Need a couple more posts before I can make the images appear inline I guess.
Well, since I just recently joined I figured I should start a project thread about my Civic.
After the untimely death of my last 97 HX
which was in perfect condition.
I set out and found one from a junkyard that was $900 and needed a new head. Thus the project began!
http://i.imgur.com/uwMgK.jpg
This is it at the junkyard. It's not really a looker, but I needed something to get to and from work.
Old head on the second HX - things looking pretty dirty. I'm no expert on this stuff but that much discoloration's got to be a bad thing. :/
Head from first Civic HX put on - just had to get the thing timed and then smogged and I'd be back on the road!
Hm.. Well, I guess that's why it was at a junkyard. $478 in DMV fees really hurt quite a bit, especially since the DMV only takes cash/debit.
I've now been driving the car for about 4 months and have accumulated quite a bit of a fuel log - unfortunately not on this site so I'll just leave a screenshot of the .csv exported from aCar.
Now, a part of the reason I joined this community is to get help in getting more MPG's out of this thing. I know that with lean burn I should really be getting more than 38.081 average MPG so I'm looking for help in squeezing at least 40 out of this sucker.
Problem is, this thing's motor leaks oil like a sieve - there's oil coming out of the distributor area (Tried buying a new inner seal which even a mechanic couldn't drive in properly, which means I might have to buy a whole new distributor for a darned seal) and a look underneath the motor is quite horrifying seeing what looks like at least 50k of nasty gunk under there so I'm sure it's leaking oil from somewhere else. Hopefully it's not the rear main seal, but knowing my luck...
Aside from that I have already attempted to install a warm air intake to see if there would be any kind of MPG increase, and the last two tanks have seen zero increase of fuel economy. I'm considering doing a mod I saw on YouTube with using some PVC piping and bringing "Cold" air up from the ground and forcing it into the end of the warm air intake effectively making it a cold air intake. Any thoughts on that? Or should I just go back to the stock airbox?
Also, I caved and bought an UltraGauge - perhaps my driving style just sucks.
I do have to go over a very large hill as a part of my commute. :/