whew, that's a lot of progress!
2000 CX Hatchback Beater Revival
- Thread starter RestoRoc89
- Start date
Holy s**t you've accomplished a lot
Thanks for the comments and encouragement! Free time is scarce for me and I have been spending most of it on this project. Truthfully, the little rust bucket has been entertaining me quite a bit.
As for the latest news, I'm taking the car in for an alignment tomorrow morning. I'm not quite sure where to start in terms of setup. My inclination is try out -1.5 degrees of camber front and rear (correcting Honda's understeer-prone, relatively higher rear factory setting), zero toe in the front and 1/16th total toe in the rear. Any opinions on these specs? I often read suggestions for more negative camber, but I don't want to eat through tires or limit standing traction too much.
As for the latest news, I'm taking the car in for an alignment tomorrow morning. I'm not quite sure where to start in terms of setup. My inclination is try out -1.5 degrees of camber front and rear (correcting Honda's understeer-prone, relatively higher rear factory setting), zero toe in the front and 1/16th total toe in the rear. Any opinions on these specs? I often read suggestions for more negative camber, but I don't want to eat through tires or limit standing traction too much.
Well, this car is definitely teaching me some things. For one, I've never had a vehicle with drum brakes before. I advanced the shoe adjusters on my new rear brakes and extra seven clicks tonight and the pedal feel is 1000X better. It turns out that what I initially thought would be too snug is about perfect. Glad I don't have to mess around with bleeding the brakes a third time! I'm completely stoked to see how the car feels after the alignment in the morning.
For the following day, I have booked a windshield replacement. I also ordered a new front washer pump (since the front washer is currently hooked up to the rear pump…my fiancé had an adventure with a snow bank years ago and did some damage to the front right corner…).
I'm looking forward to putting some shakedown miles on this thing before I eventually get into the engine/transmission work.
For the following day, I have booked a windshield replacement. I also ordered a new front washer pump (since the front washer is currently hooked up to the rear pump…my fiancé had an adventure with a snow bank years ago and did some damage to the front right corner…).
I'm looking forward to putting some shakedown miles on this thing before I eventually get into the engine/transmission work.
My beater has been aligned and is fully licensed for the road! I think it's great for my purposes. I landed upon the following alignment parameters:
Front Camber: 1.75*
Front Toe: 0
Rear Camber: 1.5*
Rear Toe: 1/16th
It's very stable at speed, rotates nicely through a quick turn, etc. It could definitely use a nice set of sway bars, though. For the next few weeks, I'm just going to drive it, get a baseline feel for the chassis and focus my time on all the other things I have been neglecting.
Front Camber: 1.75*
Front Toe: 0
Rear Camber: 1.5*
Rear Toe: 1/16th
It's very stable at speed, rotates nicely through a quick turn, etc. It could definitely use a nice set of sway bars, though. For the next few weeks, I'm just going to drive it, get a baseline feel for the chassis and focus my time on all the other things I have been neglecting.
I haven't had much time for updates lately, but there's more in the works.
Years ago, my fiancé had a little run-in with a snow bank that cracked the front bumper cover and damaged the front windshield washer pump. I figured that would be a nice feature to regain, so I ordered a replacement from ANCO.
This may be the one time where I appreciate the broken bumper cover, because I was able to install the pump without touching the bumper.
Having completed that task, I replaced the wiper blades and dropped the car off to have a new windshield installed. Clear vision, at last!
I'm planning a day of work for this weekend. I picked up a new rear bumper support since the current one has massive holes rusted right through it.
The UPS man is also dropping off a Tanabe Medallion Concept G stainless cat-back exhaust and a Megan Racing 4-2-1 header today (the tack-welded exhaust finally developed a leak). Slowly, but surely. I've probably put 3,000 hassle-free kilometres on the car since I got it aligned. I like this beater.
Years ago, my fiancé had a little run-in with a snow bank that cracked the front bumper cover and damaged the front windshield washer pump. I figured that would be a nice feature to regain, so I ordered a replacement from ANCO.
This may be the one time where I appreciate the broken bumper cover, because I was able to install the pump without touching the bumper.
Having completed that task, I replaced the wiper blades and dropped the car off to have a new windshield installed. Clear vision, at last!
I'm planning a day of work for this weekend. I picked up a new rear bumper support since the current one has massive holes rusted right through it.
The UPS man is also dropping off a Tanabe Medallion Concept G stainless cat-back exhaust and a Megan Racing 4-2-1 header today (the tack-welded exhaust finally developed a leak). Slowly, but surely. I've probably put 3,000 hassle-free kilometres on the car since I got it aligned. I like this beater.
Kind of hard to call it a beater after you get everything installed. Not a showcar by any means, but not exactly a beater anymore. Good work bringing this thing back to life!
Finally, more updates! I had a small leak at the muffler. I don't really like doing things twice, so I set out to find a decent stainless steel exhaust. After much deliberation, I settled on a Megan Racing 4-2-1 header and the now-discontinued Tanabe Medalion Concept G exhaust (hilarious side note: I was concerned that the much-loved Tanabe Medalion Touring exhaust would be too quiet--the Concept G is NOT quiet at all). My CX hatchback featured the lovely integrated catalytic converter as part of the exhaust manifold. After sifting through much vague information, I realized that the Megan header should bolt directly up to my hatch-specific Tanabe exhaust. My current exhaust configuration no longer includes a catalytic converter. Bad me (don't care). Picture time!
Here's what I came home to on Friday.
Here are the shiny new parts unboxed. The Tanabe exhaust is nicely made. I would put it in a league above the Megan Racing header, though it's also decent for the $130 I paid.
Let's get ready to bolt this stuff in, shall we? Step 1: remove the current exhaust manifold (and takedown pipe, since my future father-in-law welded them together). My first unexpected, but unsurprising discovery was that the stock manifold had cracked where they always do. I didn't notice the leak while driving the car.
Amazingly, I didn't break any studs while removing the manifold.
Removing the remainder of the exhaust was uneventful. I was lazy and just snapped all of the old spring bolts. Anticipating this approach, I hunted down new ones before starting. Here's a shot of old vs new.
You can probably see it getting darker as the pictures progress. After getting the old exhaust out and swapping over all the rubber isolators, I decided to call it a night.
Here's what I came home to on Friday.
Here are the shiny new parts unboxed. The Tanabe exhaust is nicely made. I would put it in a league above the Megan Racing header, though it's also decent for the $130 I paid.
Let's get ready to bolt this stuff in, shall we? Step 1: remove the current exhaust manifold (and takedown pipe, since my future father-in-law welded them together). My first unexpected, but unsurprising discovery was that the stock manifold had cracked where they always do. I didn't notice the leak while driving the car.
Amazingly, I didn't break any studs while removing the manifold.
Removing the remainder of the exhaust was uneventful. I was lazy and just snapped all of the old spring bolts. Anticipating this approach, I hunted down new ones before starting. Here's a shot of old vs new.
You can probably see it getting darker as the pictures progress. After getting the old exhaust out and swapping over all the rubber isolators, I decided to call it a night.
New day, better photos. Since my splash shield was already cut by a shady mechanic from the past, I decided to loosely pre-assemble the header before bolting it to the head. The key trick with exhaust systems is to install absolutely every part working from the front back while keeping the fasteners loose. Once the entire system is aligned satisfactorily, you then torque each joint starting again from the head and working your way back. I've fought with many exhaust systems before I clued into this process.
Here's the header loosely installed on the head.
The rest of the process moved very quickly. Here's a shot of how well the Tanabe system fit underneath the car.
...and the horrid fart canon-style outlet. Why does every decent exhaust option for this platform look this way? Seriously, it's absurd. Here's a 4-in tip on my 106hp Honda. That's the same outlet diameter as is on my 500hp Corvette. Excessive much? To its credit, it fits very well around the bumper. I'm a full-on ricer now
.
You're probably wondering how I installed a cat-less exhaust and don't have any Check Engine codes. Here's the cheat--my Megan header has two O2 sensor bungs. One in a primary tube right next to the cylinder head and another at the collector just past the driver's side CV axle. I put the primary sensor close to the head and threaded the secondar sensor into the collector...after spacing it out using one drilled out spark plug anti-fouler and a second one that hasn't been drilled. To connect the factory wiring pigtail to my sensor in the new location, I purchased a 30-in extension harness from Caspers Electronics. Nice piece. Here's how the O2 sensor looks in the anti-fouler stack.
I worked out a pretty clever and secure routing for the harness, but it was dark, so I didn't take any pictures. PM me if you need more info. This solution works great--no CEL AND all emissions monitors register as "ready" (we have OBD2 scan emissions testing in Ontario, so this car will pass an e-test).
As a final note, the donut gasket that Megan Racing supplied with their header is complete crap. It's a 2.25-in I.D. while the collector is only 2-in. The gasket just got smushed into multiple pieces and wouldn't fit into the inlet taper on the Tanabe no matter how I tried. If anyone else runs into this issue (I think many have already), I found a donut gasket that fits beautifully. It's Walker P/N 31-357. It has a 2-in I.D. and is about 0.5-in thick.
Someday, I'll record a sound clip. The exhaust sounds pretty good for a D16--deep and smooth. However, it's pretty loud as the RPMs climb and it drones on the highway. Loud isn't an issue as my Corvette sounds like a hurricane...but, the Corvette actually goes. To get my Civic to move out decently, it has to be revved. It seems a bit needlessly loud in a non-functional way. I'll get used to it and learn to enjoy my friends making fun of my beater car
Here's the header loosely installed on the head.
The rest of the process moved very quickly. Here's a shot of how well the Tanabe system fit underneath the car.
...and the horrid fart canon-style outlet. Why does every decent exhaust option for this platform look this way? Seriously, it's absurd. Here's a 4-in tip on my 106hp Honda. That's the same outlet diameter as is on my 500hp Corvette. Excessive much? To its credit, it fits very well around the bumper. I'm a full-on ricer now
.
You're probably wondering how I installed a cat-less exhaust and don't have any Check Engine codes. Here's the cheat--my Megan header has two O2 sensor bungs. One in a primary tube right next to the cylinder head and another at the collector just past the driver's side CV axle. I put the primary sensor close to the head and threaded the secondar sensor into the collector...after spacing it out using one drilled out spark plug anti-fouler and a second one that hasn't been drilled. To connect the factory wiring pigtail to my sensor in the new location, I purchased a 30-in extension harness from Caspers Electronics. Nice piece. Here's how the O2 sensor looks in the anti-fouler stack.
I worked out a pretty clever and secure routing for the harness, but it was dark, so I didn't take any pictures. PM me if you need more info. This solution works great--no CEL AND all emissions monitors register as "ready" (we have OBD2 scan emissions testing in Ontario, so this car will pass an e-test).
As a final note, the donut gasket that Megan Racing supplied with their header is complete crap. It's a 2.25-in I.D. while the collector is only 2-in. The gasket just got smushed into multiple pieces and wouldn't fit into the inlet taper on the Tanabe no matter how I tried. If anyone else runs into this issue (I think many have already), I found a donut gasket that fits beautifully. It's Walker P/N 31-357. It has a 2-in I.D. and is about 0.5-in thick.
Someday, I'll record a sound clip. The exhaust sounds pretty good for a D16--deep and smooth. However, it's pretty loud as the RPMs climb and it drones on the highway. Loud isn't an issue as my Corvette sounds like a hurricane...but, the Corvette actually goes. To get my Civic to move out decently, it has to be revved. It seems a bit needlessly loud in a non-functional way. I'll get used to it and learn to enjoy my friends making fun of my beater car
Project numero deux for the weekend: replacing the rear impact beam. My stock beam had almost completely rotted away. The rear bumper cover seems to act like a salt trap in the winter. Through the process, I discovered that nearly all of the stock bumper mounts had rusted away.
Here's the starting point. Notice how much the cover sags on the driver's side.
Here's the gorey site with the bumper cover removed. Yikes!
It should be clear why I am calling this thing a beater now--we have rust perforation! As soon as I finish with the transmission rebuild, clutch replacement and timing belt, I will start tackling the quarter panel and rear end rust. This area doesn't have to look pretty at all--it just needs to be solid.
Here's the beam after the foam energy absorber was removed. It's pretty much flayed open on the underside.
I wasn't careful enough in removing the foam. I broke one of the mounting bosses off. Never fear, Marine Goo to the rescue!
Getting the beam off of the car involved the usual war against rusty fasteners. Old hat.
Now I just have to make this fit. Also, I picked up some pre-drilled angle at the local hardware store thinking it would be easy to make a temporary bumper mount.
I had been cautioned that aftermarket impact beams don't always fit the greatest. This was warranted, but, with a wood block and a sledge hammer, I got 'er in there.
And then I rigged up some fabulously ghetto bumper mounts.
Finally, in true beater fashion, I filled the gaping hole by the frame rail extension with spray foam. Again, temporary.
Amazingly, the bumper cover actually fit back on and is much more secure. No more gap below the taillight on the driver's side.
Time to do some driving! I don't think I'll be posting any updates for a few weeks. The next one will be documenting my rebuild of the donor Civic EX transaxle.
Here's the starting point. Notice how much the cover sags on the driver's side.
Here's the gorey site with the bumper cover removed. Yikes!
It should be clear why I am calling this thing a beater now--we have rust perforation! As soon as I finish with the transmission rebuild, clutch replacement and timing belt, I will start tackling the quarter panel and rear end rust. This area doesn't have to look pretty at all--it just needs to be solid.
Here's the beam after the foam energy absorber was removed. It's pretty much flayed open on the underside.
I wasn't careful enough in removing the foam. I broke one of the mounting bosses off. Never fear, Marine Goo to the rescue!
Getting the beam off of the car involved the usual war against rusty fasteners. Old hat.
Now I just have to make this fit. Also, I picked up some pre-drilled angle at the local hardware store thinking it would be easy to make a temporary bumper mount.
I had been cautioned that aftermarket impact beams don't always fit the greatest. This was warranted, but, with a wood block and a sledge hammer, I got 'er in there.
And then I rigged up some fabulously ghetto bumper mounts.
Finally, in true beater fashion, I filled the gaping hole by the frame rail extension with spray foam. Again, temporary.
Amazingly, the bumper cover actually fit back on and is much more secure. No more gap below the taillight on the driver's side.
Time to do some driving! I don't think I'll be posting any updates for a few weeks. The next one will be documenting my rebuild of the donor Civic EX transaxle.
Good job on the exhaust. And, it looks like you used anti seize as well? Smart move.
This is a pretty sweet little project man. It's nice to see some people still doing the little things.
I sure did! I used the copper hi-temp anti-seize compound on all the fasteners. I'm sure it won't help in the long run, but I know I'll have to disconnect the exhaust for my transmission swap in the near future.
Well, it's been a while since I've last posted and I have encountered a few challenges. I had the Civic on the road for all of a week. My friend has had several Civics and I wanted him to take the car for a spin to see what he thought of the suspension setup. He's a cautious driver, but the first thing he did was nail a sinkhole at 90kph. Here is the aftermath.
That's right--both wheels on the passenger's side were bent severely. Moreover, the alignment slipped and the front wheel actually contacted the frame rail (see the shiny spot and excuse all the mud).
I've had the wheels straightened and powder coated hyper silver--stay tuned for finished pictures when I pick them up tomorrow. With regards to my brand new suspension components, I can't tell if any are bent until I sort out the wheels and get the car back on the alignment rack. To say the least, this stupid endeavour will cost me a pretty penny! I don't think I'll ever let anyone else drive my cars again--it's hard not to get angry over an accident when I didn't cause it myself.
In the meantime, the front brakes were less than satisfactory. While new-ish, they were cheap, white box specials. I ordered Centric Premium blank rotors, Stoptech pads and some reman calipers. Here's what ensued yesterday.
It's a shame that the pad carriers are different colours, but they'll be rusty in no time anyway. I may get a kit and paint the calipers if I have a slow day (which I never do). Here's hoping that I can get this now very expensive beater back on the road by the end of the week.
That's right--both wheels on the passenger's side were bent severely. Moreover, the alignment slipped and the front wheel actually contacted the frame rail (see the shiny spot and excuse all the mud).
I've had the wheels straightened and powder coated hyper silver--stay tuned for finished pictures when I pick them up tomorrow. With regards to my brand new suspension components, I can't tell if any are bent until I sort out the wheels and get the car back on the alignment rack. To say the least, this stupid endeavour will cost me a pretty penny! I don't think I'll ever let anyone else drive my cars again--it's hard not to get angry over an accident when I didn't cause it myself.
In the meantime, the front brakes were less than satisfactory. While new-ish, they were cheap, white box specials. I ordered Centric Premium blank rotors, Stoptech pads and some reman calipers. Here's what ensued yesterday.
It's a shame that the pad carriers are different colours, but they'll be rusty in no time anyway. I may get a kit and paint the calipers if I have a slow day (which I never do). Here's hoping that I can get this now very expensive beater back on the road by the end of the week.
wow. it's a shame that your friend would abuse your car like that. Glad to see you replaced those brakes. I replaced mine a couple of years ago with some rebuilt Centric calipers also. Felt MUCH better afterwards!
I can't believe I drove the car with the old calipers--the rusty pistons barely moved. Here, I was envisioning drastic things like a Wilwood big brake kit. For my uses, it's totally unnecessary. This thing stops very well now.
On the progress front, I got the wheels back from repair and powder coating. They look black in the pictures, but they're actually a dark hyper silver finish. I think I preferred the machined finish lips, but that only would have cost more money/been less durable.
I think they emphasize how terrible the rest of the car looks! Beater style…
Once I had the car all buttoned back together, I thought I could take it to the shop for re-alignment. Of course, that's exactly the moment that it decided to develop an idle surge (fast, cyclic surging from 1000-2000 rpms and back). That led me to take off the intake and do some spelunking.
By partially blocking the inlet port for the IACV, I was able to stabilize the idle speed. Turns out that my IACV was stuck partially open with carbon buildup. I should have taken pictures of the process, but, for now, I removed the throttle body and the IACV and cleaned everything very thoroughly with carb cleaner. Now, the car miraculously idles at 700 RPM and the off-idle throttle response is much better than it ever was. It used to hunt for idle at stoplights and generally idled around 1000 RPMs. The debate for me now is: how long will the cleaning be effective for? I'm thinking I should just order a new IACV and change it when I have time. We'll see. The car is finally in for an alignment today.
On the progress front, I got the wheels back from repair and powder coating. They look black in the pictures, but they're actually a dark hyper silver finish. I think I preferred the machined finish lips, but that only would have cost more money/been less durable.
I think they emphasize how terrible the rest of the car looks! Beater style…
Once I had the car all buttoned back together, I thought I could take it to the shop for re-alignment. Of course, that's exactly the moment that it decided to develop an idle surge (fast, cyclic surging from 1000-2000 rpms and back). That led me to take off the intake and do some spelunking.
By partially blocking the inlet port for the IACV, I was able to stabilize the idle speed. Turns out that my IACV was stuck partially open with carbon buildup. I should have taken pictures of the process, but, for now, I removed the throttle body and the IACV and cleaned everything very thoroughly with carb cleaner. Now, the car miraculously idles at 700 RPM and the off-idle throttle response is much better than it ever was. It used to hunt for idle at stoplights and generally idled around 1000 RPMs. The debate for me now is: how long will the cleaning be effective for? I'm thinking I should just order a new IACV and change it when I have time. We'll see. The car is finally in for an alignment today.