The motor and trans had a good amount of oily crud on them from a few different leaks.

The breakdown begins. Every nut and bolt will be bagged and labeled along the way.

 

Next up was the head disassembly and clean up. The head gasket was fused to the aluminum and took considerable effort to remove. The valves needed a good lapping as well. Valve seals, o-rings and seals also replaced along the way.

 

Just beautiful

 

 

I want to sell my CRX to find an 88-89 si hatchback to do this with. Well done

 

Moving right along. I disassembled the bottom end and thoroughly cleaned the block, pistons, oil pan etc. The ring lands were also cleaned in preparation for new rings.

 

awesome work. can't wait to see the motor back in the bay.

 

A small update, more cleaning.

 

fantastic work!

 

Great work

 

The bottom end is assembled and torqued. Everything cleaned along the way.

 

I'm glad the car fell into good hands. Keep up the great work.

 

Such a satisfying thread, more!!!

 

Thanks for the kind words guys.

The transmission received a new shift rod seal, and new axle seals, these were more preventative as these seals weren't leaking. I also changed out the throw out bearing (clutch, pressure plate and pilot bearing next).

 

No need to explain any "unnecessary" repairs on a 25yo car - its just due for a full once over. Great work and awesome luck finding such a clean/rare piece of Honda heritage.

 

Thing is beautiful. Congrats man.

Also, nice work so far on the clean up.

 

Then the valve cover got some love. One of my favourite steps of the build.

 

great work.................give me the car now lol

 

This is pure awesome man. I'm glad this Si is in your hands. Subscribed.

 

New clutch and pressure plate installed and torqued. Transmission bolted back on as well.

 

The mess of oil inside the intake tract bothers me and I question the effectiveness of the PCV system. Far too much oil is making it's way back into the charge air.

 

Amazing work going on here.

Does your Si have a lot of miles on it?

Since the transmission is out, possibly change the input shaft bearing and seal? Always a good idea to replace since it's such a PITA to do so if the bearing starts acting up and making noise.

 

It's fairly low (about 192k kms, 119k in the old money). I left the trans alone throughout this rebuild, it's had a very easy life so I'm not overly concerned about it.

 

The engine is mostly assembled now, just a few details to sort out from here.






This is a comparison of a typical eBay kit gasket and the OEM D16Z6 Honda gasket


Thickness comparison of D16A6 and D16Z6 3 layer gasket

 

During disassembly I snapped a few of the studs on the cast manifold. I planned on just replacing the studs but I later stumbled upon a partout for a newer Civic and bought the manifold (oem). The "newer" ones are actual bent steel tubing, and not cast. They're also a 4-2-1 design instead of just 4-1. I had to weld on my older exhaust brace bracket as it appeared my new one had been repaired at some point.

The welds aren't too pretty but that's flux core for ya.