The white-mess, my EM1 Si with a d16y8.

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Got the exhaust. Gonna try to get a muffler on the car at some point this weekend. It's a k-teller 2.5" stainless exhaust, but I think I'm only going to use the axle-back portion of it for now, and just hack up my "free" 2.41" Chinese stainless exhaust some more.

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I did get to Lowe's to buy more paint, but not under the circumstances I wanted. The roller I was going to use on the office wasn't rolling, so I had to go buy a new one at 8:43 when they closed at 9:00. I got there with 5 minutes to spare, and now I'm about 80% done with the office.

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That paint dries a lot lighter than it looks right now in that photo. I fixed a bunch of nail pops over the winter and now that it's the hottest days of the year, it looks like they're not moving much at all, yay.

Anyway, back to the car. I have eight spray cans of the right paint, I'm going to do the front fender, driver's quarter panel, roof, back, rear bumper, passenger quarter, passenger door, and probably get some of the inner wheel well on the backs. Anything else that needs touching up I'll get too. Once I'm done with the car, I'll get the trunk lid put back on, and mask the car and spray the trunk lid in situ.
 
I got it all covered. Everything but the trunk lid now has a fresh coat of paint on it. Still hasn't flashed completely yet, so it's still got some shine. Holy crap I'm light headed, even with an N95 mask...
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Now maybe it'll look decent -- when I get the runs sanded out and re-sprayed, lol.
 
I figured I should probably remove the masking before the paint fully cured, just to make things easier.

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It doesn't look too bad, except for the dents, and that little bit of overspray on the driver side rear window. I may need to put another coat on the driver's side fender, it doesn't look as "rich" as the other panels.

Tomorrow I'll try to find the time to spray the trunk lid and side mirrors, and then maybe fit up the exhaust/muffler.


EDIT: In case anyone is wondering how the office/playroom turned out, I still need to paint the trim and window, but here it is:
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I got some time this morning, so I finished the paint, except for the mirrors and license plate trim piece.

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Now I've gotta put it all back together, clean up overspray, and get the exhaust put together. :D
 
Paint's done.

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Now, onto the exhaust and wheels.


I've learned that the lighting in my garage sucks, and eventually I'll fix that problem... Someday.
 
Got the muffler tacked up. I'm going to try to find time to weld it tomorrow.

The exhaust leak at the turbo to downpipe is still there, gonna try a new gasket tomorrow before I give up and slather it with "Copper RTV" that everyone seems to swear by.
 
Put another couple tacks on the muffler. It should hold until I can get the motivation to actually do it right.

It's a lot of fun to drive. I thought for sure I was gonna get pulled over earlier, I didn't realize I was already doing 70mph and I saw a cop on the side of the road. I still need to paint the mirrors and install them, so the car looks funny.

It starts to build boost at like 4000 RPM, but is totally spooled up by the time VTEC opens up at 5400. It makes about 7lb of boost before the wastegate opens and goes through first and second waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too fast.

The tune still sucks, I may have another bit of time to play with it later today. I just switched from Crome to BMTune, which is WORLDS better running, even just converting the fuel/timing maps over. I still have a lot of work to do getting it driving right, it's pretty dead under like 3000 RPM still, so maybe I can fix that once I get some dyno time.

Here's a picture:
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It does run hot, like 212-225F pretty consistently, despite the fan running, it stays around 222F, so that may pose an issue later on, when I get it tuned a bit better.

EDIT:
Turbo to downpipe gasket keeps blowing out. Looks like this when it happens, always in the same place. The turbo lag kinda sucks, I was hoping even though this turbo was a little too big that it'd work alright, but this little engine doesn't flow enough to make this big .63 A/R spin up.

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Got the turbo exhaust gasket fixed, I hope. Exhaust should be quieter now that the downpipe leak is maybe resolved... We'll see. The noise may actually be the turbo manifold to the head, but I'm not looking forward to that because of the massive pain it'll be to remove it and replace that gasket.

Saw some good brake pads on amazon for pretty cheap in a damaged box, so I picked them up. I'll get new front rotors before I put them on.
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I finished two of the LS Mesh wheels, check the other thread on those. I'm going to get the tires off the other two today so I can finish them hopefully this weekend.

I found a decent deal on some Eibach Pro-System springs/shocks on local FaceBook Marketplace, so I got them. That'll be interesting, given all the rust on everything in this car -- hopefully I don't break too much getting them on. I wonder if I should wait on that install until I decide if I'm going to put rear discs on the car or leave it with drums.

The traction bar arrived, along with the puller clutch slave cylinder, an-10 block breather fitting, an-6 fuel lines, and the 68mm throttle body. Those will go on whenever I have time, the clutch slave needs a new line bent up, and I'm not really looking forward to that, so that may delay everything a bit.

I may be experiencing head-lift, because the radiator was full of air and the overflow tank was overflowed. Which is cool... I mean, I guess. I guess a new head gasket is in the immediate future.

It drives pretty nice, still shakes a bit under hard braking, but that's to be expected with the crummy rotors. Whenever I see some for cheap on amazon warehouse deals I'll get those.

I'm considering a 3" turbo inlet pipe, because the 2.5" seems like it's choking things slightly, and the inlet on the compressor is 3", but I'm not sure if I want to do that, since I'll have to actually fabricate one myself and I have no helium to weld aluminum in my shop.
 
Just a heads up on those lower control arm bolts. If everything is rusted those are probably seized solid in the bushing.
Thats how my integra was anyway. Maybe they have already been changed out.
Just something to look forward to when you start doing the suspension.
That blows about the radiator being full of air already. I guess the head gasket just couldn't hang. I guess I got lucky with that because I had the motor all apart before I put the boost to it.
 
Just a heads up on those lower control arm bolts. If everything is rusted those are probably seized solid in the bushing.
Thats how my integra was anyway. Maybe they have already been changed out.
Just something to look forward to when you start doing the suspension.
That blows about the radiator being full of air already. I guess the head gasket just couldn't hang. I guess I got lucky with that because I had the motor all apart before I put the boost to it.

It honestly wasn't full of air, there was still coolant in there, but the upper hose was about half-air. It could be either the HG or that I didn't bleed the coolant system completely when I filled it after putting the body back together. Honestly, I never checked it after the initial fill and I ran it for about 35 minutes in the driveway, then topped it off. Either cause is equally likely at this point. There's no oil in the coolant, no coolant in the oil, no exhaust smell in the coolant, no coolant in the cylinders, and no coolant anywhere it shouldn't be, so maybe I'm lucky? Either way, I've got the ARP studs, I just need to pick up a head gasket.

The lower control arms were replaced with EX LCAs when the previous owner(s) took the rear disc brakes off, so I don't expect that'll be the issue. What I do expect to be an issue is everything that's original Si parts.
 
Got the exhaust tidied up enough to be presentable, now I have to fix one last exhaust leak, and it should be good.

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Next up are:
Get some dataloguing done
Mount tires on wheels
Install shocks and springs
Paint windshield wiper arms black again
Figure out if the head is lifting or I just didn't fully bleed the cooling system
Fix hood fit
Reinstall splash guard
Reinstall fender liners
Paint mirror housings

Not in that order -- obviously some are more important than others.
 
Got some datalogging done... Not sure what the issue is, I keep pulling fuel and it's not making a dent.

Exhaust leaks are fixed, for now. The "collector" flange on the downpipe had somehow loosened the bolts and was just blowing out exhaust. I may have forgotten to tighten those, oops. Either way, there is now a fresh gasket with some ultracopper RTV on it. I cleaned the flanges with acetone, then smeared on some Ultracopper RTV, got it finger tight, then a few hours later cranked it waaaaaay down.

Tires are on the wheels. Those sidewalls are super stiff, and they didn't go on easily.
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I picked up some interior pieces, and replaced everything that was painted inside the car. It actually looks halfway decent now... No more white paint!

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I also finished up the little Arduino project I've been working on to streamline the gauge problem, and hopefully make it a bit more "sleeper":
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It connects to the CN2 Port on the ECU, the serial Port used for datalogging, via Bluetooth. Should be fun to 3d print an enclosure for the screen so I can get actual data out of it. Hopefully it'll update fast enough so I don't have to have a dedicated boost gauge and a dedicated wbo2 display. Then the car will look stock-ish. The goal is to make this work on a small-ish OLED screen that will fit somewhere near the radio and look like a clock.

Speaking of a radio, I found this guy sitting in a box of stuff from my old 1999 Civic from back in 2007:
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It's one of those cool Honda branded Pioneer CD player radios. But, since it's European specification, it does the RDS or "radio data service" that I think finally caught on in the US. Either way, it's a nicer looking radio, so it's going in as soon as I get the wiring harness adapter made for it.

I painted the wiper arms, the paint should last a while, so they look nice again.

I'm going to a car show on Sunday, and I don't know if I'll have everything ready in time...

Left to do:
Fix the tune (lol, rite?)
Make radio harness, install radio, dash kit, etc.
Install wheels
Install shocks+springs
Install front traction bar
Wipe down/clean interior and glass
Paint door jams
Sand whole car to 1000 or 1200 grit to get the satin finish uniform
Wax the exterior
Install fender liners
Install splash guard
Try one more time to get that windshield crack fixed
Throw on some Hibiscus and sea turtle decals

I think the only thing going to happen is going to be the wheels and decals, maybe wipe down the exterior and spray some wax on if I'm feeling froggy, but I don't think I've got the time to do it.
 
I drove her today. Had to get gas...

10.259 gal
137.09 mi
13.363 MPG

So, uh, yeah, I'm literally dumping fuel right into the exhaust pipes, lol.

Other than that, no super crazy overheating, even in traffic. I just have to keep my foot out of it.

Here's some pics I was inspired to take today:
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So, as it turns out, I had a fuel leak... I thought the gas smell was just because I hadn't taken care of the EVAP canister and associated stuff... Nope.

Apparently the laborer who reinstalled the fuel rail after putting in the bigger injectors left out the o-ring seal from the fuel pressure regulator to the fuel rail. Good times.
 
Remember this radio? Honda/Pioneer 438DA, Pioneer PN DEH6026zh, Honda part number 08a06-386-600.

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Well, I found it in a box of a bunch of other honda stuff. It's a Pioneer Honda-Branded radio popular as an upgrade in higher-level trim Hondas across Europe. It has line-level outputs on the back, a CD player, AM/FM, and is RDS or RBDS compatible (read about it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Data_System) and from what I remember from 10 years ago, it sounded pretty nice and didn't have any issues. Playing with it here on my desk revealed that it's solid little radio and works pretty well, even has a clock that sets itself

The display is amber... Wooooo. Remember when people cared about that crap?
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I remembered why I leave the stock radio in cars now...
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Anyway, I'll probably throw it in the car later tonight, and figure out if I like it more than the stock radio. If I don't, it gets sold.

Here's the specifications on it:
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Should fit right into the car with almost no modification.
 
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