5.0Thunder

Dynamic Compression

piano55man

Man, I feel honored to have so many references to my cheap azz!!!

Erf_Em2

Looking forward to going home this Friday evening and getting to work.


Goals:
-Valve cover installation with new bulkhead fittings. THANK YOU www.summitracing.com for the amazing ship time for cheap! They shipped it out same day I ordered which was yesterday at 12pm. It was shipped at 3pm. I got them today! So it means I can leave after work tomorrow and head to Nashville.

-See if I can use the y8 throttle body instead of the d17 throttle body since I have the y8 manifold installed
Does anyone know for sure if it is possible or not?

-Open gauge for oil temperature, get model number of LED board, figure out if it is common anode or common cathode, order me one off Mouser or Digikey

-Test fit my turbo manifold


Driver her for a while, save $$$$ before the install day and tune day.




Decision has been made: Drop the car off after tune for a week with my local exhaust fabricator, let him TIG up a nice 2.5 exhaust for me for $500. Saves me trouble and time and is worry free.

Erf_Em2

Alright boys quick update from this weekend
Got the car up and running, drove to the 865 no problem.



-Bulkhead fittings for valve cover were a success, except I had to use O rings to seal the inside instead of supplied washers due to my bore being a little bigger than the actual fitting. Nothing a good o ring and proper tighten cant seal

-Removed 75% of A/C system

-Re-mounted intercooler where the condenser was. She fits like OEM. The bumper fits perfect and no clearance issues with plenty room for IC pipes.

-Test fit the manifold and turbo ran into clearance issues/cut out middle radiator metal seperating left fan from right fan, no use so might as well



no leaks from VC either after 200+ miles.



-My cxracing downpipe wont clear front motor mount

-My turbo manifold fits, but my turbo hits the AC compressor, so had to re-think spacing

bye bye A/C

To all turbo junkies: SPA turbo manifold is NOT AC compatible. At least the version I got. they make a smaller one for T25 setups or you can go with Rev9power manifold

To do


-remove A/C comp/comp mount/ac belt
-Alternator only belt to be installed
-come up with downpipe solution




Let exhaust man fab the rest



Downpipe ideas:

discharge--->adapter to vband---> vband 14in straightpipe---->vband to four bolt flange adapter---->downpipe I currently have

re-clock turbo to where downpipe goes downwards from driver side not passenger side, convert discharge to vband, get a 90 vband and go down, another 90 to go under the car vband as well

5.0Thunder

Glad you made some progress and glad the AN bulkhead fittings did the job. I realized after having some fittings welded on before that there is usually a "bolt-on" solution out there.

As far as the turbocharger position, I know Rev9 has theirs clocked with the turbine on the driver's side and compressor on passenger's side. doing that, they're able to snake the downpipe down along the back side of the AC compressor, from what I can tell. You mention their manifold is different than yours though so I'm not sure if that position works well for you.

Erf_Em2

-Ordered downpipe re-routing pipes and clamps
-Ordered new aluminum oil pan
-Ordered more bulkhead fittings to put on the oil pan
-Ordered Alternator belt (no AC)

My oil pan seems to be warped and I have a oil leak at the moment.

To-Do
Oil pan swap
remove A/C comp
Test fit manifold again
Test fit downpipe
Test fit intercooler pipes

Digikey and Mouser electronics dont carry the LED display for my gauges in stock even though I can order it, but there is like 9-13 weeks lead time, and I have to buy minimum batches, so I cant just buy one package. Ive contacted Digikey for a quote on just one package and pleaded for them to help me out in dire times. If they dont, my guage for oil temp, water temp will be working you just cant see the full last digit. Oh well.

Erf_Em2

Alright boys quick update


-Changed oil pan to OEM aluminum
-Removed A/C compressor
-Still had fitment issues
-Fixed turbo manifold fitment issue by clocking turbo to where downpipe goes down the driver side (traditional EM2 setup)
- Turbo manifold and turbo clears perfectly with room for a 3in downpipe
-My CX racing downpipe is 3in not 2.5. I just barely have enough clearance for the OD to clear the turbo and the A/C compressor bracket, so I should be goood.
-bulkhead fittings on the new oil pan


Plans:

Cut my downpipe shorter to make it a bend and a straight section

Here is the one I bought over a year ago (designed for passenger)

https://www.cxracing.com/downpipe-tu.../DP-CIVIC-D-4B



I also decided to let the gauges display partial digits. No supplier had the boards. So I just left it.



What I learned this weekend:

if you plan on removing A/C compressor, just remove the compressor . IF you remove the mount for it as well, you will have no place to mount the alternator as the mounting bracket of the alternator has a locking bolt that attaches to the right side of the A/C compressor mount. Unless you like extra work and want to relocate your alternator as well. Ive only seen one person do this and he is luistech100 on YouTube. Me not having time or skill to do that, I decided not to go that route. Left the mount attached to the engine so I could still use my stock alternator mounting method.
I learned this after removing all four stupid bolts of the mount, then when it came to mount the alternator realized I had to put it back on.


EM2s best case is to route the downpipe from driver side. And that is all turbo EM2 owners go driver side downpipe. *lesson learned* Well.. Things are looking brighter by the day.

5.0Thunder

Cool, looks like it's getting pretty close!

Erf_Em2

From last weekend
First thing driving to Nashville I made it home and guess what? Antifreeze leak. Oh oh. Next morning guesss what? My very expensive $230 Koyo Racing Rad had holes in it. Why you ask? My A/C fan blades had come off the fan motor and cut the radiator fins up and left about 10-12 small holes. With me needing to fix the car ASAP, I drove to AutoZone, paid 80 bucks for a 1998 Civic Radiator. It is half-sized. I mounted it up, had to modify my bumper grille, the metal support, and filled her up. She stays a bit cooler now. If anyone wants to buy the one I got it is a Spectra Perfomance OEM radiator for the 1998 Civic. It works well. I should have just went with an eBay radiator from the get-go and save money. They are just re-branded anyways.



Test fit the manifold and turbo on the engine. Clears, just needs some clocking.

After trying to mount the downpipe, I noticed the flange of the four bolt downpipe needs to be rotated, and the section that comes straight down needs 3-5" extra to clear the oil pan. Once I can get the downpipe issue fixed, she is pretty much ready for install and tune.

-Purchased 1 step colder plugs NGK

-Purchased my very own AC/DC Lincoln Electric SquareWave 200 TIG Welder



Im going to delay this project until the summer. For now, I am really focused on school starting back up and what not.

piano55man

trust me, this is way more educational...and fun...than schooling.

5.0Thunder

Yeah, racecarz r moar importanter den skool n-e-wayz

:P

piano55man

lol...and we still knew what you typed.

Erf_Em2

Exactly, try telling that to them higher education perps!

Indeed.


Well fellas, in the meantime, I will be upgrading the garage with a homemade welding cart/workbench and also make a homemade steel shelf unit so I can organize nuts and bolts. So my hobbyist capabilities in my own garage will increase! Stay tuned, will post some stuff I add on

piano55man

Having a higher education is a scam pushed heavily by the banks.
Not too many people can actually afford to go to school so they take out loans...

I've been out of school for 16 years and still paying on them loans...

5.0Thunder

It's also heavily pushed by the schools themselves, where you pay 4 years for a degree that would really require 2. I don't need to know history, literature, political science, and art appreciation in order to be a good mechanical engineer.

but anyways, glad you're expanding your tool arsenal. Get a lift in that garage and you'll be lovin life!

Erf_Em2

It is what it is mane.


Thank you my brudda.



Just put on my Yokohama 205/60/15 snow tires. A bit more cushion for these Knoxville roads and safe to drive in cold temps.


I think all thats left is install, tune, and fab my exhaust up!

piano55man

any progress? it is closer to summer...

Erf_Em2

No progress yet. But it will be completed this summer.

Plans:


Build my welding table (made a friend at the machine shop who is wiling to let me come in and build it)

Minor work:
Put on summer tires
Change my lower ball joints
Got a valve cover from junkyard, gonna weld my catch can bungs on there and paint her gold


Major work:
Rear main seal leaks, replace that before tune as my vehicle can have no leaks entering the dyno



From there its all a matter of scheduling the tune date, etc.

Erf_Em2

Back to work

-summer tires on
-dropped a new VC from junkyard off at machine shop with new alum bungs for catch
Last time I asked the welder to weld from inside, seepage leak occured where hoses attach to VC for catch can
-This time asked to weld from outside, but before so go ahead sandblast before welding

-Rear main seal and lower ball joints need to be replaced

I want to goto the Honda dealer soon get my kPro immobilizer key flashed so the damn green key light will turn off

piano55man

Little food for thought...If your replacing the rear main seal, i would pull the engine and re-gasket the whole thing...
It's easier this way...

Erf_Em2

I'm back.




-Fab me a recirculating dumptube
-Fab me a turboback straight pipe
-Put in the rear disc brakes (just copped those)

-Set tune date


Anyone know general rules for recirculating dumptubes when connecting to the downpipe?

5.0Thunder

not really, aside from being beneficial to add a flex joint in the dump tube for easy alignment.

Erf_Em2

Gotcha.



in the process of swapping the brake discs, stuck on the toe adjustment bolt holding the knuckle to the trailing arm.


There is a nut I removed off the toe bolt. Well theres two nuts. One is easy to remove which is 17mm, and a larger one that is used to adjust toe.

Should I loosen the bolt head or the large adjustment nut? Or just bang it out with a hammer?

piano55man

post up a pic.

Erf_Em2

Nevermind!
I was right.
​​​​​

I got the bolt out using a hammer to pop the toe cam bolt off the alignment nut.

Finished the rear brake disc swap this weekend with stainless lines all around.

Erf_Em2

Whats up folks

Just an update: Cars runs smooth.
Sailing the clear waters

the rear brake swap, coupled with DOT 4 performance brake fluid, new ebc greentuff pads on all 4 corners, and goodridge stainless brake lines really does make a noticeable difference! I cant tell you how easy and straightforward the rear brake disc swap was for anyone who thinks about doing it.


I love braking now! HA

Talked with my tuner, just need to find a few days off work to get the exhaust and dumptube fabbed in my garage

From there its intercooler piping, then install, tune, and cross my fingers for a reliable daily.


Like that will be all cut and dry. We will see! I look forward to uploading some photos soon of small stuff Ive done to it.

mac25

Nice! Good luck =D

piano55man

sweet!!!

Erf_Em2

Hey fellas,

Been busy with school and internship.

Bought this BMW for 800 bucks off cglist to fix up and make my daily....well....that didnt work out. Things blowing white smoke and is stuck in limp mode. Got too much to fix too much hassle. Fixed up a couple things on it like plugs, ig. coils, sensors. Turns out the dang HG is shot and I dont have a garage or the time to fix this one up just too much work for what I want.
Project EM2 still going strong.

-Main concern is getting a daily and dropping the EM2 off back in Nashville.
I want a reliable daily to help make my final year of college easier.
Then I can make time on one of these breaks or long weekends to fab the turboback when I visit Nashville.

Wish me luck!

5.0Thunder

you could always buy another civic. lol