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So a lot has happened since my last update. I'm a lot closer to where I want the car to be. I've ordered way too many parts, sold even more, and came across a few deals thanks to my job and other punkass Honda kids.
The biggest project right now is the reason why the car still isn't running.
When I pulled my B18, I had intentions of tearing it down and rebuilding it or maybe selling it. Turns out, the motor didn't have a knock, and it was actually a few exhaust manifold bolts rattling, along with the chewed up exhaust mani gasket bits rattling in the headers. It was the weirdest thing. Well I'd already bought the B20B, and it's still a good upgrade and about 120k miles newer, so I decided to go along with the swap.
I brought my other friend Chris over who is a really big Honda nut, and we got started on removing the B18 auto tranny from the LS motor and trying to mate it to the B20. In the process of that, this happened:
Cracked the tranny housing. Turns out the torque converter wasn't seated properly, and the torque from the impact gun forced everything out the back end of the transmission. Chris was baffled and had never seen that happen. But he's a manual guy. I was beyond pissed.
I'd already spent a good bit of money on parts, and I didn't feel like sourcing an auto tranny housing and having to swap it over. I spent a LONG time feeling really depressed and hopeless [my car and I are connected on another level, I swear].
I remember my OTHER buddy Chris [yes, I have 3 friends named Chris] had said something about a 5spd swap. After much pondering and calculating, I decided to bite the bullet and keep the car on stands longer and do it the right way. Manual swap, here I come.
Same guy with the 5spd swap had a B16 tranny freshly rebuilt with a Kaaz LSD. I traded him my LS motor and some cash for that and a lot of other goodies needed for the swap. I've been collecting parts for a few weeks now, and all I really need is a new ECU for the 5spd and a clutch kit, then I should be ready to put a heart back in poor Aubrey.
While I was sorting out the manual swap, I opted for a cleaner engine bay, so I deleted ABS [which never worked anyway], AC [cause who needs that in Florida], and power steering [bitches love forearm muscles]
Soon.
So I had to source a non-ABS brake proportioning valve out of a 98 Integra RS [base model]. Apparently where I am, these sub models in the 98 year are hard as hell to find. Taking a trip to a local junkyard, I noticed a 98 Civic EX. The prop valve was identical to the RS Integra. Yanked that bitch off and headed home to test it.
Bolted right into place. You can also see where I looped the PS rack to make it a manual rack. That random box is the cruise control, and will be deleted too.
Along with all the stuff above, I started prepping the body of the car and stripping off the horrible white paint. Some $8 cans of aircraft paint stripper from Ricerzone did the trick.
In addition to all of the aforementioned stuff, I scored a few other good deals on parts. I got a pair of 7th gen black leather front seats from my job for $50, on top of some black leather rear RSX seats for $20. Combined with my leather-wrapped quick release and leather shift boot, it should look pretty good. I made a lot of progress on the engine bay. Got it fully painted and tucked. Just need to order new hardware to replace a few rusty nuts and bolts, then that'll be done.
Gold all in my bay
Basically, all I've got to do is get paid on Thursday, order my clutch kit, bolt the motor and tranny together, and finish my tuck, then the heart can go back in the car; which will let me focus on fitment and paint. Hopefully, I'll have her done before the middle of July.
So that's my update. Yay me
The biggest project right now is the reason why the car still isn't running.
When I pulled my B18, I had intentions of tearing it down and rebuilding it or maybe selling it. Turns out, the motor didn't have a knock, and it was actually a few exhaust manifold bolts rattling, along with the chewed up exhaust mani gasket bits rattling in the headers. It was the weirdest thing. Well I'd already bought the B20B, and it's still a good upgrade and about 120k miles newer, so I decided to go along with the swap.
I brought my other friend Chris over who is a really big Honda nut, and we got started on removing the B18 auto tranny from the LS motor and trying to mate it to the B20. In the process of that, this happened:
Cracked the tranny housing. Turns out the torque converter wasn't seated properly, and the torque from the impact gun forced everything out the back end of the transmission. Chris was baffled and had never seen that happen. But he's a manual guy. I was beyond pissed.
I'd already spent a good bit of money on parts, and I didn't feel like sourcing an auto tranny housing and having to swap it over. I spent a LONG time feeling really depressed and hopeless [my car and I are connected on another level, I swear].
I remember my OTHER buddy Chris [yes, I have 3 friends named Chris] had said something about a 5spd swap. After much pondering and calculating, I decided to bite the bullet and keep the car on stands longer and do it the right way. Manual swap, here I come.
Same guy with the 5spd swap had a B16 tranny freshly rebuilt with a Kaaz LSD. I traded him my LS motor and some cash for that and a lot of other goodies needed for the swap. I've been collecting parts for a few weeks now, and all I really need is a new ECU for the 5spd and a clutch kit, then I should be ready to put a heart back in poor Aubrey.
While I was sorting out the manual swap, I opted for a cleaner engine bay, so I deleted ABS [which never worked anyway], AC [cause who needs that in Florida], and power steering [bitches love forearm muscles]
Soon.
So I had to source a non-ABS brake proportioning valve out of a 98 Integra RS [base model]. Apparently where I am, these sub models in the 98 year are hard as hell to find. Taking a trip to a local junkyard, I noticed a 98 Civic EX. The prop valve was identical to the RS Integra. Yanked that bitch off and headed home to test it.
Bolted right into place. You can also see where I looped the PS rack to make it a manual rack. That random box is the cruise control, and will be deleted too.
Along with all the stuff above, I started prepping the body of the car and stripping off the horrible white paint. Some $8 cans of aircraft paint stripper from Ricerzone did the trick.
In addition to all of the aforementioned stuff, I scored a few other good deals on parts. I got a pair of 7th gen black leather front seats from my job for $50, on top of some black leather rear RSX seats for $20. Combined with my leather-wrapped quick release and leather shift boot, it should look pretty good. I made a lot of progress on the engine bay. Got it fully painted and tucked. Just need to order new hardware to replace a few rusty nuts and bolts, then that'll be done.
Gold all in my bay
Basically, all I've got to do is get paid on Thursday, order my clutch kit, bolt the motor and tranny together, and finish my tuck, then the heart can go back in the car; which will let me focus on fitment and paint. Hopefully, I'll have her done before the middle of July.
So that's my update. Yay me
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