Civic Build Thread

After suggestions from other members, I decided to do a build thread. This is not some big elaborate build, just a simple budget based/daily driver build.

I originally purchased this car for my teenage daughter. I dabble some in used cars, and came across this car, which a friend of mine had sitting on his car lot for quite some time. The body was perfect, but it had been sitting, mainly because it was a 5-spd car, which don’t sell very good around here. It’s a 95 Civic DX with the D15B7 and 5spd manual transmission. Anyway, I picked the car up for a decent price, had an entire new AC system installed, put a set of wheels and tires on it, and fixed a lot of the little odds and ends that needed fixed. I turned it over to my daughter and the poor car would never be the same again LOL

This is how it looked when I bought it (Before new wheels/tires):



Fast forward about two years, I got a call saying the car was overheated and she needed help. I picked her and the car up and took them home. Long story short, blown head gasket, spun rod bearing, hole in the radiator etc. So after picking up a cheap Toyota Paseo for her, I brought the car to my house, where it has become my latest project.

This is how the car looked when it was brought home. Hood and been damaged and replaced with a new (unpainted) one. The rear bumper is scraped up, the is a dent behind the driver’s door, etc, etc. LOL



Engine bay with blown D15B7:



So, once I got it home, I knew it was time to start looking for a motor. The car came with the D15B7, which is of course now history. I was originally going to just pick up another D15B7, but after searching several sites, and talking to several members, I decided to look for a D16Z6 (with VTEC) instead. I found a member on one of the sites with a low mileage D16Z6 that he was pulling out of a 94 Civic EX to swap something else in. I was able to pick up the motor (with all accessories except the AC), tranny, wiring harness, axles, shift linkages etc for $400!! Here’s a picture of it:



So it was time to yank the old motor out. What a mess!! It sucks when someone doesn’t take care of a vehicle and you end up getting stuck cleaning up the mess. Anyway, I got the motor/tranny pulled and had a messy bay that needed some attention. I used a bunch of simple green and a bunch of elbow grease to get the engine bay clean. I would spray it down with a 50/50 mix of Simple Green/Water, let it sit for 30 minutes or so and then rinse it with water. I did this two or three times each day for a couple of days. This wiped out a majority of it, then I just wiped it down by hand with Simple Green and gave it a final rinse. It’s not going to win any car shows but it is 100 times better than it was when I started.

This is the Simple Green I used, bought it at the hardware store:



Engine Bay after cleaning:



Decided to update my shifter while I had the shift linkages undone to pull the motor in. Looked around and decided to go with double bend shifter from an Integra (I believe 94-01 will work).

Here is a picture showing the side by side difference between the factory Civic shifter on the top and the factory Integra shifter on the bottom:



Here is a picture showing the difference on the lower end of the shifters. The end of the Integra shifter is 10mm wider.



My friend runs a machine shop, so I took it by and he took 8mm off of the long side and 2mm off of the short side to make it exactly the same width as the Civic shifter:



I also got my Energy Suspension bushing kit in:



I went ahead and cleaned and degreased the shift linkages while I had them out.

Before:



After:



That’s about where it stands now, I’ll update as the project moves on.

 

Also started my VTEC conversion. I pulled out the P06 ECU that was in it and picked up a virgin P28 ECU. I bought some extra ECU plugs from another member to pull the ECU pins out of. I looked all over, there are several ways people suggest to get the pins out of the plugs. I tried paper clips, I tried tiny screwdrivers, I tried it all. I ended up just using a utility knife and just cutting down both edges of each slot. Once you do that, just fold down the flap and the pin falls right own. VERY simple.

The extra plugs I bought:



Cutting with the utility knife:



Flap pulled down once each side is cut:



Pins once they were removed. If you notice, there are two different sizes. You will need one of each size to wire up your VTEC to your ECU:

 

lOOks like a good start

 

Nice build you have here. That degreaser really works well. A friend of mine uses that suspension, it definitely gave it a better feel going down the road. The bushing were kinda of a pain but, not to bad.


__________________

Used Cars Indiana

 

Well curiosity got the best of me. I ran down to the local import JUNK yard today. I don’t normally go there cause of the BS you have to go through to get something, but wanted to see what they had. I ended up picking up all three plugs on the pass side shock tower. While I was down there I found two civics in really good shape. One is even an SI model. Theres probably even more but I didn’t look around too much. Good to know if I end up needing something else.. As far as the pins, looks like therevis a small difference between the ECU pins and the Shock Tower pins.

Here’s a pic of what I picked up for $20:



Inside of the plug:



I used needle nose pliers to pull the inside plastic piece off:



I then used a small screwdriver to pry up on the pin and push it out:



The Shock Tower pins are slightly different than the ECU plugs. You could probably make the ECU pins work, but using the Shock Tower pins, I know they will work, plus it has the little rubber plug made onto it that seals it off when it goes in the hole, to keep water and dirt out:

 

Thanks for doing this and taking all those pics! I am currently in the works myself in rebuilding my coupe but I am putting in a D16Z6 and taking out my B18C1 supercharged motor for smog reasons.