i saw an ad on craigslist for a b16 swapped ef for $800... dude said it used to run great but he had a vafc in it and it was stolen, the thieves just cut the controller out if the harness and smashed the entire side of it..

heres what it looked like when i got it, lol at the seventeens on the back:
http://i50.tinypic.com/2hq8a51.jpg

engine bay when i got it.. it was a mess vacuum lines hooked up with tape, random breather filters where they didn't belong lol


looked at it and i picked it up and towed it back to my house started looking at the wiring..


it wasnt really too bad there was just a harness basically spliced in with splice connectors... it still started but was throwing like every sensor code imaginable lol after alot of cutting and resoldering i got it looking pretty decent, and got rid of all the check engine lights besides a code 21

it was still not pulling at all it felt really restrictive like it was running out of breath up top

did all the routine maintenence it was still sluggish

checked the cat, it was clogged as ****, sluggishenss fixed

wired vtec, and this thing is crackin'. best $800 ever



got an oem oil cap lol. redid some of the vacuum.

picked up these bad boys for $100:



one of them is curbed pretty bad but the rest are ok. ill probably get them powdercoated eventually. for now its the least of my worries. lol



picked up some doors. found some fenders too from the same guy.

 

Not bad!
Just looks like you have to replace a few bolt on parts and it's good to go.

Did the code go away after you unclogged the cat?

 

Hell yeah man. thats a nice *** pick up. congrats.

 

That thing is a big bucket of crap. I wouldn't have payed a penny over $799 for that thing....geez.

Just messing. Looks like some easy body fixes, that you seem to be already on top of That engine bay looks like it can clean up easily, too. All it takes is a little love and someone who cares. Thanks for savin' another Honda from the crusher.

 

Great come up! A wire tuck repaint valve cover and clean up the engine bay and you'll be picking up bettys in no time.

 

a great base for a project , Congrats

 

nice pick up

 

WINNING!

 

What a steal, I'm jealous. Where at in Colorado did you find that gem?

 

Nice find

 

nice pick!!

 

Damn great find man, im jealous

 

thanks guys. yeah I found it on craigslist lol. originally the guy was only asking $600!!! but then he took the ad down and raised it to 8 lol. but i told him i would pick it up that day with cash lol.

i think he just gave up on it he had like a new mercedes or something and he said someone stole this thing and just trashed it. it was actually in pretty good condition though i can barely find any rust spots!

as far as the code for the catalytic converter, there actually was no code throwing besides the VTEC codes, and then i just rewired vtec and those went away. it still just felt really sluggish up top (like it had the same slow *** powerband from like 2000 rpm all the way up to 7000 rpm) and it was revlimiting at 7k still for some reason. but i just took the exhaust off and ran open header to see if it was clogged and it fixed it completely

it really just looks like to me that this guy just bought the car from someone else, it got ****ed up from the theft and he had no idea how to fix it lol.

 

thats a good pick up for that price

 

heres what my engine bay looks like right now. im yanking out my traction bar here lol.


to put in this baby:


had one on my old EF (LS swap that I did, man I miss that car, i sold it and i regretted it almost immediately ) and it was ****in awesome

but I didn't have one of theeeeeese...





arp head studs and ebay multilayer steel gasket. dont hate my buddys ran one for three years 25+ psi with no issues...


with this little baby i can datalog from my ecu to my laptop with BRE...



i got my ECU socketed and pinned for datalogging from a local guy I know that does really professional work, he told me that BRE is better than TurboEdit for the ECu I'm running which is a pr4, any opinions on this?? BRE vs. Turboedit

no i dont want to go obd1 yet i'm just gonna run low boost until i build the motor



ebay intercooler and piping kit lol. as you can see I did get alot of my **** on ebay besides my turbo which is a rebuilt Garret t3 50 trim 60ar 48ar hot side

and i got an hks wastegate locally but it doesn't have the right flange. i need to make some sort of adapter for a 40mm hks flange to a 38mm tial until i can get a new wastegate...

i got my turbo from here for $500 http://www.sdforcedinduction.com/products.php they have real nice prices on rebuilt turbos and most of them have a one year warranty it looks really good. except for the fact that they claimed it had a polished compressor housing which it didn't but oh well.

stay tuned....

 

just out of curiosity, how much WOULD you guys have paid for this hatch in this condition??

 

nice project

 

I wouldnt have even touched a car with wiring hacked and hidden like that, and the engine bay seemingly so neglected and the large body damage. Just isnt worth the investment. You got lucky the motor still ran strong.

Your definetely going the right way with it, and doing good work it looks, but still not worth the investment in a 20 year old civic

 

nice work man

 

yeah definitely did get lucky lol but honestly $800 wouldn't have even too bad for an ef shell and a full b16 swap even if I had to rebuild the entire b16, I don't think anyways. i bought it almost fully expecting to have to pull the engine, just ended up lucking out

and au contraire it is ONLY worth the investment in a twenty year old civic... anything else would be too heavy by hundreds of pounds. and ugly. lol besides if i get sick of the EF i can just pull the motor and drop it in something else.

 

Coming along nice!

 

i think i'm just going to leave the body the way it is for now and just throw on the fenders and doors when I have the skrill for the body shop lol. it'll be a nasty sleeper