Well, after months of almost no-sleep nights, and absolute complete parts failures (whether it be in design or production)... it came down to D-Day...

... and the car just didn't make it. I made it a block down the street before overheating, and getting a nasty tick every 1,000 RPM's or so. Sad to say, I won't make this year's Import Alliance.

But, here's what I had ready for viewing... in case anyone cares to see it.



















If anyone else has some tragic/cool/horrid/etc... stories as to why they didn't show, feel free to post up the story and picture(s) of the ride that didn't make it.

 

never seen anything like it...very nice. sorry to hear about the bad nws tho. what happened?

 

sorry to hear you couldnt make it...car looks hella clean. I love the look from the front. not a fan of the wing but over all the car is mint. Sooo why was is overheating and ticking??

 

drive the hatch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

so upset you couldn't make it man,.. =( car looks good too.

 

Well, to rid myself of the heater core I decided to buy K-tuned's coolant neck. Upon arrival, it didn't come with anything to block off one of the ports used for sensors (I don't need anymore sensors). So, I had to buy a Fan switch to plug that up. Then the two smaller ports used to water temp/pressure needed to be blocked off. Unfortunately the provided plugs only threaded about 1 complete revolution into the neck before seizing. So, I had to tap both the plugs and the neck to get more threads covered (I wouldn't feel safe otherwise). After doing all that, I installed the neck and it looked decent enough.

Then came the day for filling coolant/test firing. Well, upon filling the radiator, I noticed a constant stream of coolant coming from the block. Pulled the radiator back out to see that K-tuned didn't compensate properly for the height of the spacing portion of the OEM bolts (the non-threaded portion that keeps the neck aligned properly with the water pump)... and the coolant neck wasn't sealing to the water pump. So, pulled the bolts and had to buy some washers to space the bolts off enough to push the new neck down far enough to seal. I refilled the radiator and proceeded to fill. Another constant stream (only slightly less fluid displacement than before) arose. Well, had to pull the radiator back out and pull the neck off to find that the o-ring provided with the kit didn't stand more than half a millimeter above the o-ring seat. So, I drove to Autozone and picked up some "create-a-gasket" to help remedy this issue promptly (this was yesterday mind you). Grabbed a tube of trusty Hondabond, and basically Hondabond-welded the seal between the K-tuned neck and the waterpump. Reinstalled the radiator, refilled it again, and went to fire. No leaks initially, but as soon as the engine reached about 130 degrees (not engine operating temp.), I got yet another leak. Sure enough, the fan switch was not sealing properly on the neck.. even though it was as tight as one could get it to sit without rounding off the brass. Being that, at this point, I had spent well over 80 dollars in Honda coolant... I snapped and removed the neck. I then headed over to my storage unit at 11:00 PM (40min drive each way from my current residence) to pick up my OEM coolant neck. Brought it back, and went to bed (no hardware stores open to get a hose clamp needed to close off the two extra ports on the OEM neck that were no longer needed).

This morning I ran to the hardware store to get the necessary items to perform the make-shift solution... and sure enough... NO LEAKS! But... unfortunately, I couldn't get the engine to properly burp. But, being that the "ticking" showed up (which I'm thinking might have to deal with the starter... but I'm not sure yet), I didn't even bother with trying to remedy issues as it was already noon and I hadn't yet begun my 10 hour+ drive with any success.


Moral of the story: I will NEVER buy anything from K-Tuned again. Not only was this coolant neck a $500 waste in total cost, but it wasn't the only part from them that proved less than it's worth this year for me. I also had a K-Tuned idler setup designed for a K24A2 that came with a belt that was too small (I've got picture proof), missing hardware (2 Allen bolts to attach the alternator), and it placed my alternator in a position that would require a 3 inch deep by 9 inch wide section of material to be removed from my subframe, in order to fit properly. (Just as an FYI: The subframe on an '01 Civic is vital to the car, seeing as it's the sole mounting point for the lower control arms. Removing that much material would eliminate all lateral support between the front compliance bushings on the lower control arms.)

Cliff-notes:
K-tuned essentially doesn't do enough R&D to make a product worth buying, in my opinion.
Total amount of money "lost" due to K-tuned: just shy of $1,000.

 

wow sorry to hear about what happened but nice car

 

Dang that suck's you can't make it man.. The car is beautiful

I just got mine running 3 days ago, had to get all the bugs worked out.. fortunately i will be able to drive mine. This will be my first year going to IA, but anywho GL with everything.

 

what kind of front end is that? it kind of looks like a DC5 but not the headlights

 

2004-2005 Acura EL (Canadian Market).

 

wow that really sucks to hear you did all the nice hard work for nothin and got dicked around. But atleast u were 8-9hours in the drive an have somethin go wrong. But either way, i hope u get all the bugs worked out. What part of Wisconsin are u in? i got family in madison/randalfph(sp) area.

 

is that a trd celica wing?

 

i like the front end! overall pretty car. cept why arent the wheels color matched? :/

 

Mugen Honda Raf aga (CE5) wing that has been custom-fitted.
word filter: f.a.g. takes out the name of the car


Because I didn't want them color-matched.

 

theres a mugen badge on it..?

 

Sorry to hear Matt.

 

It looks amazing!!! I love the gold and black wheelies I wish I would have gotten to see it in action!! One day soon I hope!!

 

sorry to hear that.

 

Sucks that you missed it but, I <3 your car

 

Yea it's tight! However I don't understand the mismatched wheels, it reminds me of the "under construction" mini trucks. They just never look right

 

That's fine, bud. Truly, I build my car to be something I like. And, honestly, I love the new wheel setup. It turned out better than I was hoping.

 

look sixkk

 

some of the best cars on the planet have mismatched wheels

 

man this is probably one of the best civics of this gen that I have seen.

sorry you couldnt make it

 

This Car is the cleanest EM2 I EVER seen!