My Project Hatch

Part two of my project 1986 Honda Civic Hatch 1300. This time I've actually done work to the car. I went down to Albuquerque, NM to Miata Specialists to do the work. They built my racecar and the owner is my coach. We're great friends and he lets me go wild in his shop with his tools.



Suspension
I started by tearing off the old suspension and replacing the struts with Tokico Illuminas, which are 5-way adjustable, polyurethane bushings throughout the entire car, and adjustable coilovers in the rear. I hadn't recieved my 27.5mm torsion bars for this trip so I couldn't put those on, which is why the front is so high compared to the rear.

Then I swapped over upgraded brakes: '89 Integra rotors and calipers up front and CRX HF aluminum drums in the rear with braided steel lines all the way around.







Old junk:
http://i103.photobuc...a/oldbrake1.jpg
http://i103.photobuc...a/oldstrut1.jpg
http://i103.photobuc...a/olsstrut2.jpg
http://i103.photobuc...a/oldbrake2.jpg

The result:






The suspension is stiffer than I though it would be. The bushings take all the slop out and the springs should be ideal. The rear springs are 350# and the front torsions bars will have a similar rate, this should kill the understeer and make it a frisky little bugger.

Engine
Then I tore into the engine. This is the engine I will be using. It's a 1.5 liter fuel injected SOHC 12-valver out of a 1986 CRX Si I used to own before it was totaled by some dumb broad. In stock form it made 91bhp. The CRX had over 300k miles on it before it was totaled. The previous owner said it was rebuilt at 180k, but who knows how accurate that is or what it even means.

This is what I started with:




Cute huh?

21 years of oil makes some nasty shit:

I let that soak in the solvent overnight.

Once I had the block ready for the machine shop I turned my attention to the head. I had never ported a head or anything else before (well except a paintball gun), but I had a good teacher.

The engine is getting higher compression pistons, ARP rod bolts, a reground cam, and all the stuff down below. I'd be happy with 100whp, but I honestly have no idea how much power this car will make. It should weigh in around 1900lbs with me in it after I'm done. So it won't need very much power. These SOHC motors are pretty torquey for their size as well. I also have an aftermarket performance clutch and am getting the (20lbs!) flywheel lightened.

Porting
Here's what Honda gave me to work with:


Here's what I did with it:






I also ported and gasket matched the aftermarket header:




I wasn't happy with the intake manifold gasket I got, so I held off on porting and gasket matching the intake manifold, but that will happen.

Transmission
I decided early on that the transmission needed to be rebuilt. I was grinding in 1st and 2nd and even with the stock engine the car was begging for a limited slip differential.

Finding a rebuild kit was simple enough and didn't cost much either. But I was running into dead ends with the LSD. I couldn't find anything short of a $1600 Quaife or $800 Mugen diff. Well that's more than I paid for the car, so I looked elsewhere. I ended up finding a Phantom Grip style clutch pack on Ebay for $150 and bought it.

The idea is that you stuff this thing into the diff, put the pin through it, and undo the clips. The springs then push against the spider gears creating a locking effect. When torque is applied accross the two wheels, the pin through the center twists and pushes the clutch packs into the spider gears even more....at least this is what I think. It seems to work, but we will have to wait until I get the car running before I know whether it works or not.

Anyway, I had never been inside a transmission before, and was kinda nervous. Fortunately I had a lot of help from the guys in the shop.

On to the pictures:




Put everything down in the order you take it off.


New synchros and bearings installed:


Here is the stock diff:

See the pin? That goes through the clutch pack:



All re-assembled and cleaned (well clean enough for a Honda)


And that's all the work I've done so far. Hopefully I'll get back down there in a few weeks and get this thing on the road! I'm excited and everything is coming together well.

Everything ready to be sent off to machining:


Here's a box full of shit that still needs to be put on the car:



Here's a tally of my expenses so far:

Edited by Vitamin J, 01 December 2007 - 12:44 AM.

Here's some pictures of the shop and other shit:


Miata engines


Miata transmissions

What, you thought you'd read a thread of mine with no Miatas in it?


The whole shop




My girlfriend

Wrecked ass Miata


Sick rally prepped Volvo


My old racecar waiting for a V8. I want to convert it into a drift car and have a shot at that.


Lotus Elan mmmmmmm the original Miata


Need some Miata parts?



Thanks for reading!

I think you'll like the suspension set up your going with. I also have the 350# on the rear with the illumina's all around, I just have the Integra front t-bar with the B20 instead of the 27.5mm with D15/EW4. I'm guessing this is not a daily driver for you?

Whose rex is this by the 280Z?

looks like its going good.

what kind of car is that brown one at the bottom of the pic?

This will be my daily driver. I will share it with my Miata but I'm gonna drive it everywhere.



My coache's brother's. I'm not sure how much work is done to it but its super clean.

'67 or '68 Stingray Vette. It's got an LT1 in it with modern brakes and suspension.

hey just wondering what rims you got on the civic on the first few pics? what size are they? thanks

^^^^15x7 Panasports

k thanks, they look nice.