Black & Green modding thread (1998 Civic DX Coupe base)

[California98Civic]

There it is, and I thoroughly cleaned the BLACKENED oil off the front of the engine. Hopefully it no longer leaks. Looks clean eh? I repainted the white lettering on the oil filler cap. Make it pretty! I took off heat shield to strip black paint and polish the aluminum for reduced emisivity and higher reflectance.



Valve clearance set for max overlap again, new valve cover gasket, new spark plug hole gasket, new bolt gasket, finished polishing "Honda," and applied boiled linseed oil to the entire cover.

It is a coping mechanism as COVID-19 begins to overrun my county.

[MeteorGray]

Outstanding job Cali'98C!

Your attention to detail is astounding: Repainting the oil filler cap's tiny lettering. Getting the ecomodder.com logo on the piping. Making the engine shine again.

Hats off to a true aficionado who never let a little crisis get in the way :-)

[California98Civic]

Did the Sea Foam Spray treatment for the first time today. Results were different than expected, but I am satisfied. Thick clouds of smoke while introducing the spray into the intake, then little smoke fifteen minutes later during "spirited driving" portion of the process. Also, three misfire codes (cyl 1, cyl 2, and random misfire). Pulled over, inspected everything, cleared code, restarted the drive cycle. No code return, and engine temps and idle all normal. Car felt good, actually.

Next time I will do the water method. Sea Foam is too toxic. ChrisFix (YouTuber) used a scope to demonstrate equally good results with water.

[MeteorGray]

I used to trickle water from a glass coke bottle into the carb of a fast-idling engine to get that cloud of smoke.

It worked good to eliminate some of the carbon built up.

Sometimes the old ways are as good as more sophisticated approaches, and the fog didn't smell so petroleum-like either.

Of course, Sea Foam probably does some extra stuff too that water cannot, whatever that may be. I mean, you gotta get something for the ten bucks.

[California98Civic]

Originally Posted by MeteorGray

I used to trickle water from a glass coke bottle into the carb of a fast-idling engine to get that cloud of smoke....

I think a spray bottle into the throttle body would produce just as good atomization as the Sea Foam spray nozzle.

I also now suspect that the benefit was probably uneven. The nozzle was spraying sea fom onto the throttle body ahead of the plate toward the driver side of the opening, rather than dead center. Driver side corresponds with cylinder 1 and 2, which are the two that misfired upon startup. I suspect 3 & 4 did not get as much of the treatment. That make sense?

[M_a_t_t]

I wouldn't think it would make that much of a difference. Think about TBI systems. They injected in roughly the same location and got fuel (sort of) evenly to all the cylinders.

[California98Civic]

This 1998 OEM heat shield is steel (stainless?). Maybe 8 or 9 years ago, I painted it black with high heat enamel. That was a bad idea. A dude on here tried to explain emisivity to me, but I didn't get it. I understand better now.

Anyway, I got a couple hours today to sand and scrape and apply chemical paint remover over and over. Black slowly became this. I have a ways to go! I want to polish it up and get maybe a 0.10 emissivity (polished stainless steel) instead of a "black paint on metal" rating of 0.90 or so (zero being lowest and 1.00 being highest).

On emisivity I am following https://www.optotherm.com/emiss-table.htm

[freebeard]

It seems like paint remover only takes 80% of what's left. The perfect becomes the enemy of the good-enough.

For the heat to emit, it has to conduct. There should be a similar chart [supposedly] showing aluminum conducts 10x the stainless steel.

[Xist]

True, but sometimes men just enjoy polishing their shield!

[California98Civic]

Originally Posted by freebeard

... For the heat to emit, it has to conduct. There should be a similar chart [supposedly] showing aluminum conducts 10x the stainless steel.

I won't let perfect be the enemy of good. 80% will be good enough and in line with the general wabi-sabi imperfection of the car.

Originally Posted by Xist

... sometimes men just enjoy polishing their shield!

I will be polishing it some more day. Will send pictures!