Yeah!

 

It looks like its weeping out of those unwelded areas, get it welded or you will be found.

 

Getting ready to post up some details of the re-assembly. So far, I am pleased with the outcome of the build. While I was driving her today, I was thinking about how well things went.

I was able to address the following issues (in addition to just giving the engine a rebuild):

1. Loose/leaky steering rack - this one is big, and probably the biggest safety improvement
2. Sloppy shifter that was too far forward - Nice to have this tightened up and back in the stock position
3. Evap purge connection - the weather is getting a little warmer, and the gas tank is dropping closer to half-full. She doesn't stumble any longer. I did notice the smell of the charcoal can when I parked today at lunch and got out. Once I started driving her again, gas smell gone.
4. IAB - this is not truly "fixed", but I did discover how this was not hooked correctly and was able to lock the IAB into running the longer runners.

 

The weather this winter wasn't awesome to work on the mighty Civic.
A friend of mine offered to let me use his shop while he was out of town for a week. It was over the President's Day holiday, so I thought I could probably swing a couple of days off work and get some serious work done.
So the rebuild process kicked into gear...
First a classy ride to the shop behind a Land Cruiser - not bad.
Then, taking all the parts and tools I had amassed for this project out of the car and laying them out to create order out of chaos. It didn't work - after I got everything out I spent hours looking for the dowels that align the head on the block. And then I spent much more time bringing more tools and supplies from home to the shop. But you have to start somewhere...

 

Now that I had the little Si tucked into a nice heated shop, and some time to work on it, and my parts all laid out, I had to figure out what to do first.
I thought I would start off slow and replace the vacuum hose on the GSR intake manifold IAB system.
Honda only sells vacuum hose in stupid long lengths, but Toyota sells 3mm vac hose in 600mm lengths for less than $2/each. So I got 2 bags and it was just enough...

Later I will show how I wired the IAB solenoid. Something is not right though, as the IAB does not actuate via the engine vacuum when you start it up, so I need to figure out if my problem is electrical or vacuum related. I did take some pictures of the old vacuum lines for reference - I need to find those...

 

Then it was time to get down to it and get real, so I thought I would start at the front of the engine - front main seal/timing belt/water pump.
I forgot how detailed that DS engine mount is to separate so you can get the timing belt off and on...

 

Not sure why, but I thought I would work on the PCV breather box next. I just knew I wanted to get everything under the intake squared away before I put the head & intake on together.
Also, since this unit is tucked up under the intake, I knew I did not want to mess with it again, so I replaced all the rubber.

 

As I go through the pictures, I am not really sure why I did things in the order I did. I think it was just kind of stream of consciousness. I had the parts laid out and I think I just kind of grabbed the next thing I wanted to get out of my way.

When I was underneath the car replacing axle shafts, I saw that the bushings my radiator sat in were pretty trashed, so I ordered new.

I also replaced the hose adapters that convert the radiator from D series hoses to B series size hoses. These were a little tricky, you had to be careful with them because they had a tendency to "roll" when you stuck the hose on them. I ended up inserting them into the hose fully, and then inserting the hose and adapter onto the radiator inlet/outlet.

 

Given that I had been running this engine since 2002 and not replaced many of the little wear items, I thought I would replace the o-rings in the FITV.
I was not sure what throttle body and and FITV I had, but I did some research: https://honda-tech.com/forums/acura-...-fitv-3287577/ and figured out there were differences across the years and manual vs. automatic transmission.

 

My clutch master had been leaking for a while... When I looked back through my service records, it had been leaking since 2001 - before the swap. So I thought it was time. The slave did not seem seem to be having any problems, but the head was off, the radiator was out, so I thought this would be a good time to replace both. Getting under the dash to replace the clutch master sucked a little. Once I replaced both I bled the system and all seems to be well. I am not sure I have the pedal engagement height adjusted just right, but the clutch works and seems to hold fluid well.

 

Now it felt like it was time to get the engine together after playing around with peripheral items...
I thought I would start at the bottom, and that is when I realized I could not find the gasket for the oil pick-up tube that I had ordered. I was bummed/pissed, and contemplated my options: https://honda-tech.com/forums/engine...asket-3293218/
In the end, I ended up driving about 40 minutes (1 way) to a Honda dealer that had one in stock. The clock was ticking, I was on a day off from work, I was going to lose the shop space when my friend got back in town.

 

Now that I made it through the oil pick-up gasket debacle, I could get the oil pan on. This felt good. Closing up the engine, keeping dust out felt like good steps.
The torque spec on the oil pan is pretty low - 8.7 ft-lbs. My smaller torque wrench does not go down that low, so I just ran the oil pan fasteners snug with my little Craftsman 3/8" ratchet. Since then the oil pan gasket has been leaking, so I will snug this up, maybe add some blue loc-tite.

 

Cam seals - I wanted replace these while the head was off. The originals were not leaking, but my fear was that they were original - from 1996. I had never replaced them before.
Note - my friend saw that after I had installed the new seals that the spring part of the seal had slipped out of its little groove. I was glad she saw that! I pushed the spring back in, but make sure you take a look at these when replacing!

 

Look at all that dust in the last picture! I could not wait to get this engine closed up...

 

As I pushed towards getting the head back on, I realized there were so many little details to manage before the head can go on.
Earlier I was trying to figure out how to seal the coolant outlet to the head: https://honda-tech.com/forums/tech-m...asket-3288580/
I found this part in the FSM and decided to use The Right Stuff on the outlet - so far no leaks!

 

Now it felt like time to get all the coolant hoses connected in advance of the intake coming in and covering everything up!
The IACV connects to the FITV and then the tube that runs between the water pump and the thermostat.


Before I tore the engine down, I had a random stumble in power under load: https://honda-tech.com/forums/hybrid...ic-si-3284320/ so I decided to clean the IACV and replace the o-ring.
So far I have not felt the random stumble in power - woo hoo!

 

More hoses!
This short little hose that goes between the thermostat housing and the intake manifold is a PITA to get on. I got it on, and clamped, but if I ever replace it, I hope I remember to heat the hose up in some hot water to facilitate pushing it on all the way.

Then there is the hose that goes from the head to the heater control valve - time to get this in place.

 

Knock Sensor!

Unfortunately I cracked the old sensor when I took the head and intake off.
$150 later I have a new one.

Earlier I went to work to replace some shoddy wiring for the knock and IAB: https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-.../#post51183210
The original swap came with some super deluxe wiring:



So I wired up new connectors for Knock and IAB:

 

Now I felt ready to assemble the intake to the head and place the head on the block!
I wish I had gotten a few more pictures - showing the alignment dowels, lifting the head on, etc, but once we were ready to move - we moved. And it was getting later in the day...

 

And then suddenly, the head was on!
It was getting late, there was a little struggle to keep the header out of the way of the exhaust studs sticking out of the head, but it was time to head home, so I covered things up...

 

Did I mention it was getting late? My friend asked if there was a gasket for the exhaust?

Son of a...

So one last struggle while I had an extra set of hands, and we get the exhaust gasket in.

Dammit...

 

Next day I am ready to get back after things.

I ordered new head bolts, and tried to install and torque them correctly. I could have done better. Read more here: https://honda-tech.com/forums/engine...b18c1-3293576/

Anyway, I put the #1 piston at TDC and then torqued the head bolts, then put in the cams, and then torqued down the cam caps.

New cam seal on the exhaust cam at the passenger end of the block.

 

That is all the more I can write for now.

Next up, I set the timing belt tension and valve lash.

 

Timing Belt:

I forgot what a process it is to get the timing belt on and keep everything at TDC, and get the right tension on the belt.

You can see in the image with the belt how loose things looked up top when I first started. I had read that starting with the cam sprockets a little past TDC can work well when you get some tension on.

I am sure if you do these on a daily basis they are a piece of cake. Mine was not incredibly hard, just required a little patience to get things to where everything looked and felt "just right".

First some scans from the FSM about loading the new belt and setting tension:






I found it helped to run a little silver paint pen on my TDC marks. My friend had a kick *** LED shop light that was great under the car. When taking pictures, everything out of the light looked kind of dark...

 

Setting Valve Lash

Next it was time to set the lash.

The FSM calls for clearances of .006 - .007 for intake, and .007 to .008 for the exhaust side.

I know the picture shows me holding the .006 feeler gauge by the intake cam, but at the last minute I changed my mind. I thought "better to be a little fat, than too skinny" (don't tell my woman) and went .007 intake/.008 exhaust.

My plan is to go back under the valve cover @ 3k miles and perhaps re-torque head bolts. At that time I will change up the valve lash to .006 intake/.007 exhaust. She is a little loud now - like a sewing machine...

Don't forget how to orient your cams for setting lash on each cylinder: