2002 Honda Civic LX auto - repair & modding

[California98Civic]

Originally Posted by Daox

I continued working on the Civic this weekend. I got everything removed, except the crankshaft pulley bolt. Neither my pneumatic nor my electric impacts were able to take that thing off! Its currently soaking in penetrating oil to attempt to loosen it.

Nice progress. I hope the oil works. I wish I could take my civic off the road. Maybe I'd move faster on it. But as it is I need it for daily driving. I'm ready to go in for the timing belt job myself, but I can't today. Gotta drive it!

[Daox]

I finally got the head off this thing last night. Woo, that was a bit more work than I thought it would be. I had to borrow a more powerful impact wrench to get the crankshaft pulley off. I had to borrow an electric impact from a coworker and that got it off last night. The penetrating oil did nothing, it was on that tight that the oil wasn't able to seep behind the washer and bolt head.

So, this is how it sits now:





It looks like the head is going to need some clean up work too. There is some gunk build up in the coolant passages.





Soon enough I'll remove the control arms, and take the head and the control arms into the shop. The head will be resurfaced and pressure checked, and the control arms will get new front bushings pressed into them. While that stuff is being taken care of I'll weld up the manifold and take care of any other little things on the car like cleaning up the interior and what not.

[mbolton1990]

Nice progress!

Are you going to check the block for warpage?
$30 for re-surfacing your current head seems like a steal.
When I replaced the HG on my D15B6 the OEM gasket was baked/formed onto the head and it took ages getting it all off...Had to use gasket remover in the end.

Then again if I had just gotten in re-surfaced they would've taken it all off for me,haha.

[Daox]

Thanks!

Yeah, I'll clean it up and check it with a straight edge. Are these blocks known to have issues or only the heads?

[California98Civic]

That's some dirty looking hardware!

[Daox]

Yeah, the whole thing is pretty dirty haha.

I haven't dug through the repair manual yet, but is there a coolant drain plug for the block? If so, where is it?

[California98Civic]

Originally Posted by Daox

... is there a coolant drain plug for the block? If so, where is it?

If it is where it is on the sixth gen, then it is beside the oil filter, toward the driver side.

[Daox]

I didn't get too much time to work on the Civic this weekend. I went to remove the control arms, but couldn't get the ball joint separated from the control arm. I'll have to rent or buy a ball joint tool to get it out because that thing is incredibly stubborn. While I was doing that I also noticed that the ball joint boot was shot and needs replacing. Thus starts the list of parts for the 2nd parts order.

[California98Civic]

I think the ball joint and boot are sold as a unit anyway, because it's such a PITA to do just the joint without mangling the boot, IIRC, no?

[Daox]

I'm pretty sure you can't just by the boot, its the whole ball joint or nothing. Its been torn for a while though, so I'm sure the joint is worn. So, I'll be picking up new ball joints.