what to look for when checking out a swapped crx?

[white91crxhf]

basically this guy is selling it because he tired of this project and wants to move on. the car runs and drives but he said the vacumm lines are hooked up backwords and make the car feel like its missing when your driving it. my question is does anyone have any pics of their swap so i can see how the vacumm lines are supposed to be and anything else i should check to see if its messed up. and should any cels be on the car, or any led lights, i haven't check it out but the check engine light shouldn't be on right, and it should'nt have brake light stays on and stuffl like that normally from a swap. also how many different ways is their to hooking a b16 into a hf. should i look for something in paticular.

 

[breed]

if the check engine light is on, the ecu is throwing a code. look at the ecu and find out what codes it's throwing, that will let you know whats up. also look at the wiring if it looks a mess it was probably hooked up like shit. and if the vaccum lines are ran wrong the person who did the swap doesant no shit.

 

[white91crxhf]

so would it be worth buying, or is their a way to unhook it all, and than hook it up right, i just thought if its running it cant be that bad of a hook up.

 

[spaceman]

take some pictures of the engine bay and of the vacum lines and post them if you can..test drive it,get it warmed up and see if it overheats try all the gears,check the oil,etc.

 

[white91crxhf]

thanx for all the good information so far, and i will take a picture of the engine bay for you guys to help me back out. i know all the basics of checking the car over just wasn't sure if thier were any other things to look for on a hybrid crx. i'm also checking the compression on all 4 cylinders to make sure thier all straight and readly to go. he's selling my the car pretty cheap because the trannys pretty shot. all the syncros are gone and 4th gear is gone. so i need to rebuild that. with some fresh syncs. and either fix or replace 4th gear. anything else could of gone wrong with a tranny with bad syncros. also i figured about 400 to rebuild a tranny sound about right. also after checking the compression and regular leaks. what else could be wrong with the motor?

 

[spaceman]

hopefully the bearings are still good and the head gasket,when you run it try to listen for wierd noises like metal on metal grinding and stuff..if you get the car i would save some $ to do maintanence on it like,timing belt,water pump,tune-up,etc.basically if you dont have extra money for repairs then make sure you find a car that is as reliable as posible...

 

[white91crxhf]

check the bearings? do you mean the main bearing in it, because i the only one i know of is the by prying on the crank shows you the main thrust bearing play, is their common problems with these motor with the bearings that i should know about. i used to have a 2nd gen dsm turbo and know a little about bearings.

 

[white91crxhf]

went and saw the car today, it was nice looking. when i did the compression check i got 165 in all 4 cyls. i did not have the throttle to the floor due to the fact i could not find the fuse to take out. but that number seems kinda low for a b16a1. maybe not, i dont really know, and its running real rich, also vtec doesn't kick in, the guy said that since the vacumm lines are on wrong that made the vtec not work correctly.

 

[swanny]

Vtec should still work regardless, unless it is throwing a CEL code.

 

[NotUrAverage_Si]

Originally posted by white91crxhf@May 1 2004, 07:51 PM
check the bearings? do you mean the main bearing in it, because i the only one i know of is the by prying on the crank shows you the main thrust bearing play, is their common problems with these motor with the bearings that i should know about. i used to have a 2nd gen dsm turbo and know a little about bearings.

I'm sure he meant the rod bearings also, although theres really no way to check them out before you purchase the car unless the owner agrees to take the bottom end apart which I'm positive he won't do. Like someone said already, listen for weird noises, also you said VTEC didn't kick in, was the car given enough time to warm up? VTEC will not engage if the engine isn't warmed up.

 

[white91crxhf]

the car idled for like 3 mins. and then we took it for a spin real quick for like another 5 mins. not enough time for it to warm up for the test drive, but he said vtec doesn't work for some reason he didn't know why his friend did the swap for him that was good, but rushed and missed a few things. also i did compression test and was only 165 is that a little low or am i good, because all 4 were like that.

 

[Stillvdubbin]

sounds like a project on top of a project.

 

[PHOBIA]

that e brake light is on becuse he needs to put brake fluid in there.
how cheap is it going for?

 

[white91crxhf]

the speedometer doesn't work either and i heard that vtec wont work if the speedo dont work. the price is cheap enough, i;ll leave it at that

 

[jdmvteccrx]

how cheap......1000?

price is the determining factor.

 

[PHOBIA]

thats bs. vtec will work with out the spedo,i just fixed my spedo and vtec worked way before that.the spedo is simple its just a little round cable that has a square head that fits snugly into the back of gauge cluster .

 

[Dustin_m]

sounds like that swap was done shitty. unless you are paying under a grand for that i would seriously reconsider is. by the time you figure out the VTEC problem, then fix the wiring and vacuum lines, then spend $$ on a tranny, you could still run into the problem of the motor being no good, so there would be more $$. If you really want a car already swapped, look for one with a clean swap job. shit, for all the trouble you would have with that car, you could buy a rex and fo the swap yourself and you'd probably go through less hassle

 

[g24jr]

that is low compression for a motor like that how many miles does it have? b16's from japan with about 40,000 miles usually have around 205-210 for compression.
why were you looking for a fuse when you were doing a compression check? You do not have to take anything out for compression check exept for sparkplugs

 

[white91crxhf]

actually you have to found the fuel inject fuse so you dont pour fuel in the motor while cranking it over. and the vacumm lines were easy and cost around 0. wiring harness cost around 0 to fix the car was 1200 bucks. new trans cost 250 with lsd. its running rich so i got an aftermarket adjustable fuel pressure regulator and gauge for 100 bucks new. and the swap wasn't that bad, for the most part. and for the guy who said the motor could be bad is just an idiot, because if you kno anything about cars. you know what to look for when checking out a motor and just the fact that compression was good makes the bottom end pretty damn solid. the only thing thats really bad is the tranny and the funny thing is i still can drive it around.

 

[BseriesKllR]

my friends vtec didnt work cause his speedo cable wasnt hooked up needs to see atleast 15mph or something but after we fixed that it definetly kicked in.