98 DX build / testing
 

recently picked up a 98 civic DX 5 speed 2 door coupe with 176k miles.

car had a few issues when I bought it two weeks ago but I'm just about squared away and ready for a baseline tank of fuel. I had fixed an exhaust leak and both 02 sensors were lazy, causing a p0170/p0171 CEL. I just installed an UltraGauge and love it! best $60 yet. I was able to scan and diagnose the lazy 02's using the UG features.
with the CEL on and car running pig rich I achieved an average of 34 mpg driving the speed limit, no hyper milling. next tank should be significantly better now that the engine is running efficiently.

here's the car as I bought it 11/12:
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...1354426201.jpg
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...1353369963.jpg
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...1353369960.jpg

full grill block for the winter; just finished tonight:
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...1354419753.jpg
PAINTED:
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...1354419758.jpg

temporary warm air intake:
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...1353821211.jpg

going to make a sheet metal box around the header and put the air inlet in or close to the box to keep intake temps up. at idle I'm around 92 degrees, at speed it drops to 64-68 degrees.

that's it for now

Looks good. Grill block can be permanent I think on top. You can block the sides of the bottom grill too and I think you'll never have a problem.

Something I been telling everyone, change the thermostat before it goes bad, it's cheap insurance, takes 15 minutes to do, and if it goes bad, can be very costly. Speaking from experience, my Tstat went out on my 04EX.

I did a full tune up, new t-stat and fresh coolant. will be doing amsoil extended life synthetic engine oil and amsoil synchromesh gear oil change tomorrow. :thumbup:

the other advantage to the UG is the alert option. I set a coolant temp alert if it goes above a set temp :cool:

Be careful with the tranny lube, I read a BUNCH of posts over at the Honda specific forums, the conclusion I came to was people willing to "Try other things" invariably were novices. Without exception, the forum guru ace mechanic people (Aeroheads) were all saying use the Honda factory stuff.

Funny thing though, when I went over the maint receipts that the previous owner of MagMetal kept and gave me, he had the 60K maint done at the dealer ......twice, at 58K & 62K. I'm needing to do it again though since I am getting on 120K miles and it will be Honda factory blue bottle slippery stuff for me.

fwiw.

I've read a lot of people saying the same about the Honda MTF. Amsoil claims their synchromesh synthetic meets and/or exceeds the Honda MTF.

I'm willing to give it a shot. :thumbup:

5w-30 dino oil won't hurt a thing. Change it every 15k. Synchromesh is fine but spendy for something that won't really do much in terms of economy.

landscaping bumper trim coming soon. possible rear seat delete the end of this week as well.

fill up
 

369 miles on 9.65 gallons, 38 mpg compared to baseline tank of 34 mpg.

50 psi, full grill block & warm air intake netted me 4 mpg.

this is all without cruise control so I'm sure that numbered can be improved on.

Rostra cruise control came in the mail today (: I\'ll have that installed this weekend.

lawn trimming bumper extension completed. took about a half hour, used about a dozen self tappers & electrical tape to smooth out the transition from trimming to bumper.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...1355097145.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...1355097150.jpg