1990 CRX Si Build thread

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yes, I actually put a new gasket on that day but it's still leaking from somewhere. That was one place it was leaking, but not anymore, as far as I know. This video is from the same day.

Glad you like my garage :)

EDIT:

Re-watching this video, I remembered a huge problem that I somehow keep forgetting. This thing isn't putting out much power, I don't know if it's putting out anymore power than my a6 did. Any advice? FYI: v-tec is NOT currently connected, I don't know if that would make a difference in any power issues. I read on a site where a guy did an a6/y8 and he said his torque was about the same as a stock b16, but I don't feel like it is anything more than my a6, if it's even that much. Could being severely un-timed do this? Originally, a guy said that he was doing the swap and you need to use a d15b7 belt with 4.5 degrees of advance to compensate for the higher head, but I couldn't get the belt to fit right, as you all know, so I got the y8 belt and a stripped bolt remover kit and a new bolt for the belt tensioner, and now the y8 belt is on, and the motor is back on as far as cam degrees. When I put the belt on and set it all to TDC, I had the cam in the "up" position, and when the crank pulley was removed, I turned the woodruff key insert to line up with the arrow on the block that pointed at the crank pulley, this is what I was told but since I'm thinking of all these different things I figure maybe thats not right. I don't know, little help would be nice.

EDIT 2:
The lame ass bottom nut on the bottom of the intake manifold, being that it was such a hassle I figured I won't need to put this one back on, the other ones will hold it fine. Could this be a cause for any power loss and/or coolant loss?
 
Last edited:
Re-watching this video, I remembered a huge problem that I somehow keep forgetting. This thing isn't putting out much power, I don't know if it's putting out anymore power than my a6 did. Any advice? FYI: v-tec is NOT currently connected, I don't know if that would make a difference in any power issues. I read on a site where a guy did an a6/y8 and he said his torque was about the same as a stock b16, but I don't feel like it is anything more than my a6, if it's even that much. Could being severely un-timed do this? Originally, a guy said that he was doing the swap and you need to use a d15b7 belt with 4.5 degrees of advance to compensate for the higher head, but I couldn't get the belt to fit right, as you all know, so I got the y8 belt and a stripped bolt remover kit and a new bolt for the belt tensioner, and now the y8 belt is on, and the motor is back on as far as cam degrees. When I put the belt on and set it all to TDC, I had the cam in the "up" position, and when the crank pulley was removed, I turned the woodruff key insert to line up with the arrow on the block that pointed at the crank pulley, this is what I was told but since I'm thinking of all these different things I figure maybe thats not right. I don't know, little help would be nice.
If it's idling that well, the valve timing is good, have you tried driving it with the VTEC hooked up?
EDIT 2:
The lame ass bottom nut on the bottom of the intake manifold, being that it was such a hassle I figured I won't need to put this one back on, the other ones will hold it fine. Could this be a cause for any power loss and/or coolant loss?
If the one on the bottom middle is the one you're talking about then I doubt it, but it is possible. How did you torque the intake mani nuts? Did you follow the torque sequence?

Rev the engine to make that smoke/steam while outside and watch carefully where it's coming from.

I couldn't watch the vid, somethings up with my machine...
 
I guess I didn't think about it, I didn't even think that the intake mani mattered that much as far as torque, I just tightened them, but I guess now I'll do them right. That's good to know about my valve timing. I haven't tried to run it with vtec yet, since I don't have a virgin p28, but I might just hook it to a switch as a tester. Is the fact that its not hooked up a possibility for my lack of power? I don't know how it would effect it when not engaged anyway. Any ideas on the oil situation though? Bad stem seals you think, and do you know if a6 stem seals are interchangeable with y8 ones?
 
I guess I didn't think about it, I didn't even think that the intake mani mattered that much as far as torque, I just tightened them, but I guess now I'll do them right. That's good to know about my valve timing. I haven't tried to run it with vtec yet, since I don't have a virgin p28, but I might just hook it to a switch as a tester. Is the fact that its not hooked up a possibility for my lack of power? I don't know how it would effect it when not engaged anyway. Any ideas on the oil situation though? Bad stem seals you think, and do you know if a6 stem seals are interchangeable with y8 ones?
I don't know about the stem seals, but you could cross reference part numbers to find out, I'd imagine they're similar if not identical. But yes, not having VTEC will hurt your power, are you running this on a non-VTEC ECU?
 
If the valve seals are aftermarket they should all be the same... the only ones I know of to be different are the OEM Honda seals. And unless your car is smoking on startup the valve seals are probably fine.
 
I don't know about the stem seals, but you could cross reference part numbers to find out, I'd imagine they're similar if not identical. But yes, not having VTEC will hurt your power, are you running this on a non-VTEC ECU?

Currently, yes, I'm waiting to find a cheap un-touched p28. I assumed it'd hurt my top end power, but I thought that the bottom end power would be about the same as if it were connected, since it doesn't engage untill 4XXX rpms anyway.

If the valve seals are aftermarket they should all be the same... the only ones I know of to be different are the OEM Honda seals. And unless your car is smoking on startup the valve seals are probably fine.

this is good.
 
You need the proper ECU, and you'll probably want to get it chipped and tuned, since the minime will have a different compression ratio than either the A6 or the Y8 (I believe)

Click on the xenocron banner at the top of the page, they can hook you up with what you need.
 
yeah, the a6/y8 together has somewhere in the range of 10-10.3, as apposed to the 9.1 of the a6 and the 9.6 of the y8. I planned on getting it tuned in the spring, since it doesn't look like I'm gonna get it running how I want before it gets too cold and snowey.
 
I have a Virgin P06 OBD1 ECU that can be chipped by Phearable.net, or Xeon, I'm only asking $60 shipped for it.
 

oilonshed.jpg

This was on my shed after running the car for aprox. 5 min. Oil?
I still think my valve seals might be bad.

I have a Virgin P06 OBD1 ECU that can be chipped by Phearable.net, or Xeon, I'm only asking $60 shipped for it.
I'll get ahold of you within a few days when pay-day arrives. Thanks for the heads up that you have one :)
 
I would try to get your hands on a stethoscope (mechanics) and see what cyl is making all of the noise. It's actually probably more than just one.
 
I would stop running a higher-than-stock compression engine on a stock ECU. After I fixed all the leaks of course :)
 
I would try to get your hands on a stethoscope (mechanics) and see what cyl is making all of the noise. It's actually probably more than just one.
Well if there's valve slap in one cylinder, it would also be in the other 3 correct? I don't know what it could be or what would happen from valve slap, but I don't know what else could cause any of those noises.

I would stop running a higher-than-stock compression engine on a stock ECU. After I fixed all the leaks of course :)
Honestly, with the exception of that one little "ripper" vid, it hasn't moved. It has just been started to see where the leaks are coming from because it doesn't leak when it's not on, and if it does then it's not enough for me to notice.
 
It could also be your valves lash being too big of a clearance. Making the ticky-valves... tick.
 
Ok well I don't think it's piston slap, after looking up what it is, I don't think so. It didn't have it before and my pistons seemed to be in their cylinders quite firm, no side to side. This couldn't just all the sudden happen, could it? And if my valve's do have too big of a clearance, what do I do about that?
 
Valve lash adjustment. It should spell it all out in your Haynes/Chilton manual. I'm sure you can find an online guide somewhere on the net. Make sure to use the specs for your head.
 
so lets talk about hydro locking. would the presence of antifreeze in my block cause that noise to happen? because it just started. after watching the video, the video definately enhances the sound, it's not near as bad sounding as it is in the video. But, after talking to my buddy, he said he guarantees that I didn't clean the block well enough before putting the new head gasket on, and now it's leaking antifreeze from there, and the white smoke is because I'm burning antifreeze and should stop running it at all untill I get that shit fixed. This makes sense, because as all of you have seen my "garage," I didn't have the big lights at the time so I was cleaning the block with a flashlight in one hand, and there's a great chance that I missed some shit and didn't think about it in the least when I put the head on. If this were the case, would this cause my oil light to come on for whatever reason? Because like I said, my oil light is on, but can't find any evidence of it leaking out anywhere. Back to the hydro locking shit, my buddy said I need "head gasket kit"? and said to drain all my oil and clean the shit out of my head and block, should this mean that I must disassemble the block?

Any BTW, I appriciate you all for being patient with me, sometimes I get anxious, and I do things like not clean shit well enough and fuck myself later, like now :)
 
This is my first build thread. This is also the first major project/half swap/anything huge with the exception of painting a valve cover:cool:


I wanted some more power, and as usual, thought of boosting it. I Also looked into making a NA motor, etc. My brother has a 91 Civic hatch NA, GSR block b16 head, so I kinda wanted to go the other direction. My buddy happened to be selling a y8 head, that he just had tore down and cleaned, then decided that he was gonna go b series boost instead of d. So here's my saga. Input, comments, criticism, or whatever is welcome. Also, I'm not a super car builder, and I just got into cars as far as performance when I bought this, about a year ago. Before that, I couldn't tell you what a camshaft was. But since I'm just getting serious with this, I'm not familiar with all the terms so excuse some of my descriptions of parts. Thanks.​


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motor, as is. D16A6, 1990 CRX SI.
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someone remind me to fix that later, I always seem to forget :(
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Don't get me wrong, I love the super clean OEM look that a lot of people go for, but I like having something different, so if thats what you want to critique me on, don't bother, I love going as far from stock as possible lol. And I do have real seats, mine are just torn and I don't have the mounting brackets for them yet, so thats what the seat covers are for.
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Real seats :)

Now, the building.

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Thats the valve cover, it was ugly red so I did a little touch up since nothing on my car is red, but I think it is maybe for a z6? I was told that z6 covers would fit y8 heads, maybe maybe not. Help?

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::EDITED ON JULY 24TH:: I do realise that the valve stems are upside down, I now know this so no need to re-tell me. Thanks :)
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I think this also may be from a z6,
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when only one of the holes is lined up, neither of the other 2 line up, which is why I don't think its from a y8. Also, I looked up solenoid's from y8's and the ground wires I think? actually extend a fair amount, this one is right against the solenoid.
Now I'm stuck a little more, being that I'm putting this head together myself, there's some parts that I don't quite know what they are. I had the option of having the kid put it back together, but he wanted another $75 bucks, and I didn't think it was worth it.
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Lost Motion Assemblies, clueless as to where they go. Haynes manual says to remove them and inspect them and how to inspect them, and I've done it but it doesn't say where they go.

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This either, I have 1
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pic of all 3 parts just shown

I need some help, so please anyone help, you're all welcome.

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oh and this is the magical booster, its off a saab 9000 and I'm using a 7psi wastegate.

goodies.jpg

all the goodies and bolts and such, thought it was a nice pic


Hi,

I'm trying to find a engine like the one that's in your car,I can't seem to find one anywere cheap enought so that I can build a few engine's for my race car or should say street car.

If you have a web site could you please summit it on here that would help me alot.

Thanks,
CV14500
 
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