My first Honda - ED3

**SpikeED3** · 21-02-2015 04:36 PM

Hi all,

I thought I might share a bit about my ED3, how I got it and what's going on.

This may sound cliche but I got my civic from my little sister

haha

History

My sister just bought a new car so she said I could have her old one at mates rates lol

The 1990 onda Civic ED3

The outside.
When she handed the car over she told me how much she still loves it, and is happy that it's going to me rather than scrapping it.

The first thing I noticed was the faded Blue grille she had at the front. The galvanising was well faded and the underlying silver was clearly showing through. I'm sure it looked good when she first put it in, but time is a cruel mistress.

The silver paint was a bit tired, as you'd expect from a 1990's car in the Australian sun. There where a few little dents here and there too. But that's all ok, a buddy of mine is a panel beater, I'm an airbrush artist so between us I'm sure we can sort it out.

When I walked around it I notice some other tell tail sings. It had 15" Honda rims, low profile tires 195/50/15 and it had been slightly lowered too. ...This was starting to get interesting.
I pointed these out to her and she said she lowered it a little so it'll just clear curbs and speed humps, and also added poly bushings (which are getting old and need replacing). She also sad something about new coilovers and something about the springs.

She went on, "I also removed the drum breaks at the rear and added disks".

At the rear of the car I pointed to the bolts in the top of the boot lid. She said that's where she had a rear wing, but had to take it off because the po kept pulling her over.
That made me laugh.

The Inside.
We sat inside. The first thing I noticed was the interior was immaculate. And I mean mint, seriously clean. nice.

The next thing I saw was it was an automatic. I'd prefer a manual but it's ok, I'm still happy. This will be my daily cruzer not a race car, besides after racing bikes.....

The instrument cluster has been swapped with the concerto.

The Engine.
As we popped the hood she noted that the exhaust will need replacing as it has holes, and the valves need adjusting too. I said I can do all that.
She opened the bonnet and proclaimed, "I took out the original 1.5L and dropped in the 1.6 from the concerto. It's the D16Z2. I also polished the valve cover so it looks pretty".
Nice.

The test drive.
Sitting in it felt low. What seemed like a slight lowering from the outside was an obvious drop from the inside.

The exhaust was bad. It's got holes throughout, has even come off at the muffler and is being held up with wire.

The handling was truly something else. It felt like a go kart. Little if any body roll. Precise directional control. Great feedback.

I happily handed over the cash and a little bit extra.

Mods
As I said, this is only my cruzer on a daily basis, baby please. So I'm just going to do things to make the engine run happy and look nice.

What I've done so far.
Changed the door festoon lights for blue led's to match the floor.
Changed the ceiling festoon to while led's.
Started respraying some parts of the outside trim and a few details in the engine bay with 2pak auto black.
Painted the faded front grille to back.
Detailed the interior.
Phillips +130% headlights.
Mugen tire valve caps lololol
Bought some NKG magnetic spark plug leads. Just waiting for them to arrive.
New plugs.
Adjusted valves.
Oil and filter.
Fuel filter.

After long and arduous research I've ordered some Megan Racing exhaust headers. Got a 200 cpsi, metalic, hi-flow cat from scorpion. Just waiting for the headers to arrive then I'm getting a custom fabbed cat back system.
Then I can do the timing, idle revs etc.

What is in the works.
Injen IS1501P Short Ram Intake System (maybe, not sure about this yet)
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=INJEN-IS1501P-2&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB

fficial&channel=rcs&biw=1280&bih=648&source=lnms&t bm=isch&sa=X&ei=NBjoVPLYJ8W2mwXomoHgAg&ved=0CAkQ_A UoAg

New poly bushings all round.
Mega Raizin with earth kit. maybe
Dash lights and console lights to white led's. maybe
Front strut bar. maybe

The last thing will be to take all the dents out and respray.

If the suspension ever needs replacing, I might look into a rear sway bar, tie rods and a set of skunk2 coilovers. But until then it's not worth changing as they are killer as is.

Anyways, I'll add pictures as this progresses.

But here are some pics for now. some are before and some are after the above mentioned mods.

The sliver dot on the right side of the grille is actually a silver sticker on the A/C piping behind the grille. Yes, it does look like the Honda badge is on a little wonky. But I'll fix that when I re-spray the car.

Note the vertical black metal part that has been resprayed. and the lower black window trim that still needs spraying.

As I said I'll take more pics as I go with the mods. I'm happy to answer any questions or take other pics if people want to see.

Needless to say I'm very happy with this Honda, it's a beautiful car to drive.

Thanks for checking it out

**curtis265** · 21-02-2015 07:46 PM

Wow that's really minty!

**Jasemas** · 21-02-2015 08:33 PM

Whoa dat sister is awesome
Bit of a sleeper eh?
Looking good so far
Subbed!

**dove grey 64** · 22-02-2015 07:27 AM

One does not simply "stick in" a efi motor into a ed. Its a pain in the arse. Great project, love ed sedans. Get some pics of the fuel setup if you can, keen to see what she did, maybe used the whole setup from a concerto ie. Wiring and all

**SpikeED3** · 22-02-2015 03:52 PM

Originally Posted by curtis265

Wow that's really minty!

For it's age yeah, not bad at all

Originally Posted by Jasemas

Whoa dat sister is awesome
Bit of a sleeper eh?
Looking good so far
Subbed!

Not quite a sleeper, the acceleration isn't huge from a SOHC non-vtec... but anything is going to feel slow compared to a bike I guess. It's great for cruz'n though and taking the odd corner at speed.

Originally Posted by dove grey 64

One does not simply "stick in" a efi motor into a ed. Its a pain in the arse. Great project, love ed sedans. Get some pics of the fuel setup if you can, keen to see what she did, maybe used the whole setup from a concerto ie. Wiring and all

Yeah sure, I'll post some pics soon