Hello all,

I have just purchased a 1991 crx DX with a d15 that burns a ton of oil (clouds out the tail pipe when I step on it), needs a CV axel and has has parts of the interior painted baby blue, as well as a super sweet "CRX" logo on fire on the rear quarter panel. And it also has a poorly written "Si" painted with what appears to be fingernail polish on the hatch glass. The front has been lowered approx. 2 inches. I will get pics when I pick it up on monday.

The good news is NO RUST! well, a bubble or two on the hood, but floors, quarters, spare tire area, "frame rails" are all SOLID. It may have something to do with the fact that it has been repainted no less than 2 times. Original color was blue, then neon greenish yellow and now silver. Someone tried to rice it out at some point. Its in pretty good shape despite all these things, and I only paid $800 for it.

My immediate plans are to de-rice the interior, put a fresh set of tires on it and raise up the front end again so it doesnt eat tires any more. Eventually I would like to install a JDM D15B 3 stage Vtec, and maybe put an HF 5th gear in the trans for highway cruising.

I deliver pizza and I was driving a metro, but got sick of 50hp. As I understand, a properly tuned and running crx should get around 35 to 40mpg around town, maybe more if I dont drive like an *******.

SO, thats it for now. Can anyone recommend a good importer for the D15B or D15z7? I will also check out other forums, but I would like to build it up a little bit. Will this head bolt on a D17 block? bump the compression ratio, port the head, yadda yadda yadda......

 

As far as a good importer goes, where are you located? Congrats on the new project man.

 

I live in Minneapolis, MN. Its kind of hard to find rust free cars up here. Luckily, this is a college students car from colorado!

Also, I would like to do some weight reduction. Its kind of ridiculious that the 91 weighs almost 300lbs more than the 88. I have read that a lot of it is in the stupid door mounted seat belts, which I will ditch as soon as an 88 or early 89 pops up in the junk yard. any other advice on what I can ditch?

 

What do you think losing 300lbs (actually '91 - 2,103# & '88 - 1,922# so 181lbs M/T) is going to get you? Are you using this car for the drag strip or some type of racing? If you are wanting to go all out fuel milage then you started with the wrong platform...

What is your goal/reason for shedding weight?

 

Dude i get where your coming from about the rust I live in Sioux Falls, SD. its redicilus to find a rust free car

 

I want to shed the weight to gain some around town fuel economy. what p0latform should I have started with? I know 1st gen crxs are lighter, and an HF would have been the best, but up here in MN rust has prettymuch taken all the 1st gens off the road. the rust issue also takes care of 80% of mk2 and 3 metros and swifts. plus, a mk3 weighs nearly as much as any crx, except the si.

Ideally, I wanted to get sprint turbo, and I had a line on one, then the guy just stopped communicating. so, now I found a rust free crx and a vtec-e swap is on the horizon, ideally a d15z7 with more compression and some tweaks would be awesome. yeah, I want power and economy.

 

Losing a few pounds isn't going to get you any gains that are noticeable at the pump... You would be better off practicing driving technique, narrow & hard tires, maybe even tune it as lean as possible, and stuff of that nature & ect...

The HF is the best platform not because it's the lightest - but mainly due to the longest gears available in a Honda transmission, 8 valve head, EGR, and lean timig maps just to name a few... If you want performance with fuel economy just go MPFI and turbo charge... That would be the most efficient thing to do for the best of both worlds... The only limits are your time, money, and skill/knowledge.

 

I am leaning towards the d15z7 and I may just pick one up. I am well versed in megasquirt, and running it with a wideband on a vtec-e motor should produce similar, if not better results than the stock electronics. As far as the HF thing is concerned, I can just source a transmission and swap it in.

I would have to disagree with you on a lighter weight vehicle not getting better mileage around town. around town mileage is more heavily dependent on weight than any other driving. Especially with all the stop and go driving. the more weight, the more inertia. the more inertia, the more power and thus fuel is required to get up to speed. And when you are delivering pizza, thats a lot of stop and go driving. Thats why earlier metros got better around town mileage than the later ones, they were a few hundred pounds lighter. Now, on the highway, weight doesn't really matter. areodynamics is where its at on the highway.

 

Let's see those pics!

 

While I will slightly agree - that's why they make different transmission grearing, tire size, and the likes... If all is equal - different story.

 

Speaking of different transmission gearing and what not, I noticed that a 92 to 95 civic VX/CX has almost the same gearing as the HF trans, with the exception of a 3.25 FD vs the HF 2.94 FD. But, those are hydro transmission as I understand, and the crx has a cable trans?

I know there are kits out there to make the conversion, but would it be possible to just swap the guts between the trans cases?

There are a few you pull it type yards around here with cheap prices. I may even pick up a D16 or D17 block. I think my oil control rings or my valve guides are shot. It burns a lot of oil on acceleration.

 

I think I would go with the DX tranny and skip the thought of even using the HF one at all.
Yes - the HF is gear for mileage. I think of it more like a safety net that prevents you from 'accidentally' driving normal and burning gas. if you just drive the DX slow and easy maintain the HF's sluggish and lack of potential speeds then you should get similar mileage. BUT you will have the ability to drive like a normal person when you need to.
The 5th gear swap might be worth it just to keep at low RPM on road trips. If you don't do those very often then I don't think the hassle would be worth your time.

 

Ok so the piece I have outlined in yellow below, I'm guessing, is part of the fire retardant lining? I might be wrong, but that's beside the point. I've seen people remove that material before. Can I remove it? Or do I need it there?

 

Typically the manufacturer puts things places for a reason - but yes, you can remove it without seeing any adverse effects.

 

Sounds good! I'll get right on that

Already stripped the rear interior, broke off the interior screw mounts/spare tire mounts, and removed the sound deadening material in the back of my Rex too. I'm looking to take anything and everything that I don't really need out.

I'd start a build thread, but since I haven't been a member for 15 days yet I can't...So I'll have to get on that when I'm able to.

Thanks for the input!