So a friend had a Civic. He overheated that Civic and broke it. So he sold it to another friend. Another friend wanted a cheap track rat, so I told him about this Civic and he bought it. He asked me to fix it, I found out it was more broken than he wanted to mess with, so he gave it to me. So I guess the wrong Civic is my problem now.
This picture is when I rolled it out of the garage with stuck valves and decided to let it sit and think about what it had done while we tried to get another Honda ready for Midwest Rev Up. (spoiler, that Honda didn't make it either, but that's a different story).
I usually start these threads while the car is on the trailer and then never touch it again. This time I'm starting the thread after I thrashed on it for a few weeks and am probably about to start messing with it again since it became my problem. Now to decide if I'm editing this post to death or adding more posts as I organize my thoughts and try to remember what all I did.
So the problem started with the D17 getting nuclear overheated to the point it became a milkshake machine. Decisions were made to pull the head to see how ugly it was. We looked at the cylinder bores and saw light scoring. Then put a straight edge and feeler gauge on the head and block deck services to find out they measured just barely outside of spec, using questionable methods and questionable tools....so we decide to throw a head gasket and bolts at it and see what happened.
Because the entire goal here was silly track car, while we were in there it got purple glitter paint on the valve cover, and your best quality ebay header and hot air intake. We also did a new timing belt, which also involved fixing stripped threads on an idler pulley bolt, lots of headache with this particular idiot trying to set timing by himself with the engine still in the car. All so it could not idle and make a horrible metallic racket. I then pulled the valve cover back off to find that intake valves on #4 weren't closing completely. So we abandoned it to make an effort to put the other car together so maybe one of them would make the event. (nope, like I said in the title, idiot is bad at Honda)
While I was in there I also got sent a chinese knock short shifter, crappy exhaust, a host of inappropriate sitckers, tow strap so we could get pulled off track when (not if) it exploded, and a black mesh grill that doesn't fit this bumper. We also did hood pins because the hood latch broke.
After all that was done was when i found out the engine was actually beyond saving and we put it back in storage.
starting the thread back now because we found a parts car and I might be making progress on it again. Updates to come this weekend probably.
Sounds like quite the adventure so far. Best of luck to you and your Civic.
looks like fun. That exhaust looks just like the one on my cavalier, probably same brand.
In reply to myusdmcavalier :
More than likely. It doesn't fit very well and I expect it to be loud. Probably going for something else since part of the goal is also backup daily so I can park my Tahoe for a bit and fix some things on it.
In reply to Daylan C. :
It rattles on mine, I think the exhaust shop messed up hanging it, its almost unbearable.
And then we found a 2001 EX parts car that was running until a pretty ugly wreck happened.
Wait ... what?
In reply to Stampie :
Oh that little guy Not? Not important for this story. Also not mine.
'60 Pontiac Bonneville Superior combination coach. Waiting its turn to get back halfed because its not low enough.
In reply to Daylan C. :
You don't need to know what bad thoughts I'm having right now. Also cool Civic. Turbos going to get involved?
In reply to Stampie :
No boost. Just stock D17 Vtec. Simple car I can drive to work and maybe get some seat time with. I still have other cars to get silly with. Plus these D series engines are apparently really hard to find now and boost kills them really quick.
The driver of the Pontiac is desperately in need of a sandwich.
In reply to Daylan C. :
Even the parts car looks fixable, not sure you'd want to though, just look at that paintjob.
I must have missed it. Where is the golf ball?
That Pontiac could be a serious track support vehicle.
In reply to Mndsm :
On stands in mom's garage back in Kentucky. Don't worry that ones not going anywhere. Some moves got made and I got side tracked a bit. I still own the car, it's probably coming up north with me in the spring at this point.
In reply to Noddaz :
My buddy who owns that also has a '95 Cadillac Fleetwood Federal body, that one is getting the hitch from my Caprice and some tool boxes mounted in the back.
In reply to myusdmcavalier :
it really isn't.
Roof is crushed in, interior is trashed from mold and the previous owner just being nasty in general. Almost every inch of glass in it is busted, rear suspension is pointed off to the right, and it was rusty before all of that even happened. Technically yes it is fixable but definitely not worth it when my other car is straight, nearly rust free, and has a good interior.
In reply to Daylan C. :
Fair enough. I must have missed the part where you moved again. I'm not real good at paying attention.
I'm mildly curious as to where this one goes. One of my exes owned the coupe version of this car new back in 2001. It was one of the most soul crushing cars I've ever had the displeasure of becoming acquainted with, and started my lifelong hatred of Honda. This coming from the guy that LIKES AE101 corollas and has owned multiple those.
Please tell me you have an underbody Neon kit already picked out.
In reply to RandolphCarter :
We had one purchased but it ended up on my Tahoe when the car didn't make it to the event I still went to as pit lane staff. I'll be looking for a better one.
Hood pins FTW.
I have a friend with an EM2 civic. They are easily the worst civic ever made. Hands down.
In reply to Daylan C. :
now that I see that, that's a perfect parts car, 100% not road worthy.
7th gens are annoying to pull engines from.
Not much left of the parts car, best of luck on the build.
In reply to myusdmcavalier :
Yeah its filled with random junk waiting to get hauled off now. This one's waiting until after Halloween now since we're using the garage for a party. Its also waiting in line behind the roommates Del Sol that also needs an engine R&R after it ate some bearings at Honda Meet. So probably middle of November I'll have more progress on this mess.
I lied. I didn't touch it until middle of the November a year later. But anyway the car runs now.
It got drug inside some time around October last year. I then didn't touch it for a while until I finally ripped the dead engine out and tossed it on the scrap pile.
Then the "unknown condition but it at least sounded like it made compression in the parts car" engine got a new flywheel and clutch kit before being bolted up to the transmission that apparently wasn't original to this car either, and tossed back in the hole with a new front motor mount because the old one apparently cracked while sitting. I can only assume Honda engines instintictively know their life is about to get harder they a flex plate is replaced with a flywheel.
I then hooked everything back up a few days later and as a test got it to start and idle on the old ECU before I started attempting to make VTEC work on the D17A2.
Now that I actually knew this engine could even run, I swapped in hopefully the right ECU for this combination sourced from an ebay seller that probably rolled their eyes at my explanation for not having a number to give them.
And then began a multiple day process of cutting down the donor wiring harness from the parts car. de-pinning sections of it from the ECU connector so I could add them into the harness that was on the car. The parts cars being an automatic with extremely hacked wiring meant that harness was basically only usable as parts to me. I'm also considering this iteration of the wiring harness mostly as a proof of concept to myself that I can actually manage to make something like this work. But anyway.
And then once it ran I started considering the possiblity of prepping this thing for Honda Meet this year instead of trying to be in a hurry fixing the other car that had a bit of an oops about the time I started working on this one again. This lead me down a rabbit hole of asking questions about things like brakes. I saw lots of RSX 5 lug swaps and stuff like that but not much for the 4 lug cars. I then noticed that the loaded caliper part number for this 2001 LX is listed to fit Civics 1996-2011. After seeing what some Honda brake kits were listed to fit and seeing somebody put TSX base model brakes on their Integra I got curious.
It turns out CM7 Accord Calipers are the same bore as the Integra Type R calipers and bolt up to these spindles. And the common Mini rotor for that swap on 4 lug cars is extremely close dimensionally to a stock Accord rotor. I of course had to borrow one of the 15x7.5 Konig's from my buddy's Del Sol for test fit. Struts and lowering springs are in the back seat. Trying to decide which way I want to go on redoing all the bushings at the same time as swapping those one.
Anyway yeah so I guess I'm back to playing with the wrong Civic prepping it for a track weekend hoping the suspect D17A2 lives long enough.
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