Dwebble (The Silver Slug)

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  • RevmaynardRevmaynard Council Member
    I've got the same bumper on my car from an ef9. I went in on a whole RHD conversion with some friends and paid my portion for the bumper.
  • Just trying to make me jealous. Thanks Rev.
  • So in swapping the head, I ended up with one that has bad tube seals. So one of the spark plugs is sitting in oil. That said I'm gonna pull the valve cover and the rocker arms off and replace those. Since I'm trying to shoot video of everything I do now I'll work on getting that. Can anyone think of anything else that could use detailed or looked at while I'm mucking around with those bits. Just figure if I'm replacing those seals if anything else can be called to attention, I'll do so in the video.
  • UnuselectusUnuselectus Band Wagon
    That quiklift is sick!
  • ZombieMikeZombieMike New Wagonist
    Awesome Read, youve turned that thing around pretty well, man! Definitely subscribed...oh and i thought it was kinda funny, in the beginning you mentioned your door popping when you open it, mine does that too and until reading this, thought i was the only one haha...
  • Thanks Mike, I need to get off my lazy ass and change the clutch in this thing already. I'm needing to clear out some space in the garage and hoist it up on the ramps though to do that. I'm wanting to get some actual video of a clutch change as notated by someone who's never done a civic clutch before. I figure that will be the most informative video out there since I'll run into issues for sure.
  • ZombieMikeZombieMike New Wagonist
    Nice, Im the same way with my wagon lol. Need to quit procrastinating...That video would be awesome, im not needing a clutch change anytime soon but would definitely like a video for when the time comes. Ive never put a clutch in a civic.
  • greenteagodgreenteagod Moderator
    edited April 2022

    Hey, I finally got a mechanic since I couldn't get off of my lazy ass and paid too much to have them work on the clutch. Shame on me. The garage still isn't cleared out either! Whatever, life happens as we all know.

    I do have a lightened flywheel and clutch setup that I'm gonna toss in there at some point, but that'll probably happen with power addition. Given the rate at which I work on this thing maybe that'll be in 2024.

    Anyway this was the main hangup. Spring shit itself out and wedged between the pressure plate and the clutch meaning shifting wasn't happened.

    In the time that it sat the ethanol sucked up plenty of moisture and caused the tank to rust too. So I had that to deal with. That was popped out, welded up and had an application of POR15

    I also have a check engine light on now that I honestly can't recall if it was on before or not, so I figure I'll be reading flashes here in the next week or so.

    I do plan on doing the rear disc swap, I managed to pick up a kit from Lowflyin' back before my clutch shit the bed. I'm having to figure out the parking brake bracket on it since I was absent from the forum when he got those done. I ordered some stock brackets to hold the brake cable but those are longer than the one he fabbed up so we'll see how that works out. Worst case I take the brackets over to the metal saw and fire up the mig.

    The drive home was nice, I might look at getting some better motor/transmission mounts the ones I'd picked up seemed to be fairly jank off brand (as they all are pretty much now) and the alignment on the pins was not the same, they definitely weren't centered in the mounts where they should be centered so things are more rattly than I recall, but that just lets me know what's loose.

    Long term plans are to finish laying down the "dynamat" type foil backed sticky stuff on the interior and get it a little more sound deadened and then reinstall the carpet. That is if it's salvageable. We have rats down here and oh if they didn't make a home in all the seats and stuff I took out. Definitely breaking out the disinfectant/antiviral/antimicrobial and running the extractor over the upholstery.

    Anyway I'll cut my ramble short, and post more stuff as I have time.

    If anyone is on discord, feel free to hit me up jonnynof#6917


  • greenteagodgreenteagod Moderator
    edited April 2022

    Been a bit, but I think I've decided the direction of the wagon from here. Probably a slow conversion, and maybe I'll just be dead first given my laziness, but who knows! Either way. I wanna swap to a B20B and convert over to 4WD with some CRV parts for the rear end. I've sourced a few parts so far and am researching other aspects, so we'll see just how things go.

  • Can’t wait to see the progress. Laziness hits that’s definitely a thing, happens to me quite a bit

  • One bummer is that I'll have to swap my rear struts out, I have some nice bilsteins in there right now, but the lower perch is a clevis and not a pin like it is on the CRV. I've found some Bilstein 24-292702 that look like they're for the front of some chevy trucks that are almost spot on for travel distance. I just wish they were traditional blue and yellow like my old ones, cause I love that look on em. I might hit up a dealer and see if they have anything else in the spec I want in the traditional colors.

    I'm also waiting on my CRV LCAs to arrive so I can compare the trailing arm mount. It's my hope that they'll fit without too much fuss so I don't have to do some weird mangling to CRV trailing arms to get them to fit.

  • All right, I was concerned about these, but fortunately they are the same size. On the left is a rear lower control arm for CRV, which is about 10" or so longer than the civic wagon lower control arm. It was my hope that they would indeed be the same size that way the CRV LCA can simply connect to the wagon trailing arm.

    Since I'm swapping over to a CRV subframe, which has its mounts much more inboard, that's what causes the need for the new LCAs as well. I may need to get an adjustable link for the top to get the geometry dialed in, but that's no big deal. I believe I have some adjustable links for the front of the trailing arms as well, just haven't installed them as my alignment is pretty good as is.

    It's feasible for me to swap the sub frame over as is and still run my existing stuff just to get some of it in place, I may do that or I may wait until I have more of everything I need and do it as one big build.

    The only clearance issue with the subframe is at the top of the curved tube. Some people are adding spacers to give the clearance but I really don't want to raise the wagon any more than it already is. Another option would be to make clearance on the pan, But I don't know how much metal needs moved to do that, and If it interferes with the spare tire, I'd rather not do that.

    What I may end up doing is shaving down those curves and welding in some new metal plate to close it back up. Perhaps I'll get some tube that's whatever wall thickness that that stuff is and weld it in so it's a little more flat across those areas. Given how absolutely beefy this crossmember is I don't see that as being a problem.

    Either way, once I figure out the game plan on that, I'll likely get a hub kit from S1Built. I'd opt for one of their full built trailing arms, but they don't do em in wagon length. There's supposedly some attempt to get a group buy for them on facebook, but they're wanting 10 orders, and I'm not on facebook to confirm it anyway so I think I'll just go with the weld on hubs and gusset plate to add some rigidity back after you do the hacking on the arm itself.

    That's enough ramble for this post I think.

  • greenteagodgreenteagod Moderator

    Ordered some carbon fiber parts, hood and fenders. 8ish week processing time, but I'll be sure to snap some pics when they arrive. Not sure if I want to put them on before I do the engine and driveline work. Seems like it could risk scratching that up.

    Though my intent is to paint it anyway cause I hate the way cf looks. It's just that finding roof and fenders on good shape is a bit of a crap shoot these days

  • As part of the conversion is swapping out the rear subframe over to a CRV I had to find some struts that were wagon height that will fit the CRV lower control arms. As most stuff is clevis instead of pin mount I had to get a little creative. As mentioned before I was looking for bilsteins, and I found some. Those ones for the front of a chevy truck would have ended up being too stiff for the back of our relatively light weight wagons. So I found some that were out of the back end of a Subaru Cross Trek.




    Here are a couple videos I did showing what I had to do to make em work. In short, pressing out bushing meant for mounting it in the cross trek and swapping in a bushing meant for CRV. It's my hope than when this and the springs are all fit up that it results in minimal if any variation in ride height from where it sets now. I'll definitely do some before and after measuring.

  • TadasTadas Wagonist

    Amazing work! Inspiration for the summer garage works on the wagon!

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