CRXFi Build Thread (Geo Metro XFi drivetrain in Honda CRX)

[MetroMPG]

Wow, this is one adventurous project car!

Downshifting for hills is normal, yup. Didn't your flooring the Flea in 5th gear up that slight grade (and seeing no perceptible change in velocity) prepare you somewhat?

It ain't no Civic

[Christ]

So does anyone have any additional thoughts about the skipping?

It only happens at higher RPMs/throttle angles, and it's not a constant... more of an intermittent misfire.

[vinny1989]

Had that sort of occasional misfire/skipping once.. it ended up being a bad spark plug lead.

[DamageX]

Does it use a distributor with mechanical/vacuum advance? Advance curves can be out-of-whack on those when they are old, although misfire can also be a fuel issue. All the more reason to convert to megasquirt/EDIS am I right? Will, we should meet up so I can check out your car sometime.

Also, Front-hinged hoods FTW.

[texanidiot25]

Originally Posted by Christ

To answer your question about the liter engine pulling on hills, from what I remember, we always had to downshift into 4th in my friend's mom's Geo... It wasn't an XFi, though. On particularly steep ones, 3rd and high throttle were necessary.

What's the HP and Torque of the XFi motor? My CRX has 60hp (well... 25 years ago) and ~80ft lb and it has no issue climbing hills now that it runs right. And this car has 250k miles with iffy piston rings.

[Funny]

Originally Posted by texanidiot25

What's the HP and Torque of the XFi motor?...

About 49Hp, and I think the same or similar torque.

[Wonderboy]

Got the replacement windshield installed today. No lexan - I want it to be (somewhat) street legal. In an ironic and convenient twist of fate, hoods and fenders are on sale for 12.99 this weekend at the salvage yard (yay!).

Originally Posted by DamageX

Also, Front-hinged hoods FTW.

I knew I recognized that name DamageX. Welcome to EM! I hope you find some things other than this project interesting. (@Christ - this was one of the BMW nerds I was talking to you about - no offense, we're all nerds here. 'cept for me.)

I think it would be pretty cool to fashion a front hinged bonnet for this car like a bimmer, but meh...probably cheaper to get pins or some kind of homebrew failsafe. I'm never going to close a hood again without testing it.

As for the slowness up hills: Darin, I remember driving the flea on completely flat roadway and asking it for more throttle in 5th - absolutely no response. The difference with mine is that it actually will respond and try just slightly on flat ground, but as soon as there is any kind of incline, it just really sh!ts the bed . I think it's really worth looking into timing - seems like it's maybe a tooth off because the middle of the torque curve is more than adequate , which is a rare utterance in reference to similar motors.

More updates as I get a new hood, another ECT sensor to satiate the CEL, pop in a different radiator that doesn't have a slow leak, hopefully get it inspected, and so on. The saga continues - maybe a video will be in store!

[Christ]

I did mean to ask about that CEL... and you just explained it. Thanks! Had you mentioned something about the ECT, I probably would have remembered where I had one laying around. LOL.

Re: Timing - I'm going to agree with checking your valve timing and any mechanical parts in the distributor. If your timing belt isn't timed properly, it will also screw up your ignition timing. The combination of both being slightly off (or very off, either way) will surely make for some interesting running conditions.

Re: The pins - You can get the cheap kits from AutoZone, where they're just two pins that stick through the hood and you put a clevis through them. They're like $20. I had them on my Turbo Escort, because after modifying things under the hood, I found that it wouldn't stay closed. I never figured out why, I just removed the hood latch assembly and added pins. It was cheaper than wasting my time diagnosing it, when I could have been racing.

Re: Bimmer Geeks - Cool, nice to meet you, DamageX. Please take some time to browse the forum, check out the various projects going on here at any point in time, and add any constructive input or opinions you may have. I hope you'll find this forum to your liking, and stick around awhile!

As for the front hinged hood, You could pretty easily side-hinge it, or split it up the middle and hinge both sides, etc... that would prevent a fly-up from ever occuring again. Either method can be achieved with some piano hinge, honestly. I know a guy that has a weird opening hood on his Cabriolet (custom car) that opens at an angle to the driver's side, and he just used plain piano hinge to hinge the hood.

Additionally, a piano-hinged side-opening hood would probably perfectly fill in the hood/fender gap... better aero?

[phunky.buddha]

Late to the party, but subscribed for updates and later reading... this is a very interesting project! To the OP: if you need any other Civic info, I'm an admin over on another very large Honda performance forum (and have been on others before) so I'm full of all kinds of wonderful useless technical data.

[Wonderboy]

Thanks for checking in phunky buddha! I've certainly had a heaping helping of 4th gen civic/2nd gen crx geek knowledge doing this project looking for parts. I have been so busy lately - I haven't even had time to update here on small advances. Here's a small update: I looked for a hood at the local salvage yard. I can usually find at least 4 4th gen civics there. This time I found about that and more, but only one of them had a hood, and it looked like a bottom-of-the-bag tortilla chip. I surprisingly found a CRX there, so I got some interior pieces I wanted (too bad the door panels sucked on it though), pieces of the climate control I needed, and some 13" alloys. I've been trying to figure out what they even go to - I can't find pictures of them anywhere associated with 4th gen civics, or any CRXs. They had some nice tall, thin tires on them (typical of that era). Can anyone tell me what this wheel was originally offered on? EDIT: And yes, they definitely are Honda.

The car runs far smoother on the low end, and it almost drives like it probably should. I still need a bit of alignment, NY inspection :P, adjust timing, and figure out my little missing spark problem. Need to solder all of the wires I cobbled together with solderless cap connectors, and it's time to put in the carpet (I know, I know - it's dead weight!)