The twins.

Hey all,

Not exactly a newb but I've been gone long enough from here that I might as well be. I already have an old thread in the introductions where Charb spanked me about posting pics, so I'm gonna start a ride thread here.

Here's my twins. 1988 RT4WD (L) & 1990 RT4WD (R) wagons.

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The '88 is a stock Manual, picked it up after it had been sitting outside this lady's house for 9 years. About a year later now, and it's up and running. Had to drain & clean the tank, new fuel pump, new distributor, wires, plugs, & battery and the thing fired right up. New brakes and tires and we're driving it around now. Smokes like a chimney at times, which is why the old owner stopped driving it, but it's still got plenty of go. Right now, we're just using it as a 3 mile commuter but eventually I'll be putting a new/used engine in. It still has some other issues (sh**ty paint, can't get the back doors open, a little body rot in the usual spots) but hell even the AC still works in it. Not bad for a 9 year parking job. This one is going to stay mostly stock as my fiance is the one driving it most of the time now. We have upgraded the brakes & she wanted to change the interior color (hates the blue) so we started spraying it black etc.


The '90 I've had a lot longer. My parents bought it back in 2001 or so I think, not sure. I bought it from them in 2009 and started working on it. It's an auto unfortunately, but I'd already done a bunch of crap to it before we got the other one and I didn't want to bother with swapping all the good stuff to the manual. This one is a little built in the engine dept. (12.5:1 compression, bored out to about a 1.7L, head studs for later {planning a small amount of boost}) with a custom exhaust, intake (homemade job my brother in law did which I'm not too trusting of), and some brake & suspension tweaking (polyurethane bushings, adjs. camber kits, bracing, & 1" drop.) It's a blast to drive when it's running right. It has some gremlins though. Lately it's been blowing the trans dipstick out of the hole and leaking fluid on me. Not sure why but I'm looking into it. It occasionally won't keep running right at startup as well (starts then immediately stalls.) Plan for this one, once I get it running right (my parents are hell on maintenance and I've been playing catch-up since I bought it from them) is to make it a bit of a ZPAW/bug out machine, with roof rack & survival gear, off road lighting, etc. It's on the back burner though as I'm also finishing up a pretty wild minitruck build and I promised my fiance I'd only build one at a time. Only reason this one has the engine it does in it, is that the old one blew and I had this spare sitting there waiting to be rebuilt already. I figured I might as well have it done nice if I was going to do it at all.

Some engine build shots -

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So yeah anyway there's my wagons. I'll add some more to this thread as it becomes relevant.

Comments

  • drfinkdrfink Wagonist
    how big an overbore did you go to get to 1.7L? I would be careful on stock sleeves :nightmare:

    looks good though are you using p29s? what camshaft are you gonna use to take advantage of that extra compression?
  • Not sure yet and I'd have to ask my builder (Brother in law) about the other stuff. I don't have any paperwork on it as my brother in law did most of the work on his own time (as opposed to shop time at Motiva where he works) and made some deals for the parts etc. It's been a while since I turned a wrench professionally myself and I kinda don't trust my skills much anymore tbh. I'll hit him up and post what he tells me.

    Right now it's a stock cam. Any recommendations?
  • drfinkdrfink Wagonist
    Depends, are you planning on running the stock porting?
  • Probably. When I originally had this engine being built I was asking for 10:1 compression & just for it to be made bulletproof. I'm probably not going to get into anything super gnarly with this build, so stock porting is probably going to stay.
  • CharbCharb Administrator
    Spankings are my job... welcome back
  • New shift knob in the '90... Superfun, just hoping police don't panic if I get pulled over lol

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  • Well, our '88 is officially dead. Engine blew on it while my wife was driving it home the other day. We're tired of dumping money into it, so it's going to sit for a while. She wants to eventually turn it into a show car, so we're not getting rid of it. But it's going into hibernation I guess. Eventually we'll strip it down, straighten the body out, shave it, paint it, custom interior, and throw in some accuair suspension (She wants it slammed at shows but doesn't want to mess with switches, so we'll put on a setup that auto adjusts the ride height for her and slams when the car is turned off.)

    R.I.P. buddy.
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    But... we're keeping it in the family with it's replacement, since I consider these to be the true descendants of our Wagons anyway (the new civics are all overweight & blah.)

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    So say hello to our 2010 Fit Sport. Which will stay stock until the warranty is up at the least, so it's the last you hear or see of it in this thread lol
  • klumklum Senior Wagonist
    i never uderstood how arp head studs work how do you tighten them without a nut at the top? just vice grips?
  • klum wrote: »
    i never uderstood how arp head studs work how do you tighten them without a nut at the top? just vice grips?

    Ye gods man! Vice grips! no =D

    They're not actually torqued into the block. A lot of them will have an hex key fitting at the top so you can run them down (like you see in the shot above), but you don't actually put any torque on them. That comes when you are torquing the nuts themselves down.
  • I'd be intested to know about the bore out to 1.7 as well. Especially given how under square our motors are.
  • Why did you guys post the last three posts in here?
  • Because he installed ARP head studs and did an overbore?
  • Because he installed ARP head studs and did an overbore?

    That was my guess lol

    But yes, they're installed with a hex/allen key.

    Again on the overbore, I'm just going off what I was told by my builder. What did he really do? I have no clue, I haven't opened it up and looked. But it certainly feels much friskier.
  • It does seem like there's still a good amount of metal around the pistons so it definitely looks like there's room to play. I'd be interested in doing an overbore myself. I wonder if that's one of those things that having those block guards would be a good step to take.

    Either way, if you have a chance to talk to that builder get some numbers, it would be good to have for reference, especially if this proves to be a solid build.
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