Ok, some people here have met Walter (George7777), and knows he has the worse luck with cars than everyone here combined.
Storytime......
We met, he helped me on my garage's roof...so I'm helping him with one of his cars. And now we can't take the time or drop a lot of money into it to make it perfect...since he now has to go drive out to Reno Nevada from CT...for a job. Well...he needs a car...he has many cars...but just like me...they are all blown up. So with a limited timeframe, and limited budget...we got to get something put together to make another 50-100K miles tops...it can be done...and were almost there.
The Car ....
He has a 1990 Civic Hatchback, redish, and nearly completely stock...in decent shape for the cars in this area, a little more love put into it...and it can be a killer mint car. He bought it used...of course...and he got about 20,000 miles on it before it smoked itself to death...and the death was interesting. this gets better as the post goes on....trust me...worth the read.
So here comes this car to my driveway...smoking like hell....so I gave it the treatment that worked on my little smoking Civic...which was just to put some new valve stem seals in it. Something simple, easy, and if it worked...then he can get the car on the road...well.....opps.
While popping the old seals out...they were old and looking like the cause for the smoking...put the new seals in...and then when I put the same cam in...it snapped....And I couldn't figuare out why...maybe my mighty hands had more power in them than I though....so I called up Celerity...and he had a head with a cam...and I raped that cam from him...and this time....I installed it super slow with as much of the tension from the springs release as possible, only cranking the bolts down in 1/4 turn increments in the proper order mentioned in the Haynes Manual....and this time...no snap...wheeeeewwoo.
Started the car up...and it's still smoking.
So we went and got the mighty SeaFoam cleaner...and followed the direction to the T on can...and I even poured a little extra in the cylinder which had a ton of soot on the plug....at this point...I'm thinking stuck rings(car sat for 2.5+ years) and hoped the cleaner would soak and free the cylinder rings up over night. And he also went and got all new plugs, wires, dizzy cap, rotor, oil, filters...etc etc....and then it was time to see what the turn out would be....car ran...but still smoked like Mt. St. Hellen on steroids....
So...then I started asking about the history of this car...and what, why, when, how....etc....
well...210,000+ miles engine, head rebuilt once before...blah, blah, blah...so I figuared the oil control rings gave up the goose...so pull engine, find something fresh...and drop in......
Well...he has a B18B1 swap sitting in his couch...literally. But he would rather tear it down, and rebuild it up properly when he has the funds and the time...so we were just going to go with a straight stock swap....
he posted a want for a D15 engine...and Leroy (Who is the master) had one, so me met up...and got just the lower block...looked good at first, but a closer look...the cylinder sleeve and the head gasket area looked like something smashed it or dropped on it, and a piece next to where the tranny flange is, was cracked. But a closer look...after cleening and blending the damage out...it looked like a very useable block.....but it left out in the elements for a while...and water and rust formed on the cylinder wall...so I needed to take it apart to see the extent of the damage...and to my surprize...it wasn't to bad. The bearings were mint, pistons and crank were mint...even the oil pump looked decent...so a little more cleaning, and a visit to the sandblaster (this time every possible hole was plugged) and a good blasting...and it cleaned up pretty good.
So a decent honing job, a swirl of a sandpaper, and the cylinder walls looked ready to take a piston. So Walt went and got some new rings, and we cleaned up the pistons, and the lower crank girdle...and Chris came down, and we went to town painting the block and slapping the bottom end back together....next was to get the old engine out of the car....and I think that the car didn't want the engine pulled...the guys pulling it said they can have the engine pulled in 20 minutes....well...I think it turned into a few hour job.
Anyways, engine out, clutch disk cleaned up, and Leroy had a spare old rusty one...and the sandblaster took care of it, some motor mounts cleaned up, the altenator bracket blasted and painted, the water galley tube blasted and painted...and it's looking like the engine will make it into the car by this weekend.....we still have to swap out something on his shift linkage...it's feeling stiff...prolly the two.5+ years sitting outside might have something to do with it. And on to the head.
The HEAD!!!!!!!
First thing noticable on the head...was the main problem...the rings were prolly tired...but I kinda bet the hole in one of the exhaust valves was another culprit for making the car run like shit and smoking like me when I'm drunk. so the head was stripped....extreem care taking to not snap another camshaft, and we popped the valves out, cleaned them up...and a few more of the valves had a really funky deposite on them....not like something normal in an used engine...this shit was gummy...but yet stiffly stuck to the valves...for some reason...right when he got the car...and for a while...he was getting 45 mpg...so I'm guessing he's running extremely lean, and that would melt and gum up the valves...so I started to think that he has a fuel delivery problem.....clogged injector..blah blah...blah
So I taught walt how to lap his valves, how to pressure wash the block with laquare thinner, blah blah blah...and then I was cleaning up an area to get some good light and a flat clean surface to re-assemble the head....and we got the intake valves all put together, and we flipped the head over to start putting the exhaust valves in, laid out all the springs and retaining clips, and caps....and that's when Walter noticed that one valve spring was shorter than the rest.....there was a d15b7 spring on the d15b2 head...JUST ONE!!!!....and guess which valve was the one that burned thru......
....and also Walter was noticing all kinds of welds on the head in various areas...properly done...but definately not stock.....so who ever rebuilt it a long time ago...knew what he was doing...but prolly popped off the spring...and it prolly flew...and he couldn't find it.....so he snuck a different spring in the head.....
So now we're to the point of locating another head, another cam, another spring......or just anything.....
but this little project is wearing us down.....it should run and be sweet once it's in the car and hooked up...but untill then...more hell trying to find the parts, trading other parts for them, and getting more beer to the garage....and I'm still working 7 days a week and some extra hours OT once in a while...plus trying to teach the wife to drive when I do have a chance to wake up before someone comes over to help on this project....
the saga is almost over...... Don't forget your towel.
/end bored at work rant.....
Storytime......
We met, he helped me on my garage's roof...so I'm helping him with one of his cars. And now we can't take the time or drop a lot of money into it to make it perfect...since he now has to go drive out to Reno Nevada from CT...for a job. Well...he needs a car...he has many cars...but just like me...they are all blown up. So with a limited timeframe, and limited budget...we got to get something put together to make another 50-100K miles tops...it can be done...and were almost there.
The Car ....
He has a 1990 Civic Hatchback, redish, and nearly completely stock...in decent shape for the cars in this area, a little more love put into it...and it can be a killer mint car. He bought it used...of course...and he got about 20,000 miles on it before it smoked itself to death...and the death was interesting. this gets better as the post goes on....trust me...worth the read.
So here comes this car to my driveway...smoking like hell....so I gave it the treatment that worked on my little smoking Civic...which was just to put some new valve stem seals in it. Something simple, easy, and if it worked...then he can get the car on the road...well.....opps.
While popping the old seals out...they were old and looking like the cause for the smoking...put the new seals in...and then when I put the same cam in...it snapped....And I couldn't figuare out why...maybe my mighty hands had more power in them than I though....so I called up Celerity...and he had a head with a cam...and I raped that cam from him...and this time....I installed it super slow with as much of the tension from the springs release as possible, only cranking the bolts down in 1/4 turn increments in the proper order mentioned in the Haynes Manual....and this time...no snap...wheeeeewwoo.
Started the car up...and it's still smoking.
So we went and got the mighty SeaFoam cleaner...and followed the direction to the T on can...and I even poured a little extra in the cylinder which had a ton of soot on the plug....at this point...I'm thinking stuck rings(car sat for 2.5+ years) and hoped the cleaner would soak and free the cylinder rings up over night. And he also went and got all new plugs, wires, dizzy cap, rotor, oil, filters...etc etc....and then it was time to see what the turn out would be....car ran...but still smoked like Mt. St. Hellen on steroids....
So...then I started asking about the history of this car...and what, why, when, how....etc....
well...210,000+ miles engine, head rebuilt once before...blah, blah, blah...so I figuared the oil control rings gave up the goose...so pull engine, find something fresh...and drop in......
Well...he has a B18B1 swap sitting in his couch...literally. But he would rather tear it down, and rebuild it up properly when he has the funds and the time...so we were just going to go with a straight stock swap....
he posted a want for a D15 engine...and Leroy (Who is the master) had one, so me met up...and got just the lower block...looked good at first, but a closer look...the cylinder sleeve and the head gasket area looked like something smashed it or dropped on it, and a piece next to where the tranny flange is, was cracked. But a closer look...after cleening and blending the damage out...it looked like a very useable block.....but it left out in the elements for a while...and water and rust formed on the cylinder wall...so I needed to take it apart to see the extent of the damage...and to my surprize...it wasn't to bad. The bearings were mint, pistons and crank were mint...even the oil pump looked decent...so a little more cleaning, and a visit to the sandblaster (this time every possible hole was plugged) and a good blasting...and it cleaned up pretty good.
So a decent honing job, a swirl of a sandpaper, and the cylinder walls looked ready to take a piston. So Walt went and got some new rings, and we cleaned up the pistons, and the lower crank girdle...and Chris came down, and we went to town painting the block and slapping the bottom end back together....next was to get the old engine out of the car....and I think that the car didn't want the engine pulled...the guys pulling it said they can have the engine pulled in 20 minutes....well...I think it turned into a few hour job.
Anyways, engine out, clutch disk cleaned up, and Leroy had a spare old rusty one...and the sandblaster took care of it, some motor mounts cleaned up, the altenator bracket blasted and painted, the water galley tube blasted and painted...and it's looking like the engine will make it into the car by this weekend.....we still have to swap out something on his shift linkage...it's feeling stiff...prolly the two.5+ years sitting outside might have something to do with it. And on to the head.
The HEAD!!!!!!!
First thing noticable on the head...was the main problem...the rings were prolly tired...but I kinda bet the hole in one of the exhaust valves was another culprit for making the car run like shit and smoking like me when I'm drunk. so the head was stripped....extreem care taking to not snap another camshaft, and we popped the valves out, cleaned them up...and a few more of the valves had a really funky deposite on them....not like something normal in an used engine...this shit was gummy...but yet stiffly stuck to the valves...for some reason...right when he got the car...and for a while...he was getting 45 mpg...so I'm guessing he's running extremely lean, and that would melt and gum up the valves...so I started to think that he has a fuel delivery problem.....clogged injector..blah blah...blah
So I taught walt how to lap his valves, how to pressure wash the block with laquare thinner, blah blah blah...and then I was cleaning up an area to get some good light and a flat clean surface to re-assemble the head....and we got the intake valves all put together, and we flipped the head over to start putting the exhaust valves in, laid out all the springs and retaining clips, and caps....and that's when Walter noticed that one valve spring was shorter than the rest.....there was a d15b7 spring on the d15b2 head...JUST ONE!!!!....and guess which valve was the one that burned thru......
....and also Walter was noticing all kinds of welds on the head in various areas...properly done...but definately not stock.....so who ever rebuilt it a long time ago...knew what he was doing...but prolly popped off the spring...and it prolly flew...and he couldn't find it.....so he snuck a different spring in the head..... So now we're to the point of locating another head, another cam, another spring......or just anything.....
but this little project is wearing us down.....it should run and be sweet once it's in the car and hooked up...but untill then...more hell trying to find the parts, trading other parts for them, and getting more beer to the garage....and I'm still working 7 days a week and some extra hours OT once in a while...plus trying to teach the wife to drive when I do have a chance to wake up before someone comes over to help on this project....
the saga is almost over...... Don't forget your towel.
/end bored at work rant.....
.
