My first build thread.... 88 ED civic

[Peppy]

I've been a lurker and an occasional poster here, mainly since I didn't have much useful info to share, but I've had a project going on for the past few months...

My daily has been a 96 EK hatch for the past several years. When I first test drove it, comparing it to a 1.6L Daewoo Lanos hatchback, it just seemed... Perky (but Perky is a somewhat awkward name.. so I named him Peppy) It felt better in acceleration, braking, cornering.. the whole works. It also had central locking. But no cup holders. A fair trade in my books.
The EK has served me faithfully, it's never broken down, only maintenance and preventative repairs have taken it off the road.
Last year a set of 16s with 205/45 tyres improved the handing, with a LOT less cornering wobble and better grip than old 185/60r14s. Also, as a birthday present, an EK4 rear swaybar flattened the corners a good deal more.



But there is one big problem with this... Short of a turbo, a B18 or a heavily build D, not much is going to get this car accelerating well. Last time I hit a weighbridge, with a full tank of fuel, the wife and I, all interior trim, etc, it was 1.2 tonne...

So when I read Markus's ED build, I was interested... a project car, one that I could take of the road for an engine swap, and something as straightforward as a D series to D series swap definitely sounded good. The hunt was on.

Prior to the ED, I found advertised the holy grail of D engines.. the D15B! After contacting the seller, I found I could get it with a complete harness, ecu and in a rolling shell, so I'd be able to remove the wiring myself, which would help a lot in learning what everything was (first engine swap!) and labeling it too. To cut the long story short: I got a D15B VTEC, not a 3 stage, and a badly tucked loom with an aftermarket alarm spliced in, as well as the cabin loom being cut off at the door sill.

In other words, that thing was a bit of a mess... Also, the fuel tank had been sold, so I couldn't see it running when I bought it after all... It sat with a sheet of corrugated iron instead of a bonnet for some time until...

[EKVTIR-T]

looking forward to this

[markismaximus]

nice one. I'm impressed with the recent number of ED projects which have kicked off. We want pics....

[Peppy]

The whole story changed when after ages of searching, an ED appeared! It was a good deal, D16Y1 (seized), dual carbs, 4-2-1 headers, Skunk2 lowering springs, Koni reds, all for a grand! That was put on a trailer and is currently waiting at a friend's (Paul) place for a new engine. Note: Lowered cars are a nightmare to load on a car trailer, especially if the ramps aren't *really* long!

Photos of the ED are coming after Tuesday next week!

After weeks of doing nothing on it, I now had a reason to work on the donor car (confirming the wiring/efi is all working and then preparing for dropping the engine and labeling the entire wiring harness, etc). Christmas and traveling also happened. I puttered around for a while, procrastinating and being repulsed by the horrible mess of wires in the donor car... A badly tucked engine harness, sh!tloads of electrical tape, a nice bunch of wires just cut through and missing (front right pillar to rear right wheel arch plug, to those in the know), and the entire dash harness strewn around the place (the dash/cluster was gone before I picked it up).

However, after being given a spare fuel pump, I finally got around to trying to start the car. I had fuel pressure and starter motor but no injectors or spark. So the wifey and I labelled the engine harness as I stripped it.

Giving up on getting the engine running, I decided to just get the engine out and down to the ED and get that running on carbs. Worrying about the wiring could wait, but then Paul appealed to my more patient side and convinced me to keep trying to get it running in the existing shell. The first thing I found was that the three main ignition wires weren't plugged into the interior fuse box...
I put everything back together and during a sudden flash of inspiration I built the Jellybean fuel cell.



A random EFI fuel pump Paul had lying around (he's a mechanic, so that kinda stuff comes with the trade) and a piece of piping that I had around for the return line!
So much safer than a fuel pump sitting in a little open bucket of

To skip the details of the rain that threatened and then finally started at the wrong time, checking plugs and re-checking continuity and the no-longer working starter motor wiring, last Sunday, the engine was running in the donor car!

Immediately, we began preparing to drop the engine and it took less than a minute to pull off the harness, as opposed to the three or four hours spent labeling and recording wire colours. With a man of the trade at hand, dropping the engine was a breeze. Even with just one trolley jack that was a bit low on oil.

The result!






Now, I have a number of pieces from an EG4 that I want to get rid of (and couldn't be bothered removing myself) and a number of others that I can sell if people can make it worth my while taking them off. I don't want to mail anything, but I'm around most days if people want to pick things up. I'm at the Central Coast, specifically, Jilliby. If anyone is interested, post an offer and I'll PM you the address if you need it
Come and pull a power steering rack, stock springs/shocks, front brake calipers/rotors/pads and rear drums. Taillights can go, but the back left outer one is broken.
I have a heater/duct setup that can be had cheaply.
Also a brake booster, master cylinder and proportioning valve.




That's mostly up to date with this project atm, but I have a number of questions that may require specialist civic knowledge..

The starter motor wiring goes via the center console, what to, and why?

Can anyone name the plugs in the centre console, and/or provide a labelled picture? I'll take one tomorrow and post it up soon as possible.

Does anyone have a diagram of, or have a photo of the cover on an EG4 cabin fusebox? (if the EG4 is EFI)

(I have more questions, but it's mostly plugs that I need to identify, so I'll get some pictures tomorrow and upload them)

Thanks! Jacob out...

[markismaximus]

You definitely have your work cut out for you. That wiring is an absolute mess (wonder if Peter has seen this yet)

Re: starter motor wiring going to centre console.

Was the car automatic? If yes the starter motor wiring goes there because there is a switch in the auto gear selector which prevents the car starting if its not in PARK.

Also, before you turf that EG, take the ignition barrel wiring and white plastic switch off the back end of it. You need it if you plan on using the whole EG wiring harness. It's a lot easier than trying to solder your ED ignition switch into the EG fuse panel

[Kenninho]

subscribed

[Peppy]

News update: ED is up and running on carbies... and I got it home! Three hours drive from south of Campbell town up to the Wyong area and the little ED made it fine. A good cloud of smoke is dumped out the exhaust after engine braking down a hill, but meh, I've got a spare head and wanna do a head rebuild at some stage anyway (probably means dying valvestem seals).

Pictures and details come when the internet works properly

The next thing on the agenda is providing high pressure fuel. I have a fuel pump, but it's something my mate had lying around. It worked to get the engine working before, so I was thinking of putting together a small surge tank. My current thoughts are to put it under the bonnet, to avoid running EFI pressures through 24yr old fuel lines. I'm open to suggestions about this one, so throw the ideas around guys

Markus, the EG shell is gone already... but I took the entire steering column! Also, do you have any extra advice/details about how you ran the wipers/healight stalks? I don't have working ones from the EG, which may complicate things a little bit.

[markismaximus]

My current thoughts are to put it under the bonnet, to avoid running EFI pressures through 24yr old fuel lines. I'm open to suggestions about this one, so throw the ideas around guys

Don't do that, seems dangerous to have a tank of fuel in your bay. Unless the lines are rusted there is no reason why you can't use the existing hard lines, just replace all soft lines with EFI house. EFI pressure is only around 40psi (which is nothing). That steel tubing could handle significantly more than that.

see http://www.parker.com/literature/Tub...on/MSTwall.pdf

as a guide seamless 8mm OD tubing with 1mm wall thickness has a burst pressure of 1190bar/17000PSI. Its a little more than the 40PSI you want to run

Markus, the EG shell is gone already... but I took the entire steering column! Also, do you have any extra advice/details about how you ran the wipers/healight stalks? I don't have working ones from the EG, which may complicate things a little bit.

was the EG the same body as your ED? Hatch and Hatch, or Sedan and Sedan?

if they are the same you can use your existing stalks, they should be plug and play.

[~Sp33~]

To cut the long story short: I got a D15B VTEC, not a 3 stage,

Wait, so you're using the d15b VTEC motor from an EG? Noooooo! They had LESS power than the d15b4 twin carb motor (66kw vs 72kw)

[markismaximus]

The dreaded VTEC-E motor

[tripleuse]

Build looks good, good to see people building their own cars. You'll definitely enjoy it!

[Peppy]

So, after a long hiatus from updates and with lots of.. "life" happening in the meantime. My apologies about the severe lack of in progress pics. I'm still getting the hang of that (and the wife wasn't around with her DSLR).
The car as it was while it was waiting for it's new engine:

Notice all the stickers... I'm not a huge fan of stickers...

And the new heart (For the reference, it's a jdm D15B VTEC, head code is P08, rated at 96 kW I also have a spare D16Y1 that probably needs a rebuild)


Now, not hating on carburetters in someone's car or workshop, but I HATE working on them... The engine swap was fairly straightforward, with most engine/gearbox mounts damaged to some extent with the front one completely missing it's rubber... The challenge was tracking down all the vacuum leaks.. and getting the poorly fitting D15b4 distributor to bolt on to the D15B and retarded enough that it wouldn't turn the motor backwards when it fired... Despite a quite definite stream of oil running down past the dizzy, we got it running and after a few test runs (SO GOOD, a running car after a week's worth of work at a mate's place!).

Have a good look at the dizzy in the above photos, you'll see how ghetto the setup is!

Now for a truly zip-tastic setup, I present the power steering pump:



I took it home.

Notice only remaining sticker


The drive wasn't as relaxed as I was hoping, for two reasons. One was that I'd thrown my neck out somehow (just woke up SO sore in the morning). This made it VERY hard to look around, mainly over my left shoulder, and even holding my head upright started to get rather painful. The other reason was when I was most of the way home, successfully navigating sydney traffic, there was a big hill on the freeway. After engine braking the whole way down the hill (and onto the bridge, for those who know the area), I gave it some throttle to keep up speed and pull up the next hill, a huge cloud of smoke poured outta the exhaust pipe soon as I touched the pedal. I FREAKED out seeing that, wondering what just gave way, pulled across into the left lane (checked my blind spot quickly and almost screamed) and before I could pull over, the smoke stopped. As I drove up the hill, there was nothing in the rear view mirror... Which is when I remembered some advice a mechanic gave me for testing old cars before buying.. To test the valve stem seals, engine brake down the steepest hill you can find, then when you get to the bottom, floor it. If it throws out oil smoke, you've got leaky valve stem seals.

My heart rate returned to normal after a while, and I tried to replicate the problem a few times, but couldn't find a good spot to engine brake that much.


Since getting it home, I've gotten it running on EFI.. but that story/photos comes soon...