I know, right? Thanks for chiming in. I realize this is a little over the top for an old Civic, but there is no way I could come this far and not try to do something about it!

Originally, I thought I could use those solder-seal/heat-shrink connectors to get rid of the crimp splices, but when I looked at the crimps, I realized they were pretty close to the connectors - bummer.

Thankfully, I found out that our local member @HondaPartsHero sells new connectors, as well as the pins for running new wire to the harness connector at the ECU. So what the heck, I ordered up some connectors, and color stripe wire - 18 gauge this time - and decided to fix up the wiring:

 

Here are just some pics of pulling the old, incorrect color code wire for IAB @ A17 and Knock @ D3, and replacing with PNK/BLU for IAB and RED/BLU for Knock.

Just like Momma used to do it...

I realize I could have gone with 20 gauge wire to fit the A and D connectors a little better, but the 18 gauge fit:

 

Back to the VTEC connector - once you get that white plastic piece out, if you look carefully, you can see the locking plastic tab that holds the male connector in. Spring it with a jeweler's screwdriver, and you can then pull it out. Unless your connector was partially melted (WTF?) like mine, and you have to grind it down with the Dremel tool until you can pull it out. Ratty looking before, nice looking after!

 

This weekend I hope to wire up and splice in the connectors for IAB, Knock, IAT, and Purge. That should take care of electrical concerns. The forecast is calling for decent weather as well, nice!

Last weekend the sun came out for a little while, so I thought I would work on heater hoses while I listened to the Falcons kick the Packers' ***.

First, I replaced the hose that goes between the heater valve and the inlet to the heater core:

 

Then I moved on to the hose that connects the one connecting pipe between the water pump and the thermostat to the other connecting pipe that goes under the intake manifold. The old hose was ready to go - it was time!

 

Going back to the springy type hose clamps as I do not want to try to get to these connections again after engine re-assembly.

New hose between the connecting pipes, and then factory-fit hose from connecting pipe to heater core outlet - so nice!

 

And if you are wondering why I am so excited about some new heater hoses, recall back to page 3, when I compared the new hose to the travesty they had in place from the heater outlet:

 

Holy updates Batman!!!

Great work, dude. Do you have time to eat or do you only work on your car? Seriously, great job.

 

Thank you very much, I feel like I am moving at a glacial pace!

 

Got a few minutes to play this weekend. Yesterday I built my connector for IAT with the new color stripe wire and build your own connector.

You have to route the wire through the water-resist plug, crimp on the terminals, insert terminals into connector, then insert the white lock, finish by pushing the water-resist plug into the connector body. Nothing too crazy, but it beats having these crimp splices right up by the connector!

 

'94 Integra B18C1 uses GRN/BLU and RED/YEL at the IAT:

 

'94 Civic use GRN/WHT and RED/YEL at IAT (TA) sensor connector:

 

Since I had to choose between GRN/BLU and GRN/WHT for re-wiring the IAT connector, I thought the harness should match what you would see at an OBD1 B18C1 engine as much as possible.

Here you can see how weak the BLU shows up on GRN:

Weak blue stripe on green background
I wish I had opted to go GRN/WHT color stripe wire, as the white shows up well on the green background color wire.

The funny/sad thing is that absolutely no one is ever going to look at the color of the wires at the IAT, nor will anyone care, so much ado about nothing...

 

Last weekend I cleaned up wiring for IAT and Evap Purge, and added a YEL/BLK 12v (+) for IAB connector. When I was repairing the splice for Evap Purge I added some YEL/BLK.

It was windy as hell last weekend, but on Sunday the wind broke and I had a brief period of time. By the time I was finished, it was getting dark, and my pictures look bad, but it is wiring, so not too exciting anyway.

 

I did get one decent picture of how the solder-seal/heat-shrink connectors look after install. You can kind of see how the solder melts after the heat gun.

This is for the Evap Purge, which came with BLK/YEL, as it is a '96 (OBD2) evap purge solenoid. I am connecting to the 12v (+) from my harness. Further down is where I spliced in an additional 12v (+) for IAB.

 

Hah, I beg to differ! Love this level of attention to detail. By the way, I am still lurking and have been slacking on continuing the story of my ride...need to get on that! Wiring looks great!

 

Thanks Mate! It feels really good to clean up those crappy crimp splices after looking at them all these years.

I really can't wait to see how the B18C1 feels with IAB functioning properly! 15 years of having it wired incorrectly - crazy! That and getting the shifter back to where it used to be, it is going to be fun to drive her again...

 

The weather was so nice I had to do something to for the Civic. Saturday I knocked out some PM work on the wife's ride, and that took longer than expected. Sunday was perfect and I thought I would put the injectors back in the Intake.

First I replaced the o-rings, cushion rings and seal rings for each injector. Once you get those seal rings in the mix, this little exercise costs a few $...

After I stripped the old rings from each injector, I seated the seal ring in the intake, wiped a little oil on the injector and inserted into the seal ring. When all 4 injectors were in the intake, I wiped a little oil on the o-rings and then pressed the fuel rail on, and bolted it down.

1 step closer!

 

While I have the intake off the engine, I am thinking that this might be the time to replace the TPS. Before the tear-down, I had a very random "stumble" or very quick, short duration loss of power while going down the road. I changed plugs, wires, cap and rotor and did not get resolution. When I read on this symptom, it sounds like in some cases, replacing the TPS resolved the issue.

Has anyone fixed this stumble with a TPS replacement?

I was thinking one of these: https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/TEATPK500

 

I see this build wrapping up soon (hopefully). Soon enough that I am thinking ahead to the initial start-up.

Which makes me wonder... what do I prioritize when I start the engine for the first time?

Do I start it with the front end elevated so I can burp the cooling system? Or do I fill the cooling system as much as I can with the car on the ground and then take it out and drive it at varying RPM to allow the rings to break in to the fresh cylinder cross-hatch?

Thank you for any wisdom y'all might have. I think it would be good to drive her, but I don't want to develop any hot spots from having air bubbles in the cooling passages.

I figured I would just install the distributor at the half-way point in terms of timing, so I would not mess with ignition timing too much on initial start-up. Unless I have 20 minutes of cooling system burping ahead of me. I thought I would try the spill-free funnel:

This weekend I hope to run the ball hone through each cylinder and see if I am smart enough to replace the cam seals.

 

I know nothing about engine startup, however I can vouch for that spill-free funnel kit. I own the same one and ordered from Amazon. I have a Blox aluminum radiator and there was an adapter that fit. Only comment I have is make sure the adapter is sealed tightly to the radiator fill hole. First time I did this it was threaded just a hair off and coolant leaked out. Once I pressed down harder and got the rubber gasket to seal and the adapter threaded properly no problems.

If you park on an incline and use the spill-free funnel I think it goes faster.

 

Thanks. I was going to use ramps to get the front end up as high as I could...

 

Starting to get real...

I am lucking out with a chance to stick the Civic in a friend's heated garage next weekend. Before I take the Civic over there, I thought I better run the ball hone through the cylinders now so the hone oil and wash water and assembly lube ends up on my driveway, instead of all over his floor.

So last weekend was time to get out the ball hone, dress the cylinders, wash them out, oil them, find piston/rod assemblies, find bearings, put them all in!

Here you can see the cylinders before honing. There is a glaze, or scum of old oil and combustion by-product on the walls where the rings travel. You can see the difference up above from where I scrubbed off the "ridge" above the rings up top.

Here are the flex-hone products I used - ball hone, hone oil, wash brush. I measured the depth to the oil squirters and then made a crude depth gauge on the hone with painter tape so I don't hit the squirter with the ball hone.

 

Then I broke out the ARP ring compressor - this worked pretty well!

 

I lined up the rings as per the FSM: