H22 swap...88 EF details

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Nissanguy

New Member
This has been a fun project. I am working out of my garage and a buddy is paying me to do this. Slowly but surely. I am about 50% completion as I am posting these pics.

before

after


I will upload more pictures and details in the next 30. got to go eat some wife's home cooking.
 
got this little turd out



got these in the mail from swap shop racing.

not to bad, around 750 shipped, just got the CV axles as well(which are included in the price)

motors mounts:

This one was easy

this one was hard as shit to get the rear bolt at, had to really adapt some sockets


that's what it looked like lol
and the new one

This one was fun, once I got the old trans mount off.


prepping the surface
old mount gone


and that's it for motor mounts, next was fitament
 
oh, and watch your cutting wheel. don't be dumbass like me and end up spending time soldering wires back together!





oh so tight

not happening
problem solved.. and its still a little tight


its in, but I don't forsee a hydro to cable conversion or a downpipe going anywhere with that factory crossmember. alternator isn't going to fit either:

next section I will show you some of the hacking it takes.
 
I might catch some flack for how I am doing this crossmember, some may have better methods. I am open to any reinforcement suggestions on the downpipe clearance, the hydro converter I think is stronger than before as I used 1/4 plate steel on both.



intial rough cut piece



 
I need some help guys... got a fitament problem. car is of course slammed to the ground and radius arm is smashing the crank pulley. any advice would be greatly appriciated.



one pics is it lifted off the ground. I am going to try to raise the suspension, but my customer is all gangster about the lowering so...
also the car is not firing up for some reason.... no spark going to be runnig a obd test on it here real soon, someone has goofed with the wiring before oh and I thought this turned out nicley...
 
Replace with aftermarket front crossmember or turn radius arm into an L shape?
 
Aftermarket front crossmember would help with a lot of things .......and if it didnt say CIVIC on the front windshield i would have never guessed what it really was .....overall cool progress though
 
I considered the option of bending the radius arm, but was strongly advised by swap shop not to screw with that since it has such a important role in the EF series' suspension, which makes sense.
will an aftermakret crossmember lower the mounting point of the radius arm? how much are we talking price wise?
Swap shop mentioned a balance shaft delete with an aftermarket pulley... which is 300$ plus I have to pull this piece of shit motor back up to install it..... which also happens to be a real bitch, especially since it is mechanically ready to roll down the road. I really dont want to deal with the rear motor mount again. I would consider maybe cutting a hole through the unibody.. and ofcourse reinforcing it afterwords to access the pulley, but that would also be some serious time involved.
I raised the suspension about an inch and a half since it has adjustable coilovers, but I am still concerned it would hit during a hard turn or speed bump, railroad, ect.
if a front crossmember would drop it down 2 inchs then that would be ideal. any other sujestions?


Oh and please remember not my car, so I don't advertise for honda CIVICs, lol.

-wait until I post some pics of the nightmare, getto-bullshit under the dash, Im talking power and grounds tiwisted together next to eachother without ANY electrical tape, shrink rap, bare wires! I told this kid I am going to have to Uninstall ALL aftermarket pieces before I begin to think about diagnosing the no start issue.
 
I just had an thought, Im going to check out when I get back to the shop. welding a new sleeve underneith the exsisting radius arms on the crossmember... hmmm. options options...
 
maybe a dumb question but what is becoming of the old motor and also is that an intercooler i see on what appears to be a non turbo engine?
 
I considered the option of bending the radius arm, but was strongly advised by swap shop not to screw with that since it has such a important role in the EF series' suspension, which makes sense.
will an aftermakret crossmember lower the mounting point of the radius arm? how much are we talking price wise?

It's not necessarily lowering the mount point- the ED/EE/EF chassis cars really need to move the front pivot point OUTwards to clear the pulley. Remember to account for the entire stroke of the suspension. The radius arm basically completes the triangle of the lower "A" arm, so you don't want to delete it. If you move the front pivot outwards, you'll introduce some funny scrub behavior, but quite a few people just deal with it. If you're able to make a rigid enough bent rod that still keeps the stock mount points but clears the pulley, I think that would probably be best- but as far as I know, I haven't seen anyone do that. But I haven't exactly been looking.

Cost, the aftermarket crossmembers are usually sold as traction bars since they delete the bushings and replace with solid ball joints, reducing wheel hop- and they typically run about $300 ish depending on where you buy them from. Most have an option to put another engine mount back in the front section to control engine movement more too. I don't know which ones will clear an H swap.
 
this car blows, I spent all day yesterday trying to increase ride height. cheap shit aftermarket coilovers that are seized together made for a bad day. I put the suspension back together today and due that owns the car is going to have to get a crossmember. the key is that it lowers the front mounting point downwards.

I also ran into a HUGE problem, so I am definatly not getting spark, but there has to be a quart of fuel in the crankcase. I poped the dipstick out to smell raw fuel this evening. I turned it over for a total of 30 seconds maybe?? how can that much fuel get passed the rings?? what the hell. I hate this car.
 
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