Rt4wd from Australia

Sup Civic Wagon!

Name's Jacob, I'm 26 and I'm a HD diesel mechanic.


Mmmmmmk, so, I purchased this humble little car out the back Perth Australia roughly 12 weeks ago now. It's a Australian delivered ee3 rt4wd wagon, only 100 were ever imported between 88-89, something like 20 are accountable for now and the twin carb was the only engine option here in Aus. Sat in a driveway for 4 years being raped by the elements, went and had a look at it, nil start, offered them $350, they said they'd call back. Didn't hear anything for like a week, started kicking myself I didn't offer more, then they called out of the blue and said I could take it. YUUSSSSSS!




Anywho picked it up, trailered it back to mine, bypassed the immobiliser, threw a battery at it, bit of brake cleaner in the intake, BOOM it started. One of the floats was sticking, dribbling fuel everywhere, couple of knocks with the hammered and it went away. Everything worked! Lights, wipers, washer jets, brakes, even the electric sunroof 8-)




Unfortunately there was an issue with the motor (probably why it was parked up originally) and plus I don't do carby motors, too young missed the boat, whatever.


128.jpg


129.jpg


130.jpg


131.jpg


132.jpg


Read a bunch of stuff on the internet that the d16a8 / zc swaps straight in, no mods, same mounts and the 4wd bell housing hangs off the motor no dramas. So that's all the info I needed, straight back on gummie to look for a broken down CRX, and sure enough a wretched one was on there, local for $1000.


Rung the guy (kid) said he crashed it, threw a kit on it, didn't care about any of that my only concern was the running gear and he assured me it was sound. Went and had a look and this thing was terrible, I felt so sorry for it. Engine was cranking not starting, harness had been tampered with and he wouldn't budge on the price. Said "**** it" and bought in anyway, trailered it back and got to work trying to diagnose it.


133.jpg


Spent FOOOORRREVVVAA trying to sus this car out, no spark no fuel, solid CEL.... checked everything! Checked fuses, every earth, relays, stuck a multimeter on just about everything and then finally discovered that ecu had no power  :| , back probed until I found the break, repaired it. So now I had spark, just no fuel.


Pump wasn't priming so just hardwired it to the battery, nothing dropped the tank to find this...


134.jpg


Looks, like it's been at the bottom of a cannel it's whole life, uuughhhh! Found a pump out of a DA teg, smashed that in and it finally fired! Super stoked so I now know the crx is fully functional, time to get balls deep in the swap!


So now the cool shit began....


Had a whole heap of hardrace stuff I ordered for an eg I was gonna build, and because Hondas are like lego all that saucy eg suspension swapped into the wagon, which is super handy because all the bushes were rooted.
[/SIZE]


135.jpg




136.jpg







137.jpg


138.jpg

So, now the wagon has all this adjustable and stiff hardrace bush goodness underneath it, which include. Toe arms, camber arms, lower control arms, rear trailing arm bushes and eg coilovers which dropped straight in with the eg civic front forks. Spun the coilovers right down to full swag loweredness (way too low will have it at a functional height when it's finished) and threw the 15x7s from the rex onto her. Results!


139.jpg


140.jpg


141.jpg


142.jpg


143.jpg


144.jpg
«13

Comments

  • JundaCoroJundaCoro New Wagonist
    Righto, that week shit got real, motor and box out of the wagon in a couple of afternoons after work, came out pretty easy as most Honda stuff does. :encouragement:


    145.jpg




    146.jpg




    147.jpg


    148.jpg




    Made it easier with a few beers, haha.


    And then the dash, harness and all the other interior related firewall shit on the Friday night to gear up for the Saturday.


    149.jpg

    Saturday was a biggen, Crx running gear out, box off, 4wd box onto the d16a8 and test fitted the whole shabang, win.




    150.jpg


    151.jpg


    152.jpg


    153.jpg


    154.jpg


    155.jpg


    And that's pretty much where I'm at for now, just slowly doing small jobs here and there.


    Bought some wheels for her, refurbishing them, a turbo mani if I later on boost it and some other bits and bobs. Thanks






    The wheels I'm refurbishing atm.


    ROH 3 piece 16x8 +32 ish....




    156.jpg


    157.jpg


    158.jpg


    159.jpg


    160.jpg


    I'll more than likely do another solid update on Sunday night. :thumbsup:

    :cool:

    Just a test fit. I purchased another d16a8 for a carton of becks, low compression so I'm probably just going to run the wagon n/a and rebuild that blown motor in the meantime.


    161.jpg
    Sorted the front subframe out today.


    Refurbished everything, rack and pinon got an overhaul aswell, front knuckles have new balljoints now too and it all got a lick of paint.


    The whole car now sports hardrace suspension from front to back minus the coilovers, tie rods and diff bushes which I've still gotta do, it will see some track days, can't spend all this money on sweet suspension and just be a hard parking fgt :thumbsup:
    162.jpg

    163.jpg




    Named the surge tank this morning...



    Another soild outing on the wagon, crx fuel lines come close so that's handy. The surge tank fits snug in the little compartment so that's also a win.
    Gonna run the lines hard against the sill the whole way so the surge, 044 can all run series nice and neatly straight into the hard line...


    The crx lift pump will be installed into the tank too, so it'll supply to the surge e.c.t, overkill but it'll never starve,If all of that makes sense




    I penned in where the lines are gonna go in one of the pics provided
    164.jpg




    165.jpg


    166.jpg


    167.jpg

    Donk and box received a wash on the weekend too






    168.jpg
    169.jpg

    Picked up some adjustable cam gears as well, they were discontined 10 years ago, these are still brand new never used. I dunno what they'll offer in terms of performance but whatever thought they were cool.
    170.jpg

    Front adjustable arms and my headers arrived today.
    Also grabbed an edm rocker cover which I'm super happy with and I think looks rad as.

    171.jpg
    172.jpg






    Got stuck into the wheels today and 2 of them are 100% finished, the other 2 aren't too far away




    173.jpg




    174.jpg




    175.jpg


    And my engine mounts arrived today as well, super stoked, big weekend ahead!




    176.jpg




    177.jpg






    Huge Storms rolled through on Saturday so it was a complete write off, didn't get a single thing done. Today was successful though, dropped the motor and box in with the new mounts, feels so solid, which is a good thing.

    My neighbour saw me working on the car and came over with a bottle of wine and proceeded to give me a hand, super cool guy.


    All the neighbours are hell into the build, it's nice, they never complain or anything ,but I fix their cars and offer them advice and shit when they run into trouble, so I guess they're happy to turn a blind eye if I pull the occasional late one.




    178.jpg


    My og clutch alignment tool.
    179.jpg




    180.jpg

    Semi sorta big update I guess, work was pretty busy this week but I managed to sneak in a few jobs, anyway.


    Threw a b18b tb on, the intake I bought with the car isn't the original one that came with the crx, I'm guessing it's off an eg d168 because the crx Ds have a different tb bolt pattern, no tps and some weird diaphragm thing. Regardless I went from 52mm to 60mm which is kinda cool I guess.






    2.jpeg


    3.jpeg






    Ordered all new diff bushes too, lucky Honda is the ducks nuts because the wagons diff bushes and mounts share the same part no. as the gen1 crvs so that's suuuuuuper handy. Also dropped the diff and the Japanese were even kind enough to inform me what diff oil to use :thumbsup:


    4.jpeg


    5.jpeg


    6.jpeg


    Sorted more of the fuel out. The fuel rail is aftermark as well, so another win I suppose. It had a damaged blank and thread on the end so I just drilled it out and tapped it. The walbro arrived and also picked up an fpr. Lines are being quoted as we speak and should have them done nek week sometime.


    7.jpeg


    181.jpg


    8.jpeg


    Yesterday I holesawed the wagon carby tank, drilled the holding pump bracket out the crx and tacked it on, so now the wagon is legit efi and made it as factory looking as possible. I do apologise about the spud pics, I was at work and had to sneak this job in.


    9.jpeg


    10.jpeg


    11.jpeg


    Finally started mucking around with front fitment.


    12.jpeg


    And that's it. Probably going to take this weekend off, need to do a bunch of stuff around the house. Enjoy




    Righto, pretty productive week.


    Jammed the whole front back together, all the other engine bay related accessories i.e wiring harness, fuel rail, speedo cables, cvs, modified an ek4 brake booster and master cylinder to fit. e.c.t.


    182.jpg


    Starting installing all my fuel lines, also got the 044 mounted and a sneaky install on the surge tank


    183.jpg


    184.jpg


    185.jpg


    186.jpg


    187.jpg


    Couple of action shots getting shit done


    13.jpeg


    14.jpeg








  • JundaCoroJundaCoro New Wagonist
    So I've done a few little shakedown runs during the week only a few little issues like horn not working and no cluster lights that I have to sort out, no biggie.


    Drives really well, it's obviously not fast but hooks ups well and handles amazing. Crabs like a muthafuka but that's alignment. Took it to the car wash too, first tub in 4 years!


    188.jpg


    189.jpg


    190.jpg


    191.jpg


    192.jpg


    113.jpg


    193.jpg


    194.jpg






    195.jpg


    Wasn't happy with the colour choice of the wheels either, I like the colour just not with this car. Anyways, OG brown / bronze is the new choice


    196.jpg
    197.jpg





    Pretty slow week.


    My amber/ park corners arrived from the uk


    Fit my wink mirror, made some brackets so I could keep my window visors.


    And I used my mates wheels for a test fit so I could order mine. 15x8 +25s


    198.jpg


    199.jpg


    15.jpeg


    16.jpeg


    200.jpg




    201.jpg
    Another slow af week, probably not even worth posting but I wanna keep this thread ticking over.


    Mucked around with all my heights and cambers today and made the basket rack a permanent fixture.


    Apart from that turned the fpr down a liland pretty much just sussing out a game plan to offload this crx shell so I can start pulling the wagon down again. Went for a good 40 minute drive late this afternoon, didn't overheat or do anything weird which I'm satisfied with.


    202.jpg
    203.jpg


    204.jpg


    205.jpg
  • JundaCoroJundaCoro New Wagonist

    So a quick run down of what I've done thus far.

    Crx d16a8 with the d15b 4wd wagon sump
    D16a8 flywheel with the d15b clutch kit to match the splines of the 4wd gearbox
    Eg D16a8 intake manifold with b18b throttle body
    Innovative engine mounts
    Ek4 brake booster and master cylinder
    Extractors
    Bee R rev limiter
    Complete crx wiring loom, re pinned the wagon plug onto the crx harness to fit the drivers side kick panel plug for the stop/taillights e.c.t.
    Crx fuel lines modified to fit the wagon
    Aftermarket fuel rail
    Turbosmart 800 series fpr
    Modified the carby tank to fit efi pump
    Walbro 255 lift pump
    Raceworks 1.5ltr surge tank
    Bosch 044 fuel pump
    Custom made speedflow lines for all of the above
    Hardrace adjustable rear toe arms
    Hardrace adjustable rear camber arms
    Hardrace rear trailing arms
    Oem spec rear diff bushes and mounts
    Hardrace adjustable front camber arms
    Rebushed the front cradle with Hardrace bushes
    New inner and outter tie rods
    New front knuckle balljoints
    Adjustable coilovers


    Bit of reading material for everyone. I understand the text might be a little disjointed in terms of dates because I just copied and pasted from my Ozhonda thread.


    Still heaps to do and I'll keep everything up to date from now on.
  • BillBoardBillBoard council member
    soooo about those headlight covers????!!! I can buy them from you.?

    Also I love the old blue and grey graphics on the side of this wagon!

    And finally great wheel color and choice (the gold ones). Wagon is looking good!
  • JundaCoroJundaCoro New Wagonist
    BillBoard wrote: »
    soooo about those headlight covers????!!! I can buy them from you.?

    Also I love the old blue and grey graphics on the side of this wagon!

    And finally great wheel color and choice (the gold ones). Wagon is looking good!

    Hey dude, the headlight covers were all cracked and basically turned to dust went I tocuhed them, the 40c summers will do that I suppose.

    I'm digging the graphics too, they've grown on me.

    Funny you say that I bought a brand new set of wheels today haha
  • JundaCoroJundaCoro New Wagonist
    Bought some new shoes, 15x8 +25.


    206.jpg


    Also took the wagon to its first meet on the weekend, 80km round trip, got some pics just waiting for the uploads to come through, but here's a teaser
    207.jpg
  • El LeonEl Leon Band Wagon
    Lots of hard work in her. Absolutely fantastic job and looks great!

    I had seriously considered relocating from the States to Perth. But the re-accreditation process would have been too time intensive as I work with US government regulatory agencies.

    Well, if I ever travel over there for vacation, i'll hit you up and buy you a beer. Well done on that car!!
  • BillBoardBillBoard council member
    NICE! more pix of those new shoes please.
  • JundaCoroJundaCoro New Wagonist
    El Leon wrote: »
    Lots of hard work in her. Absolutely fantastic job and looks great!

    I had seriously considered relocating from the States to Perth. But the re-accreditation process would have been too time intensive as I work with US government regulatory agencies.

    Well, if I ever travel over there for vacation, i'll hit you up and buy you a beer. Well done on that car!!

    Perth is okay, I moved here 4 years ago from Queensland, the othere side of Australia, drove across in my bunny ek1, like a 5000km trip or something it was.

    Man, I've sunk so many man hours into it already, still heaps to do aswell but it keeps me busy.

    Yeah for sure, lemme know and you can come check it out and we'll grab a bevvie
  • JundaCoroJundaCoro New Wagonist
    BillBoard wrote: »
    NICE! more pix of those new shoes please.


    Will do, got them on late last night, it was too dark to take any decent pics
  • jb2wheelsjb2wheels Wagonist
    Nicely done.
  • JundaCoroJundaCoro New Wagonist
    :encouragement::encouragement:
    jb2wheels wrote: »
    Nicely done.

    Thanks mate :encouragement:
  • JundaCoroJundaCoro New Wagonist
    Pics from the meet are up, I arrived a little late because I had to rob some shit off the 7ek1 like the intake and battery tie down because it's really not finished. Anyway 80km round trip and it ran like clockwork.

    208.jpg

    209.jpg

    210.jpg

    211.jpg



    212.jpg


    Also wheels are on, need to limp to the shop for an alignment because dailing in all that camber has exaggerated the fact I haven't had an alignment since building it. So I'll get that done and post up some nicer pics.
    17.jpeg

    18.jpeg

    19.jpeg

    20.jpeg
    21.jpeg
  • 503Wagon503Wagon moderator
    very nice man. keep up the good work.
  • JundaCoroJundaCoro New Wagonist
    503Wagon wrote: »
    very nice man. keep up the good work.


    Thanks for the love mate
  • JundaCoroJundaCoro New Wagonist
    Dropped the car for an alignment pick it up Monday and then off to the exhaust shop.

    1.jpeg

    2.jpeg

    And finally departing with the crx this week so I can start stripping the wagon down again and get stuck into this rust

    1.jpg
  • JundaCoroJundaCoro New Wagonist
    Got the car back today....

    -5 degrees camber up front and -3 degrees in the rear. Probably gonna get the guard roller out so I can dial that back a bit.
    2.jpg

    3.jpg

    4.jpg

    5.jpg

    6.jpg
    7.jpg
  • Love this build keep up the good work
  • FakeJDMEF8FakeJDMEF8 Senior Wagonist
    how you enjoying the Hardrace bushings? I'm considering these over Energy but the price is almost double. Is it worth the extra investment?!

    Keep up the good work!
  • JundaCoroJundaCoro New Wagonist
    Love this build keep up the good work


    Shit's about to get real very soon, full tear down again and tackle all this rust.
  • JundaCoroJundaCoro New Wagonist
    FakeJDMEF8 wrote: »
    how you enjoying the Hardrace bushings? I'm considering these over Energy but the price is almost double. Is it worth the extra investment?!

    Keep up the good work!


    Never used energy tbh, but this hardrace stuff is on point. Great product thus far, the car is a rocket through corners, even without a rear sway bar and bulk camber it's so flat through the bends. It's pretty much point and shoot.

    Hold off for a bit and hopefully I'll have a track video soonish, because that's the first place it's heading after the rust is repaired
  • JundaCoroJundaCoro New Wagonist
    Exhaust was done today super happy with it.

    Modified the down pipe off the headers.
    2 1/4 cat back
    Lil hot dog
    Rear muffler
    And the tip

    Sounds really nice, super quiet at idle and good clean note when you give it some hurtz, goes harder too.

    I'll post up a video soon.

    22.jpg
    23.jpg

    24.jpg
  • JundaCoroJundaCoro New Wagonist
    Bitta bee R

    25.jpg
  • JundaCoroJundaCoro New Wagonist
    week, need to track down a wideband 02 sensor

    26.jpg

    Car smells like fuel, probably didn't seal the tank / pump well enough so I found a key spot for the air freshener

    27.jpg

    Annnd I cased the front lip trying to get up the driveway at work, the fuker is proper steep, decent repair tho.



    28.jpg

    29.jpg

    Bloody hailed here too.

    30.jpg

    31.jpg
  • JundaCoroJundaCoro New Wagonist
    Going for a run up into the hills this weekend so I've started installing buckets. It's 8pm and I cbf taking decent pics, will get some better ones when the passenger side is in too.

    62.jpg

    63.jpg
  • JundaCoroJundaCoro New Wagonist
    Thursday and Friday nights were spent pulling the dash out, getting all the heater core and blower unit in for a run up into the hills today with a few of the other Local Honda peeps. Bucket seats are in and I threw a different wheel on too. Interior looks pretty good and I'm happy with the look. More pics today

    3.jpeg
  • JundaCoroJundaCoro New Wagonist
    67.jpg

    Weather was average today but some of the locals still came out.

    Blew the motor mid run too, cylinder 1 let go, and now the block has 2 holes in it.
    68.jpg
  • AbideAbide Council Member
    Geeze dude, this is some serious work going on here! Keep it up! I cant wait to see where it goes from here. sucks on the new block windows though.
  • JundaCoroJundaCoro New Wagonist
    So the motor let go at like 1pm Saturday afternoon way up in the hills, it let go arcoss the road from a property, went down the there spoke to a proper aussie bloke named Rick, borrowed some chains and a couple of D shackles, ripped the front bar off and hitched it onto the crx. Got about 500m down the road and it dawned on me that it was way too dangerous and really not worth it.

    Canned that idea, rang a tow truck and dropped the chains off to old mate Rick.

    Towy came, car was dropped off at mine round half 5. Grabbed a feed and some beers with my mate, and ripped in at around 7. By 930 it was out and stripped, good carnage.

    Looks like the cap nut on the big end came loose on cly 1 because it was completely seperated. For the record I just dropped this motor in, always had a gut feeling it was gonna be a lemon but whatever, it's all about the smiles not the miles.

    Plan now it to swap the other D I've got sitting there, give this one a good once over, put the wagon back together and start collecting turbo parts.

    Already sourced another D for 70 bucks, got a few chashies lined up and we'll be good to go.

    69.jpg

    70.jpg

    71.jpg

    72.jpg

    73.jpg

    74.jpg

    4.jpeg


    75.jpg

    76.jpg

    77.jpg

    78.jpg

    79.jpg


    Bit of abstract art on a Sunday morning

    80.jpg

    Couple of positive notes though, the wagon handles so damn good, it was reeling in worked dc2s in the bends and stuff so that was a good feeling. Runs out legs really quick and lacks the torque to drag it out of the bends so another reason why I'm keen to boost
  • JundaCoroJundaCoro New Wagonist
    While it's apart for the week, I've assembled a poor mans brake upgrade for the front.

    DA knuckles
    V6 Accord calipers
    Teg type R pads
    And some 07 mini cooper rotors.

    Cost me about 300 bucks, and they just clear my 15s so happy days.

    83.jpg

    84.jpg
Sign In or Register to comment.