Project “Daddy Wagon” 99 CRV daily driver build

Well guys and gals, Im new to the CRV world but definitely not the Honda world. Due to my wife and I having our first child/future Honda tuner, I was forced to give up my 06 RSX for a more practical workhorse of a vehicle. I love the first gen CRV’s so I bought this submarine blue pearl 5 speed with 140k on it for $5000 from the original owner.



All the scheduled maintenance had been done already but the car needed new front sway bar links and bushing. The rear diff is making a howling noise, so I changed the fluid but it still makes the noise just a bit quieter. I also changed the tranny oil just for good measures.



I am building this car to act as my DD and get the best fuel economy as possible.
Ive started by modifying the stock intake box to act as a warm air intake. I cut a large resonator portion off the side and capped it off with a piece of plastic. I then removed the large resonator chamber from behind the bumper and used part of the U tube to duct air from in front of the transmission by the exhaust mani. So far this has seemed to be helping the MPG’s. Im averaging about 3 to 4 mpg higher than when I first brought the crv home.









Next I wanted to build a catch can but I wanted to keep it very simple. I ended up buying an air/moister separator for an air compressor from home depot. I bought two barbed fittings and installed it between my pcv and the intake mani. The install was very easy, just remove the plenum off the top of the mani, cut the hose and install the air/moister separator in between. I added about a foot of extra hose so that I could hang it off to the side. When installing, I had to make sure I was putting the air/moister separator flowing in the right direction. It is clearly marked on it which way is in and out. I also removed the filter from the air/moister separator prior to installing it since I really don’t want to filter anything, just catch the oil and crud.



Filter elements removed









I have about 300 miles on it so far and it is definitely working. Its catching a lot of crud. The air/moister separator came in two sizes. I opted for the larger one. Cost about $25 at home depot.

I am also working to build an oil bypass filter system. I bought a filter and mount from Amsoil and have been piecing together my own kit from parts at work much cheaper than buying the full kit from amsoil. I bought a filter relocation adapter from summit for an integra but I am having fitment issues because of the crappy quality of its construction. Im working on a fix for it now but I am held up on installing it. This is the main reason I modified my intake was to located the filters beside the air intake behind the headlight.









Im running a bypass filter mainly as an experiment. I want to run Mobil 1 0W-30 oil for the best fuel economy and I want the motor to run as long and clean as possible. The kit claims to filter the oil down to 2 microns and keep the used oil cleaner than new from the bottle. I mainly am trying this system out because I am sick of changing my oil so much. I drive 70 miles one way to work and change my oil quite a bit. With this kit, I wont have to change the oil nearly as much and I will only have to change the filters and top off the oil rather than draining the entire system. This is what caught my eye and inspired me to build my own system. For UNDER $200 I could potentially save tons of money and prolong the life of my car…Its worth a shot in my book.

I also bought and installed a vacuum gauge to help me work on my driving style to improve the MPG’s. I splice it into the vacuum line going to the fuel pressure regulator and mounted the gauge on the steering column. It sits right by the tach and allows me to easily see both gauges. Im not happy with the look of the gauge cup I bought to mount it so I will eventually make a fiberglass mount in the same location.







I used turtle wax’s headlight restore kit on my lights and swapped in some silverstars. It’s a big improvement and I can finally see on my way to work in the mornings.













Just for kicks I bought a JDM front bumper and some cheapo fogs. I bought the bumper from my local Honda dealer. Cost me $190 out the door. They shipped it up from Georgia. I tried to buy it from Majestic Honda, which would have been $35 cheaper, but they wouldn’t ship it to me because of the size.















Future upgrades will include EBC brakes and eventually lowing the car about 2 inches and putting on some new rims.
When I bought the crv, I was getting around 22 to 23 mpg average per tank. Without the bypass filter system installed yet, I am getting around 26 to 29 mpg so far. Im still learning how to drive more efficiently using my vacuum gauge but the snow and Appalachian Mountains don’t really help me out much.
Ill keep this updated as much as I can, feel free to check out my CRX build in my sig too.

 

nice build bro, keep it up

 

nice

 

4wd or 2?

 

All wheel drive. I believe the 5 speeds were only awd but I could be wrong

 

ya there were some 5spd fwd, but you go lucky my man!