ZC DOHC 1991 Hatchback Transplant - Epilog

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Engine short block will be ready tomorrow. I pulled the engine harness completely out yesterday as a part of getting ready to repaint engine bay. The first time with it, I did all the work on it (engine harness) with the new engine installed and harness in the car. Not this time. I'll do the work with it removed and mock-up any breakout lengths with the engine on the stand - much easier, especially on the back.

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Some of the work to be done on the engine harness will be new injector connectors as the originals are kinda ratty looking. I picked up some 250cc flow capacity OBD1 saturated injectors so the "peak and hold" OBD0 resistor box is also going bye bye. In addition to the flow increase from 225cc to 250cc, the new injectors are saturated type and are fully compatible with the P29 chipped OBS1 P06 ECU in it.

I made the decision on the injector change yesterday, I had been considering it, then thought about cleaning up the originals. Hooked up a 12V power supply and triggered them manually and blasted with carb cleaner and figured screw it, time to replace. A factor in the decision is because this time the engine will have a thinner head gasket which will bump the compression ratio up another 1/2 a point, from 10:1 to 10.5:1. I'll probably put an adjustable fuel pressure regulator on it and also need to install the high flow fuel pump I have for it.

Fuel%20Injectors%201.jpg


Guys at the shop attributed the uneven and accelerated clutch sics wear to oil leaking and causing slippage and softening up the friction material.

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damn man. let me know if you need another clutch. I've got a cable exedy left over from my CRX swap......wait your D-series.....doh! :facepalm: my bad.

nothing to see here I guess. :lol:
 
Nothing to see here but metal shavings from a destroyed rod bearing mixed in with the oil.

Thanks for thinking of me on the clutch. :)
 
Picked up Short Block components yesterday from the machine shop. Block, ground crank, oversize bearings, full gasket set, new oil pump, new clutch disc. They got me an Exedy clutch disc this time - don't know what the other one was. Assembly will be this coming weekend.

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The machine shop bill this time around was $773.67 including tax. Add to that $94.00 for the Cometic 0.031" head gasket and $95.00 for a set of ARP studs. Then of course, another $274.99 for a set of 250cc saturated injectors. That puts this little foray well north of a grand. I'll probably bolt the SOB together this weekend. Then finish up the engine bay paint refresh and drop it in.
 
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that'll do pig... that'll do... lol
Which reminds me of something I almost overlooked in this sordid tale. Probably the cornerstone component for the build, and perhaps why it didn't work quite right the first time. Being a "High Pressure" type oil cap, it should be able to handle way more crankcase blowby pressure than the OEM plastic version.

This little gem cost $14.95 + $1.95 shipping from our favorite aftermarket parts source - eBay:

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hey bro. first i wanna say i love the color of the block. and i just wanna put my two cents in, on your cam gears dont use that allen (however you speel it) bolts. i did the same thing and they both backed out on me and jacked my motor up
 
^ Thank you for the comments. It got "Purplized" somewhat by a fluke - had a new can in the paint locker and will admit I like it. It was mom's favorite color, so there ya are.

Cam pulley's and socket head cap screws - while I don't discount your unfortunate problem using them, my experience has been very different than what you describe.

I've successfully used the grade #8 socket head cap screws for years on a myriad of applications, several being on engines interfaced with aluminum/aluminum, steel/aluminum, steel/steel. My racing karts are littered with them. For cam pulley applications, I used one on my old D16A6 when I installed the adjustable pulley on it. Ran it for a couple of years. The ZC has ran for a year with them. Socket head allens are used almost exclusively on adjustable cam pulleys to hold the outer toothed pulley to the hub.

For it/them to back out in your engine makes me wonder - seems like there would be an issue there. Just guessing. Insufficient thread protrusion, dry threads and improper torque applied, pulley not pulled up and fit correctly on the camshaft, excessive vibration?

I don't remember the OEM torque value off the top of my head, but do know I increased it by 40% over OEM (~5 ft lbs more torque as I recall) when assembling both to the D16A6 & ZC. Also, used anti-seize on the threads which facilitates proper tightening/torquing. This grade of bolt (or similar, high tensile strength, high yield, high Rockwell - yes they are hex head and not allen head) is used on the harmonic balancer (crank pulley), flywheel, pressure plate, chassis, throughout the head, etc. They don't just fall out. :)

D16A6%20Cam%20Pulley.jpg
 
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i still use them like on the intake manifold and small stuff like that. lol what works for some may not work for others lol. what color was that? like the name of it.
 
The socket heads require more torque IMO than the OEM as they are much harder. If you used the Grade #8's like I did in mine and torqued them at OEM specs, that may be what went wrong. The threads in the cam are pretty hard and not soft aluminum like the block, so to tighten them up, I grab the pulley with a strap wrench and torque 'em up real good.

I don't remember what color it was beyond purple - it was RustOLeum from a rattle can.

I'm going to stay with the purple on the head and block this time around and same blue on the valve cover. The tranny I'm undecided on. It is curently rustoleum machine smoke gray. Oil pan will remain black. I'm painting the engine bay and firewall is going to be black as will the underside of the hood. Considering painting the tranny black to match oil pan on the engine. Dunno, the gray looked pretty good.

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Ordered online LH/RH tranny axle seals and a pair of rubber floor mats yesterday. FIC 250cc Saturated Fuel Injectors should arrive this week.

Didn't do anything with the short block this weekend - other projects took center stage: Computer repair (replaced OS hard drive, drive cooling fan, northbridge cooling fan) for former step son, some cigar smoking, and lastly picked up dog crap in back yard to appease neignbor behind me. :)
 
The FIC Saturated OBD1 250cc fuel injectors arrived today. Interesting configuration. They are "Generic" in nature and have adaptors on them. As such I ordered some new EV6 type pigtails for the engine harness injector plugs.

Here are the connectors pictured - stock D16A6 OBD0 injector on the left, a stock DOHC ZC OBD1 injector center and the new FIC on the right.

Fuel%20Injectors%202.jpg


Pictured with D16A6 injector on the left and DOHC ZC injector on the right:

Fuel%20Injectors%203.jpg


FIC injectors close up with adaptor plug disconnected:

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Close up showing injector plug configuration and stock adaptor laying on top:

Fuel%20Injectors%205.jpg


EDIT: A bit more research and I have discovered the new injectors from FIC are Bosch and also have Ford logo's on them. Used in the 4.6 litre mustang engines. They have native EV6 electrical connectors on them, and as they are made by Bosch for Ford, are a common part. So, I ordered a set of 4 EV6 wiring pigtails to mod the harness with.

http://www.injectorrx.com/fuel-injector-connectors.html

Don't know what type of connector came on the DOHC ZC OBD1 engine - don't care.
 
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The EV6 pigtails for the fuel injectors arrived today - that was fast. They were mailed from Houston, Tx. Real nice, red line is the pin marked + on the injectors, so wiring will be easy.

Fuel%20Injectors%206.jpg


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While the OEM Honda connectors work fine, and it's not something that gets disconnected often, the EV6 design is real nice and has side depress type releases on them. They will be a bit easier to perform maintenence on when needed. The plugs on the car harness were original and in pretty rough shape, so they will get replaced when I pull the resistor box for the saturated injectors.
 
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take a pic of the car the way it sits now. are you gonna keep the clear tail lights? you should do JDM the clear tail light are played out lol
 
Those ghetto tail lights are gone. They were installed when I bought the car and went into the recycle bin a couple of months ago after the right rear got clipped by an SUV, thus breaking the RH light assy. The chrome tail lights and some kind of chrome stick on tape was on the gas cap cover when I bought the car. It also had some ghetto chrome looking reflector on the hatch. The chrome rear reflector and gas cap door were removed when I got home with the car. Fortunately, the original red reflector came with the car and I discovered it was in the back. :thumbsup:

Here's a flash shot of the back as it sits on jack stands:

Rear%20View.jpg


FWIW I don't give a flyingfuck if these are/were in/out of style or not - no mas on the Ghetto Chrome. The three pieces are an $89 solution to a $200 problem and fit good. :)
 
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Getting psyched up to build the motor this weekend as essentially all the new parts are here now. B&M Fuel pressure regulator arrived today. I was heading to the hardware store on a parts run for outdoor hose faucets for my house and saw the UPS truck a few blocks from my house. I do plenty of business with them and know the drivers - I just pulled up beside his truck, he handed me my package, and we both drove off in opposite directions.

I have thought about the sexy looking AEM regulators and awe screw it, I went with the B&M to save $50 or so. This ain't a super high perf build, if it was, I'd have went with the AEM. Anyway, I'll post up some pics of the fuel pressure regulator mod work. Also picked up some new cutoff wheels and arbor for the Dremel tool today for the cutting work on the regulator.

A friend cross threaded a bolt in the rear tranny mount during assembly last year, so I'll pull that tonight and order up a heli-coil set for that thread size. Went with a longer bolt and it worked but it's a bandaid fix and while this SOB is out this time around I'm cleaning up all the gremlins and loose ends from the original swap job last year. Need to install the new high capacity fuel pump too and make an adaptor to fit the fuel pressure regulator gauge on the line interface at the firewall fuel filter.

EDIT 6/26 Pulled the rear mount from the tranny and inspected threads, no need for heli-coils, they look fine.
 
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Wheels arrived today. Banged the R front into a curb and rashed it up pretty good a month or so ago. It was either sandblast, fill and paint them all, replace one wheel or replace the set. I opted to replace the set and stepped up the size from 15x7 to 16x7 and will increase tire size from 195/50-15 to probably a 205/45-16. Another factor in the replace wheels decision was the speedometer read just a touch high and I wanted black centers in the wheels. Perfect set of excuses for a new set of wheels and tires. Right? ;) And I wanted a bit more "Fill" in the wheel well.

Went with same type, they're decent wheels for the price. Full set was ~$365 delivered to my front porch. I haven't decided what tires this time around, I may stick with the Nitto's as they have good wet weather performance - pretty soft rubber compound.

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Wheels%2016x7%202.JPG


Created a table in Excel to calculate relative tire/wheel combination sizes. Key here is "Relative" - they are close to actual, but are not actual, they are however very useful and very close in a relative sense to comparing from a known size.

Tire%20Sizes.JPG


Here's the spreadsheet if anyone wants to use it - it could be easily modified to support other sizes.

http://www.senorpanadero.net/uploader/userfiles/stevew/Honda SiR/Speed Calculator.xlsx
 
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