Building Catalyst's 1987 hatch

[Samwise]

Catalyst decided to be an awesome guy and sell me his 1987 LX-i hatchback. The same hatchback that won AoM in December 2007. To say I feel honored would be a massive understatement.

Since then I had it shipped to my home in South Carolina and have been doing what I can to improve it with whatever spare change I have kicking around.

Stuff he did:
Short-ram intake
2.25" catback exhaust, Magnaflow XL muffler
Delta 272 cam
Prime 15" alloy wheels
Post-facelift front bumper (from my dead sedan)
JDM corner lights
Exedy Stage 2 cerametallic clutch
Tokico Blue struts
Neuspeed Sport 1.5" lowering springs
ST front sway bar
Acura Vigor rear sway bar
Poly Bushings
Prelude steering wheel
Kenwood audio deck, Rockford Fosgate component speakers, sub, and amp
Bosch fog lights

Stuff I did:
Hella air horn kit
Spoon Sports test pipe
Innovate MTX-L wideband
OBD1 conversion: F22 distributor (external coil), P06 ECU (socketed), Moates Ostrich2 EPROM emulator
Bridgestone Potenza RE-71R summer/performance tires
Cheaper, not-as-nice-as-SEi dealer-option armrest
NGK Iridium spark plugs
EGR delete

Stuff I need to do:
-Squash Codes 14 and 17
-B16A intake
-Proper dyno tune

[Oldblueaccord]

I always liked that car!

SO its a A20 but you can tune the ECU i guess?

I would make sure the ECU is grounded.

[Samwise]

Yeah, once you go OBD1 you can socket the ECU and run a chip with custom fuel/timing maps. The Ostrich lets me edit the tune on the fly without having to pull the chip out of the ECU and burn a new one every time I make a change.

It's grounded to the floorpan to the same ground screw as the old ECU.

[MessyHonda]

oh man i thought you were in California.

[Samwise]

Sprung for some TruckLites.



Then I thought it looked off, so I got some Sylvania Zevo LEDs for my front side markers as well.



The highs seem to have a shorter "throw" than the Silverstars did, and there's a very noticeable hotspot, but I'll withhold final judgment until I can get them properly adjusted. I'm quite satisfied aside from that; they're very bright (and actually usefully so), the lows far outperform the Silverstars, and they give the car a very unique and sort of "unnatural" look.

A few quick shots (fog lights are off):

[Tdurr]

where did you get those? Last time i looked into those LED's it was like 300 a pop.

[carotman]

I have those Trucklites on my motorcycle (only one) and they are just awesome! I think you could aim them a bit higher.

[Samwise]

where did you get those? Last time i looked into those LED's it was like 300 a pop.

They were $450 for the set from Amazon, after tax and shipping. The markers were $15 each from Autozone. My tax return funded them. :P

I have those Trucklites on my motorcycle (only one) and they are just awesome! I think you could aim them a bit higher.

Yeah, I think I'm gonna see if I can get them professionally adjusted. I don't have a huge flat wall or anything I can use to do it myself.

[Samwise]

.

[Oldblueaccord]

Very Jealous of the lights!

[Samwise]

Did the resistor mod and fixed Code 17. Annoyingly, Crome's Disable ELD option isn't working, so it's still throwing Code 20.

Also told the black box to fuck itself. Did a writeup in the EFI Tech section.

[Samwise]

I completely forgot this thing existed. Anyway, I've been up to a bunch of random crap these past few months. In no particular order:


Bosch voltmeter, Innovate oil press&temp gauge, Rockford tweeters


Last air horn broke, got louder one


Rockford 10" sub (the old ones were shot)


WOOHOO!!!!!


Hood struts, Mishimoto oil cooler with GReddy adapter base

[Tdurr]

Nice! Glad you are still working & driving this thing. Jealous of that oil cooler

[Samwise]

Soon...hopefully....

[Shane86]

Awesome. Are you going to make a custom header

[Samwise]

Awesome. Are you going to make a custom header

Probably won't make it myself, since I've never touched a welder in my life, but yeah. I missed the boat on the Mosselman manifolds.

[Shane86]

I believe you can still get them you have to email them and they will send you a link .purchase mine like 6 months ago $ 260 shipped . bmc Machining has the header flange for $60 shipped

[Samwise]

Ya think they could make it with a TD05 flange?

[Shane86]

I believe eBay sales the tdo5 to t3 adapters. I believe it would be easier to have a custom-made header then to use the Mosselman header. Clearance issues with the front motor mount

[Hazwan]

Glad to see the car is still around

[Samwise]

A thing is about to happen.





Okay, a little more info. The A20 started knocking pretty bad, and this dude in my car club was selling this for $200. I couldn't pass it up.

Probably selling the turbo from earlier. Was hoping to boost the A, but it seems like its time has come.

Anyway, I'm only keeping the bottom end. This is gonna be an LSVTEC, but whether I go with a B16 or B18C1 head depends on whichever pops up for cheap. Plans for the bottom end at the moment:
-Get block machined and cleaned up
-OEM crank, have it machined and knife-edged
-ACL Bearings
-ARP Rod Bolts
-OEM rods, have them shotpeened
-P30 pistons
-ARP Head Studs
-Eagle LSVTEC kit
-I'll figure out plans for the head once I can pick one up.

[Tdurr]

Ohh. Another one falls for the trap. Not a bad score tho foreal. Keep doing the car right!

[MessyHonda]

build it for boast. Mine was fun NA but now its time for more power.

[Tdurr]

Always build for boost

[Samwise]

I was actually thinking spray would be amusing.