Mr_ET's EJ8 project thread

[Mr_ET]

Used to have a turbo EF that I had to sell when we got our second daughter and having a reliable 4 door car was a priority so I have been out of the game for a year. Just picked this up today and looking forward to finally have something to work on again! Old EF: This will be my autocross car and I plan to go to a few track days with it next year as well so suspension work is high on my list. This is a 1997 civic dx-g coupe with no rust and 247 000 kms and in need of some tlc. The summer wheels and tires will be for sale shortly as will the winter steelies with Michelin X-Ice rubber as I don't need them. Here are some pics! Ebay special short ram Passenger fender bent in, will probably try and bang it back out fairly soon A few scuffs and chips but no rust Super Altezzas that don't even work, anyone want these? I'll be getting some 99-00 oem tails for it One of the Konig rims and driver side Thread left on the Michelin X-Ice tires Great tinting job, will be having fun with a heatgun soon Wonderful busted steering column as it was stolen not so long ago So here is the starting point! Looking to fix the steering column fairly soon, let me know if anyone is selling a good condition used one. Passenger axle has a ripped boot that I will be changing next weekend (already have a replacement) The brake lights aren't coming on but the night lights are so I need to look at some fuses Trunk cannot be opened from the cabin and the trunk light is on so will be fixing that soon. The hood level to release the latch is broken off so that will be changed out as well. Door trim needs to be changed on the driver side and the passenger window level is broken off. Time to get to work, enjoy!

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[Mr_ET]

Some updates from tonight.

The trunk latch now opens from inside as it should, the passenger fender has been removed and I will try and straighten it out a bit before throwing it back on the car.

Removed the riced out knob that was cracking and was just wiggling around and started removing the carpet in the trunk to clean everything up.

I probably will not end up putting it back in.

Also removed the winters and sold them.

I am not sure what konig rims these are but they are 16's wrapped in 205/45/R16 Kumho 711's with some decent thread left. These are up for sale locally.








Also fixed the key cylinder so I can use the key to start the car as opposed to a screwdriver..

Cheers!

[Mr_ET]

UPDATE:

Picked up some OEM parts:


Plastic window piece


Acura OEM Shift knob


Manual window levers

touch up pen

Clip for sunvisor that was broken

hood latch cable

This was the missing piece on the door


Driver side axle had a ripped boot and I wanted to change it but the axle nut was on so tight it broke 2 reducers from 3/4 to 1/2 inch and my impact wasn't taking it off. Tried a 5 foot long breaker bar and even jumping on it did nothing.

So I removed the whole assembly and had a friend at Honda impact it off with a stronger gun

Good to go back on!

New shift knob installed

new window levers installed

new door piece trim installed
.

That's it for tonight but I found a mint set of OEM 98 tailights with harnesses at PNP today so will install those in a bit.

[Mr_ET]

More updates from this weekend

Spent some time yesterday replacing my hood latch. Took too many pics but some folks may appreciate this little writeup when comes time to replace theirs.

Here is what I started with

First remove the front bumper

Remove the plastic clips with a philips screw driver


Then, where the bumper meets the fender, remove the philips screw on each side

Then remove the 2 screws holding the bumper under the car


Here is what things will look like with the bumper off




To get the hood latch cable off both the fender and side skirt must be removed. Also as you can see the cable is held by some plastic clips that need to be pushed out with a pair of pliers

What they look like removed


Start by removing the 3 bolts that hold the hood latch to the car they are 10mm.

Once that is done flip it around and disconnect the cable


Now let's start removing the fender bolts
2 10 mm back here

3 at the top here

1 here

Only 2 more are left and they are hidden behind the side skirt

Remove these 2 philips screws

Remove the 3 clips under the car

From the rear wheel well lightly tap the skide skirt forward and it will drop to the ground exposing these

Remove them as well as the clips holding the fenderwell plastic to the the fender and wiggle the fender off

Remove all clips and start snaking the old cable out


Now only the rubben grommet going into the cabin is left, push it in so the whole assembly can be pulled out from inside
From inside the cabin remove the 2 10mm bolts holding the cable to the frame and pull it all out.

Install the new one and you're golden!

[Mr_ET]

Tiny bit more progress this afternoon

A/c bracket went from this:

to this:

Started cleaning up the area around the bracket and the engine bay a bit, there is a ton of work left there!

New 98 si tails found at pnp last weekend


Since I do swaps once in a while with EFHatch we decided to pick this up to take care of the b*tch pin

He also hooked me up with some cotter pins since all the ones on the car are on their last legs

Here is the progress on the tinting removal



Last but not least a friend stopped by with a birthday gift, thx man!

[Mr_ET]

Updates:

If you remember a few weeks ago when I took some initial pics of it the passenger side fender was bent in:


After some fun with a hammer, a wooden block and a few other things here is how it looks, not perfect but a lot better and the door doesn't come in contact with it anymore!




Next here is what the tint removal looked like after working on it a little a couple days ago


And here it is now, all of the tint is gone :D

Still need to remove a bit of glue but the steam cleaner and steel wool are awesome at getting that done!



And the interior at the moment lol


Rear before




After :clap:




And how the window looks


Panels back in place


Continued:

If your car was stolen at some point your key cylinder can now be removed as it's no longer held by anything


Gently snake the wires out of the column and pull it out of the car should look like this:


Old and busted:


New Hotness!
(Please note the 2 new breakaway bolts for the cylinder and the fact I had my cylinder reprogrammed to my cars keys by EFHatch at Honda West)


Installating is the reverse of removal!

Here are some shots of mine all back together:





Feels so much better not having it hang and hit my legs when I drive it or get in and out!

Make sure to only reconnect the battery - terminal once everything is plugged back in and reinstalled and be careful not to bang the airbag anywhere.

Good night all!

[quackattack]

Looks good, keep up the good work and i can't wait to see more progress on this puppy.

[RagingAngel]

looking good!

[Cpt. xThread]

Damn. That's a lot of work done... and its not even swapped yet.

Not talkin shit, just saying.

I recently picked up a 97 LX as a daily... after doing a window motor, replacing a door handle, tune up... made me rethink buying a used beat on Civic... lol.

[Mr_ET]

I bought it cause I like working on cars so not that much work

I am looking into suspension bits now and will be ordering probably in the next 2-3 weeks.

Looks like it's down to PIC and Koni SP3's w/ GC's right now. Still looking at spring rates.

I will also sand and repaint a few suspension pieces during the holidays as I just picked up some used Si Brakes for the front and will be updating those with some Brembo blanks and Hawk HPS pads soon.

[Cpt. xThread]

Awesome dude! I'm trying to decide if I wanna sell my 97 LX...

[Arza.]

realy good work buddy!

the car looks now much better...

[aznkid4now]

great work

[Mr_ET]

Here are a few progress pics of some paintingI did during the holidays

the setup lol







Wipers are getting semi gloss black, suspension forks are getting flat black rust paint

[Mr_ET]

And so the mods finally begin. As I had mentioned earlier, I am looking at eventually turning this car into a dedicated road race car.

With that in mind I selected a suspension kit that I thought would work well with that goal, make the car rotate better and give me some good adjustability.

Some people may not be familiar with PIC Performance but they have actually been around for a few years, are located in the States, provide an on track warranty and are rebuildable in the US if need be.

A few racers in the SCCA and NASA run their coilovers and the Honda Challenge H1 champion for 2008 actually drove a 99 civic coupe equipped with PIC coilovers.

Here are a few pictures:


That's right 12k front 14k rear

They came in well packaged

One of the rears specifically made for the EK





And one of the 2 reasons why my build is a bit slow, wouldn't change them for the world


Good night all!

[Mr_ET]

Finally got some time to install some parts.

Installed the PIC Select 12k 14k full coilovers

The front brakes are now SI/SIR assemblies that are bigger than the DX units. For the brakes I did the following:

brembo blank front rotors
hawk hps pads
repainted front calipers
New washers for the brake lines
SI/SIR brake booster
SI/SIR 15/16 brake master cylinder

Also installed some Skunk 2 rear lower control arms color is hard annodized.

Also changed all bolts for the rear LCA's, got some steering column cover bolts and a couple caliper bolts that were missing when I picked up the assemblies used.

As you will see the driver side rear LCA is not on yet as the stock one is still held by a broken bolt. A sawzall should fix that pretty soon

On to the pics:


















And the pass side rear LCA that doesn't want to come off

[Mr_ET]

pics of washed car
Here is a combination of 2 16's 1 13 and 1 14 inch wheel lol. Just threw these on to make it roll since it's been in the garage since October and currently has no front brake calipers on it.

Should be fixed for next weekend!






Let's just say it could use a clay bar and a paint job would really not hurt but it has no rust and since I'm going racing even if I come in contact with something it won't bother me as much as if I had brand new paint on it.

[Mr_ET]

Maybe I should update this with some progress as well as some pictures of me racing it I will post all updates from another message board I am on so if some of the comments make no sense pay no attention as it may have been something I delt with a few months ago.

New suspension feels great but the rears are making the trunk lid shake when I take a bump, I think I need new seals back there (repositioned the latch and that stopped being an issue)

The brakes are being a pain and won't bleed properly so I have not been able to try the car out very much yet (my trusty sidekick had installed the calipers upside down, still giving him a hard time about it)

Here are a couple pics of some stuff I picked up recently.

Sold the 16's so picked up some brand new 15's for cheap ! Not RPF1's yet but they will do for this season.

15X6.5 4X100 Ikon Apex


This will come in handy this summer at auto x and track days since the EK seats are horrible for lateral support and my budget won't allow racing seats right now.

[Mr_ET]

Here are a few more things I did recently:

swapped the DX cluster with no tach for an Si one with a tach plug and play




Also picked up some hub centric rings and some cheap tuner lugs and this is what one of the wheels looks like mounted


Bought the OEM outer tie rod end for the driver side as it had some side to side play


Also started the wrinkle paint process on the valve cover. Only took a pic of it once done. It didn't wrinkle as much as I wanted even after 4 coats. I even reinstalled it as it was drying and let the car idle for an hour to see if it would cook the paint a bit and wrinkle but nothing more.

The engine bay will be getting cleaned up as soon as it starts getting a bit warmer and I can wash it.



Still need to polish the Honda letters back to metal and yanking out the complete a/c system in a couple of weeks

[Mr_ET]

Spent about 10 mins in the garage polishing the Honda letters on the valve cover and cleaned up the timing cover and intake tube.

Engine bay really needs a cleanup.

[Mr_ET]

Well finally picked up some tires. As usual Bob at Urban Expressions came up huge and got me some much better tires than I thought I could afford.





That's right people 60 threadwear lol

[Mr_ET]

Did a bit of work on the car this weekend. Previously I had removed the whole back half of the car's interior.

Today EFHatch and I removed the carpeting, the rear pannels connecting to the headliner, the center console and some of the firewall sound deadening on the passenger sider.

Also removed the A/C from the engine bay but the core is still in place under the dash for now.

We also installed the A032R's and took it for a drive and it is scary grippy. It had more grip than we could legally or had the balls to test out for now.

Racing season starts in a month:clap:

few pics of today:










Still need to finalize the ride height setting, get it aligned, change the windshield, apply all the decals I've collected lol, wash it and do a quick tune up and she should be good to go!

[Mr_ET]

Update:

bought a few more parts to get the car ready for it's first track outing which is coming up on the 20th.

Got it aligned on Thursday thx to Projekz for the hookup there.

Should have my numbers and a few more decals in the next week and a half.

On to the parts:

Oil and filter for an oil change, motor has 250 000kms on it and it's a d16y7 so the regular stuff will be perfect!
Brembo replacement drums for the rear, decided to push the rear disc swap out to a bit later
NGK G power spark plugs to freshen that up a bit
Wilwood 570 racing brake fluid





pic of the car with the rims and r comps


mmm meaty


Also removed all airbags and installed a block off plate on the passenger side

Removed the y7 exhaust manifold and replaced it with a 00 y8 one for slightly better flow. Also had a second o2 bung welded to it so I could run both o2 sensors, no CELs

bay starting to look a little bit better


couple pics without the good wheels and at the wrong ride height but they show some of the decals on the car

[Mr_ET]

Here come the pics.

I have a few from last night still missing one very important decal

The rest are from today close range in the garage, if the weather can get better I will take some in the driveway later this week with some daylight.

[Mr_ET]

For going straight it's a great swap but for neutral handling and road racing it's a bit heavy.

Here is what I settled on and yes it's in about 12 millons pieces and I brought it home in the empty passenger area of the race car

More pics when I organize everything.






And from Friday