Thanks , the wheel definitely looks better painted .And it is the same paint i used on the car so it will be a perfect match .It is still too cold to do the ones on the car .I love working on cars .If I wasn't working on this one , I would have done some more mods to the fiero .And soon it will be our 2003 Element getting a spruce up . It will not take very long though , I do not expect to do any welding , just sanding and painting and I am pretty sure it needs new sway bars and bushings .
Some pictures from today, home from school for a week until my last exam, and then for only 2 weeks until I head to Scandinavia. Hopefully will get some more wagon time in before I leave.
We have been driving the wagon and it works really well .When I tensioned the cam belt I had the valve cover off and I cleaned the old gasket and mating surfaces and then bolted it back on and it looks like the oil leak has disappeared .We have some electrical gremlins to sort out , the fan stops when you turn the radio on , or the radio stops when you turn the fan on it is strange .If you turn the car on with the radio off and the fan in 1-2-3 or 4 and then turn the radio on everything seems to work .It is an aftermarket Sony radio so I am hoping it is just a bad ground .We fixed the broken glove box hinge , it was just missing a pin on the left side .Vandal got to be the contortionist on this fix , the hinge bolts were a pain to get back in .Really nice that it fits and works perfectly now instead of flopping around whenever you hit a bump .
We have run in to some of the typical old car problems , the muffler fell off while Vandal was fully loaded helping a friend move , a wheel bearing needed replacing so we have been busy fixing these things .We also found a used D16Z6 at a wreckers in London Ont .My laptop is acting up again so i am going to add pics of the engine and new exhaust after this post .I got a small SS magnaflow muffler and used some leftover SS elbows to make a mostly hidden exhaust.
I really want to hide my muffler as well, great job on yours. How does it sound?? I love that rack and basket too, looks awesome.
Thanks , the rack and basket cost more than the car .The exhaust is louder than stock , but not raspy .Might add a resonator sometime , there is lots of room in the tunnel .We have your steering wheel on , looks nice thanks a lot for it .
Why are the rear wheels so far back towards the bumper, not central in the wheel arch?
That is because of the sedan wheel arches I welded in to fix the rust .Wagon arches are not available new.So there is 1/2" more space in front of the tire than there is stock .The mudflaps fill a lot of the space behind the wheels and that exaggerates it a bit , but overall it is not that noticeable in person .Much better than rust and holes .
Nice, I am glad it got there. Post a pic of it! And that is funny the rack and basket cost more than the actual wagon. Yakima is way overpriced. I've heard resonators work really well.
That is because of the sedan wheel arches I welded in to fix the rust .Wagon arches are not available new.So there is 1/2" more space in front of the tire than there is stock .The mudflaps fill a lot of the space behind the wheels and that exaggerates it a bit , but overall it is not that noticeable in person .Much better than rust and holes .
Ahhh fair enough, I did read back but must have missed that bit. You're right, much better than rust
I forgot to mention that I fixed the radio/fan problems .Pulled the radio out and the harness was a rats nest of twisted wires and tape and bare ends .Shorts everywhere .Soldered and shrink wrapped everything and grounded the head unit directly to the chassis (instead of to the harness ground wire ) and the problems went away .Now I am playing around with the motor we picked up the other day .I noticed in one thread that a D16Z6 like ours was swapped in to an RT by just putting the wagon manifolds and dizzy on to the D16Z6 and dropping it in .Sounds like it worked fine .So I have been thinking about doing the same with our motor .I know it wont make the full 125 HP but this will be the cheapest way to get the new engine in and running .I am leary of buying the harness adapter and ECM etc without knowing how good this motor is .Tonight i checked and the intake from the 1.5 L motor will bolt right on the new motor .The gaskets are almost identical . So I may start the swap tomorrow .
While I checked out the new motor i discovered it had a bent valve .The wreckers said it ran fine , I really doubt that .But this motor is pretty hard to find here and they usually go for close to a thousand if they are low milers so I am going to rebuild it .Other than the bent valve it looks pretty good .There is some feint vertical lines in the cylinder walls , probably broken rings .Going to do a hone and just re ring it and put new bearings in it .And some new valves , should be good .
Got the new motor all pulled apart , no other surprizes but I could not get the valves , rings and bearings locally so i am stuck waiting for parts .Table full of D16Z6 :
While I am waiting for the engine parts to show up I thought I would try to get the wheels ready to paint white .Two of them had really crusty brake dust and grime on them but they are starting to look pretty good:
I have been busy with the engine rebuild .I ordered a new oil pump a week ago still not in .Did some research on the net and found that the pumps on these motors are mostly indestructible , so i took the old pump apart and it measures out like new so I put it back on .A new pump is cheap insurance , but who knows when it might come in . One problem I ran in to is a brake drum went out of round and was dragging , we did not know it but it was like driving around with the parking brake on . Twice I ordered in new drums and both times they sent 180 ID but wagons use 200 ID drums .So i had to get the old one turned (that cost more than a new one) and what a difference .Actually goes up a hill with only one downshift instead of two . Still would like to get 2 new drums , mechanic that turned this one said it cant be done again .If anyone is rebuilding a D16Z6 , do a google on "california dad D16Z6 rebuild " .Amazing writeup and pics that saved me a lot of time .It is a thread on hondatech.com I think .
The distributor from the D16Z6 does not share the same mounting pattern as the 1.5L motor .Did some searching and came up with the idea of putting the guts from the 1.5 dizzy in to the 1.6 dizzy .One thread i saw showed that inside the housing they were the same .Except our two distributors are not remotely the same , do not know why .Since the plan is to run the Z motor with the cars existing controls , I did some mods to the D15 dizzy I got from the wreckers so we could still drive the wagon .First opened up the top hole and filed some notches :
Then I made some standoffs so the dizzy could be bolted on , still be adjustable and stay in alighnment
So now it bolts up in the correct place and has a range of adjustment that should be good to set the timing .We are hoping to start the swap on monday .
Old engine coming out
Everything else from the old engine seems to fit well .Using the old intake and thermostat housing will make it simple to plumb and wire up:
Simple home made tool to hold crank while unbolting everything:
The new engine runs fine but we have run in to some other unrelated prblems .The fuel pump is on its last legs and occasionally the car gets starved of gas and will barely run .I thought it might be a bad main relay but that looked fairly new and it tested perfect per the shop manual procedure .I cut the cat out and put a straight pipe in to check if it is clogged but it did not make any difference and the cat looks pretty good so i am going to weld it back in .Changed the fuel filter , seemed to fix the problem but 20 miles later it did it again .So we have a new fuel pump on its way as well as a new O2 sensor .Too bad we have to drop the tank to get at the pump , turns a 10 minute job in to a 4 hour one .
A pic of it installed and all hooked up:
Draining the gas by running the car with a drain line to a gas can from the fuel return line: To fix the fuel pump in a wagon you have to drop the tank .Of course i found a leak in one of the steel lines and that extended the job .Now with the new fuel pump and the correct new bosche O2 sensor , the car is running really well .I have been trying to find ready made harnesses to run the Z6 intake and the computer and OBD1 system but i keep getting the same answer from the harness guys "we dont support automatics" So I have been doing some research and i think I might be able to make the OBD0 system run the the D16Z6 MPFI intake manifold .I think they are just batch fire anyway so if i can get the computer to gang fire them it should work .But that is going to be a winter time project , it is time to put some miles on this car and enjoy it .
The car has been getting really poor gas mileage since the new engine went in .I managed to get the timing set up better and that seemed to help a bit but not much .I was over at the local Honda dealer to get transmission fluid and the service manager thought the cause of the poor mileage was the rack and basket . So I took the rack off and I think he was right.The car goes up hills without downshifting now and the mileage seems to have improved dramatically .It seems as though the air deflectors cause a lot of drag .With the rack on , only about 18 MPG .Have not checked on the mileage improvement yet , but I will check the next couple of tank fulls and post it here .Really happy with the new engine , no leaks and does not burn oil and no codes .
The access hatch under our wagons rear seat only has the sending unit there and no pump.I wish it was there .Maybe the 4wd cars have different tanks? I expect the D16Z6 in our car to be stronger than the stock RT motor , but it is currently running the 1.5L intake and electronics .Taking off the basket made a big difference in performance , but I really like the way the basket looks .After I check the mileage , I am going to put it back on without the wind deflectors and see how that works .
yes, RT wagons have another access cover to get at the pump. It's because to drop the tank, you would have to drop the driveshaft. They saved RT owners a lot of work.
With the basket and wind deflectors on , mileage was 18 MPG (U.S. gallon 3.78 L) .Driving locally with the basket removed it went up to 27 MPG .All highway driving , it looked like I was on my way for a record run when the 401 stopped moving and I spent 1 1/4 hours stop and go .I was on my way to scarborough to look at some parts but I had to give up and exit at hwy 25 and head home .I did get over 300 KM on a half tank though , 40 more than the best so far .
The wagon is now off the road for winter and some more work .The gas tank is leaking so it is getting pulled and the exhaust needs some work too .The only remaining original exhaust pieces left are the cat and the long centre pipe and the centre pipe is rotting out .Cat is fine , needs some welding on the outlet and it will be good .I am going to get some V band connectors and some stainless pipe to make the exhaust easy to remove and do away with all the old piping .Right now I counted one big split and three separate holes so fixing the exhaust will sure help the car sound better .I hope to get the D16Z6 intake and vtec working , i think I have all the pieces we need to get that done too .So lots of work to do , should be fun , I will try to get some pics up tomorrow .
Comments
Got the rack back on:
Then I made some standoffs so the dizzy could be bolted on , still be adjustable and stay in alighnment
So now it bolts up in the correct place and has a range of adjustment that should be good to set the timing .We are hoping to start the swap on monday .
Everything else from the old engine seems to fit well .Using the old intake and thermostat housing will make it simple to plumb and wire up:
Simple home made tool to hold crank while unbolting everything:
Draining the gas by running the car with a drain line to a gas can from the fuel return line:
Did they make the fuel tanks different for CAN cars? I changed out my fuel pump from up top under the seat.