Project Turtle: Bluesteel93's Civic VX build
 

This was going to be called Project Mr. Tokyo Man, but my wife renamed the car Turtle after a little road trip yesterday. The name fits and its funny :D:turtle:.

I bought a 1994 CA version Civic VX back in October, but had ACL surgery a couple weeks after I bought it and have only just recently been able to work on it. Here's some pics of it when I first got it.

http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...psb44de096.jpg

http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...psea132901.jpg

After I bought it I noticed the transmission was making a funny noise. A little research led me to believe it was a bad input shaft bearing which I guess is pretty common on these tranny's. So I parked the car for a couple months until I could rebuild the trans. I figured I might as well rebuild the whole trans while I was in there since the car has 240k miles.

While I was off for my surgery I was able to do a lot of research and gather a lot of parts for the car. I was able to piece together a factory air box since the car came with a cold air intake, bought an MPGuino, the tranny rebuild kit, a fed version ECU and O2 sensor, and made the harness to convert it to the fed version.

Last week was the first time I really had to work on on the car, so first on the agenda was the tranny rebuild. I did all the work at my brothers house because he has all of the tools and space, something I lack where I live.

Here's the motor with the lame CAI before we did any work.
http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...psighsom45.jpg

De-greased the engine bay with Superclean and took off the CAI.
http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...psyoeilspt.jpg

Tranny is out.
http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...psrhrkgn9a.jpg

http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...psrdus5kzx.jpg

Broken open. Definitely right about the input shaft bearing. The balls had pits in them and the bearing would lock up occasionally.
http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...psxcnejsnt.jpg

http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...psvrolpiaa.jpg

Had a leaky rear main seal and oil pan gasket too, so those got replaced. Here's a pick of the bottom of the motor just because.
http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps5ui4zjrl.jpg

http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...pstesru7nu.jpg

Tranny is back in and bolted up.
http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...psyoeilspt.jpg

With the new old factory air box.
http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...psdr84whd3.jpg

Took about 2 days work with my brother and I working on it to rebuild the tranny and replace the rear main and the oil pan gasket. Drove it back home and the noise is gone. Tranny shifts nice and smooth. Ended up putting in valvoline synchromesh in it after hearing that OG VX had good results with pennzoil synchromesh (they didn't have the pennzoil stuff at O'reillys). Ended up taking it on a little road trip with my wife on New Year's Day up to Mt. Baldy. The car did great with the exception of stop and go traffic, uphill, for about 10 miles going up the mountain. I wish I got some pics of the car on the mountain but I forgot. Did get this shot though...
http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...pspw2kir6y.jpg

Its first recorded fill up after we got back down the mountain. Averaged 29.7 mpg :(. It ain't great, but considering the trip up the mountain and the idle time while working in the car I'm not too discouraged. We'll just have to wait and see what the next tank is under typical driving.

That's it for now. Gonna do some routine maintenance stuff in the next couple of days so I'll update then. My end goal for this car is for it to look really nice and not scream that it's ecomodded. A good example would be DonkeyCRX's white VX. I love the way that car looks and the fact that it can get over 70 MPG is awesome.

Let me know what you guys think so far and post any questions or comments. I'm really excited for this project and to be apart of this site. The support here is awesome!

Alright! Welcome aboard and so glad you started a thread to detail your progress. Great start and super clean VX. Love the white. Please keep sharing. Hope the synchromesh works out well for you too. Have you done any intake IM, TB, egr, and FIV cleaning? Be sure to do that work as well, to maximize performance and economy. Also, have you done a compression test yet? That CAI has me worried about past treatment...

Thanks man! Your build has definitely been an inspiration to me and has given me some ideas for mine. Haven't done any internal cleaning of that sort yet, but it's on my list. I did do a compression test today, the first time by myself. On a dry test I got 170psi across the board except for cylinder #2 which read 130psi. Did a wet test after and got 180psi on #1, #3 and #4, and 150psi on #2. So I figured the rings might be wearing out on #2. I decided to test it again later on in the day but this time I had my wife in the car cranking the motor while I kept an eye on the gauge to see when it stops building pressure. Low and behold I got 180psi on all 4 cylinders. Not sure what the problem was the first time around but it seems to have corrected itself.

Pics to prove it.
http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...pswtruhfp6.jpg

http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...pswnnphsh8.jpg

http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...psuzjxjzth.jpg

http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...pscx1tkff4.jpg

The other project I worked on today was to clean up all of the little nicks and scratches around the car. Particularly on the rear bumper. I bought a color code matched dupli-color pen from auto zone and got to work.
http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...psb1roshvo.jpg

Here's the rear bumper before.
http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...psxcsuj36u.jpg

And after. I think the smudge on the left is residue from a sticker so I'm going to try to get some goo gone to take it off.
http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...psenalbnog.jpg

Filled in some small chips on the front also but it's harder to tell in the pics.
Before
http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...psvfpuoexx.jpg

http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps3pmh6qa3.jpg

After
http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...psynrwj6rh.jpg

http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps6ef6fyd3.jpg

That's about it for now. Gonna try to do some more work on it tomorrow.

Did a little more work today.

Got some goo gone and finished cleaning up the rear bumper. Also put the H badges back on.
http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...pshn8lbd3q.jpg

http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...psppnannsh.jpg

After that I figured I would check the valve lash and I'm glad I did. A few rocker arms we're a little loose.
http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...pstn4ldero.jpg

Also changed the spark plugs with proper NGK's because it had Bosch Platinums in it and replaced the air filter with a fresh Wix.
http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...psbawkjmz0.jpg

That's it for now. Seems to drive pretty good now. Hopefully that will translate into better mpg's :thumbup:

Nice! Don't forget to SeaFoam the tank, THEN replace the Fuel Filter in the bay. Also not a bad idea to replace the sock filter on the fuel pump. Pulling the fuel pump on these EG's is very easy. Remove the rear seat and it's right there.

Nice thread! Subbed!

Getting 29 MPG isn't that bad when you are getting used to the car is pretty good. I think my first tank on my Civic was like 27 MPG, and that was when everything was nice and new and fresh (well, not new, just new oil and tires). Working on your car will help the MPGs a ton. I can't wait to see what mods you do to this car! :D

Sweet! Good to know, thanks for the tip!:thumbup:

Thanks for the sub! I actually just filled up again this afternoon and was pleasantly surprised... I got some other surprises too ;). I'll update later tonight when I have more time.

Another Update! I feel like I've been working on this car non stop for the past few days. I love it though!

When I bought the car back in October the previous owner threw in a set of VX rims with the car, but the tires on the rims were shot which is why it was on the steelies. I was just going to get new Michelin defender tires for VX wheels and run those, but deep down I knew I really wanted to get a set of HX wheels. I prefer the look of the bigger 14" HX's, plus then I would be able to get a set of the Bridgestone RE92's which seem to be the cat's meow of LRR tires.

Last night before bed I was looking on Craigslist and found a guy with black HX rims about an hour away from me. He wanted a set of steelies with decent tires + a little cash for his HX wheels and tires. I told my wife and surprisingly she was on board. I have a birthday coming up so she said it can be my birthday present from her :D.

So I talked to the guy and met up with him this afternoon. We agreed on a price and swapped the wheels on both of our cars right there. Now I'm rolling on a set of HX's. 3 of the 4 tires are in good shape but they are all mix matched brands, so I'll roll on them for a little while and then get some RE92's.

Here's them on the car.
http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...pscmgrr6qm.jpg

http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps8qq7gqts.jpg

http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...psxyjo7mde.jpg

A couple weeks ago I ordered some replica spoon mirrors too. They're cheap, I like the way they look and I'm pretty sure they're more aerodynamic than the stock mirrors.

Before
http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...psdhmx3lop.jpg

http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...pspqqsgcld.jpg

After
http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...psaxfsn91t.jpg

http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...pslogcdlsc.jpg

http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...psl3isdc63.jpg

http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps78oio8hc.jpg

Also filled up again today. Averaged 44 mpg! :D A little better than my previous tank haha. Details are in my fuel log.

That's it for now. Next step will be converting it to the 49 state federal version and installing my MPGuino. Hopefully I can get that stuff done within the next couple of weeks.

Those new mirrors will be better for aerodynamics because they are closer to the car which means less frontal area (I think, I'm not an expert).

Ya that's pretty much what I figured. I feel like the shape of the spoon mirrors would be better too. Of course that's all speculation unless someone has tested it. I was thinking of deleting the passenger side mirror, but I'm so used to it and it helps a lot when backing into my parking spot where I live. I've read that people complain about the visibility of the replica spoon mirrors and the lack of adjustment, but I think it's fine. I was able to adjust it and I'm happy with my field of view out of both mirrors.

Just purely out of curiosity why would the presence of a CAI worry you?

nice updates! Keep it flowing. Loving this VX.

I too thought about the Spoon mirrors. There a great choice. Care to share a link to which ones you purchased, as I know thier are 20 versions out there from 10 different manufacturers. You said you had no visibility issues. Perhaps you were fortunate to get a nice, USDM-designed mirror?

they probably didn't drive it like grandma :turtle:

CAI are sure signs of a previously modified car. From building/restoring a multitude of HONDA'S, I've learned that 90% of people modifying Honda's have not the slightest clue of what they are doing, nor general respect for maintenance or taking care of a vehicle. For this reason, I made a decision to no longer buy a modified Honda as a starting platform for my builds.

That's my personal decision, but certainly doesn't mean that a CAI means the engine was redlined 10 times in the last month, nor that the car has not been properly maintained. To me, seeing a CAI just means a warming sign that the car could have been neglected, poorly driven and/or maintained. From personal experience, this is a risky territory that I am no longer willing to dabble into. Thankfully, all appears well for the OP with this purchase thus far.

Ah ok, I normally deal with higher end cars and trucks that are modified so I always look at upgrades like that as something that the owner installed because they like their car and wanted to give it something special.....idk I've modified my like crazy but rarely ever go over 2000 rpm, heck I normally cruse at 1100rpm going 48 in 55s! However when you brought up the point of most people not knowing how to modify I can see what you mean now.

Gotcha. Yeah, life's tough in the "Honda scene".

Ha, that's a good one. Come to think of it I'm pushing my friend right now to properly turbo his car instead of cutting corners, but the darn ebay kits keep drawing him away from the light lol!

Oh ebay, how we love your prices but hate the cheapness of some of your products lol.

It's funny, I started a thread on the Chevy Cruze forum about the downsides of aftermarket intakes. I pointed out that most K&N dyno charts don't go down to low rpm ranges because (most likely) they want to hide the fact that you'll lose low-rpm torque. Take this one for example. It cuts off below 2100 rpm.

http://www.knfilters.com/dynocharts/69-4522_dyno.pdf

Anyway, there were only a few comments and they were all negative. Some people just don't want to hear it. That's something I appreciate about ecomodder.

Not necessarily. 2100 rpm could just be where they started the dyno pull. I don't really see why a company like K and N would try to hide a loss of very little hp/torque when they make products focused on WOT performance.

I was a little worried when I originally saw the CAI on the car, but after seeing the rest of the car in person it looked like it was taken care of pretty well.

As for the mirrors, I got them from Amazon. I'll have to double check which vendor it was and get back to you. But ya they're not amazing quality by any means but they'll do the job and I've been able to adjust them to where I need them so I'm happy.

Here's the Amazon link to the spoon mirrors I bought.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0019C190S/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1420913980&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SY200_QL40&dpPl=1&dpID=418vhK%2BhhfL&ref=p lSrch

Let me know if you have anymore questions :)

I doubt they "happened" to start the dyno pull exactly where the stock and K&N curves cross.

Maybe. Maybe not. No way to know for sure. Here is my dyno pull from my 93 Mustang for reference.

http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g.../brianrowe.jpg

The pull starts around 2200 rpm. We weren't trying to trick anyone by starting it there, just wanted to know the numbers.

Filled up again this afternoon. Averaged 47.6 mpg on this tank. Only changes were the spoon mirrors and HX wheels with tires inflated to 45 psi. I'm pretty happy with my results so far, especially considering I haven't converted it to lean burn yet.

I did work on getting the MPGuino installed today. Didn't finish until after dark so I'll try to get some pics tomorrow. Right now it's just Velcro mounted to the steering column. I think it looks good and I can't wait to see what kind of impact it makes on my driving and MPG's.

Here are a couple pics of the MPGuino installed.

http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...psibweclrn.jpg

http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...psoqtaafrm.jpg

Like I said its just velcro mounted to the steering column for right now until I can make a more permanent mount for it. I really like it there though because its easy to see and access.

Right now I'm just using the calibration values that were on the wiki for a 49-state VX. I'm assuming they'll be the same for my CA VX since the VSS sensor and injectors are the same. So far the values seem pretty accurate, but I'll know for sure next time I fill up.

I also wanted to use this post to make an outline of all of the mods I have done or plan to do for increasing fuel efficiency. That way I can keep track and people can know what to expect in the future.

Completed Mods:
-Rebuilt transmission
-HX wheels (will be repainted or polished in the future)
-Spoon replica mirrors
-MPGuino

Future Mods:
-Convert to 49-state version with lean burn
-Lowering springs
-Vacuum gauge
-Bridgestone RE92 165/65-14 tires
-Kill switch for EOC
-Warm air intake
-Aluminum grill block
-Aluminum side skirts
-Aluminum front lip
-Aluminum full underbelly with small front splitter and rear diffuser
-Aluminum kammback

I think that's it. If I forgot something I'll add it to the list later. I'm also still in the process of doing general maintenance/tune-up work to the car too, so that will be covered as it is completed.

Please feel free to leave comments or questions about my list :thumbup:

Nice!! Great thread. Keep it up!

Ey blue, I'm sorry to go off topic, but what would you recommend for suspension on a '91 Mustang? I see you have 2 Foxbodys, and the suspension is toast on my '91 and I need to find something that's good for street cruising but also a little strip time.

Where in Cali are you at?

I can't really give you advice on your build except for the tires. RE92'S make a HUGE difference when compared to almost any other 14" tire. Other than converting to lean burn, I don't think you will get any bigger benefit from any of your other mods than you will with Re92's. I was struggling for 55 a tank before my RE92'S. Now I get 62-65 doing 70-75mph with a lot of stop and go traffic and city driving. I would definitely put them at the highest of your priorities. If you live close(ish) to me I can do a cruise down to your place and we can swap my wheels on (HX wheels with RE92'S). So you can see the difference.

I had 185/65R14 on before my RE92.

Nice MPGuino install! :) Also nice steering wheel, looks nicely leather wrapped!

Hey wolf. So my 93 GT has the Bullitt suspension shock and spring kit on it which is decently priced and it handles ok too. The bad thing is it sits like a 4x4. My SVO has H&R race springs with tokico illumina shocks. I love the way it sits and handles but it was a more expensive set up. So I guess it depends on what you want haha.

As for the tires they are definitely a priority. My list isn't really in order by priority. I'm thinking I should be able to get them next month sometime. But I'm planning on converting it to lean burn and lowering it before then. I live in south OC though and you're more then welcome to make the trip if you want to. I have plenty of free time because I'm still off of work from my knee injury. PM me if you want to set something up.

Definitely! PM sent.

I have some good news and some bad news...

Bad news first. Double checked my tire pressures the other day and found out one of my tires wasn't holding pressure. I filled them all up to 45 psi when I first got the HX wheels but now one of them was all the way down to 20 psi :(.

Found this to most likely be the culprit. A small dent on the inside edge of the wheel. Hopefully I can get it straightened for a decent price or find someone willing to sell just one HX wheel.
http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...psael3i4ve.jpg

So after finding the dent I decided to clean up and run my factory VX wheels for the time being. The tires aren't in great shape but they should hold up for a little while. Here's them on the car. I think they look pretty good! I still prefer the HX's though...
http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...psua8ajmsr.jpg

Ok so now for the good news! Got some cool stuff done on the car over the past few days.

Painted the exhaust heat shield flat black, and the valve cover with a wrinkle black paint. Along with replacing the valve cover gasket which was leaking.
http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...pszmmphkwc.jpg

http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...psxxohfpsl.jpg

http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...psnegghva9.jpg

My brother and I also started on a little project, but we're not finished with it yet. Here's a little teaser :thumbup:...
http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...pstfhwqh23.jpg

http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...psxo31b9fn.jpg

Last but not least, I finally converted it to lean burn! I've been sitting on all of the parts for awhile now and even made the harness over a month ago, but for some reason I didn't convert it until now. Man I'm glad I did though. Lean burn is friggin awesome!

Here's the LAF sensor installed..
http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps2e3hft8s.jpg

My harness spliced in at the o2 sensor and at the passenger side shock tower..
http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...pswqrooqkj.jpg

http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...psfhsycvcy.jpg

and the ground point...
http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...pskzkgfgoo.jpg

Like I already said, lean burn is awesome, but lean burn plus MPGuino is even better! The MPGuino really lets you take advantage of lean burn just by letting you know when you go in and out of it.

Here was where my trip average was last night coming home from my brothers house.
http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...pszj9xzbmr.jpg

Then this happened... Freeway was narrowed down to one lane for construction at 9:30 at night :mad:.
http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...psrkhdoxil.jpg

Still, I made it home with my trip average being 57.6 mpg which is the highest I've had to date for that long of a commute (about 65 miles). Plus I was hitting some crazy bad head winds toward the end of the trip.
http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...psz11weomd.jpg

That's about it for now. Gonna try to work on our "little project" some more next week and possibly get some other stuff done. I keep you guys updated!

Nice work man!

I've been getting tons of headwind recently on my commute to school, it's hard to get the instantaneous MPG above 40 in those cases, and that's when I'm already going 60! Fortunately, I get a little bit of a tailwind on the way home (not as strong as the morning headwind) and I get over 50 MPG on the freeway and maybe 55 on the city streets (speed limit 50 on city streets, allows my torque converter to lock) and no stops usually :).

Sorry bout the tires man, hopefully it gets fixed!

Those headwinds are fun aren't they bluesteel!! I hate going through there on a windy day, it's horrible. Also, all that stop and go clears up right about 7:30-45. When I came home on Wednesday I didn't leave until 8:05pm and there was no traffic all the way home.

Let me know if you still planning on getting new tires once your rim is fixed. It shouldn't be to hard to tap that out with a hammer (extremely carefully). If you don't maybe we can set something up. I'm sorry about this week, my boss changed my work schedule last minute, I got a, 4th work day (Yay!) but it messed up my entire week life wise.

On that bent wheel, fill it with air and spray the bead with soap suds. Take a hammer and Balto said carefully tap it on the bent edge until there are no more bubbles. Fill it again and put fresh soap suds to check if its holding air. I've done several like this. Nice car.

Good advice ive. Also you might want to go get the rim balanced once you bang it out, it might shift some weight around.

Thanks guys. I'm kind of sketch about just taking a hammer to the wheel as I don't want it to crack. I've seen videos of people fixing alloys with a rubber mallet but they heat the rim up before hand quite a bit and even afterwards the rim isn't perfect. I think I'll take it down to a local shop and see how much they quote me. As long as it's not too expensive I'll have it done professionally. If not I guess I have nothing to lose cause I'd have to end up finding a single rim for sale. Maybe someone on this site has a spare they'd be willing to sell?? Lol. Maybe I'll post a WTB ad.

New spark plug wires came in yesterday. Ended up getting the NGK's. I seriously think the sumitomos that were on there were the original wires that came on the car. They were in pretty bad shape and had the 1993 marking on them which I'm assuming means they were manufactured in 1993 :confused:?

http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/g...psnduyhyff.jpg

Yep, they were probably the original. When I come down to visit you gotta let me drive the VX, never driven one before. Have you ever driven an insight?

Haha ya for sure man. And nope never driven an insight.