I recently stumbled upon a well maintained 1989 CRX Si while looking through local craigslist ads and Honda parts. A few days later, several conversations, and a long test drive, I purchased the car at what felt like a fair price.

The car has definitely been maintained by an enthusiast. I do believe he went wrong in a few spots and I plan on changing those.

Lets start with some photos!











The car has good condition climate controls and the dash/door cars are all in good condition. There is a blemish on the top of the dash, nothing extreme. The AC and heat both function very well. I live in Florida and on the drive home I turned the AC down to fan speed 2. I believe the heat in dex was 105* F that afternoon. The AC has been converted to R134A, which is a huge bonus in my opinion.

The functionality continues to the sunroof and trunk. Neither struggle to function nor do either of them currently leak. The hood pops without trouble and so does the trunk and gas lid.

The car has had the rear drums replaced with disk brakes and the E-Brake functions perfectly.

The CRX Si OE front seats are in excellent condition. They sport minor discoloration but no rips, tears, or worn down padding. The boast a ton of comfort compared to the STD seats in my hatch. Continuing with the seats, the rear has been converted to a JDM rear seat set up. While leg space is non-existent, it is a nice touch.

The factory head liner is in mint condition with no tears, streaks, markings or noticeable wear. The carpet is all in good condition. Nothing outstanding from the floor carpet, but it is definitely useable and doesn't show large wear.

The transmission has no pops but does have a grind while shifting into 3rd gear at RPM higher than 2,000. The stock clutch has been upgraded to a OE replacement Exedy clutch kit that is extremely smooth.

The car has been resprayed Rio Red in 2013. The clear coat could use a professional cut and buff as far as orange peel is concerned, but it shines very well and has a deep coloration. I'm happy that it was painted the OE color and that they went with a 2-stage paint set up instead of cheaping out with a single stage 'color match'.

The car has been lowered from stock height on ground control coilover sleeves and -I forgot the name- shocks. A smooth ride, doesn't bottom out, but does struggle with some drainage frequently found and steep drive ways. I would have opted for a slightly higher ride height. But the sleeves are adjustable so that is not out of the question.

The car has GSR blades with 195/50R15 tires in decent condition. Nothing to write home about, but it won't need new tires for a long time. The car also has OE mudflaps. They are all present and well maintained.

Unfortunately, there are some bad things. While the motor does run and test drove fabulously, I do not believe the engine management was done right. The D16A6 has had a head swap to a D16Y8 head and the pistons swapped to P29 pistons. This sports a ridiculous compression ratio that I believe has been tuned with rich fuel ratios and best guess timing.

The battery is no longer in the engine bay, something I plan on reversing. For a daily driver, I think the safety of the battery being in the engine bay and the ease of wiring is something that shouldn't be passed up.

The transmission does have it's grind. A rebuild kit from Synchrotech or a rebuilt transmission from Synchrotech is in order. It may be a while before that is replaced since it really doesn't affect the daily drivability of the car.

Lastly, the exhaust is an eBay special exhaust. The previous owner mentioned attempting to find a HKS exhaust but didn't have much luck so this was a 'temp' fix. I plan on replacing it with something near stock.

Goal for the car is a decent daily driver. I don't drive much, about 5 miles a day. And for anything longer than that or with the family, I have a Honda Fit. Things to come:

Remove P29 pistons and replace with new P2P pistons
Replace exhaust with stock twin tip exhaust from RockAuto
Raise the coilover sleeves
Move battery to engine bay
Convert to OBD1
General maintenance
Transmission overhaul

Questions:

Who do you guys trust for stock basemap ROMs? I have a NeptuneRTP demon board that I run in my other car. This car will likely need a Y8 basemap on a chip. I have 3-4 chipped P28s but none of them are stock BIN ROMs (Z6), which I've heard isn't even the most desirable with a Y8 build.

 

Ebay turbo dat ish, SON! YEE-HAW!

 

I cried a little when I read this.

 

Nice pick up.


Phearable may be able to help with a chip, @mtber is the member here.


Any engine bay shots? Will you be leaving the WW wing on back? What kind of battery is in the rear? AGM?

 

Nice crx. I like the jdm seat. What arm rest is that? And what price did you pay?

 

I'll check out Phearable. That's about the only one I knew.

I'll get an engine bay shot. Looks pretty stock. I plan on repainting the valve cover black because it is chipped. I'll be keeping the wing. I think it looks fairly modest actually. I wish it was an AGM battery. It Isn't sealed. That's why I want to move it to the engine bay.

The arm rest has been swapped for the stock center when I picked it up, so I don't know. I have a GSR armrest in my hatch that looks like that. I paid $3,500 in the end.

I'll have an update Monday. I'm doing a few things this weekend.

 

I think that was a good choice to buy. Looks solid in most everyway. better than the majority.

 

Good find dude!! Keep it clean.

 

Nice find!

 

Looks like a 96-00 Civic style arm rest.

 

Wow that is nice. I love everything about it except the wing. Looks to be in phenomenal shape.

I recently ran into a guy at Habor Freight who had one of the nicest CRX's I've seen in years. It was a 90-91 CRX Si. It had been repainted and I could see could see a little bit of overspary on the window moldings, and for some reason the passenger rear quarter panel and door color didn't quite match (color wise). Still a very, very nice car. The interior was pretty much mint. Driver seat wasn't worn or ripped or torn at all. He said it'd been converted to R134 but didn't work very well (unsurprisingly).



Anyway, he flew to California to buy it, and then drove it back to Dallas. He said he paid $8k for it. I think he said it only had like 80k miles on it or something pretty low.

So you know we're going to ask, how much did it cost you?

 

Clean Car :-) Congrats!

Yes, sir. Thanks for sending him our way.

 

 

Very nice by the way, great price, solid vehicle!

 

Whoops looks like I missed that. Great deal IMO!

 

It is definitely in good shape. I've found a couple things I'm not a fan of, but nothing to deter me from being pleased.

Thanks! I am hoping to keep it in good shape for awhile.

It was shear luck. I was searching craigslist for a spare transmission actually.

Could very well be. It is gone now though.

It is in good condition overall. I didn't notice anything while I was under it this weekend. I actually like the wing. Then again, I actually like a lot of wings. It will stay for now.

Thanks!

I would say Phearable is the only place I knew that I would trust.

I'm happy with the price. The motor isn't original, but that really isn't a huge deal for me. If the motor was OE, it wouldn't be forever and I knew that.

I thought it wasn't bad! And no worries about overlooking it. I miss things all the time myself.

So here's the update:

Car didn't actually get converted to a '91 cluster. It was just a bezel. So out with that junk


In with this junk!


The requested engine bay photo. I added a line to the intake, fixed the wiper fluid line (cracked) and tidied up a few things. I noticed a couple of connections where the factory braiding was worn, so I tidied those up too.


Then it was exhaust time. This...just had to go.


A OE-ish (I think?) Bosal cat back. Not picture is the high flow cat on the car.


I was trying to ballpark the length. I wasn't sure if the eBay exhaust was stock length or if the aftermarket cat was the same length as stock. It ended up being near perfect.


Jacked the car up to get to the exhaust! I removed the rear passenger tire for access to the flange.


Out came the eBay exhaust. It is a nice 2.25-2.5" interior diameter piping. But the muffler is trash and the positioning of the muffler is ridiculous. The muffler had obviously hit the ground running. I don't have a picture, but it was torn up on the bottom.


The cat back I ordered came with all new hardware and gaskets. Much appreciated!


And here is the new exhaust! It barely hangs below the stock tow hook.








I also drained and replaced the transmission fluid with synchromesh. It seemed to help a little with the 3rd gear grind. It is very minor, but it allowed me to shift a little bit higher in the RPM range. I think I'll stick to double clutching or slow shifting into 3rd. Not a big deal for now!

The exhaust is a lot better sounding than what was on there. I actually think it is still a little too loud. But it doesn't drone at all while cruising and is actually very tame when not accelerating.

Little miss wanted to play in the car, so I put the car seat in the back and took her around the neighborhood. Just some back roads and she had a blast with the windows down. The wife even liked the drive.

 

Good job going back to stock type exhaust. That is the only way to go imo.
now for some factory chrome tips.
watching as you have updates.

 

I don't have factory chrome tips available, but I did source some 1.5" ID, 1.75" OD chrome tips. I think they will be CLOSE to stock in appearance. They should really spruce up the exhaust.



I'm going to convert to OBD1 this evening to make sure the distributor works fine and then I'll be ripping into the motor.

 

How do you like the Bosal Exhaust? I have been thinking about getting a near stockish exhaust and have been going back and forth between the Bosal and the Walker. I have seen the Bosal on Ebay, but the ones I have seen say that they are for all EF models, sedan, hatch, and wagon. I know those are not compatible. When I ask the sellers, they say that that is what they get from the manufacturer. What is the part number for your Bosal?

Thanks!

 

I got it on rock auto and they have the part number, so verify with that site.

As for the exhaust, I love it. I found some 1.75" chrome tips to finish it off. The sound is great. I'll get some sound clips later. I'm getting into the motor work right now. But it is definitely quiet compared to most aftermarket exhausts. I think a real catalytic converter instead of a high flow cat would make it even more quiet. Also, my idle isn't perfect (900-1000, not 750).

 

Updates look good. Since you are converting to OBD1 is it vtec currently activated by a switch?

I have a bosal cat back on my 98 Civic LX and works great, no issues for over a year now.

 

VTEC is currently activated by imagination. The plugs are not wired to anything.

I saw that when I was looking around under the head. It isn't a surprise, it is was being run OBD0. Why he went with a Y8 head is still a mystery.

Anyone know the PROPER distributor to use with a Y8 head if I want to run OBD1? I suppose I can run an OBD2 distributor (Y8) with a conversion harness, right?

 

y8 head may give more compression if it is a mini me, not sure about distributor though, maybe a 92-95 d16z6 would work or the y8 distributor could with the right adapter as you mentioned.

 

I did some searching. Seems the bolt pattern is not the same for the Z6 and the Y8 distributor. I have a Z6 dizzy, which will work, but it will be like a LS dizzy on a B16 head. It is only 2 feet, sort of. Enough to test the OBD1 conversion. So I'm going with a D15B7 distributor, which from research should line up perfect and run OBD1.

As for the compression. It has P29 high comp pistons in it. It is running something like 13:1 compression and I think it was just tuned super rich and had the timing retarded. I'm swapping to P2P pistons, Y8 pistons, and the compression should drop to a notch above the Y8 compression. It is about half a point lower than the A6 pistons with a Y8 head, but the factory BIN file should be happier.

I'll be doing little things after work, but my main work won't be conducted until this weekend. Hoping to get the rods out of the engine this weekend and down to the Jungle to have the pistons swapped over to the existing rods.

 

People like you annoy me.

If someone from the forum whom I knew said that, I'd laugh.