1990 Honda CRX HF build "Red Rocket"

[tvbd56]

I've been meaning to make a build thread for my last car, so now I'm going to make it for my better car!

I got my 2005 Toyota Tacoma 4.0L V6 6 speed at 17 years old. On fuelly I have almost 65k miles tracked with an overall average of 18.1 mpg and a best of 23.8.


I was taking weekly trips from Sacramento to the bay area, so I was looking VERY patiently for the right car. I wasn't really looking the classifieds, I was just going by word of mouth and my patience worked out when I got this.

1998 Honda Civic EX 252k miles 4speed auto. I bought it for $550 off of my dad. I tracked 15k miles on fuelly with an average of 35.6 and a best of 40.6 and I worked really hard for the 40.6.



I had a full upper and lower grille block, a front air dam, sealed the gaps in the front, rear tire spats, removed rear spoiler, spare tire, rear seats, $10 worth of change crushed peppers and Parmesan (previous owner was a pizza delivery driver), 0w-20 mobil 1, and I'm sure there was a lot more that I am forgetting.
I found ecomodder when I got the car and kept itching to get better mpg. After long enough I started looking around and was waiting for the right car, just like the Civic.

1990 Honda CRX HF 250k 1.5L 5speed $1300. The car was stolen and returned to the previous owner a week later, and it was found sitting in a Taco Bell parking lot. All the speakers were stolen, the climate control display was cracked, and the Ignition was drilled out. I had to start the car with a flathead for about a month until I found a stock ignition.


This picture worked out, my dog blocked my liscence


The gaps under the hood were HUGE, I could squeeze under the hood and I could just imagine how much air gets in there while driving. I used a old seal for a walk-in cooler that my work was going to throw away and I knew I'd use it sooner or later. The lower part of the bumper had these inserts that led nowhere, so I painted two pieces of coroplast and used self-tapping screws to cover them.



I removed the passenger mirror and still haven't put a mirror on the inside because in the hatchback I have really good vision.




With this car my average is 52.4 and my best is 62.8! I'm so happy I got this car and hopefully my mpg will keep increasing!

[California98Civic]

Taking the difference between your average MPG with the Tacoma and your average with the HF and assuming $4/gallon gasoline, the HF will have paid for its purchase price in saved gasoline in about 12,000 miles, or maybe an average American's annual driving. Add another four or five thousand miles and its average over the Tacoma will have paid for the Civic EX too. This car will save you lots of cash, and it's freakin' fun too.

So what are your next plans?

BTW, do you know which final drive transmission it has? The 2.95 FD or the 3.250 FD.

[mbolton1990]

Still have the original D15B6?

If so be kind to her and she'll last for ages,just know those motors are very hard to get parts for.

[tvbd56]

Originally Posted by California98Civic

Taking the difference between your average MPG with the Tacoma and your average with the HF and assuming $4/gallon gasoline, the HF will have paid for its purchase price in saved gasoline in about 12,000 miles, or maybe an average American's annual driving. Add another four or five thousand miles and its average over the Tacoma will have paid for the Civic EX too. This car will save you lots of cash, and it's freakin' fun too.

So what are your next plans?

BTW, do you know which final drive transmission it has? The 2.95 FD or the 3.250 FD.

I know that with the difference between the Tacoma and the CRX I will make my money back in no time, the problem is I'm going off of the civic. Which after about 4 tanks I think I saved $50+ or so, which will take a while to make $1300. But I haven't been driving much, in a couple months I'll be taking 3 or more trips to vacaville a week from Sacramento.

My next plans are to put on my lower grille block, make some side skirts and rear tire spats, get a convex mirror for the passenger side, and maybe some coroplast to block up the rear bumper from being a parachute.

I'm 95% sure I have the Cali edition 3.250 FD because there was a post that had pics of the two different speedometers @ 77mph and mine matched the Cali edition. I also figured out that the Cali edition came with a passenger mirror, while the 49 state version did not. I found a website saying that a person could identify which version the car is in the door jam, but I couldn't find it again for the life of me.

Originally Posted by mbolton1990

Still have the original D15B6?

If so be kind to her and she'll last for ages,just know those motors are very hard to get parts for.

I'd imagine they are. I went to the in town pick-and-pulls to find a stock intake tube that goes from the air filter to the throttle body because the one on the car had a crack (which had NO effect on air going into the car) which failed visual inspection for smog. The second pick-and-pull I went to I got lucky because the engine was pulled from the car, so I walked on but that was the only CRX there, so I looked inside the car and found the exact tube I needed and was good to go after that.

so far I'm going to use conventional oil in it, I've switched both the Tacoma and Civic to synthetic but I just feel safer having the dino oil in this car. For now...

[mbolton1990]

Good call,I always ran 5w-20 Valvoline High Mileage with a Bosch oil filter in mine,no problems whatsoever, it "felt happy" with it.I always emptied a 1/2 quart out right before I'd change the oil and replaced it with MMO,ran it around town for a day or two then changed the oil.When I took the motor apart that was one of the cleanest engines I have EVER seen.Had a golden-hue to the internals...had it not been for me running Sea-Foam through the brake booster that motor would still be running strong @ 300k I know it.BTW NEVER RUN SEAFOAM THROUGH THE BRAKE BOOSTER ON A B6 its killed many of them...The HF manifold runners are so small and the rods are so thin it takes a very small amount of fluid to cause internal damage.And these motors are prone to carbon build-up because of the low RPM's they turn,if you have to you can run Sea-Foam through the gas and the crankcase safely however.

I really did love that motor,they sure don't rev high but the low-end torque is really engineered perfectly with the HF trans.Crusing along on the highway @ 1700 RPMS (basically a fast idle) with the windows down and the tunes up,ahh I love the HF's.

Take good care of her



By the way mines the same year and color probably why I'm a bit attached to it haha,mines in the process of getting a JDM D15B 3 Stage V-TEC swap atm

[tvbd56]

Thank you for telling me about the seafoam in the brake booster because I actually have a can and have been planning on using it when I'm at the end of the oil interval.

How much oil does your HF take btw? The air intake box IIRC says 3.2qt, I put in 2.5qt of 5w-30 chevron conventional oil and the level on the dipstick is about a half an inch above the full dot.

[iveyjh]

Did you change oil filter?

[tvbd56]

yes I did. I got a 12-pack of napa proselect for the civic, and when I got the CRX I still had 8 filters and I was scared that the filters wouldn't fit and they fit perfectly! Cheap as hell, 12 filters for $30

[iveyjh]

hell of a good deal

[mbolton1990]

Sorry I must've missed your post,fwiw if it registers on the bottom dot,my Helm's said it's exactly 1 quart from that bottom dot to the top one(full).I think mine uses right at 3.5?(have to consider the oil for the filter,and the oil cooler if you still have it on there) if memory serves me correctly.

BTW I recently swapped in some 2G Prelude seats into mine..what a huge difference!No more back pain,adjustable lumbar support AND adjustable side bolsters.Pretty straight forward once you get the pan off and have to see what needs to be done.$80 from the local JY,took roughly ~1.5 hours a piece.I just noticed yours has seat covers on the seats like mine did,maybe yours aren't as bad as mine was.Now I could easily sleep in these seats Many have said they're the most comfortable OE seats available..


Your car gives me inspiration mainly because the paint looks pretty good!I would love to get mine re-sprayed at one point,it's the biggest thing holding mine back.Ahh the Rio Red..