Hey guys time for another one of my rebuilds. My last 5 or so were taken down by photobuckets new terms so I'll try to hose everything with the forums. It may take a while h-t isnt very friendly with mobile uploads

Check out my old $400 civic rebuild here. Great tips on how to get good money from a junk car
https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-...ic-lx-3277688/


Still hungry and want a better build? Check out my restoration of a 1998 eclipse gst turbo
http://dsmtuners.com/threads/1998-gs...ration.513929/


So the car is a 1997 civic lx with a good back story. I manage an autoparts store and always keep an eye in the parking lot, well Mr 4door as I use to call him had this car for over 7 years. Its always been bone stock and the owner never really did know much mechanically about the car but it was lowered and he had si wheels. I scower craigslist daily and sure enough I find it within an hour of him posting it and he agrees to sell it to me for his low ball bottom dollar of $1500











So of course with any long term owner the questions you need to ask are as follows:
Me: whens the last time you replaced the timing belt?
him: uh?
Me: when was the clutch replaced?
Him: hmmmm uh?
Me: does the car have any oil leaks?
Him: hmm no it doesnt use oil

So basically I'm getting a perfect chassis not missing any pieces with ac and power steering. To me this car was a 10/10 on the buy it now scale

 

Getting the car home it was immediately evident there were a couple of oil leaks, either the rear main seal or the oil pan gasket. I had gotten lucky with a red hx the year before which turned out to only be the pan gasket so I went after that first. I also bought my maintenance list since I could tell this car had never been gone through.







The radiator was extremely light brown and worn, it was job #1 before ot went back into daily action. I also replace every hose with silicon hoses, its been my experience that a dseries will never blow a headgasket unless it has a coolant leak which are primarily caused by the rear coolant heater bypass hoses, usually the large u shape hose. I also polished the headlights with a power drill kit, I think it was the mother's headlight kit

 

It's almost immediately after this my father in law retired. I have 6 cars and of course offered to help him. My only stipulation was that he get the car registered and inspected. Of course he immediately loses the title on his way to the title office, he said he accidentally must have dropped it in the mail slot at the post office but he talked to the lady at the oost office and they typically send it back to the adress listed on it (btw that's bullshit they shred stuff that has no addresses on an envelope.

Of course he didn't realize how big of an issue this was. I never spoke down to him but I made it very clear this was like losing his daughters birth certificate

Now the previous owner may have had warrants, long story short if you submit a form for copy of title with a photocopied drivers license and $2.95 they will send you a grey title copy which you can send to your own adress. So like 3 months of me lending him another truck I had I got the honda back

he never owned an older vehicle before and kept telling me about how it was leaking a quarter size drop of oil infront of his house. Well looks like that annoyed him enough to completely over torque the hell out of the pan gasket and leak everywhere.

In the mean time I started collecting splurge parts. Usually its a $400 investment in modifications to my civics that add value through unique custom touches

 

So after that experience I highly suggest going through a reputable reseller. European market cars received the same upscale options as jdm market cars but were left hand drive which honestly makes your car easier to drive. I'm not sure if youve ever experienced a right hand drive daily driver but they can be frustrating at times . also European left hand drive mirrors and headlights are aimed correctly to the right hand side of the road so you dont blind oncoming traffic

So heres my plug. His prices have shipping included and he responds to messages on Facebook.

https://www.edmrareparts.com/store/








Some eye candy

 

So last pic for today of the car before I tore her apart

 

i like how thorough you are with your maintenance, but i don't understand why you use such cheap parts.

 

It's a gmb water pump and tensioner and continental belt. Honestly the d motors are so damn reliable that they don't need oem parts. All of my gaskets are felpro but other than that these are budget rebuilds. Im getting $2500 for a car after all my labor so the market determines what parts I use

The other 5 hondas ive done are still running trouble free

 

You say its reliable, but for some reason we still get some of the weirdest tech questions coming through here.

 

Lies. As a 15 year member of Honda-tech I dare say I've never posted a question to anyone other than Ron-j who use to be able to recite the factory service manual and electrical service manual.

But yes, I do eventually find a huge problem with a cheap part I'm using lol

 

Not questions from you...

 

Ok so a little bit of context. I pulled the dash to put in the European dash with what I will call the central air vent. Its a big defroster looking vent in the middle of the dash. I've never had one before, but basically if you flip the lever in between the two center vents the big middle vent shoots thw air to about shoulder level between the two front seats to give your back seat passengers more heat or ac once youve gotten your chill or heater fill. It also has a ******* clock, because clocks are ******* awesome of course

I pulled the front bumper and headlights and wipe them down with shop wipes. I clean everything as I go including the radiator support and crash bars.

I then pulled the engine because it was leaking oil from everywhere. Most of the time its just a cam seal drip or rear main drip, but this car was leaking everywhere on each end of the motor. Only way to be sure I got every seal was to pull the motor. With an unknown service history its a good idea to just knock everything out now. So all 4 new motor mounts, gaskets, axle seals, everything that could leak or break, clutch etc















popped axles out to remove everything. Start from the bottom. I also remove the intake manifold first to disconnect the engine harness. Alot of swaps talk about dropping the harness with the motor, same difference time wise to remove the intake and unplug the harness from the top. I also replace the intake with the z6 intake manifold and reuse my y7 throttle body




engine harness unplugged and placed over the passengers fender






















Dont ever use eBay oil pans! Never ever use anything but an oem honda oil pan!

 

Before




Afterish

 

Nicely done.

 

Need that oil pan

 

I thought you were gonna keep using the one that had paint flaking.

 

I left paint stripper in it for a few days now but it didn't get everything. I'd rather not risk the long term destruction of the engine from contamination for a $40 part

 

'twas the basis of my cheap comment.

 

I truthfully have to say, oem oil pan does fine. I had to clean out the gunk in a b-series and all I used was diesel. no flaking.

 

cheap chinese oil pans= chysler's replace every 70k recent pans.

 

= civic

 

My original pan had a big dent in it, and the eBay one was new and came with a new gasket. Lesson learned, I should have just been cheap and replaced only the gasket.

New used pan arrived today from a junkyard on eBay.

I should be able to mate the engine and trans on Wednesday and drop them back in. I'm not pushing any set time for running and driving but by Sunday is a achievable time table

 

 

Yeah, shouldn't take that long.

 

Great thread! I too am a bit of a flipper, but I have a problem with buying super cheap parts... so I never really end up making any money off my flip projects. I guess I do it more for the experience. Also, I end up getting way too attached to older Hondas, kinda like girls with puppies...

 

Ahah! Photobucket has released their strangle, my old threads are valid again!

https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-...ic-lx-3277688/


If you constantly buy and sell these cars you can accumulate parts pretty quickly. I rebuilt an eclipse for about $1200 and most of that expense was in specialty tools

http://dsmtuners.com/threads/1998-gs...ration.513929/


So far I think I'm at close to $100 in gaskets, $100 in misc supplies like paint gloves and brake cleaner, $100 in tools like the engine stand, $400 in modifications. ****, that added up fast, so this car owes me atleast $2200. Which isnt bad considering its in really great condition. Usually I'll ask for a grand more than a car owes me and if some one has to have it (they always do) I sell a car pretty quickly

Its like 32 degrees outside this week in Dallas. I'm feeling lazy but we shall see how warm it gets tomorrow