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#8 and #9. Yes really. CRX projects.

8K views 42 replies 14 participants last post by  ymisoqt 
#1 ·
Hmm sooo i am about to go pick up what are technically my 8th and 9th cars, but my SHO is leaving me tomorrow morning. Also my 91 Civic sedan will be donating its organs to one of these CRXs, soo in the end I will stick with lucky number 7, but I will get to have 9 for at least a couple days. MY dream of owning a junkyard is soo close!:rofl: Actually my friends call my yard the CarFarm, because every time they come over, I have grown another one.

No pics yet, Ill post them as soon as I get them, but the forum is dead today and I am excited soo i thought id go ahead and start a thread for them:yes:
 
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#3 ·
You had / have an SHO? How did you like it? My friend had one it was pretty fun, I enjoyed working on that car. It had a neat engine. G2 legends and SHO's are pretty evenly matched cars, made it fun to drive around with him.
 
#4 ·
It was actually quite a bit more zippy than the G2 down low in the rpms, They have crazy intake manifolds. It was still a ford tho. Everything in the interior was/is junk AND mine was an auto, and Ford AODE transmissions have a worse track record than G2 head gaskets. I mean, at least SOME g2 head gaskets have made it 200K miles, Im pretty sure no AODE on earth has done that. The WORST part was the sunroof drain lines constantly got clogged at which point, it just pretty much starts raining inside the car:rofl: It was fun to drive tho, because it would go when you jumped on the throttle, and since it was a FORD, i didnt care if i blew it up:rofl:
 
#6 ·
:rofl::rofl::rofl:

I am back with my two cars.

Let me ask you guys something, Have any of you ever seen a windshield blow out of a car at around 70 miles an hour? Me either, Until now:rofl:

We put both CRXs on one trailer. One facing forward, one facing backwards. The one facing backwards was a drag car and has a completely gutted interior. When we hit 70, air pressure BLEW out the windshield on the interstate. I take no blame for this one, I didn't do it. Still it was funny as hell. Id be a lot more upset if I wasnt already kinda planning on using that one mostly for parts.

No pics yet, its too dark now, but ill get them tomorrow, i promise.
 
#7 ·
What can i say, im like a little kid at christmas. Nothing puts a smile on my face like having a new project. This one needs A LOT of work, though thankfully, It shouldn't cost me hardly anything at this point, since my honda parts collection has grown in leaps and bounds over the last few months. Here is a few pics of the one im going to fix. No pics of the one that blew out the windshield, I parked it in the dark at a different place, just in case that windshield hit someones car and they are trying to track me down:hide:

I realize the pics are crap, its dark out and im using my camera phone and a shop light, sue me.







The unibody is rust free, tho, and the interior is nice.

Momo steering wheel:


kick ass OE door panels


Heres the two B16 and 1 GSR B18c1 heads that came with it. I payed 1,000 for both cars and the three heads.


I also got an extra front clip frame section. sweet. Can see some of my parts in the background.


For Artillery, here is a pic of my "motor pile" There are around 5 or 6 engines or transmissions stacked here. Also some headers and fender boxes and such.


Heres a pic of the B18 LS block im going to put one of these V-tec heads on. Its in the background on the engine stand. Forefront is a big part pile of stuff to take to the wrecker. I am running out of room and honestly its not like there is a reason in the world to hold on to a D15b2 head and civic auto tranny and other junk in this pile.



Finally, I went ahead and washed the car off, and then started test fitting some body panels I had laying around.



I really haven't decided what order im going to tackle this thing in. Im flat broke at this point. I got a sweett tax return I wasnt expecting about 6 weeks ago and that is the reason all the projects are springing up. Id rather have a ton of projects instead of a couple really nice ones, because it keeps me busy and my idle hands are the devils playground. There is also something special about building pretty much an entire car, different than the way the factory did it. The older you get the less positive reinforcement there is, and the easiest way for me to feel like im 10 years old is to build something. I've never claimed to not be eccentric as hell.
 
#14 ·
Never. Ill probably get struck down for saying it, but i consider most mugen stuff to be overpriced junk, at least for what it costs. I tried to get that body kit to resell it though, I actually got a bunch of emails about it from random people looking for one who searched google and found that thread.

A bunch of the front lights wiring harness is melted and i think im going to have to rewire all of that first, or have a super crappy chore doing it later once the motor is in.

@Bandoni - I didnt even think about all the $$ i save by not having to pay the junkyard entrance fee:rofl:
 
#17 ·
Its really the high cost that turns me off. I mean people want like $200 for a mugen B series spark plug cover. For $50 more I could get a whole set of stainless steel valves. Also i have a slight case of "QUANTITY over Quality." backwards, I know :)

mmm, I always wanted to do a CRX build, they're fun little cars. I will be watching this one.
ooo hope you do. I say this every time i buy a new project but I think this is the one that will get the first turbo:giggle: I have a couple of nice t3 manifolds for a D series and none for B and i think thats gonna be the deciding factor.
 
#16 ·
mmm, I always wanted to do a CRX build, they're fun little cars. I will be watching this one.
 
#18 ·
I decided to take a slightly different path on these than on my other projects. Usually i just throw an engine in them and drive em, but Car2n and Telions projects have inspired me to go a little further on this one, and give it more of that professional/show car look.

The wiring for the lights/horn/etc/etc was all jacked up. Rather than soldering breaks or even crimping them, the last guy just twisted pieces of speaker wire to the breaks and didnt even wrap them in tape.

So the first thing ive done is remove all the wiring and redo it using the 91 sedans wires. While i was at it I also decided to do a full wire tuck and run the harnesses down the frame rails.

Next up is hitting the bottom of the engine bay with a heavy duty sander and primer. This car had a B series in it at one point in time, and to get them to fit you have to smash access for the alternator in the driver frame rail and smash the lip of the rear crossmember down for clearance also. There is some surface rust starting where this has been done, so i figure ill take care of it now instead of after i drop the engine in, save myself a huge headache!
 
#19 ·
can you get a better pic of those door panles? ill give you a pic of some rare jdm crx stuff lol.
 
#20 ·
Ya ill try to get some good pics of everything. Was just rereeading the thread and its pretty pic bare.. The problem is i've replaced all my standard incandescent bulbs with those spirally flourescent bulbs, and my camera can't seem to take a good picture with them. I need daylight and its been rainy all week.
 
#24 ·
Im more tempted to try and EV the integra. There is a guy who sells DA tegs with full EV conversions on Ebay.

Yesterday I installed a lower Tie bar, Ordered a Catback exhaust, and some ARP pressure plate to flywheel bolts. Also finished up the wiring tuck and removed a bunch of unnecesary wiring/relays for A/C. Ive got enough cars with A/C so i think ill just leave it off this one. Also the last guy just cut the lines off at the evap, so id have to replace everything, bleh.
 
#26 ·
Soo this damn car has tuner lug nuts on it and it looks like they take a 12mm hexhead bit, but im having trouble finding one, so i still cant get the wheels off,:(

Meanwhile heres some pics of the wire tucking.

This is right behind the passenger shock well at the firewall. There is a tiny hole down on the frame rail by the wiper motor. Thats where I decided to run the passenger side of the harness.


Heres where I redid the harness with donor from the sedan. I bundled it all up in that crableg tubing. I forget where i got some of the thicker pieces of it I think it was for organizing TV cords. I used the thick grey pieces around places where i had soldered and heatshrinked a bunch, and where it is actually running through the frame rail as a grommet.


Heres a pic of the driver side tuck.


Heres another pic of the driver side tuck at a slightly different angle. Here you can see how i zip tied it to the hood release cable. On the passenger side i used the same hood release cable clips and ziptied to them.


I pulled the motor out of the sedan in pretty much total darkness. If I have to hear my neighbors kids scream all day long, they can listen to my impact at night. bitches.


Heres the motor after installed the ARP pressure plate bolts and yanked the manifolds off. I also took loose the head bolts because im going to take off the Y8 head and use a Z6 head I have instead. I left the bolts in place so i didnt get them mixed up till I get the new gasket.


Heres the oil pan i need to switch over while ive got the motor out. Its got a welded in spout that Ill need as a turbo oil return line. Its also got a small dent in it to make clearance for the exhaust.


Heres a pic of the engine bay, now that ive swapped over all the lines and other parts from the sedan, and you can see the lower tie bar in place.
 
#27 ·
I had a CRX before, I loved that car before I crashed it head on into a tree @ ~40 mph. I walked away w/a small piece of glass in my head. The car didn't make it. The force of the impact bent the front bumper cover @ a 90 degree angle and cracked the dash in half.

Nice to see another build going on :)
 
#29 ·
Thanks! They're very tossable cars. I didn't even have it lowered, but was running some 16x7 on some 205/45/16 Proxes, and my cousin and I (we carpooled) would try to take 281 to I-10 ramp, which is pretty much a 90 degree turn, as fast as we could. Everyday we would try to go a little more. We were just amazed at how well it could hold a line and be in and out of traffic. I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for my little Si. I dropped in a D16Z6 (before harness adapters were made) w/some mods (Greddy catback, DC headers, intake, shorty) and I was happy as I dunno what.
 
#33 ·
Ya we talked about the crazy wiring it takes without the harnesses. I made mine for the 91 sedan but i decided to use it for my teg and broke down and ordered a boomslang conversion harness for $120 for this one. Just wasn't worth desoldering that many ECUs :)

Wow, were have i been, caused I missed this post? Looks nice man, I love crxs, small and light. :) Whats you doing with the vtec heads? lsvtec maybe?
Yep. LsVtec with GSR head and B16 cams. Upon closer look at my heads I realized the GSR was the only one actually reusable, the B16s have destroyed chambers on one cylinder each from where they threw a valve through the head. Its pretty cool lookin actually ill take pics of them next time im near them. Havent decided if I will wait till this turbo D series explodes on me, or maybe through an Lsvtec in the stripped HX and run 13s immediately.. with no windshield.:rofl:

Pics came out not too bad for working in the middle of the night. Looks good as always :thumbsup:.
lmao, after the engine pulling pic turned out so bad i went to walmart in the middle of the night and bought a decent flourescant shop light that doesnt cause my camera to go crazy.

Don't worry, I agree with you. I really don't like the styling on most moogen stuff, too... well, i just don't really like it. I'm more of an OEM style guy myself. Love the project, I wish I had the knowledge to do some sort of an engine build in my CB. Maybe I'll get around to an h22 someday :woot:
I gave some strong consideration to an H22 but i just dont think it will be affordable for me. Between the place racing mount kit and custom front crossmember, thats more than i usually spend for a car! I do lust for one tho. Actually the 320 injectors im using are stock H22 injectors..
 
#36 ·
Ok an update, and some free learning for those following along without a lot of experience.

First for Dog - Check this B16 head.. Weak valve springs.. Thats why im gonna have to go with the GSR.


The red area i circled with paint is called a "quench zone". Legends dont have them. No USDM Hondas have them until the introduction of the D16y8 in 96 and maybe the 94-95 Del Sol B16. They force the mixture into the center of the chamber and greatly help in heat exchange. Perhaps one of the reasons the legend blows gaskets is lack of these quench zones.

Here is where I kinda Epic Failed on the first version of the motor, when it was in the 91 Sedan. Dog I remember you saying you could never get your LS/Vtec swap to work right, and this may be why.

Thats a pic of the stock D16a6 block. Notice the Oil jet sitting in the block. The Vtec heads have their own oil jet built into the head itself, and if you don't remove the one from the block, the head senses excessive oil pressure and Vtec wont ever engage. The Motor will run fine and its not harming it, you just wont ever get Vtec engagement.

Another curious thing, these 4 cylinders have 1 oil jet in the block. On the Legends we have 4. Two on each bank of 3 cylinders. It is my belief that this is why you pretty much NEVER hear of a Legend with a spun bearing.

I screwed a wood screw into the oil jet and yanked it with a pair of pliers.


Then i was tired so I decided to go ahead and organize a few of my spare parts. The pile is getting too big. So I REUSED ( Yes its crazy i want to see if it will hold) The old MLS gasket i took off when i swapped the head, and Used it to bolt the Y8 head I removed to this D15B8 bottom end Ive had sitting around, so i have a spare 1.5 minime just in case.


Interestingly, i might be able to use this 1.5 minime as a turbo base if it comes down to it. Heres a pic with the header removed. This motor was in a later model car with funky headers, and whoever owned it prior made a second dip stick tube. Works out because i can rig the original one as a turbo return line if needed.
 
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