Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum - EcoModder.com - View Single Post - Project Turtle: Bluesteel93's Civic VX build

bluesteel93 · 01-03-2015, 03:58 AM

This was going to be called Project Mr. Tokyo Man, but my wife renamed the car Turtle after a little road trip yesterday. The name fits and its funny

.

I bought a 1994 CA version Civic VX back in October, but had ACL surgery a couple weeks after I bought it and have only just recently been able to work on it. Here's some pics of it when I first got it.

After I bought it I noticed the transmission was making a funny noise. A little research led me to believe it was a bad input shaft bearing which I guess is pretty common on these tranny's. So I parked the car for a couple months until I could rebuild the trans. I figured I might as well rebuild the whole trans while I was in there since the car has 240k miles.

While I was off for my surgery I was able to do a lot of research and gather a lot of parts for the car. I was able to piece together a factory air box since the car came with a cold air intake, bought an MPGuino, the tranny rebuild kit, a fed version ECU and O2 sensor, and made the harness to convert it to the fed version.

Last week was the first time I really had to work on on the car, so first on the agenda was the tranny rebuild. I did all the work at my brothers house because he has all of the tools and space, something I lack where I live.

Here's the motor with the lame CAI before we did any work.

De-greased the engine bay with Superclean and took off the CAI.

Tranny is out.

Broken open. Definitely right about the input shaft bearing. The balls had pits in them and the bearing would lock up occasionally.

Had a leaky rear main seal and oil pan gasket too, so those got replaced. Here's a pick of the bottom of the motor just because.

Tranny is back in and bolted up.

With the new old factory air box.

Took about 2 days work with my brother and I working on it to rebuild the tranny and replace the rear main and the oil pan gasket. Drove it back home and the noise is gone. Tranny shifts nice and smooth. Ended up putting in valvoline synchromesh in it after hearing that OG VX had good results with pennzoil synchromesh (they didn't have the pennzoil stuff at O'reillys). Ended up taking it on a little road trip with my wife on New Year's Day up to Mt. Baldy. The car did great with the exception of stop and go traffic, uphill, for about 10 miles going up the mountain. I wish I got some pics of the car on the mountain but I forgot. Did get this shot though...

Its first recorded fill up after we got back down the mountain. Averaged 29.7 mpg

. It ain't great, but considering the trip up the mountain and the idle time while working in the car I'm not too discouraged. We'll just have to wait and see what the next tank is under typical driving.

That's it for now. Gonna do some routine maintenance stuff in the next couple of days so I'll update then. My end goal for this car is for it to look really nice and not scream that it's ecomodded. A good example would be DonkeyCRX's white VX. I love the way that car looks and the fact that it can get over 70 MPG is awesome.

Let me know what you guys think so far and post any questions or comments. I'm really excited for this project and to be apart of this site. The support here is awesome!

01-03-2015, 03:58 AM	#1 (permalink)
bluesteel93 EcoModding Apprentice Join Date: Oct 2014 Location: SoCal Posts: 113 Turtle - '94 Honda Civic VX Team Honda 90 day: 48.37 mpg (US) SVO - '86 Ford Mustang SVO Team Turbocharged! 90 day: 22.03 mpg (US) Thanks: 73 Thanked 54 Times in 31 Posts	Project Turtle: Bluesteel93's Civic VX build This was going to be called Project Mr. Tokyo Man, but my wife renamed the car Turtle after a little road trip yesterday. The name fits and its funny . I bought a 1994 CA version Civic VX back in October, but had ACL surgery a couple weeks after I bought it and have only just recently been able to work on it. Here's some pics of it when I first got it. After I bought it I noticed the transmission was making a funny noise. A little research led me to believe it was a bad input shaft bearing which I guess is pretty common on these tranny's. So I parked the car for a couple months until I could rebuild the trans. I figured I might as well rebuild the whole trans while I was in there since the car has 240k miles. While I was off for my surgery I was able to do a lot of research and gather a lot of parts for the car. I was able to piece together a factory air box since the car came with a cold air intake, bought an MPGuino, the tranny rebuild kit, a fed version ECU and O2 sensor, and made the harness to convert it to the fed version. Last week was the first time I really had to work on on the car, so first on the agenda was the tranny rebuild. I did all the work at my brothers house because he has all of the tools and space, something I lack where I live. Here's the motor with the lame CAI before we did any work. De-greased the engine bay with Superclean and took off the CAI. Tranny is out. Broken open. Definitely right about the input shaft bearing. The balls had pits in them and the bearing would lock up occasionally. Had a leaky rear main seal and oil pan gasket too, so those got replaced. Here's a pick of the bottom of the motor just because. Tranny is back in and bolted up. With the new old factory air box. Took about 2 days work with my brother and I working on it to rebuild the tranny and replace the rear main and the oil pan gasket. Drove it back home and the noise is gone. Tranny shifts nice and smooth. Ended up putting in valvoline synchromesh in it after hearing that OG VX had good results with pennzoil synchromesh (they didn't have the pennzoil stuff at O'reillys). Ended up taking it on a little road trip with my wife on New Year's Day up to Mt. Baldy. The car did great with the exception of stop and go traffic, uphill, for about 10 miles going up the mountain. I wish I got some pics of the car on the mountain but I forgot. Did get this shot though... Its first recorded fill up after we got back down the mountain. Averaged 29.7 mpg . It ain't great, but considering the trip up the mountain and the idle time while working in the car I'm not too discouraged. We'll just have to wait and see what the next tank is under typical driving. That's it for now. Gonna do some routine maintenance stuff in the next couple of days so I'll update then. My end goal for this car is for it to look really nice and not scream that it's ecomodded. A good example would be DonkeyCRX's white VX. I love the way that car looks and the fact that it can get over 70 MPG is awesome. Let me know what you guys think so far and post any questions or comments. I'm really excited for this project and to be apart of this site. The support here is awesome!