Hi all. I moved out here to Texas, from Colorado almost 2 years ago. I always had my long time friend and trusted mechanic do all the “big jobs” on my vehicles. Now that I’ve moved, I’m taking on all the work myself.
my collection of tools has grown significantly in the last 6 months.

Current rides are:

1998 Honda Civic EX coupe (manual)
original owner 218k miles
have had a “Direct Air Charger” installed since pretty much the beginning, but otherwise all stock.
I did recently install a good amount of Skunk2 suspension components, as my trailing arm bushings were non existent, and if I’m replacing things, might as well upgrade. Camber kits front and rear, skunk control arms, etc.. combined with BC Racing coilovers.




2003 GMC Yukon SLT 236k miles
PRC Heads
ARH longtubes
TSP stage 2 truck cam
Performabuilt level 3 transmission
Blackbear performance tune


I had a few things that needed to be addressed, so I’ve been working on the civic for quite a while, due to discovering I needed more parts and tools than anticipated. Between being a single dad, waiting for parts, and tools, and my dogs, I’ve been really taking a long time to get this work done.

Power steering rack was leaking for a long time, so that’s been replaced with a reman, hopefully with no leaks 🤞
Transmission had been noisy due to the input shaft bearing breaking down after over 200k miles, so I found a junkyard trans to swap it out. To my novice eyes, the gears and synchros look pristine, so I’m hoping it’s good to go.
While in there, I’m replacing the rear main, oil pan gasket, flywheel and clutch.
also replacing almost all motor mounts, as at least half of them are shot, and quite a few other parts unexpectedly. Once that side is back together, I’ll be replacing the drive belts, and motor mount on the driver side.

I’ve landed on this site many times over the years, searching for information (notably doing the civic head gasket about 18months ago), and it’s been a valuable resource, so I thought I’d join and hope to learn a lot.