Just purchased this '95 Si 5 speed down by Atlanta and made a 4 hour drive home, my face is still sore from smiling the entire time. I forgot how much fun these cars are!

This is actually going to be my fiance's car, plan is to build for HS/STS class and autocross next year besides being her fun commuter.

It's got 143,000 miles on it and everything is 100% stock. Has pretty decent maintenance history on Carfax, has spent it's life in FL/GA and garage kept from the looks of it.

First thing we are doing is a paint correction, sealant and wax to try and protect what's left of the clearcoat and get a little more shine out of it. Then I have a new set of tires on the way, and going to get the brake system flushed as the pedal sinks to the floor when sitting at a stop.

Couple of minor issues I need to work on:
- Water not draining from wall behind seats/rear window area. Going to try dropping some denture tablets in to clear the drains
- Adjusting clutch engagement point, it currently grabs so high on the pedal. Is this even adjustable?

Otherwise going to give it a full check over and tune up when I get some time. Fluids, plugs, check compression, air filter etc. The transmission feels like brand new so that is a plus.




Longer term plans and in preparation for autocross next year:

- Hawk pads, probably go with HP+
- Rear swaybar, anyone have suggestions?
- Cat back exhaust, again anyone have a recommendation here? Want something "quiet" as much as it can be, but audible.
- 15" wheels with some 205/50 a052's or rt660's depending on budget

 

Nice!!!

IIRC, you can get a rear sway off a EX Sedan: https://www.hondaacuraonline.com/v-1...rear-lower-arm

Exhaust, A'Pexi WS is nice. $$$, but nice. https://www.apexi-usa.com/collection...world-sport-ii

 

I think the might be the sol compatible...

https://www.apexi-usa.com/collection...pe-ex-si-ej-em

 

Awesome! Welcome to the Sol family! Hopefully those denture tabs will work for you (they did for one of my Sols), otherwise I think its kind of "involved"....
Looking forward to updates!

 

Thanks for the suggestions @94 Civic Si and thank you @andrey320 !

I'm happy to be back in the family, I actually owned 2-3 sols back in the day but it's been about 13 years since I sold my last one. It was a '96 si turbo.

And yeah I hope the tablets work, I have never dealt with this problem before. If not, has anyone ever tried draino?

 

Tanabe/Revell have a new exhaust for 500 dollars which is really reasonable. I should have bought that one instead of the used WS2 I found on marketplace
https://www.revel-usa.com/streetplus/

I never liked the stock EX sway bar, just way too small for autocross. I think the ASR subframe brace is legal for STS, but I am running the ITR sway bar on my EK Coupe instead, The rear Integra/EM1 bar did nothing for me and my ITR sway bar was not being used since I upgraded the one on my Integra...

 

Thank you, I was looking at that exhaust already! The name change from Tanabe to Revell made me nervous, but if it's still the same quality then I might go with that.

For the swaybar I am looking at the Progress 22mm which comes with a subframe brace as one option. From what I can tell all of the bracing is legal for STS.

 

I just heard one of these new Revel exhaust systems on the dyno... very quiet and made great power.

The quality still appears to be really good, so don't be afraid of the name change.

 

That's good to hear, I will add that to my shopping list for sure.

Last night we took the sol out driving so I could teach my fiance to drive stick, it was a great success! She picked it up really fast and was able to drive the car to work today. Unfortunately it threw a CEL during her drive so I'm gonna head over this afternoon and see what that's all about.

We looked at some wheel options also, she likes the RPF1's

 

Let us know what the CEL was!

These wheels?

 

Yep, those are the wheels and she prefers a classic silver. Should look something like this

 

You can never go wrong with RPF1's. That Sol looks like a clean survivor.

 

It was a CEL code 43 - fuel supply system. Came on after driving a couple minutes 3 or 4 times, then went away. I replaced the gas cap, got some fuel system cleaner and a new filter since it's probably due anyway. Otherwise it kept running fine and now has no more CEL.

 

Great thread, I'm going through a very similar task right now. I've a 92 del sol I want to do circuit days in but it's in need of maintenance which I'm working through.

bodywork and corrosion are done, these were the biggest problems.

subscribed! Keep us updated.

 

@jdmr_neil Sounds like a great project! I think they're going to be loads of fun to track and I never see them around.

The CEL decided to come back on this morning. Going to do some research into how to diagnose it further and might try a new O2 sensor next.

 

Oh noes!
Same code?
Maybe she is not a morning person?

 

I am sure it's the same code, it's recurring at this point. I ordered a new O2 sensor which is the most common fix. From there I will go into checking fuel pressure at the rail.

We have her scheduled to drop off tonight for paint correction, sealant and wax. Should have her back over the weekend, then next Tuesday will be putting some fresh tires on the stock wheels, and getting the brake fluid flushed.

 

I'm a little concerned about the amount of body flex. I had eg6 and dc2 15 years ago and always wanted to try a sol.
Its just going to be a fun car without any illusions of time attack etc but I do hope with sticky tyres and quality suspension it will feel capable.

probably not your problem but i had issues with the fuel pump sticking.

 

@jdmr_neil Yeah, the chassis rigidity is their one downfall. All you can do is add as much bracing as possible. Harness bar, subframe brace front and rear, strut tower braces. But, for our purposes it's just going to be a fun car and probably won't even keep the top on for racing.

 

Any codes this AM?

 

Car is at the detailers right now, got a couple pics of the side by side comparison. There are lots of scratches that are too deep to buff out. I should have it back by tomorrow.

My new O2 sensor arrived, going to throw that in as soon as I get it back. I'm pretty sure it will fix the issue, I could tell the car was running rich last time I drove it.

 

Final pics from the detailer. He said the car has been resprayed at some point with single stage paint. We're going to have to keep it shaded as much as possible so it doesn't fade.

 

Couple more pics from after the buff and wax. Looks incredible for it's age in person.

 

Then onto the trials for today, I went to replace the O2 sensor. The old one looked terrible, I would say it was part of the problem. It was a cheaper version that only had sniffer holes at the end of it, unlike the new Denso one. But the other problem is whoever installed it cross threaded the damn thing. So with it practically stripped out, I could hardly tighten the new one down and I doubt it's a perfect seal.

Then I also noticed this crack in the manifold between the runners. So it's all going to need replaced soon. It doesn't appear to be causing a bad leak, but it could be drawing some air and giving the o2 sensor a bad reading too.





For now I may take it to a shop to have the manifold welded. For the O2 sensor I got it pretty tight, I am debating if I should try removing it again and re-tapping the threads for it? I worry if I take it out again there just won't be enough there to make new threads.

 

It looks good!
Man, spraying single stage over factory 2-stage? Who does that?!?
Savages...