94 Civic EX Build

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caleb5947

New Member
Just thought that I would start a build thread on my car since I'm bored in Afghanistan...

When I first got the car. I bought it off of some German lady (I'm stationed in Germany) but it is American spec. I offered 1500 for the car but she only wanted 600 dollars for it. Not a bad deal for a car as old as it is with only 26,596 ORIGINAL miles. And yes the odometer still works. Her husband bought the car brand new for her and she only drove it back and forth to work which was less than a mile one way
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The dings in the driver side are where she hit a drunk pedestrian walking down the street, which is why I think she wanted to get rid of it.

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Motor before I started canibalizing it :)

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About 2 weeks in to having the car, I was coming home from work and had to stop at a stop sign. When it was clear to go, I took off and about half way out I heard a snap. And then a clunk, clunk, clunk. Ill let the picture explain...

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Yes, Bob! A broken axle. They put so much salt on the roads in the winter time that it does harm than good. Being in Germany, it took 3 weeks to order new axles, as it did with every other part in the future. What I learned: NEVER build an American spec car in a foreign country.

While waiting on the axles to get here, I decided to install the turbo kit that I bought from eBay. Not the greatest option, I know. And I would later find out. But the turbo kit went on, along with the axles. As soon as I got the car running with the turbo, I took it for a test drive and I heard the car backfire and then cut off. It never started back. Still to this day, I have no idea what it was that made it do that. I had DSM 450cc injectors and a basemap on a P28 ecu boosting 8 psi on stock internals. But the good part about that is that I found out what the "Vitara Build" was so this is where it gets good. Unfortunately I dont have any detailed pictures on the car with just the turbo on it. This is the only one

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I was going to do the internals with the motor still inside of the car but I didnt know that you have to notch the block in order to get the H-beam rods to clear the cylinder. The motor came out later and I tried to find a machine shop in Germany to notch the block but couldnt find anyone with a reasonable price. I ended up notching the block myself with a dremel tool.

For the pistons I went with 75mm vitara pistons with teflon coated sideskirts and Hastings rings. Rods are FJ R Spec custom length rods for low compression. 8:1 compression is where it set me to. ACL Race rod bearings and main bearings and ARP rod and head studs. Stock crank. Heres a little of my internals

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If you are married and have never done this, please take my word and dont put your motor in the spare bedroom in your house to work on it. Yes I have a garage but it was dead in the middle of winter. Im talking about 5 ft of snow and about 10 degrees outside. And german garages do not have any insulation or heat. But if you want to piss your spouse off, this is a good way to do it.

Since I didn't have a ring compressor and nobody else did either, I came up with a method. I wouldn't recommend using it but what I did was take a coke can and a zip tie and put it around the piston and hit it in with a rubber mallot. Hey it worked.

Heres one piston in;

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and heres four pistons in :)

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Sealing everything on the engine is a Fel-Pro full engine gasket set. I used the Fel-pro MLS head gasket for the most vital gasket on the engine.

Putting the engine back together.

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With a few busted knuckles and broken tools, I finally got the engine complete and ready to put back in the car. (My wife was more relieved that I was)

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This is when the motor installation was complete but It never ran right with the turbo. I found out later that I had blown the turbo. The way I found out was on the first start. The car jumped up the rpm like there was no tb installed. I had to take the intake manifold completely off and remove a piece of old gasket that was stuck and not letting the manifold seal completely. While taking the manifold off I found oil all inside of the pipes and tb. Also in the intercooler. DISASTER. But I learned not to buy ebay turbos again.

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The rims came from a friend of mine that was getting rid of his honda because of a blown head gasket. Swiped for 200 bones. They are Drag3. Im not sure what kind but they are light as balls. Tires arent so good though.
 
Almost forgot

So I got orders to come to Afghanistan for a year in July. I forgot to mention that I could never find out what was wrong with the car when the idling was all screwed up. I had put the car on the classifieds for sale but for some reason I didnt want to let it go. I just had to try and find out what was wrong. I had replaced the IACV, cleaned the FITV, bought a new virgin P28 ecu... nothing worked. The way I found the leak was by pulling the vacuum hose off of the fuel pressure regulator and blowing cigarette smoke in to the intake manifold. To my surprise smoke boiled out from between the mani and the head just below the vtec solenoid. Thats when I found out abou the turbo and the old piece of gasket. About 4 days from shipping out, I finally got the car running. This pic doesnt load on my photobucket acct. Maybe ill try again later. But once the car was running agian, It went in to the shop so I could install the Spyder exhaust from www.andysautosport.com, install blox lower control arms purchased from a friend, and finish on the skunk2 lowering springs. Also some tweaks and tunes to get the car running decent with 450cc injectors. Here are some pictures of after everything was installed and what the car looks like now. Im looking into a new turbo now but wont be able to install it until july 2012. Also some upgrades on the fuel system too.

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And to touch back on the engine shot that wouldnt upload after the turbo was removed:

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Well for now that includes my engine build. I get more anxious to get back on it when I get out of this hell hole. Oh and btw, I know the parts list is supposed to be up top but I forgot so Ill put it down here.

Engine:
D16Z6
75mm Vitara pistons
FJ R Spec custom length rods
ACL Race rod bearings
ACL Race main bearings
ARP rod studs
ARP head studs
Fel-Pro full engine gasket set
DSM 450cc injectors with resistor box
MSD distributor cap
AEM fuel rail and FPR
Currently looking for a new turbo
eBay piping and intercooler
Some german filter
Spyder cat back exhaust
Header wrap

Interior
Glowshift A-pillar tripple gauge pod
Glowshift boost, oil pressure, and oil temp gauges
Sweet ass stock radio

Exterior
Drag3 rims
Skunk2 sticker

Suspension:
Skunk2 lowering springs
Blox rear lower control arms

A special Thanks goes to:
www.hondaswap.com
www.honda-tech.com
www.d-series.com
www.fjdistributers.com
www.glowshiftdirect.com
My wife for putting up with this and all the people that helped me with this build!

Soon to post more pictures of this build. But until then, Asta la vista, Baby

(Did I mention that this was my first build ever?)
 
k, mith about ebay turbos sucking is false. I have had so many of them lol... You need to break them in before ya boost them :), I drove for months with 0psi going threw my turbo lol, or order a turbo rebuild kit from a good known name turbo company and rebuild ya turbo, btw clean car, not any like that in the north east part of the US
 
My friend u suck balls I wish I coulda found that deal that wasn't a deal but.You stole that car. I do a swap on it cheaper then just building it save that motor tho. Always good for back up
 
k, mith about ebay turbos sucking is false. I have had so many of them lol... You need to break them in before ya boost them :), I drove for months with 0psi going threw my turbo lol, or order a turbo rebuild kit from a good known name turbo company and rebuild ya turbo, btw clean car, not any like that in the north east part of the US

If you have to order a rebuild kit right off the bat in order to make something work the way that it should work without that rebuild kit, might that not indicate that the product sucks?

Just sayin'...
 
Just saying break them in right, and they last, boost them right away they blow up and order a rebuild kit.. still cheaper than the price of a name brand turbo... just saying :p
 
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