Whats up everybody? Well, after a couple of years away from the honda scene I just bought myself another hatch. Plans are a little bit different for this one tho. I couldn't resist with gas prices being so high and the fact that these old civics are so cheap, fun, and easy to work on. I got a 91 base model hatch with a straight body and good interior to start with. The car has the factory d15b1 in it with a 4 speed. My plans for it are a mpfi conversion, "de-rice" it, and make it reliable and driveable enough for daily use. Here are some pics of when I got it a couple weeks ago. I'll post progress pics and related stuff tomorrow.

 

Ok lets get started with the work. I drove this thing for a few days and it seemed to run fine just felt extremely weak.(doesnt help that my last car had 400hp and 390tq) I discovered it had oil in the spark plug wells so got a valve cover gasket set and figured why not strip and paint a little while it was off.

 

I also picked up a set of ls mesh rims that had been painted. Brought these babies home and started stripping them down so I could polish the faces. Nowhere near finished with these yet but they should look better than the mismatched 17s that are on it when im done.

 

I drove this thing for a few days and it seemed to run fine just felt extremely weak.

 

I also took the big home made spoiler off. It had been made using foam insulation, duct tape, fiberglass, and a tiny stock spoiler somewhere underneath. I broke it apart and threw it all away but the stock spoiler. I repainted the stocker semi gloss black and put it back on. I'll have pics of it tomorrow.

On to the "lack of power" issue. I decided to do a tune up on her so I bought new denso plugs, ngk wires, a distributor cap and rotor. I also bought a new air filter, oem oil filter and some oil. While trying to remove the spark plugs I found out one was cross threaded into the head, one thread already had an insert in it, and one was supposed to have an insert but it came out with the plug instead. You can buy kits to fix this but I was curious about how the engine looked inside at 305k miles so I pulled the head. Going to have the head fixed by a machine shop tomorrow and put it back together.

 

clean ride...eww the wing

 

My brother and I have put in several hours on this thing in the past few days. I ended up buying a complete d16a6 swap because I was wanting to go mpfi anyway and didnt trust the b1 head any longer. The plan for now is to run the a6 head on the b1 until I can build the a6 block with a z6 or y8 head.

So we pulled the head off the a6.We did all the wiring and bolted everything back up just to find out the injector orings were bad and it sprayed gas everywhere. So now im waiting on an injector rebuild kit to show up before I fire this baby up. Once she's running and I'm sure all the wiring is correct I'll go back over it and make it presentable.

Tomorrow ill be working on the rims and get the rest of them stripped so the polishing can begin. We'll also be spraying the hood white tomorrow until I get ready to paint the entire car.

 

Picked up some parts for the hatch. Got some rear speaker pods, a cargo cover, an Si cluster, an older integra center console with arm rest, and an Si center tail light piece (which will be getting a new civic sticker). Spent some time stripping the rest of the ls mesh rims, the other valve cover I have, and the heat shield from the header. The heat shield will be going semi gloss black. The valve cover will be getting some sort of custom paint job so feel free to shoot any ideas over. We also put a base coat on the hood today and it should be finished on my next day off (monday).

 

That a6 looks pretty clean. looking good so far. gl

 

The a6 is very clean, if I would have known how good it looked inside I would have just swapped it in complete instead of breaking it down. I'm at work now and my womern just text me saying the injector kit is at my house. Might get to drive her tonight.

 

looks nice, making real prog in a short time

dave
"time wounds all heals"

 

Thank you sir. I bought this thing with the honest intention of just doing a tune up on it and driving it to save gas.......I think I have a condition. I'm not planning on building a race car or decking it out with overpriced jdm goodies but I do have different plans already and once I sell my FJ Cruiser I'll have a decent budget so progress shouldn't be too slow. My last 2 cars were a modded 05 S2k and then a modded 09 BMW 135i.....so this car just won't cut it as is for my daily.

If anybody reads this who has or had an EF with a roof rack setup please feel free to post a pic or two and let me know what your setup is. This thing will have a rack on top soon to carry my white water kayaks. I want something sleek but functional and I know I've seen these hatches with different racks before. Just want some ideas

 

Got everything tidied up today and drove the car. It runs good but needs a clutch badly and has a slight sputter during idle. We cleaned the iacv and fitv, replaced the spark plugs, plug wires, distributor cap and rotor, then cleaned the throttle body and flushed the coolant. Still sputters so im thinking maybe map sensor. Gonna order a clutch and flywheel soon and then pull everything and replace them. Might just put the d16a6 block and si tranny with the a6 head and throw it all back in. Got the center console, rear speaker pods, and cargo cover in as well. Only have the cluster to put in right now. Gonna start doing my custom valve cover tomorrow too.

 

did you use the a6 cam? if so it's going to be off half a tooth unless you compensate by using either an adjustable cam gear or a y7/y8 cam gear. build looks good, nice clean starting point.

 

Yeah I'm using entire a6 head with the cam. We moved the cam gear around and set the ignition time right at 16°. The sputter is random and has no pattern so I hadn't thought about anything mechanical being the issue. I took a video earlier so I might post the link and see what everybody thinks.

 

Got to work on the hatch a little bit today but didnt do much. Bought some 4way sony 6.5" speakers for the pods and installed them. Also bought an adjustable cam gear and then a stock spoiler from another ht member. Next on the list is a clutch. Since I'll have it all out im just gonna replace the flywheel with a 12lb one while im at it. My brother is a fabricator and we discussed making a custom header with tabs for the factory heat shield and a custom exhaust. Might start those before the month is over.

As you can see in the pics theres no cover for the spare. I'll be making one of those soon too, maybe this weekend if I dont paddle all weekend.

 

Nice ed6, looks real good! What's the deal with the a6 cam being a tooth off, I've never heard of this. Is this when you use the a6 head, cam and cam gear on a d15b2 block?

 

yeah. the cam is clocked differently because the 1.6 block is physically taller

 

DCRB, big thanks for the heads up on that one. Thanks jonGSR. Remember tho its a half a tooth not a whole tooth so moving the cam gear a tooth forward or backward a whole tooth on the stock gear wont fix the problem. I had no idea.

 

Did you keep the a6 bottom end? If you did, You could always build it up and swap it in later.

 

nice color

 

I did keep the a6 bottom end and it will be getting a rebuild and a bump in compression. Nothing major though. Maybe a slightly build z6 head to go with it.

Thanks johnroe, I'm not sure exactly what color it is since it has been repainted and doesn't match the jams. It's a brighter white than factory. I will be repainting the car before it's all said and done but it's staying white.

 

I've been diving the car 50 miles a day for the past 2 days and she's doing fine. My deal with the adjustable cam gear fell through so I bought a stock y8 cam gear from a guy on ebay. I adjusted the clutch cable this morning and it seems to be doing better. The car is running rich and I assume that's from the pm6 fuel settings being based on a 1.6 which would require slightly more air and fuel than a 1.5? I'm considering a B&M adjustable fpr and gauge to monitor and possibly lower fuel pressure and see what happens. Any thoughts or opinions on this?

On a good note, my stock spoiler will be here tomorrow. I plan on getting serious with the ls mesh rims one day this weekend. At least gonna wash her up, swap the spoilers out, and finish the center console install tomorrow. I'll post pics

 

good stuff in here...build looking good

 

love where this is headed