My EJ1 Project (Self documentation, tech + appearance) Feedback appreciated

[Essenar83]

After 4 years of driving a crappy Toyota, I finally embark on my Honda path. The question I had when I had cash in my hand, was: Do I buy a built car, or do I build one myself? I have 0% mechanical experience, and only small car experience in general. Most would say "Buy a built car dude, save yourself trouble", but I don't like restrictions or people telling me I can't learn something on my own. I started out by trying to find deals on power plants. Someone had to be selling a GSR motor or a B16A USDM spec that I could get my paws on. As luck would have it, TypeRMan2001 got a wrecked GSR and was selling almost a full swap out of it. Curiousity struck and I asked how much he would sell it for. Not only did he make me a deal on the motor, tranny and etc parts, he threw in whatever parts he could. As it sit, it was missing a VTEC solenoid, an AC bracket mount, distributor, ECU, water neck and the stabilizer bar on the shift linkage was broken. I still couldn't pass up the deal. 1900 for a GSR longblock and transmission. I figured even if I bought the rest of the parts, I'd still have a full GSR swap for under 2600. He ended up throwing in the VTEC solenoid, the missing mount, and he went with me to an Acura dealership and used his merchant reseller account with their shop to get me the parts discounted. (Mad props to Tom, he's a great seller) Finally I had the cash, wanted the engine, but I was struck with a dilemna. No truck and my family/friends with trucks were flaking on me. I"m sure this is something a lot of you have experienced being into tuning. I didn't let that stop me. That's right. I stripped the passenger seat out of my daily beater, and Tom helped me load the longblock in the passenger side of my car. I know it's illegal and dangerous to do, but you know what? At that point I don't care. The car's safely in my garage waiting for me to get an engine hoist. Updates will come on the motor after I buy a hoist. I was going to rent one, but honestly, 119$ for a hydraulic Big Red hoist brand new from Autozone isn't that bad at all and it gives me the freedom to take my time with the swap, rather than rushing it so I don't get charged a lot for renting one. Not to mention this is my first swap, and I don't know what slowdowns/obstacles I'll be faced with along the way. Now the sweet part. I had roughly a 2 grand limit for a car, but I was pressed with the problem many So-Cal enthusiasts face. Where can I get a good condition EG/EJ for under 2 grand that isn't a shit-kicker? I tried Honda-tech, but too many cars were modified or highly priced. I saw non-running SI's going for 2500. Civic CX's bonestock salvage titled on doughnuts for 2900. That's a lot for a Honda, even if you're an enthusiast. I watched Craiglist like a hound, hoping for that one deal people sometimes talked about. Finally I saw something. "1993 Civic EX 1750". That caught my eye, so I clicked the link and checked the details. 5 speed, check. Stock condition, check. EX, check. Real EJ1, check. Then what was going good got even better. "Clean title". I drove to La Jolla to check it out. The guy had owned it for 5 years and he was one of those cheap daily driver people. He was Islam, lived with his girlfriend, and he basically treated the car as a "cheap point A to B" vehicle that was cheap to maintain and drive. Didn't drive it hard, it's on the same clutch/transmission as 5 years ago, with no grinds and the clutch grabs fine. Regularly maintained. I picked it up for 1700. So this is where my project starts. You don't have to post if you don't want to. First order of business was a cheap thing to do while I pass time waiting for my checks to clear so I can buy an engine hoist. The side moldings/trim had undergone some regular fade, so I followed a guide posted here to repaint the trim flat black with Trim Paint. I'll do the other side. Some of the maintenance issues needing to be attended to: The wiring on the power windows needs to be corrected. The master door panel doesn't work for the passenger window. The trunk light warning on the dash is always on, so I'm guessing the sensor where the trunk closes is messed up or dislocated. The passenger side signal light bulb housing is missing, I couldn't buy it at Autozone. The battery terminal cables are slightly corroded. The passenger headlight bulb socket housing is also corroded. Some of the body parts are missing bolts, proper enforcement. I think the speedometer cable is loose because it doesn't always work. The tachometer works fine, temperature, fuel also, but the speedometer works "when it wants to". Some of my own personal goals: I want to strip out all the interior and clean it down. The cluster, dash, vents, carpet, seats. I want it to be cleaned out of all dust and dirt. While all that is stripped I'm also planning on painting the inside of the metal part of the car flat black. I plan on having the car painted black or dark grey, and I don't want the interior metal parts to still be purple because that will be tacky. When I strip out the SOHC motor I'm planning on painting the engine bay black too. My goal is to have a BAR legal swap, so I'll probably get some Carb legal bolt ons. Rims/tires are in the future, but with limited funds I'll probably just wrap my steelies with some Falkon Azenis or cheap brand Z rated Pep boys tires with 40,000 mile lifetime or something. I'll leave the Honda hubcaps on because I hardly ever see those anymore and they make the car look clean. EDIT: It's not that I only plan on doing bolt on's as far as tech goes. The truth is, over the past 5 years from being 17 with a big head, to being a 22 year old college student through a lot of bad relationships, I learned it's good to dream, but it's more important to pace yourself. In the back of my mind, I'm tempted to scream "Yea I'm gonna be running 12's daily driven in less than 6 months!". The truth is... I don't want to be one of those guys that sits around talking about what I plan to do, but never actually get around to doing it. You spend too much time in bed dreaming, you never get out of bed to make the dreams happen. I'd rather make one small goal at a time. Right now my small goals consist of what I can get done in less than two weeks. If it's not gonna happen in less than two weeks, I shouldn't talk about it, right? That's just my way of thinking. Any feedback is appreciated but this thread is made entirely for my own documentation and to keep myself motivated. Modified by Essenar83 at 12:28 PM 6/9/2006 Modified by Essenar83 at 12:34 PM 6/9/2006

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[Essenar83]

Saving post for future updates.

[Essenar83]

And one more saved post for future updates.

Three updates per every two pages shouldn't be against the mods too much, right?

[Turbo_y8]

GL looks like a great project car!!

[PRcivicHB]

I enjoyed reading the post... Good luck on your future plans, and please dont dump the SOHC... Either sell it or give it to someone who will put it to good use...

Save the SOHC....

[ak47autolock]

That car looks super clean from the pics, looks like you got a good deal. Wish my EJ didn't cost me so much...

[hondafan62269]

Looks like you lucked out on everything so far. Good Luck with it.

[JamesV]

Originally Posted by PRcivicHB

I enjoyed reading the post... Good luck on your future plans, and please dont dump the SOHC... Either sell it or give it to someone who will put it to good use...

Save the SOHC....

sohc savers indeed

[Essenar83]

I'm planning on selling the SOHC motor+ tranny locally.

Thing is I probably won't sell on H-T as even though I adjust the price based on mileage and work needed, people feel the need to say "well it has *work needed* so shouldn't it be 200 dollars less?"

I'll probably sell the SOHC motor on hondaswap, craigslist and/or the EJ owners club site.

[FBP_Si]

Good find. Keep your dream alive

[96CivicBoostCoupe]

sweet deal man, what a price

[JasonGhostz]

Dood... I hate you... Lucky bastard...

But PLEASE, PLEASE budget in some security measures (unless you just neglected to mention it for secrecy)!!
http://www.vsracing.net/~suspended/index.html

Great find, Great buy, GL, and Keep us in the loop!!
JasonGhostz

[DohcSide]

great deal goodluck

[Essenar83]

Originally Posted by JasonGhostz

Dood... I hate you... Lucky bastard...

But PLEASE, PLEASE budget in some security measures (unless you just neglected to mention it for secrecy)!!
http://www.vsracing.net/~suspended/index.html

Great find, Great buy, GL, and Keep us in the loop!!
JasonGhostz

I've seen that link, and I appreciate the information you give, you're very resourceful to people trying to keep their stuff safe.

Your link is actually one of many MANY MANY sources I'm using for my security, and yes, the one thing I will leave out of my EJ1 Project public documentation is my security measures, because I do have my suspicions about thieves on the board. All I can say is, anyone that steals my car might get a few parts off, but they'll be behind bars long before they can drop the car at a lot and flee the scene. They'd be lucky if the cops got to them before I did.

Thanks for the support guys. I'm going to the movies tonight with my ex (she wants to see Cars, pee-eww ), but tomorrow I'm going to do the other side trim and probably the stock front/rear lip. I'll also probably install the waterneck to the engine.

[EK79]

Originally Posted by PRcivicHB

I enjoyed reading the post... Good luck on your future plans, and please dont dump the SOHC... Either sell it or give it to someone who will put it to good use...

Save the SOHC....

i agree we all started aone point or another with the SOHC keep it you never know.

[Sean Juan]

Nice project man. Good goals too. Join the EJ1 Owners Club while you're at it. Everyone is slinging parts over there.

[sohcvtec1995]

welcome to the band of coupe brothers. also your car dosent have a speedo cable it ahs a vss. take it off and clean around it. then plug it back in. if it still dosent work tehn you will need to replace taht. cause without it your vtec will not work.

[jdm_bones]

Good deals indeed smart shopper, would like to see the end result, GL on your project man..

[GiT LaO'd]

Sweet project man...You have everything in line...As long as you have basic hand tools, some breaker bars, engine hoist, jack stands and the patience...You're good...Of course the parts wise...ENGINE, TRANNY, MOUNTS, AXLES, SHIFT LINKAGE, and ECU...Its all bolt in after that brother...C-SPEEDRACING.COM was very useful to me...I read over the article lots of times and after performing my own swap, on my own...I was proud and still am...SHe runs like a champ...20K+ miles and all good...Since you have an EX, you're good you dont need to wire in VTEC...I believe only the knock sensor and the IABs...IABs is a sinch...Just depin the A20 pin to A17 and thats that...

[salesmonkey]

Nice project man. Good goals too. Join the EJ1 Owners Club while you're at it. Everyone is slinging parts over there.

is there such a club?

[Leo C]

nice project

[BananaSi]

sweet! keep us updated!

[Mr.RHTuner]

great thread!

can't wait to see how your car comes along man

[Essenar83]

Okay guys, I'm going to pick up the hoist today, but a few questions.

I was going to use the AEM Hybrid Intake for 92-95 Civic with B18C1, but when I checked the AEM site, I realized it's not CARB legal...

I would like to use an intake that's CARB legal because when I finish my bolt-on's, I plan on taking it to the REF to get stamped so I don't have problems from the cops.

Does anyone specifically know what intake can work on the B18C1 installed into EG/EJ? I heard Del Sol VTEC works with minor adjustment, and I've also heard the GSR one will work.

Any suggestions?

[JDM-EJ1]

Good thread. To all, here is my EJ1 project if anyone wants to take a look at it:

http://www.honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1246232