Honda #4

[speedpenguin]

So now I've got my 4th Honda: A 95 Civic EX. Here's some pics.

You should be able to tell that it was repainted. Probably just with a single coat each. I kind of like the mild gloss. It's like a matte finish, but not, I guess. Just depends on what kind of light it's getting. Some body panels aren't fitting quite right, and the hood's a bit banged up, but it looks perfect from 10 feet, and it runs nice. Only problem is that it knocks a bit without premium. The timing was advanced. I'm probably going to adjust the valves and retard the timing tomorrow, and see if that clears it up.

Anyway here it is. Just a few shots I took after washing it this morning. I'll try to get a real photoshoot sometime when the light is good.

[speedpenguin]

The interior cleaned up nicely. It was getting kind of brown when I got it but it looks much better now.




Yes, those are genuine Honda center caps. I'm hoping I can keep them on if I swap wheels, I don't want to get rid of them.


The previous owner had a muffler shop weld together a stainless exhaust for it. Not sure of the diameter. I'm going to have to figure that out. That Magnaflow muffler is awesome, though.


Finally, the engine bay. It's got an AEM short ram.

[danny nr crew]

damn thats a clean ass civic bro keep us updated on wat u do to that beast haha

[Civic Accord Honda]

Very nice!!

[MessyHonda]

thats not bad for a civic

[Dr_Snooz]

Very nice! And no horrible grinding noises. Hooray!

[wprocomp]

awesome I want those steelies lol

[86ccord]

dang dog, you gots vtak.. clean car. looks good.

[Lil Mike]

danm thats a nice civic, i really like the color. slap some DUBS on that

['A20A3']

EX? nice dude + VTAK. makes my civic look like even more crap ahahaha i'll trade you!

[codyJDM]

Z6 ftw!

[MessyHonda]

yeah they are very easy to drive...i drove my friends 99 coupe..with that same intake...but it was lowered like 3 inches...bumpy ride but it was nice

[speedpenguin]

Thanks dudes. It does drive really nice, and it feels like it pulls pretty hard. I'm not going to let myself go around thinking it's actually fast though. It is a whole lot faster than my old car, but that's to be expected. There's probably a 55 horsepower difference between the two, plus the gears are shorter in this car. It's really fun on the highway, especially with the exhaust, which I found out is 2" I'd prefer a 2.25" but this is way better than stock.

I adjusted the valves yesterday. I must have done something wrong because now one of them's tapping. I'm going to do it again tomorrow morning.

My current plans:
Replace the window and sunroof motors (They're about shot).
Replace the seatbelts and retractors.
Peel off the shitty front tint. You can't tell by the pics but the driver's side is only half-tinted, and the passenger side is about to peel.
Replace the rear brakes. I've got new shoes for them to pass inspection, but a full disc brake swap will be coming along at some point.
Repair or replace the dented hood.

After that the fun stuff can begin. :]

[speedpenguin]

It's been a while since my last update. I had spare time this morning for once, so I gave her a wash and wax. Figured I'd shoot a few pictures while I was at it.

Needs a bit of body massaging. That's one of those things that's going to have to wait, since I don't know how to do it myself.









So I have done a couple mods, contrary to how it might look. The exhaust ended up having to be replaced front to back.

I started with a new Magnaflow system. Since it's been on the car through 3 blizzards now, it definitely doesn't look new anymore. Any advice on cleaning it up?



Yes the muffler is melting the rubber trim under the bumper. Not much I can do but cut some material out. Don't have access to a saw at the moment though.


See if you can figure out what's different about my engine bay...



If you look real close, you can see the header going into the Magnaflow cat.

[speedpenguin]

That exhaust system took almost a year to put together. I figured I'd share the fun story.I took the car in for inspection and was told that it was leaking, so I replaced it with the Magnaflow catback.

Then the flange on the already gutted (when I bought it) cat snapped off due to rust. When I crawled under to check it out, I discovered that the cat had been welded to the exhaust manifold, so I was going to have to replace the manifold as well.

I tacked on a little metal tube to hold it together in the meantime. The thing rattled like hell. By the time I had the money for the header, it was wintertime, and I couldn't get a chance to put the parts on in between blizzards.

I finally caved and scraped some money together to pay a shop to install the header and cat. Glad I did because it would have ended up being extremely difficult without a lift. They also couldn't get a gasket to fix.

Come to find out that they didn't protect the newly re-wired o2 sensor. The wire rubbed out on a motor mount, shorted out the ecu and left me stranded on the left shoulder of the freeway. I had to get it towed.

Luckily that part didn't end up working out too badly. The original shop ended up reimbursing me in labor for the money I spent getting the problem fixed.

After all this, I ordered a donut gasket that I didn't have at the time of the install. Well guess what? It was the wrong one. I had to order another one.

Once I finally got one that fit, the stupid spring-loaded bolts that attach the cat to the manifold would no longer fit because of the longer distance. I had to use the spring on one side and a big washer on the other. Still working on finding smaller springs.

But overall, it's finally done. It does sound pretty good. And response is noticeably improved. It also cruises a lot more comfortably at higher speeds than before.

What a pain in the ass though.

[speedpenguin]

More shots. This is the last, I swear






What the hell? Who did this crappy wax job? (Oh wait it was me)


Fixed

[Civic Accord Honda]

nice work man shes looking good, i like the new exhaust i bet it sounds the sexy!

[speedpenguin]

Posting those pics yesterday inspired me to do more work today.

If anyone hadn't noticed, the car's leaking oil. It seems like it's coming from the distributor o-ring and VTEC solenoid gaskets so... I ordered new ones from Honda

And since I had another morning free, I put them on today.

You can see the oil collecting around the header right here.


And under the distributor. Really, it's all over the place, but these are the two shots I took.


I did the VTEC solenoid first. I'm a little unsure whether this was actually leaking anything. I don't see any oil slipping out. I ended up having to pry it up with a screwdriver. It was stuck on there tight.


The old gasket next to the new one. Leaking or not, the old one was pretty stiff. Glad I got around to replacing it.


New one packed in where it belongs. I didn't use anything to seal it. Should I?


On to the distributor. I went to make a timing mark for alignment, and I found these previous marks off-center. Could this be why my timing was messed up when I bought the car?


New timing mark with a sharpie.


Old o-ring next to new one. Just like the VTEC gasket, the old o-ring was very stiff and dry compared to the new one.


Finally, I wiped up the oil around and under the distributor and o-ring. If it stays clean, I should be good to go (Unless the leak is coming from somewhere else)


All done!

[Alex1411]

Great work!Thanks for sharing!^^

[Hondamonster]

do the valve cover gasket too. and while its off, clean it up and paint it

[bryan42688]

hey bud im right on washington blvd , igot my three g i just built awesome we are so close i wish u luck maybe u could come show off your project to me

[speedpenguin]

Washington Blvd? Are you around the Wal-Mart and the Beltway Motel?

@Hondamonster: I may paint the valve cover at some point. But right now I kind of like it the way it is. I don't know why.

[bryan42688]

im closer to south west liqour store 2800 block of washington blvd if you come to desoto rd you have gone to far , just google washington blvd and morrell park ave

[speedpenguin]

Cool, man. Car's not plated yet I take it?

[GLICIOUS21]

Woooo act a fool with dem headers boy. They all dat.....