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Sept. 9, 2008 3:01 p.m. HiTempguy New Reader

Well, I didn't really see this coming!

But this is my new vehicle as of tonight. CX base model, but it has a brand new OEM Honda cylinder head on it (so new headgasket + timing belt as well) all done at a Honda dealership. Smoothest sounding/running motor I've ever seen! Also has a new rad+rad hoses, Ractive intake, Ractive front strut bar, brand new MSD wires, new Magnaflow exhaust, and MeganRacing short throw shifter. Car is a blast to drive. Only real issues with it are 1) Passenger door lock doesn't work 2) cracked drivers side headlight 3) Crappy bondoed rear fenders. The exhaust "pops" every once in a while when cruising steadily which makes the car buck? I think it may be running to rich for some reason (it isn't chipped or anything, still gets 600km on a tank). But for $1500 I can't complain. I even have some winter tires for it (a bit tall, 185/80R13). I can't wait till next year to try a cobbled together turbo setup on it
Sept. 9, 2008 3:11 p.m. mw New Reader

Nice Car, but still not a turbo fly.
Sept. 9, 2008 3:24 p.m. Stargazer HalfDork

You really can't go wrong with a solid $1500 car. What's that hose hanging out of the front bumper?
Sept. 9, 2008 3:27 p.m. rwdsport New Reader

Great find. I'd avoid the turbo thing though, drop in a b20 and have fun all day. The turbo will just give you headaches and end up costing the same/more.
Sept. 9, 2008 4:49 p.m. integraguy Reader

As the former owner of a '92 CX, I'd pass on the turbo idea too, at least with this engine. It can be done, but you would be so much better off ditching the 70 hp (YES, the CX has a "unique" engine from other mid '90s Civics, it has only 8 valves instead of the DX, LX and EXs 16 valve engines). Popping in a B18A or B will give you 142 HORSEPOWER in one fell swoop. Then if you still have any cash and haven't been arrested for speeding a few times, turbo the "B".
Sept. 9, 2008 4:51 p.m. HiTempguy New Reader

blockquote>What's that hose hanging out of the front bumper?

I'm not too sure how cold it gets in New York but its a block heater electrical cord ;) A block heater + the cord came free with the new cylinder head apparently because the guy dropped so much cash at the stealership.

As for H20, I think I'd do an H22A (prelude motor iirc). A guy was running low 14's without his nitrous at the street legals 2 weekends ago with a bone stock H22A in his eg civork.

Edit-
but you would be so much better off ditching the 70 hp
<

I am from the land of igloos and polar bears. The 1994 Civork CX COULD be had with the 16 valve 102hp 1.5L up here anyways (check wikipedia, we all know it is a solid source of info ;) ). I would not have bought the car if it had the 8 valve!
Sept. 9, 2008 5:42 p.m. Carson Reader

That picture makes your car look oh so dreamy, haha.
Sept. 10, 2008 9:21 a.m. CivicSiRacer New Reader

The plastic interior door locks are notorious for cracking from age. I had the same issue with my driver's side. It's not too bad to replace, but I had to remove the whole panel to access it. The other thing is the key cylinder the washer that holds it in place cracks too with age. I just purchased some cheapie cylinders and removed the white plastic part to put on my door locks (since I didn't want to have 2 sets of keys to get into my car/start.
Sept. 10, 2008 11:46 a.m. poopshovel Dork

Great deal!!! With everyone looking for econo-cars, the price for the CX and VX models has gone through the roof locally, especially for "unmolested" cars. I'd keep it stock and enjoy the 35-38mpg, or flip it and double your money. Save the turbo project for a beater. Nice score!!!
Sept. 10, 2008 7:59 p.m. HiTempguy New Reader

Well, after driving it for a day I've found two issues that are irritating but in no way threaten my ownership of the car:

1) The car smokes on decel I didn't notice this when buying the car as I took it for a test drive at night (looking at the car took too long). I expected it to burn some oil (it is a Honda) but on decel with a new head? Crappppppy.

2) Very loud creaking noise comes from drivers side of car when turning the wheel. Almost like a seized bushing somewhere in the steering linkage (I believe the sound is actually coming from the double wishbone assembly, I can only assume it is a pivot point for whatever pivots when turning in a Civork's suspension). Nothing life threatening, but irritating.

3) Oh yea, here is an extra. The passenger side rear tire has more camber then I'd like it to have... think top out scratches head nothing looks bent but I'll give it a closer inspection this weekend.
Sept. 11, 2008 12:16 a.m. 92dxman New Reader

If you ever consider some suspension work, grab the front bar and front control arms from an 94-01 Integra, swap them in and thank me later since most stock eg hatches don't have front bars stock..
Sept. 11, 2008 12:34 p.m. ValuePack HalfDork

HiTempguy wrote:

Well, after driving it for a day I've found two issues that are irritating but in no way threaten my ownership of the car:

1) The car smokes on decel I didn't notice this when buying the car as I took it for a test drive at night (looking at the car took too long). I expected it to burn some oil (it is a Honda) but on decel with a new head? Crappppppy.

Hm. Have you checked that the PCV system is in good shape?
Sept. 11, 2008 6:16 p.m. HiTempguy New Reader

I`m going to check out the PCV this weekend. Thanks for the suggestion!
Sept. 13, 2008 8:56 a.m. CivicSiRacer New Reader

My PCV was all clogged up considering the car had 200k+ miles. Cleaned it out all was good and all cost me couple sprays of brake cleaner :)
Sept. 13, 2008 11:42 a.m. iceracer Reader

New head and smokes on deceleratiom...Hmm.
Sept. 13, 2008 6:18 p.m. HiTempguy New Reader

blockquote>iceracer wrote:

New head and smokes on deceleratiom...Hmm.

After further investigation, it only smokes above 6k rpm. Its just that usually you let off to slow down or shift at that point, hence why I thought it was under decel. But it definitly is only while buzzing the snot out of it . I am now thinking the head was not "brand new" as claimed but rebuilt (which makes more sense) and the person doing the rebuilding sucks alot of you know what at installing valve seals. Dry compression test shows 190psi across the board. I am going to contact the previous owner and see if any warranty came with the head work. Its been under a year since it has been done, so if it was indeed a Honda stealership I am going to raise a fuss ;)

I also fixed the misfire. While taking the spark plugs out to do the compression test I noticed something odd with the #2 spark plug:

Now you see it... <

Now you don't! <

And the rear tires are different sizes, causing the car to have a left "lean" to it (which may be causing an optical illusion making me think the right rear tire has extra camber in the wrong direction).
Sept. 15, 2008 10:45 a.m. CivicSiRacer New Reader

wow different sized tires lol :)
Sept. 28, 2008 11:43 p.m. HiTempguy New Reader

I just thought I would update this thread a little:

I took the car out to the track Friday night. Ran a string of 16.8's. To recap, this is a 1994 Honda Civic CX (stripper, no options car that in Canada comes with the DX 16 valve motor). It has a Ractive intake and MSD ignition wires. 250,000kms (150,000+ miles). This car has no tach, so there was the occasional bouncing off the rev limiter. It also didn't help that I didn't have time to check tire pressures BEFORE getting to the track. I set the front 175/70R13 almost bald winter tires to 27 pounds. Hooked up real good in the 10*C weather :D However the right rear tire has a slow leak... it was down to 18psi the whole night, which I bet is about another tenth right there. We were also seriously hot-lapping the crap out of the strip, just go go go so that wasn't helping either.

So, first things first. Installed the free ricer tach that came with the car. Has a shift light, works great. Now I can consistantly launch and shift rather then doing it by ear. Next will be stripping the rear interior out along with the passenger side seat. I want to try and break below 16.5. I figure it can be done if I lose 100 pounds of interior, plus a MUCH higher launch RPM (think 5K), coupled with 40-45psi in the rear tires. Oh, and I'll be running as little gas as possible, not a 1/2 tank :P

Finally, under no circumstances will I be doing a motor swap. Not even a mini-me head swap. After a lot of research, I found someone who successfully ran an ebay turbo kit into the high 13's with minimal cash. Not as impressive as some of the GRM crew, but if I have the $1k at Christmas time I will be doing a turbo install using the 'rents garage while they are in Mexico for two weeks. Even if modifications are required I have access to people who can weld gooder, plus I now have a friend at an exhaust shop if I need any pipe or to modify it. This is becoming ALOT fun. I also found a long lost buddy a day before I went to the 1/4 mile (he came out as well), who did a 1.6L SIR swap into his 99 EK. He is running mid 15's. Totally psyched about this!
Sept. 29, 2008 1:28 a.m. geomiata Reader

i helped install a turbo kit on a same era d16 motor once, long story short, he came back in 2 days later to change the head gasket, then a week he blew the whole engine. fool didn't change the ecu and wasn't running steady boost.
Sept. 29, 2008 7:55 a.m. HiTempguy New Reader

Depending on costs/difficulty, I would like to just use a fairly basic chipped ECU that would be on the "safe" side of fuel/timing. If it was more cost effective to use something like crome tuning software myself, thats probably what I'd do. I'm not really interested in running above the 7psi the kits are rated for, it would be just be fun to get into the mid 14's.

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