Back again... '91 RT4WD in CO
Tremek
New Wagonist
Hi guys, I grew up with Hondas, had two Acura Legends in high school and college, and once upon a time I was given a '91 Wagon 2WD by my father-in-law and I drove in for the better part of a year. At the time I registered here on the site and found out about RT4WDs and always thought they would make a killer winter car.
Recently we did a bunch of car changes, and I ended up with this lovely wagon:
.. Which is awesome, but I'm realizing that parking it at the airport and driving it all the time in the winter won't be great on it. So, enter the RT4WD!
Found it on Craigslist 30 minutes after a lady (2nd owner who herself had it for 6 years) posted it and went up and bought it an hour later. It was less than a set of snow tires and wheels for the -V, so thus I have my airport/snow/dog car.
It's a real gem. Everything works, it's clean inside and the only rip in any of the upholstery is on the driver's seat bolster, and it only has one dent of any significance and almost no rust. It's also fun to have at least one manual again in the 6mt.
Can't leave it alone though - as awesome as it is I think it needs a D16Z6 + turbo build.
Starting to look for parts for it, if any of you are local in Colorado/Denver I would welcome both the knowledge transfer and direction to any deals on the z6 stuff I will need.
Glad to be back, thanks!
Recently we did a bunch of car changes, and I ended up with this lovely wagon:
.. Which is awesome, but I'm realizing that parking it at the airport and driving it all the time in the winter won't be great on it. So, enter the RT4WD!
Found it on Craigslist 30 minutes after a lady (2nd owner who herself had it for 6 years) posted it and went up and bought it an hour later. It was less than a set of snow tires and wheels for the -V, so thus I have my airport/snow/dog car.
It's a real gem. Everything works, it's clean inside and the only rip in any of the upholstery is on the driver's seat bolster, and it only has one dent of any significance and almost no rust. It's also fun to have at least one manual again in the 6mt.
Can't leave it alone though - as awesome as it is I think it needs a D16Z6 + turbo build.
Starting to look for parts for it, if any of you are local in Colorado/Denver I would welcome both the knowledge transfer and direction to any deals on the z6 stuff I will need. Glad to be back, thanks!
Comments
Now to finish taking the D16Z6 apart, give it to a machine shop and make sure it's in spec, and then order pistons and all the turbo bits. What are the best forged pistons for A Z6 turbo build? Thinking to keep the compression ratio between 9 and 9.5? Thanks!
Going to a hillclimb in Nevada this weekend with the -V so won't get any time to work on the Civic but hopefully will get things moving by the end of the month.
Some examples of what resulted:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNpfGuE7pns
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rUU3sWjRqg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOeE3nGzDqY
These shenanigans resulted in a Chairman's Award at the awards banquet for best burnouts and/or favorite car. I consider this a success.
Here's a link to a bunch of photos I took from turn 18 on the course Sunday AM:
https://imgur.com/a/jig0G
Great event. The -V was a hit, particularly with the Ferrari wives who made a point to come over and gush about how much they loved the car. Definitely going back next year with hopefully a faster me and a faster -V.
Also did some drag racing last Friday at Bandimere.
Got called out by a 2014 ML63 AMG:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dh8euYyqzY
This is my buddy's '98 Viper with Hennessey Venom 650R package:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oFdINlF23A
This was "Street Wars" - instead of a normal .5 tree they had a red/green stoplight mounted, so everyone's reaction times were terrible but was lots of fun overall.
This was a good shakedown to figure out that the tune's definitely not dialed in yet. Before/after it picked up about 6/10ths and 4mph but it's breaking up in 3rd and 4th, so hopefully I can get the tuner out with me next week to get it resolved. I think there's another 5mph and 2-4 10ths on the backside that's hiding in there.
So the Civic has been neglected during all of this, but I received the EX knuckles and 10.3" brakes, and also the Energy Suspension full bushing kit, and once the coilovers also get here I will take all this to the shop and have them refurb the little beast. I also am hearing what sounds like CV joint noise so may as well get everything rebuilt and replaced at the same time.
Buddy was mounting up the EX steering knuckles after putting the Progress coilovers on the car, and discovered the EX knuckles don't clear the coil adjuster:
Stock on left:
Any thoughts on what to do here? Would a different upper control arm make a difference? This is really a bummer.
I've never done it but seems awesome.