Well to keep it short, I'm moving to another state and going back to school. As school bills/living expenses will be piling up, I'm not going to be able to afford to buy a new car or be able to do much work on the car myself due to lack of space, tools and time.

I have a 95 civic ex with about 240,000 on the clock. I have a little bit of knocking when its cold and did a compression test the other day to see where she was at (180 180 180 160). I'm already planning on changing the clutch, resurfacing the flywheel and doing a T-belt. I figure its not much more work to drop the whole motor, so I'm trying to decide whether or not to rebuild the engine.

I was originally thinking about being cheap, just swapping the clutch, pulling the oil pan and changing the rod and main bearing, but now I'm not sure if i should just go ahead and re-ring the motor and do new gaskets and seals. Guess it might be worthwhile to change the oil pump too or would that be a waste of money?

Im not to horribly familiar with D series motors, but I have done full rebuilds on Bs. I don't see this being to difficult, just time and money consuming.

Just wondering what your guys thought were or if anyone has rebuilt a D to OEM specs, problems, hang ups, etc.

TIA,

Josh

 

Put a little list together:


rings
rod bearings
main bearings
Head/intake/exhaust/oil pan/valve cover/throttle body gaskets
tube seals
valve seals
rear main seal
Oil pickup gasket
t-belt
accessory belts
water pump
thermostat
clutch

also already need to replace:
lower ball joints
upper knuckles (since i dont think you can just replace the joint)
outter tie rods
brake pads/rotor turn
clutch master/slave cylinder rebuilds

Damn, looking like its going to be more expensive then i thought.

Up for opinions

 

Oil pump will be fine, we ran the 216,000 mile oil pump in our race motor.

May be look around the junk yards for a D16z6 with around 100,000 miles or so.

It would be cheaper then rebuilding your's stock.

 

definately cheaper to find a good "lower" milage engine to put in. also your downtime is more like a weekend swap than a month long rebuild.

if you do get a different motor, i would still put on a few things like a t-belt, cam/crank/rear main seals, (waterpump, or not... depends on how cheap you want to be), VC gasket. that way, no suprises like broken t-belt or oil puddles in the driveway for a long time.

 

you mean upper control arm..? you're right if so, the joint is integral. but the knuckle... that's the middle part, where the brake caliper, and wheel bearing are... the up-right.

 

My thinking is even if i get a used motor, its going to get new gaskets and seals, and t-belt and water pump. After that the only thing else I would be spending money on if i just rebuild my block is rings ($100) main bearings ($44) and rod bearings ($72). So its only costing me I guess $200-$250 more extra in parts to rebuild mine and I wont ahve to buy another motor.

The plan was to rip it apart this weekend, make a list of everything to buy, order everything monday and have the motor back in the car ready to go the following weekend.

 

if you end up rebuilding your old motor, keep track of your reciepts so we can see a true price comparison between buying and rebuilding.

 

Yea yea, I need the upper arm that has the ball joint mounting to the knuckle. It might be cheaper to go aftermarket for this instead of OEM, havent priced it all out yet.

 

Will do. I get a discount at honda tho so it wont be a true comparison, but I might be getting some stuff of hondaautomotiveparts too.

 

I'm in the process of doing most of this.

I bought a set that included UCA, Balljoints, and both sets of ties, for $120 on ebay, and I'm going to get Energy suspension bushings set for the rest of the car for about $140.

You may want to get new shocks too as the rest of the suspension will be new. (looking at KYB GR2s or some stock replacement)

For the engine, I'm looking at getting a $300 used D16z6, or go for the JDM ZC for about $700. Getting it rebuilt I think was going to be at least $1000, and thats with me doing lots of the work.

Also, you may need torque mounts on the bottom. I had already replaced mine.

 

Just stay away from the cheap ACDelco parts as their quality is crap especially the upper control arm.

Also, when you rebuild an engine, it's like a new engine compared to a 100K miles one which might need a rebuild itself in another 100K so the money spent on a rebuild might be well worth it.

 

OP its gonna be more than just this,rings ($100) main bearings ($44) and rod bearings ($72). So its only costing me I guess $200-$25.

your forgetting what you initially stated , new water pump , new head gasket ,timing belt, rings, road bearings, main. thats easily over $250 man and thats the basics

 

IF i bought a used motor, i would be replaceing the water pump, t-belt and everything anyway. The only additional parts cost of rebuilding my block over getting a used one ready to put in is rings, main and rod bearing, and headgasket.