Hey all

Here are a few pictures of my new daily driver. I usually am a lurker, but I was a bit bored (and proud of my car) so I thought I would post them up.

Here's my story...(skip if you are not interested in stories of how I got this car and what I did to it)

I've been a die hard Nissan fan and other than my first couple of cars, its been all Nissan (First was an 83 Accord then a couple Mazdas). I absolutely adore SR20s (still have a couple of block rolling around), the car I owned the longest was a SR20 powered car an Infiniti G20, manual of course. Then went into a S13 240sx and swapped a DET into that car. Loved it. Then went into more larger cars, I had a couple Maximas with the VQ30, another good motor. However with fuel prices (and how expensive it was to mod/build 6 cyls), I decided I needed to get myself in a 4 banger again...

Before jumping into the EJ6 I have now, I was driving a 97 Accord (Auto) as a daily for a year. Not a bad car, but for a daily I needed better mileage, I was getting better mileage in my Supercharged Maxima. So I set out to look for an Civic, I was always curious about the motors and figured with the smaller motors, light body would make for great mileage, and double wish bone to boot. After a couple weeks I located a red EJ6 from California, manual, P/S, no A/C. I ran the Y7 for bit and then it developed a blown head gasket. Simultaneously, I owned two manual 4th Gen Maximas, a 95 and 96. A co-worker had a run down, unloved, questionably looking EM1 (pic below) and he was frustrated with it, the B16 was throwing codes for Evap system and ran super rich (bad bad exhaust manifold leak), but low mileage less than 90k. He was tired of throwing money at it (this guy believe or not was 65), so I traded him my 95 Maxima for it. I freshened up the B16, belts, WP, oil pan, RC'd injectors, misc gaskets and in it went.

So some pictures.

During Install, almost done


Finished


Another view


Front


Rear - I used the EM1 stock exhaust and painted it black. I cut the tailpipe to length and turned the hangers 180* and it works surprisingly well.


B16A2 - Swap
Exedy clutch and flywheel
Energy Suspension engine mount inserts
EM1 front and rear suspension, including the sway bars (relatively new GR2s)
EM1 F/R Brakes & M/C
A/C
Cruise Control
LS 5th gear (its a daily driver )
CT Engineering Icebox intake
HX Alloys

Pretty much a stock Si set up.

Eventually...
Power windows, locks and keyless entry
Rear sway bar
Cams
Maybe header

Out of all of those, adding Cruise was the most pain in the rear. You have to change the main & dash harnesses and the pedals (I found this out after I installed the dash)

Impressions...

Well after reading how much of a pile the B16A is supposed to be on the forums, I'd have to say I am quite satisfied with the performance in a hatch back. Certainly not blindingly fast, but decent around town pick up and fun to drive on the freeway. It does like to rev, no doubt there. The suspension certainly changed the feel of the hatchback from a grocery getter to a sportier feel, but with the huge sway bar up front it understeers too much for my tastes.

Donor Car....
Its time to put this EM1 out to pasture...Anything that makes this an EM1 is now gone; its a soul less EK shell...RIP. It was electron blue pearl, such a nice color too. When I was graduating High School, an EBP Civic Si was what I wanted, got my wish eventually, but wish it wasnt in this condition....





Yes, I actually put it on a forklift to move it. Soon after I got the car, the lower ball joint went out, so I had move it around this way or the wheel would fall out.

 

Hatch looks great. I hope to have a hatch build someday. I own a Ebp em1 stock everything and I truly love it. Just had the stock b16 rebuilt and its runs great. Sadly this is the fastest car I've owned so the b16 still feels fast and quick for me.

 

Thanks.

Dont get me wrong, I think the B16 should get a bit more credit than what some people say. It is definitely a great motor for what it is.

 

for some reason, the swap looooooks so clean !! seem like you're going to want moar power already.. lol

 

^ +1 Sqweaky clean swap.

 

A hatch being done simply right. So beautiful

 

Always like a project, Coming along good.

 

you're probably losing gas mileage with the ls 5th gear.

 

Cool story, bro .... I'm serious! I like reading about people's journeys to where they are today. I didn't see rear disc brakes on your list of swaps ... will this be in the works?

Congrats on adding cruise control. In retrospect, it might have been easier just to swap the whole dash/firewall harness over? You'd need to add the rear wiper wiring from the switch to the footwell, but that's about it. Then you'd be pre-wired for power windows & locks.

 

Good job buddy. Build on a budget going good!

 

Thanks! It helps when you have a complete car to pull parts from.
I wont lie, I LOVE modding. Trying really hard to keep this low key though.

 

How do you gather?

I'm getting 35mpg so far, less than the Y7, which was expected. I mostly did the LS for freeway noise; I do a good deal of freeway driving. Hacked off about 300-400rpm cruising.

 

Thanks! I do too. I have a 57 Chevrolet too and on those forums you can read those kind of stories quite frequently.

I did do the rear disc swap! It was disguised as EM1 F/R Brakes & M/C

For cruise control, I did swap the harnesses. All the wiring from the engine bay to the dash is the EM1 wiring harness, and like you mentioned, I hacked apart my hatch under hood & main harnesses for the rear wiper wiring, so that works too. The only "problem" I ran into is the connection from the main harness to the floor harness, the connector was too full to add the wiper wiring if I wanted to keep power windows/locks so I added a small 3-pin connector for the wiper items. There are more wires in that floor connection compared to previous years due to the additional EVAP crap (fuel tank pressure sensor, etc) on the fuel tank on 99-00 cars.

I also plan on adding the 97 CRV wiper relay ala your write up. Nice write up BTW.

 

Sure - NP, glad I can help!

BTW, I have yet to do the write-up for this, but I discovered that you can use the 98+ CR-V ICU with the integrated rear wiper relay. This also give you access to the lights-on indicator which you may or may not have already (5th Gen Civics didn't, don't know about 6th Gens).

 

yeah that swap looks goood... nice hatch man

 

Cool, I'm having a hard time finding a 97 in the you pull yards here.
My 99 has an alarm for the headlights though.

 

Thanks!