Before I start, I must say that this was the first time EVER working on a full size car. I had been into Nitro RCs for a couple years so I figured basically how everything worked, but nothing to this detail. I was 17 at the time of start, its been about a year now. I must also mention that I have had noone to help me. At all. I got all my information from the internet . Noone in this area is really into cars, much less swaps, so this WHOLE experience has been possible because of you guys here at H-T and thezcr.com. THANKS GUYS

I picked up my 91 CRX Dx late last summer for $450. It had a snapped cam in the D15b2, and a hideous purple tint to it. I wish I had a picture of that stupid tint because it took me 5 hours to get off with goo gone and a razor blade, but I don’t. Here is a shot before I got it:



Notice the leaking brake master cylinder, I replaced that today. The red wire is from a bazooka tube he had in there that he removed. Throughout the interior, I found literally about 3 times the car’s length in that of wire.

Next came the tampering. I decided the engine swap came first, but I wanted to get my hands dirty. I relocated the battery to the trunk, then began dismantling the engine:



I swear that engine had an endless supply of coolant, because it kept dripping every time I jacked it up. Not long after that it was bye-bye D15



Left to right: Nikki, Jim, Dad, and me.





Ah how I wish I cleaned my engine bay at this point. Its a lot dirtier than it looks in the pic. One of the things I’m most glad about is that I retained my AC, which was a pain to do considering I had to maneuver the transmission around the leftmost vertical lines. You can see the engine mount is right under them. A few weeks later:






The timing belt… well, we’ll say it ended up in 2 trips to the machine shop. It was bad times indeed. Note a second throttle cable – CRX’s here didn’t get cruise control, but my engine had it in Japan. It also had power steering and um, my engine.



Engine prepped to go in

A few months later I was ready to drop it in:





Yeah its doing the gangsta lean because of those AC lines. But now that summer is here I’m really glad I kept them.

From then on I had a bunch of crap go wrong. List, ordered by earliest to latest: Cam position sensor seal, rear main, front main, oil pan gasket, and brake master cylinder. Total cost for the car, including the shell, is probably around $2500 or 3k, I havnt kept receipts. This includes new clutch, flywheel, timing belt, water pump, all seals listed above, rear washer nozzle, battery, and windshield wipers. I get about 36 MPG city, and have yet to test highway. I estimate mid to high 40’s, though. There is probably a lot of little stuff I have forgot to add, but you can probably see it by this very recent picture (aka 2 minutes ago)

[Note to self: Insert picture when the digital camera is not in Florida]

Anyways, I really enjoy driving this car every day. Aside from the awesome gas mileage (Costs me $23 to fill up every 2 weeks), it’s a fun car to drive. My upgrades list is very long, but I’ll hit the high points. This is in order: new brembo brake disks and pads (warped), wider rims and tires, new transmission (ZC 1-4, HF 5th and Si final drive), rear sway, struts and springs, and then who knows what. Thanks for reading, and comments are welcome.



Modified by Voodooboy520 at 11:45 AM 5/20/2006

 

Sweet a ZC swap is a good place to start. I remember my first swap, a ZC 7years ago in my CRX, Oh how time flies. 2ZC, 1B16, 1B16Rebuild, and now I'm dropping a K20A type-r in. You'll learn allot from your first swap. BTW it is way easier to drop the car on the motor, not drop the motor in the car. I did my first one from the top too. I'm glad I know better now.


Modified by CRXBart at 10:25 PM 5/19/2006

 

Get a haircut.

I know what you mean about the window tint; my CRX had some old nasty baked-on tint and I removed it myself too. Talk about a sore arm. I must have spent 4 or 5 hours rubbing off the leftover glue residue.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CRXBart &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">BTW it is way easier to drop the car on the motor, not drop the motor in the car. I did my first one from the top too. I'm glad I know better now.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

I had very limited jack options, and unless I could chain the host to the front crossmemeber or something I dont see how I could drop it on. I definatly thought about it to begin with, but I thought of some issues concerning the rear mount as well.

 

i wish i had that many people helping me out when i did my swap, or atleast someone who was interested in learning about it. i had to do it by myself....sucks.
nice build tho..keep us updated

 

EDIT: First paragraph edited.


Modified by Voodooboy520 at 11:46 AM 5/20/2006

 

nothing works better for taking off glue left by old tints them a spray bottle filled with good'ol soap and water and rags. i'm telling you nothing, i've used windex, degreasers, wax and grease remover and a **** load of paint thinner and nothing works nearly as well as soap and water.

 

what a great build and first car.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Voodooboy520 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

I had very limited jack options, and unless I could chain the host to the front crossmemeber or something I dont see how I could drop it on. I definatly thought about it to begin with, but I thought of some issues concerning the rear mount as well. </TD></TR></TABLE>

You don't need no stinking jack. Use your cherry picker. I got a EG Up high enough to drop on a H22 this morning with my picker. I just hook to the strut towers and pick it up. It works great.