Small update. Touched the car for the first time in a few months today. There are a list of things that need to be checked on or swapped out. For example parts going onto the car right now are some polyurethane endlinks for the front bar, AC delete tube in the dash, civic fender liners (had CRX ones that fit like crap). Lots of other little crap that normal human beings would be able to bypass since the don’t have to build to rules lol.
Actually the truth is my current door was still tweaked from the accident way back, so I have another one being prepped to go on (during hard right hand turns the door would pull away from the car a little and let air in hehe). To get the door off you pretty much have to take the fender off. And to get the fender off taking the bumper off helps also. Good thing about this is I can rust proof the chassis some more (dull black stuff you see was the first attempt). I have a can of POR15 that I’ve been using on everything from my rusted oil pan to my spare tire wheel, so that will be my weapon of choice for painting all the underside stuff. The really good news was last weekend we pulled the pistons out for the re-ring. Here is a shitload of parts ready to go along with the rebuilt head.
The whole reason I even dug into the engine this far was because piston #3 gave a really low reading during a leakdown test. Here is the same piston out of the car.
A few of them had some pretty bad carbon buildup behind the rings. Not to mention the rings from whoever did the rebuild before didn’t match the Honda OE rings. While that was getting done I got this little guy for free, so I figured what the hell.
Other than the alternator pulley, I installed the sending unit for the oil pressure gauge on the back of the block (shiney thing). When we pulled the manifold out to install the sender, we noticed the PCV tube had been unplugged from the breather. I have no clue for how long, but it was long enough to coat the backside of the motor in a nice thick black coating. So that all got pulled off and cleaned to hell and back. You can sorta see it to the left of the oil sending unit, nothing really worth seeing in person. This was taken just before the head went on, deck & pistons all cleaned up and ready to go.
Thats were it stopped for the time being. Last things that have to go back on the engine are the rocker arms and cam really. I got my gauges off my friend tonight and the bezel to mount them in. To speed things up I unbolted the center dash section where the gauges will be mounted and brought that home to work on. Also picked up a 1.25" momo/sparco steering wheel spacer this week. Reason is my scrawny arms where having trouble moving the wheel rapidly since it was just a bit to far away for me. So now the seating position should work out alot better for racing. Still waiting for the new springs and the door to get back!
Reading about all this is getting me anxious to run. I am definately running more events this year than I have in the past. I hope that my STS2 car is able to get close to some of the STS cars this year.
Thanks for the comments! Yea I should address the box picture huh? It wasn’t on purpose, I would shove parts under the car when I wasn’t in the shop. That box was just in the right place, there is a jackstand behind there. The car does weight around mid 2100lbs, still not enough to be supported by a box lol. I was looking at the schedule yesterday, there is like a 50% chance it won’t be ready for the first North Park race. It might be together by then, but I’ll probably wait a week so the motor can get some miles. I’ll still have the shake down the suspension, get it aligned, corner weighted, etc. Sucks this weekend my friend at the shop will be away so I’m just working on some small stuff at home (gauges). I can always whore a ride for a event or two. I did decide that sometime this year I’m gonna haul my ass up to PRP again. Run a 15.999, declare victory, then go home lol. Its actaully a pretty different setup from 3-4 years ago so I’m hoping it can bury the previous 16.1 I had. When I get a faster car down the road I’ll set my quarter mile goals a little higher haha.
Chris, I have been following that. Even if I bought all the right parts I still need a little work. I hope to see some inprovements this year with the combination of seat time and a little more car prep.
I mis my 89 dx hatchie. If I had the money for new tires at the time (and not wrecked it) it would probably be as fast or faster than the eclipse I have now.
If your ever down towards beaverun or North Park Dan your welcome to drive it, I’ll put you on the list lol.
Here’s a update since I’m nearing crunch time.
No pics, just a status update. The bad so far. I’m still MINUS the freaking springs because a few months ago Hyperco didn’t have what I needed in stock nor did they plan to make any. So naturally we contacted Eibach and they had what I needed. But when they arrived the springs were 2" to short, hopefully the new ones arrive mid next week. There has been a few other small issues. Drivers side engine mount had was pretty torn, so thats being replaced for the 2nd time. Almost got some free inserts for the mounts (already have the front and rear but not the sides). But they wouldn’t fit. Also went to slide the center dash with the gauges attached back on. Except the gauges hit the shifter counsel and won’t let it slide in the whole way. So I have to unbolt the shifter counsel to get that on.
The good. Engine is 95% done, valve train is on and we just need to attach some odds and ends. Both frame rails under the front fenders are now bathed in POR15 so those bitches are going nowhere. Same with a few rust spots on the nose. Per a friend’s request I went to weigh my two bare doors (no interior or speaker, but glass still in) today it see if there was a weight difference. The doors are exactly the same build wise. Only thing was I forgot to take the hinges, door handle, and plastic covering off the old door so take a pound or two off its total weight. But what I found was kinda shocking. Old door weighted 66lbs, new door weighted 58lbs. Reason for the difference is probably the 3 coats of paint + large bondo section I’ve had on my driver door for years. Yea won’t miss that.
Next Thursday night, and all day Friday and Saturday I’ll be at McB’s getting the car back in order. Should be entertaining. I don’t care if it misses any of the NHSCC events. I’d rather the motor be broken in properly and the car corner weighted & aligned this time unlike last year.
The way it looks now MATT (damn your screen name lol) I’ll probably have the car there, it just won’t be ready to go. So #2 is the new target. But yea I’m trying to line up codrives for #1 hehe.
its matt … lol.
but im shopping around right now for tires. as it looks now, i have hopefully enough rubber to get thru evo1. but if i find some rubber to buy, then ur welcome to codrive my car. i just want to make sure first because if i run out of tire before evo school, ill be in a pinch and have to drop alot of $$ to get something quick.
So from Thursday night to sometime today I put close to 20 hours in on the car. Sad part was I spent most of Thursday night fighting the door handle lol. But the car is pretty much done at this point. The new door is awesome, so much better than the tweaked door that was on there before. On Friday, once the door was on I shoved the fender and bumper back on. Then proceeded to swap the springs around. The new 500lb springs were suppose to be 7" long, but we got stuck with 6". Still they work, you can also see the new polyurathane front swaybar endlinks.
Today I just finished up a ton of the little things all around the car. Lots of the undertrays, fenderliners, used more POR15 to keep the thing together for another year, etc. Only thing that might not be working when it hits the road is the gauges, but thats not a big deal.
Motor is pretty much ready to go, it needs new plugs and some non-detergent oil to break it in on and its ready to go. Hacked off the AC ribs on the crank pulley to get a little more weight off there, so between that and the underdrive pulley on the alternator thats about all the more drivetrain weight I can shave (less I ever jump classes and get a lighter flywheel, but I have no plans on that right now). All goes well I’ll swing down there Tuesday to pick it up and bring it home and start breaking it in!
It’ll be a dirt plow once it gets cornerweighted & lowered. I had a DX shell I was going to use but that fell through. So I might just look for a codrive since I know a few of the people that go down.
I trust the Integra about as far as I can throw it. Actaully thanks to Sailor he gave me a codrive offer. After I see how that goes I’m gonna make a decision about the Integra. But right now all that stuff is kinda far off in my head since I need to get the civic done.
LOL, yeah
… lol.
