just another old civic...RT4WD

[HondaRT4WD]

So I got this 1989 Civic wagon RT4WD 6 speed off of craigslist a few days back. Just picked it up on monday. I’m leaving the state soon for the army but when I get stationed I’m taking this little guy with me. It needs a rear main seal but my wife is going to get that fixed while I’m gone., for now I just want to enjoy the car. I keep a careful eye on my oil level.

Its gradually going to progress into an autocross and rallycross beater. Their is going to be some progress made before I leave then sort of a lul in the action when I’m at BCT, then in AIT I’m going to stockpile parts and when I get stationed the building will hit full speed.

Here’s some specs

ENGINE
JDM DOHC ZC
Bored 0.5mm over
NPR P29 Pistons
ARP Rod bolts
new honda head bolts
fresh valves
head skimmed
Cometic Head gasket
Crank polished
King rod and crank bearings
AC removed
Power steering removed
custom built 4-2-1 header
JDM ECU (not clear what one at this time)
2.5" piping
Honda CRX SI muffler
unknown flywheel and clutch

SUSPENSION
OEM Acura DC rear shocks/springs
OEM Acura DA front shocks/springs
front and rear both look fairly fresh

INTERIOR/EXTERIOR
Honda EK armrest
Blaupunkt head unit
6-1/2" front 3 way speakers
6x9 rear 3 way speakers
custom built roof rack and cross-bars

the pics

so far I’ve ordered
replacement brake pads
Megan Racing coilovers
SCCA Rallycross contingency decal kit
SCCA Autocross contingency decal kit
Godspeed rear camber kit
Springtech front camber kit
extended tophats for all struts
Drop Engineering gold lug nuts (because why not)

My hope is to get these parts installed before I leave, along with a few other small things like rust repair, headlight restoration, and re-finishing the wheels.

The only rust seems to live in the wheel wells and on the wheels. The underside is clean thanks to some very thick looking type of undercoating.

I took it out last night to a parking lot for some spirited driving and the car felt quick and seemed to handle alright even being at stock ride height. I didn’t miss the power steering at all. When I was done I did notice some smoke coming from under the hood and found a drop or two of oil had gotten onto the header (the far right tube you can see oil above it in the engine pic). I’m not sure if this is from me accidentally spilling oil when i went to fill it or if it’s leaking between the valve cover and head. If it is that’s not a hard fix and i can change the paint on the ricer looking valve cover while I’m in there.

I found some recent receipts from when the previous owner took the car to two different shops for a once over and they both verify its the rear main seal. That puts me at ease that if I take it to someone reputable to get the rear main seal done that will be the end of my oil leak for good.

There’s a lot of progress to come on this ugly little racer

[ieatpaint]

Definitely looks like valve cover leak to me, your oil filler cap is on the left side so you’d need to spill a ton of oil to get it to run across the valve cover and down. Cool car though, I’ve always kind of wanted one of these.

[HondaRT4WD]

OK just found out the clutch is Exedy, flywheel is stock from the wagon, and the ECU is a chipped pm6 with a custom map from acid beaver on dseries.org. I’ll look into fixing the leak at the valve cover. This isn’t just a static leak though right? It only leaks when the car is running and stops shortly after? I can’t wait to get rid of that red valve cover and hopefully replace that old oil fill cap it’s hard to unscrew when the engine is warm

---------- Post added at 12:41 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:19 PM ----------

OK I just ordered Felpro valve cover gasket set with the spark plug tube seals, and an ebay Hello Kitty oil fill cap. I couldn’t resist lol

[boardjnky4]

Valve cover gasket is definitely the best and easiest place to start for that leak, and once it’s done you have the peace of mind knowing that it will be good going forward, even if your issue isn’t totally resolved.

[HondaRT4WD]

Yeah I know it’s not going to fix my other oil leak but It’s easy enough to do that myself then it’ll be one less thing to worry about. I’m hoping to find some VHT wrinkle black at my local parts store and some paint thinner and de-rice my valve cover. Two birds one stone

On another note I haven’t been billed for my coilovers yet I’m considering canceling the order. I ordered them about a week ago and at this rate they will get here after I leave.

[CW00EK]

I was gonna pick this car up, guy lives like 2 mins from me but I passed. It was a good deal and seems like your heading in right direction with the build.

[HondaRT4WD]

Just found a bunch of boxes on my porch! Was all my ebay orders and my waterproof otterbox for my camera and phone when I’m in AIT and have to be on a boat. (I’m a bridge engineer so am forced to drive boats)

Still no sign of the coilovers. I looked at some reviews of the site I ordered them from and it’s not good news. Most people get their order after weeks of waiting. They do not answer the phones and don’t reply to e-mails. I wonder if i can advise my bank to just not approve payment to them? That would be nice then hopefully I could order them somewhere else and still get to be able to put them on before I ship out. Now that I have the rest of my suspension parts I’m getting impatient. By the time the coilovers ship out I’ll be at Fort L Wood and I don’t really appreciate a place that won’t answer the phone or update me at all.

I was so excited I had to go do something so I cleaned up the white center caps on my wheels and threw my new gold lug nuts on. I was outside working on them when my father in law came home (he lives across the street) He thinks I’m crazy now

[HondaRT4WD]

So just an update I did my front brakes on friday and they feel a ton better. The piston in the driver side caliper was very hard to push back in but i just sprayed some PB Blaster on it. I haven’t got time to wait for parts and do it myself before I leave and it seems to stop just fine. It’ll need to wait until later.

I’ve been driving the car quite a lot I even made the trek all the way to Holland to visit my parents. Got caught in a mini blizzard on the way home but had no troubles. My car is now covered in salt from spray on the 400. I’m hoping to get a car wash today weather pending. Would be nice to be able to clean the engine bay also.

The oil consumption seemed to slow down I haven’t had to add oil since before I left for Holland and that was on saturday.

My valve cover gasket set got here yesterday so hopefully today I can pick up some VHT wrinkle black and de-rice my valve cover and stop what looks like a small leak down the front of the block.

I was really hoping to make more progress on the car before I leave. I wanted to re-spray all the faded black trim, re-finish the wheels, and patch up the rust, but time is ticking.

[Bakes]

These are nice little cars. Wish they (Honda) still made something like this today, gas sipping, small, simple, AWD and dead nuts reliable.

They are getting hard to find in decent shape and complete.
I would love to have one of these as an everyday practical utility vehicle.

[Baker]

Pretty sure I saw this a few days ago on McKinley. Looked clean :tup:

[Norb_O]

looks nice! cool wagon.

[pirite]

i hope you didnt pay the price the guy was asking on craigslist for this.

[HondaRT4WD]

@pirite

i hope you didnt pay the price the guy was asking on craigslist for this.

Not close

---------- Post added at 01:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:39 PM ----------

@Baker

Pretty sure I saw this a few days ago on McKinley. Looked clean :tup:

Must have been me I drive through there fairly often

[HondaRT4WD]

VHT Wrinkle plus. Cured pretty quick in the oven as per instructions but I’m gonna give it until tomorrow to drive it. I also attempted to give the engine bay a cleaning. I rushed it so it still looks like garbage. The only problems I had with the Fel-pro gasket set is that it didn’t come with new o-rings to go between the bolts and the valve cover so I re-used the old ones. I tossed my hello kitty oil cap on. It’s much easier to get on and off the stock one would constantly get stuck and it was so short I couldn’t grip it.

I cleaned up the throttle body with some carb cleaner and patched the vacuum line on the intake as best I could. I am sure it’s not air tight I was thinking about doing one of those build your own CAI type things at the local PepBoys. I also found the intake tubing was not clamped on all the way so I fixed that. Found that it could really use a new air filter also but for now I just smacked all the dust out.

I’m still waiting on my SCCA decal packs. Really starting to get annoyed I ordered them so long ago. I feel like since I’m not going to get the coilovers soon enough the decal packs would make the most difference visually out of all the things I have time to do before the 19th. In my mind now people see that car and assume sold old man drives it or something but with Tire Rack and SCCA Rallycross banners on it it would be so much cooler.

[HondaRT4WD]

took care of my duct tape intake mess. I wanted to go “short ram” style I like the throttle response and the sound. A vacuum line that goes to the throttle body is in the way of mounting the filter directly to it, so I cut a piece of the old airbox to clamp on while I make a parts run. I’ll prob grab a short 45 degree elbow and call it a day.

I also used the gold paint for my wheels. I know a guy who could have done some powder coating for me but I haven’t got the time and money and they’re just steelies anyway so I spray bombed them.They will turn into my rallycross wheels in the future. I just needed to change the looks a little and get rid of the wheel rust


pardon my mess

[Bakes]

Need any help or info, this may be of some help for you.

http://www.hondacivicwagon.com/bb/viewforum.php?f=22&sid=6f3a6a8e338319a19dbf679645323814

[HondaRT4WD]

yeah I started a build thread on there haven’t really been updating it though. You have to have a certain number of posts before you can access all the forums but every single post has to be proof read and approved by a mod. It gets annoying, I’ll prob only use that forum if i have some kind of wagon specific problem

[HondaRT4WD]

so after I washed off the engine I keep randomly getting some squeel from my accessory belt. It only runs my alternator and when it starts my battery light comes on and sometimes the radio even shuts off. I’m getting kind of worried it’s going to not start one of these days. The squeel usually goes away if I put my foot on the clutch or change gears. I’m going to have to look into it hopefully its an easy fix I haven’t got much time to fix it. I don’t remember seeing any type of tensioner and I have no idea what belt to buy because it doesn’t have the factory AC pump and power steering pump.

[ieatpaint]

Pull the belt and take it to the parts store to have them match it up.

[LXIFLYBY]

I <3 wagovans