si with a JDM h22a swap in it that was also just rotting away and in need of being revived. Although the body was beyond repair the engine itself still ran just fine. And so I decided that the path of the h swap was what I wanted.. I've never really been a fan of single cams personally and thought this would be a great opportunity to go outside of my comfort zone and work on a challenging and frustrating swap that I could be proud of when I was done. Not wanting to pay for something like a h2b adapter and already having an h22 trans that came with the prelude I decided to use the cable shifter box out of the prelude (these pics are in it's current location I plan to relocate it into the exhaust channel so that I can keep my center console unmodified)
So along with buying this crx came the complications of an incomplete title transfer from Nevada (almost non existent smog laws) to California (land of the evil car hating smog laws.. you essentially have to drive a scooter to pass) this being the case I couldn't just jump straight into working on the h22 swap. I needed to get a running single cam in it so that I could smog it to get it into my name. Luckily I live in a very rare small county where once a car is smogged in your name you never have to do it again. So wanting to do this as cheaply as possible I didn't want to fix broken engines and just wanted to swap a single cam in that would work well enough.. so started my multiple swap disaster.. First off I paid a guy to let me use his hf crx to swap his engine just long enough to smog my crx and put it back. After swapping it and not being able to get it to run properly because for some crazy reason raw fuel was coming out of the exhaust I finally gave up and chalked it up to the fact that it was an hf and that must have had something to do with it.. So I then bought another 91 si with a d16z6 swap in it. After swapping this engine in and having the same issue of raw fuel coming out of the exhaust (and I mean a lot) I realized that it couldn't possibly be the engines
borrowed hf crx
bought 91 si
After this conclusion I hunted the internet and drove myself insane trying to find out what was wrong. Burned up the cat off the prelude and had to buy a new universal one to replace it. I finally hunted the issue down to some moron at some point changing the pins on the ecu so that my #3 injector was just stuck wide open spraying fuel 100% of the time.. Once I fixed this issue I was able to smog it with no problems and swap the z6 back into my donor crx and sell it. And tada!
California registration!
Now it was time to start on the h22. The engine being in the shape it was I wanted to make sure it was nice and fresh before it was installed in the crx, because once it goes in there for good I really don't want to have to pull it out.. Ever.. Lol. So I bought a pile of parts for the h22. Everything from 100% of the gaskets and seals (all from majestic honda because I hate cheap crap.. you get what you pay for) a new clutch, flywheel, head gasket, timing belt, water pump, arp head studs, valve seals.. Anything I could possibly think of going bad I purchased so I could replace it now and not have to deal with it.
Along with this build I will be painting my engine bay and cleaning my h22 to spotless perfection. Part of what I wanted was a nice valve cover paint job to go along with it all. So I sent my valve cover off to Maine Coast Customs to get it hydro dipped and I love the way it turned out, pictures don't do it justice
And next came my innovative f/h series mounts and the work to get it into the crx and line up the passenger side bracket so that it can get welded it. I cut off the stock bracket and ground it down to get paint off and make it smooth. then primered underneath where the new bracket will go to help prevent rust.
I did hit one snag of not being able to line up the mount properly with the engine in, but a call to swapshopracing had me back on track in no time and this is where it currently sits today
misalignment caused by binding in the other mounts
Sitting and ready to weld up the passenger side bracket
90-93 Accord climate control swap
Found some rear interior
Brand new windshield
Finally sourced all of the interior (even if it's not in the best shape)
crx seats.. those DS seats were horrible.. these aren't in fantastic shape, but it's still an upgrade
Well that's that for now.. I'll be posting up more pics and information as I go along. If you have any questions or advice (except for "Go h2b it's better") Then feel free to comment or msg me. Hope you guys enjoy
Yeah it's an original 91 si. Part of why I grabbed it up. I always start with the back too. It just got bound up somewhere else I suppose. I'm glad it worked out too. And I'm sure I'll have more questions to come haha.
One step closer over the weekend I found time to get my passenger side mount welded up. Now time for a crap load of sanding so I can paint the engine bay.
SO! Life happened and I had to take a break from putting time and money into the crx, but I've been back at it recently and have made quite a bit of progress! I will be posting updated pictures and information within the next day or two so stay tuned!
If it wont fit through the top then go through the bottom xD Opened up my timing case to find that the balancer shaft belt had been seriously neglected by the previous owner and this was the result.. luckily it didn't take the timing belt out with it How the engine looked before i tore it apart How it looks now that I've replaced EVERYTHING and cleaned/painted it.. much better Innovative competition bar and alt relocator plus half size radiator mounts primer bay Finished bay.. much better than the black rattle can it came with :D
I'm currently waiting on my wiring harness to be made and shipped to me so I can get this bad boy back in and it will be up and running! the outside still looks like a shitbox, but it should be one snappy little bastard regardless. First comes power then comes beauty. I'll make sure to get updated pics on here once it's entirely in. If anyone has any questions feel free to ask here or pm me! Thanks for looking
Wiring harness Final install aside from radiator and putting body panels back on Shifter from the top Shifter from the bottom. I installed it in the exhaust channel so that I would still be able to have a stock look from the top. When it was bolted up top it wouldn't let me put my center console back on A very tight fit between the slim fan and the shifter cable
Well it's finally in and running! After spending every extra hour I could find pissing and moaning and bashing my hands the ****** is in there and running perfectly. I'm waiting on axles to show up, and then this ugly bad beast will be on the road terrorizing after all this time!
05-11-2016, 02:56 AM
Back from the brink of death JDM h22a crx
