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Over the weekend I became a civic owner. Im a little excited, a little nervous, and a lot inexperienced. I have worked on plenty of motorcycles, v8 cars and trucks, as well as lots of experience doing maintenance at an industrial plant. I would say that I am pretty good mechanically, but when it comes to a Honda, I am green.

About the car -

odometer reads 266k, but the seller claims there is only 120k on the new motor. I believe the car is an ej6, with a d16 motor. Auto transmission.
There is a short ram intake, and exhaust all the way to the headers. Not very sure on anything else


What i know the car needs -

Radiator support - When i bought the car it did not have a hood, i went and got a used carbon fiber hood, and nothing lines up. Turns out the kid i bought it from ran into a pole. The radiator support is all bent up, as well as the hood mounting brackets.

Hood brackets - See above

Drivers side door does not lock - should be easy fix

Missing fasteners on front panels and bumber - When he hit whatever he hit, he put new fenders and a new front bumper. Its currently held on with zip ties

Fix A/C - Ac is blowing, but its not cold. Have not looked much into this yet. Need to check and see if the compressor is engaging. I did poke a screwdriver into the low and high side ports to see if there was pressure. The low side spat out some greenish liquid. Not sure if that could be dye or refrigerant. The high side just let out air (i only quickly pressed them, and i had a rag wrapped around the screwdriver. I did not sit there and release refrigerant into the atmosphere)

Passenger window crank - Window is a pita to roll up and down, need to take the panel off and investigate

Passenger mirror - the reflective glass fell off on the way home after buying the car. The truck behind me then ran the glass piece over. RIP

Lower motor mount - When i was adjusting the tension on the AC belt, i noticed that the lower motor mount is busted. Needs to be replaced.

Clear coat hood - I picked up a carbon fiber hood off craigslist that has the clear coat peeling off. I am currently in the contract period of buying a house. When and if that goes through, i will have a garage in a couple weeks to sand down and re-apply clear coat.

Paint car - Both the front fenders are primer black, the rest of the car is red. Considering just painting the fenders, also considering repainting the whole car


Ill upload pics shortly



Im looking forward to this process. After fixing all these minor issues, I will decide where to go from there. A h22/f23 (dunno if that works) with a 5 speed swap might be fun. First off i want it to look decent though.


End product would look something like this (i just found this pic on a quick google search)




This process will be a bit of a long process. The house we are buying needs some remodel work. If there are any tips or pointers, im all ears. Civics are completely foreign languages to me. Also if you have any suggestions on things that are on my current to do list, let me know. Thanks!

 
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welcome!


Green in the AC is UV dye, you can get it in the dark with a blacklight and search for evidence of a leak

AC...does the condenser fan run when you try to kick the system on?


silicone spray lubricant in the glass run channel seals should make the window slide a bit easier

The flimsy motor mounts that bolt on the underside of the front frame are nothing, don't bother replacing. Their main purpose (so I have been told) is to help guide the drivetrain out and down so it goes under the passenger compartment in the event of a serious front end collision.

 
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Thanks for the pointers.

Ill check on the condenser fan and report back

Also found out today that i have a little oil leak somewhere. Going to take the motor out in a couple weeks and replace rear main, front main, and cam seals.

 
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Figure every last rubber seal and gasket because they harden up with time and miles...

...and if you're going to all the trouble to pull the engine out for that......may as well stuff a factory head gasket in before it lets go.

 
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Ok a little update ----


When the car gets warm, it idles very low. To the point where i feel like it was going to die.

I did some research on this, and decided to pull off the throttle body and clean the IACV. While i was there i found out the previous owner had one of those electric supercharger scams on the ram air intake. I took that off. After cleaning the IACV I put everything back together and started the car. It was idling high, and sparatic. So I pulled out the ECU fuse for about 45 mins, then put it back in and started the car. It seems like its running just as it was before i started, except now its backfiring after i give it throttle.

Any ideas?

 
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Also there is no check engine light. Should the CEL come on when i have the key in the ON position?

 
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Maybe a distributor issue??

 
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yes your CEL light should be on with your ignition in the on position. Plug an OBD II reader into it if you can.

 
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Okay a little update ----

I confirmed that the CEL is not working in this car. Previous owner probably unplugged it so that I didnt ask him why it was on.

I purchased a $30 WiFi code reader from amazon. Downloaded the app to run the software, and was able to read the codes in a few seconds. (the app also shows gas mileage, coolant temps, rpms, air/fuel, etc)

The code i got was P1129 - MAP too high. I pull the map sensor to try and clean it and i notice that the o-ring seal is not there. A quick run to the parts store and $1.40 later and the car is running amazing.

There is still a P0141 - O2 heat sensor circuit code on, but im not super worried about that.

Thanks for the tips and advice. Im sure i will be asking more questions soon.

 
Rep Power: 203

nice to hear you're getting stuff worked out.

 
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I intended to reply to this earlier, must have spaced it off.
Glad to see progress.

LOL at the intake tornado insert. I used to have a customer who bought every last "fuel saving" gizmo he saw on TV for his old Dakota, all I could do was shake my head and wish I had thought it up first.

P0141 rear O2 sensor heater circuit. Probably needs the sensor replaced. Ohm check could verify it.

 
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Got the new radiator support and one hood bracket in last night. (the other bracket wasn't in the box. The box had about 8 holes in it from shipping)

 
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update -----

New radiator support installed. Looks 10x better. Still not getting ideal alignment with the bumper, I have a feeling it might not be the right bumper for this car. The kid i bought this car from is a complete moron.

He cut the radiator support half, yanked it out, beat on it with a hammer, and welded it back in. The weld was so bad that i was able to hit it once with a claw hammer and it snapped.

There is still a small gap between the bumper and hood, ill upload pics tomorrow. Thinking the bumper is a different year model

 
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also is this forum actually this dead? is there a better forum for 6th gen civics?

 
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This isn't a chatroom LOL
Most people have real lives away from the internet.
Even I have a real job in the daytime.

This forum has kinda slowed in the last couple weeks or so. My job workload has slowed a bit at the same time too.
Maybe everyone is scared of the election or something.

 
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I dont recall asking if it was a chatroom....

I work a full time job and a part time job, thanks for the lecture on being an adult though

I was just simply stating that this forum is a bit slow considering the member count. An average of 1 new post a day in the 6th gen section. Im a member on many other forums that are much more active with a much smaller userbase. Thats why I asked if there was a better, or more active, 6th gen forum.

 
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Congrats on the car! Sounds like it coming along well! I have an EJ8 that I've owned since 2009 I think. I do mostly all the repair/maintenance on it so I'm willing to offer advice where I can.

 
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When you say ej8, i know that refers to the body code. Is there any difference in the motor from an ej8 and an ej6?

Also thanks!, im sure i will have some questions.

 
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I believe (and I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong) that EJ6 is the DX/LX with the D16y7 series motor (SOHC Non-vtec) and EJ8 is the EX model with the D16y8 (SOHC vtec). There should be an engine code stamped on the front of the engine left of the exhaust manifold and right below the head.

 
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My car is a DX model, however the motor has been changed and is a D16y8, not D16y7. At least that is what is stamped on the motor

How could i confirm that the car does have vtec?

 
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If its a y8 then it should have vtec. You could rev it up past 5,500 rpm. I think that's when vtec does its thing. Or there is a vtec solenoid at the top left of the valve cover. A little cylinder shaped thing.

 
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Would you like to give it cpr? It is real easy you just put your mouth on it and blow.

 
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turns out its a D16y8 block with a y7 head. No vtec

 
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yeah sure let me give that a try

 
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What the....

Well you could always source a y8 head.. The oil passages for the vtec should be in that block. (I think that's the difference) This is where I get fuzzy. Would you then have to switch to a different ecu?

 
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I think the harness is different, or something like that. Idk

 
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update ----

Got a call from the local pull-a-part letting me know they got a 99 civic in yesterday. Ran out on my lunch break to check it out. No front end damage, so i grabbed the bumper and grill. Now my front end lines up great. Too bad the car is now red, black, and green.

If i still have this car after trying to sell it in the spring around tax season, i am going to do a full professional paint job. However for the time being, i am considering just spray painting the fenders and bumpers to try and color match the rest of the car. Are there spray paints that color match honda color codes?

 
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I'm sure you can get this. But you might pay a lot. I found some that was "close enough" at a local auto parts store when I painted the side skirts.

 
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I've found that the duplicolor is close enough for government work.
There's a paint shop in my town that will fill spray cans for you based on the paint code/vin number. But they're 3 or 4 times the price of the duplicolor cans.

 
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ill have to check out the duplicolor selection at my local stores, thanks!