89 civic wagovan 5spd (very slow build: power + ecomods & lots of pics!)

[vrmouseyd15b]

Originally Posted by Old Mechanic

Four wheel drive is a MPG killer.

Why would you upgrade brakes on a car where your driving technique minimizess brake wear.

Personally I would focus on making skidmark as reliable as possible.

Racing upgrades are fine if you're racing, but in a wagon that seems ludicrous to me.

regards
mech

Ludicrous is just my style! eventually, skidmark will join team turbocharged (not anytime soon, so standard brakes will do fine for now), but when you can go hard, you need to be able to stop hard.

The Wagon is about the coolest way to go hard in my opinion, and like I said earlier in the thread, this car will be about having cake and eating it too!
I want this thing to be a sleeper, get insane mpgs (when I don't have my heavy shoes on), and be a reliable daily driver that I can load up with groceries or stuff to go camping, and make newer cars look stupid for trying to keep up!

"From scratch"

Thanks,
Victor

[vrmouseyd15b]

Look what I found in between my front doors!

Thanks Gasoline Fumes! This looks great!


I'll get it installed sometime soon. Skidmark made me both disappointed and happy at the same time this morning. She wouldn't start. She would crank, and then crunch, no more crank. Sounds like she threw a timing belt. At least it was in my driveway when it happened and not going down the road
Oh well, should have started here anyway, but I was so happy she wanted to run! I guess it's going to be a few things all at once for the next round on the motor. Valve cover gasket, intake and exhaust gaskets, head gasket and timing belt should get me close. Maybe a bent valve now, too. I've got a few motors laying around here, so I'll just have to tear her open and see where she's really stuck.. And then shell out some cash for all those gaskets and the belt to put her back together. The things I do for love

Thanks,
Victor

[Cobb]

The gen 2 insight is a hog and the little 1.3l engine and ima rotor only help but soo much with slowing you down to a stop.

Plus I supplement my gasoline with coal so less technique is needed for mpg.

Originally Posted by Old Mechanic

Why would you upgrade brakes on a car where your driving technique minimizess brake wear.

[Ecky]

I'd be surprised if you bent a valve trying to start it in your driveway. Guess we'll find out though.

[vrmouseyd15b]

Originally Posted by Ecky

I'd be surprised if you bent a valve trying to start it in your driveway. Guess we'll find out though.

Boy do I hope you're right, Ecky

might just not want to push past the valve makes sense. Either way, I should have started in there. Hindsight is always 20/20 huh?

Now I have to wait. I promised the little one we would go to Chicago and visit with the cousins today. Arrgh
Mechita's going to cruise to the city today
Thanks,
Victor

[user removed]

Saw a beautiful Civic Wagon today riding through a neighborhood where we used to live. Look like original milano red paint that would easily clean to close to 100%. Made me think of this thread, and OGs thread.

regards
mech

[vrmouseyd15b]

Originally Posted by Old Mechanic

Saw a beautiful Civic Wagon today riding through a neighborhood where we used to live. Look like original milano red paint that would easily clean to close to 100%. Made me think of this thread, and OGs thread.

regards
mech

Livin' the dream!

Hey Gasoline Fumes: guess what I found?


that makes the mirror delete mod's total cost $49.95. Sounds good to me! That was the only interior cover I could find on the Internet. Couldn't wait to get the best price, have to be able to close the hole proper in the end, it's for the best I'm sure. I love my "Skiddy". she's worth it

One more thing I found. Since I know I'm going to tear it apart, these are goodies I think I'm going to need:


That's a water pump and gasket, tensioner and timing belt. Then all the gaskets that go on the head of the d15b2. I'm going to tear it all down to the head gasket and go new all the way out to the exhaust gaskets on the front, and out to the throttle body! Ta da!

Then I'll be a little bit busy with Skiddy. The tranny is going to have to wait. The skidmark is way too cool to just sit around, and I want her to be turn-key, mechanically perfect

Thanks,
Victor

[vrmouseyd15b]

FOUND MY CRUNCH:


bad news, folks. skidmark's stock motor has died

looks like she broke a rod on the cylinder closest to the cam gear. punched a hole in the block behind the a/c compressor mount. and the timing belt is WASTED



the hole on the front of the block is about four inches up and down, maybe an inch and a half across. there's also a smaller hole on the back of the block, next to the alternator, which I didn't see until I got the whole intake manifold and head off:



so, as I already mentioned, I've already got the intake manifold off:



pulled the head:




and after a closer look, proved that i either broke a rod or connecting end (far right piston is almost at it's TDC, not even with the piston on the far left):



so, after double checking my original plans to make sure I was grabbing the correct (would have been left over for another high compression n/a build) block. the block happens to be a d16z6 (how about a95 del sol? not sure.) had to split the head off, since I'm just going to "dumb down" this block so it will play nice with Skiddy's old head - that way I should be able to get her back on the road without going into the whole obd1 wiring conversion, etc... Here's the donor motor:



I threw the old d15b2 valve cover in the blast cabinet (figured this might take long enough to sneak the valve cover in for a coat of cream) and "dry-fitted" the old head onto the new block! looks decent enough, from what I've read I'm going to need the d15b2 timing belt, which is already on the way. here it is so far:



I ran the numbers on this new setup, just to see what it would end up as. called it all stock d16z6 bottom end and all stock d15b2 top. should work out fine:


anybody know if I need to remove or add the "oil jet" thingie between #2&3 cylinders with this block/head combo? donor motor is vtec, old "new" head is not.

I'm pretty much out of weekend, so it will only be bits and pieces again all week!

thanks,
Victor

[Cobb]

Sorry to hear about the engine. Guess you got to make a new one.

That cr seems very low for an e85 vtec monster running 30 psi of boost.

If you are doing the above you want the oil jets below the pistons. Dont know how to install or remove them.

Hey, why are you replacing the wheel bearings? Are they bad or its just cheap insurance?

[vrmouseyd15b]

Originally Posted by Cobb

Sorry to hear about the engine. Guess you got to make a new one.

That cr seems very low for an e85 vtec monster running 30 psi of boost.

If you are doing the above you want the oil jets below the pistons. Dont know how to install or remove them.

Hey, why are you replacing the wheel bearings? Are they bad or its just cheap insurance?

This will just be something "quick and dirty" hopefully the semi new motor will get me around until the real monster gets built

No boost planned for this current set up. Notice no change in the effective compression.

so I do want oil jets, then? Cool. I'll have to figure that out and share when I put it together.

Definitely insurance, but there was a bad scrape out of the front that wasn't brakes. All that stuff was pretty much original on there, and didn't look up to the 100 mile round trip days that would be in it's future. Got rear hub assemblies for the same reason

Thanks,
Victor