94civichatch

New to the site, new to civics. just got my first car and she happens to be a 94 civic hatchback. i am from canada(eh) and im growing a strong interest in these cars. first car i ever drove was a 2003SIR, from there i was hooked. heres some pics of how i bought her.

Nosepicker

Clean ride man!

Welcome!

hindude

Welcome to civic forums!

def looking clean from the outside. I'd clean that engine bay up a little and put a lip of something on the rear bumper so the bottom line of the civic matches up. you can see it in the 5th pic. are you planing on doing anything else to it?

94civichatch

thank you sir. any tips/pointers anyone has, feel free to give me your input cuz im not too sure what im doing. i know i want an si/sir gauge cluster for sure.(anyone whos got one for cheap, lemme know!)

94civichatch

would a rear lip interfere with my exhaust though?? and the interior is clean. ill put up some pics in a minute of the interior. no back seats. id also like to find some color for my vents/trims. any ideas on where i can find those for the interior?

02civicsi02

Welcome and its hard to find clean Eg/Eh's these days that have not been beat up and molested bad. And got hooked with a ep3 huh lol. I have a 2002 si which is the Canadian sir.

Kennykid2002

iTrader: (1)

Nice ride, nasty subs :P

94civichatch

what is ep3? lol sorry im new to all this, so i gotta take some time to get used to all the abr's. thanks, i had never heard of "THUMP" subs before, but ill tell you this much.. they ~ThUmP~

02civicsi02

The ep3 stands for the chassis code for the 02-05 civic si, civic sir and civic type r. The chassis code of a car is the 4th to 6th number on your vin number.

94civichatch

ahh i get it now. thanks alot see slowly but surely ill get the hang of this stuff. any pointers on what to do with my ride? keep in mind, budget is low right now :P

Prodresurgence

Looks like your head gasket is letting a little oil out...maybe its old residue.

02civicsi02

For real the ride looks good to me. Just need to get a real exhuast instead of that little fart can, and get that engine bay looking good. Wash her out and then paint some of it like valve cover and stuff.

94civichatch

if it does happen to be leaking any, which im not sure if it is or not.. how would i fix that? and what kind of problems may arise?

94civichatch

the exhaust actually sounds good lol. it goes straight to the manifold.. idk what kind it is but it doesnt sound like that loud annoying civic sound

Nosepicker

If budget is low, I'd invest it in maintenance then work your way to aftermarket parts.

What's the history behind the car?

94civichatch

by maintenance u mean? oil change, trans oil change, new battery.. what else am i missing? and the history behind the car.. well it was bought in 94 by an old lady, she had up until 7 years ago. a guy bought it off of her and basically babied it. he did all the mods (short shifter, cold air, rims, exhaust, suspension, sound system, etc). he didnt winter drive it, ever. kept it in a garage. im guessing the discoloration around the quarters are from when he got the car.. he probably bondoed it and then repainted the area. car has 185xxxkm on it at the moment.

Crusader69

looks great man!

you should get your headlights and taillights tinted a bit, i think that would make it look awesome!

94civichatch

yeah id like to do that. how would i tint them? you mean like just buy new headlights and taillights(smoked) or smoke them myself? i also just bought a pair of 10000k HID's

Crusader69

Well unless you know what you are doing with tinting then dont do it yourself. bring it to a shop to do it. and for the taillights/headlights they should be able to do it at the tint shop as well. just dont paint them, that is too much

94civichatch

yeah, sounds good. any idea on how much that might cost?

Crusader69

im not 100 percent sure, you would have to do a bit or research and see how much your local shops charges.

hindude

you should be able to find a lip that has a gap for the exhaust.

jmg

Lookin good!

VTEC-4.0

Looking good.Can't find a lot go EG's these days that aren't riced out.Your engine bay could use a clean though.Paint is pretty decent considering how old EG's are.

Black Magic

Hey! It's another Canadian who joined the same day as me

MelJ

Fo' sho. Looks like a gasket is leaking from that engine bay pic. Maybe it's just dirty? My girlfriend's Corolla was leaking oil because the valve cover gasket was old. If that's the case with yours, it's a pretty easy and cheap fix. Clean hatch btw

94civichatch

Thanks, if that is the case.. could you walk me through how to take the valve cover off lol and replace the gasket. cuz last night i was trying to take the valve cover off and i had everything unhooked except the distributer cap. but see i wasnt sure where i was supposed to take off the distributer or if i was even supposed to take it off! lol i know... im a noob. but im trying to learn all this because i really do enjoy working on cars.. just gotta learn some more haha. if you could just give me a quick breif walk through on how to take off the valve cover it would be greatly appreciated. THANKs!

MelJ

I'll try to explain it. I've never been really good with walkthroughs. Lol. Im basing this on what my friend and I did with the Corolla. It should be pretty much the same. Other folks, please feel free to correct me.
1. Disconnect the ground(negative) battery cable.
2. I'd suggest getting some degreaser and cleaning everything off the engine. You'll have to hose it down with a mist setting or something. Trust me, it'll make it easier. Just remove the spark plug wires and cover all your electrical stuff with plastic bags. ALSO. ALSO. Tape off the spark plug holes with some duct tape before proceeding. Don't want any water in there. Or you can just leave the plugs in and cover them with bags as well.
3. There should be 4 bolts on the valve cover. One on each corner. My car( 2000 Civic) has a bolt which is grounded as well on one corner. Don't know if it is the same for your car, but if it is, I'd disconnect that one first. Although I'm not sure if it makes a difference. There may also be old grommets underneath those bolts. Take those off as well.
4. Remove the spark plug wires. Now on the Corolla, we didn't need to touch the distributor cap. Looking at my Si, seems to be the same way. Just get the wires out of the way. Just make sure you mark them so you don't mess up putting them back in.
5. Remove the cover. You may need to use a hammer and a block of wood to knock the cover loose. Don't pry at it though.
6. Once it's off, you'll need to take the old gasket off. You may need a gasket scraper. I picked one up at Harbor Freight for like 3 dollars. You're also gonna need to clean off the head and the mating surface of the valve cover where you just took that gasket off. Get some acetone or lacquer thinner. Get a rag and put a little on there. Be as thorough as you can. Dirty surface is no bueno. Could cause leaks.
7. Get some RTV or Hondabond. I had the red RTV sealant. Some folks don't use it, but better safe than sorry. I don't know exactly where to place the sealant though, so hopefully someone else will chime in there.
8. The kit may have new spark plug tube seals too. I don't know how to remove them from the Civic though.
9. Put the valve cover back on. Some VCG kits come with new grommets as well. You should use the new ones, then put the bolts back on(don't overtighten them! They don't take much torque)
10. Install the wires again and don't forget to remove those bags!
11. Reconnect the battery.
Then start the car and check for any leaks.

If that was a little on the blah side, I apologize. I just wanted to share some info. If I'm off on anything, please correct me.
You can also visit AutoZone.com and make an account for your car. Go to parts and select valve cover gasket. It should list the steps in a bit more detail. Lol. I hope I helped. I probably could've just gave you the AutoZone info.

94civichatch

WOW . awesome man! i think that will help alot. thank you very much. but when i disconnect the wires to the distributer and the power cables, what do i do after? like do i just leave the distributer or do i need to unscrew anything on there? if anyone knows, please let me know! thanks guys

MelJ

Not really sure. Just pull the spark plug wires from the holes. You shouldn't need to touch the cap. The valve cover should be just held in by those 4 bolts. Im using my phone as of now, so I have limited web access. The cover should have 2 humps in it, one goes over the cap and the other is on the opposite side. So basically, the cover sits on top of the cap. It shouldn't actually be attached. But like I said, I'm not 100% sure. If you want, go out there and just take a little time under the hood and look at some stuff. I'm still pretty new to DIYs, but I find stuff is much easier once you see where stuff goes and is attached to.