98 Civic LX sedan project rebuild

[Hondad78]

Front camber arms came in today, went with skunk2. I was pretty impressed with the packaging alone. They were bubble wrapped and plastic wrapped. The arms themselves feel solid, good welds and nice coat of paint. The balljoint and bushing look to be OE quality if not better.

Even came with an owner kit.

Bought a sticker too

 

[Hondad78]

New headlights, what a difference. may not be oem, thought about restoring the originals but for the price of these replacements, doesn't seem worth it. cheap sir style lip to complete the look. I am stoked, looks 100 times better. that's it for the outside for a while, time to shift gears and do some turbo homework. Stay tuned..

 

[Hondad78]

All back together. Needs an alignment bad, toe is way out. Honda is close to home luckily.

 

[Hondad78]

So I have been researching ECUs setups and looks like I am going to pick one up from hamotorsports.com. Undecided if I should go DEMON/Neptune for around 550$ or go with the Hondata for another 100$.

Does everyone prefer Hondata, is it easier to tune? or both are good? I want to learn how to tune on my own as much as I can, datalogging, a/f, 2 step, boost by gear, all of that good stuff. lots to learn but that is part of the hobby.

 

[Hondad78]

Still undecided on which ecu setup to run but looks like I am moving forward with the mini swap. I wasn't going to but the 3 to 2 wire iac issue persuaded me to. I will have to convert to odb2 every 2 years to get thru inspection and I don't want to have to worry about going back to 3 wire every time. I have all the parts just got to strip the y8 head and get it to shop to have cleaned and checked yada yada.

Also I ordered hasport engine mounts, can't wait to get rid of those yonakas.

 

[Hondad78]

Started taking apart the y8 head, when I am done off to the machine shop to get checked and valve job performed. Ordering all new seals and HG. While the y7 engine in my car is apart the radiator and hoses will also be replaced.

I have had this too for a bit, nothing special. Cheap amazon turbo 55 trim.

 

[Hondad78]

Hasport mounts are in with the exception of the rear t bracket one, that will get done when the y7 head finally gets swapped out. Just to make things easier on myself. So tomorrow going to get the car out for a bit and will test to see how the 2 mounts feel. I can tell already from just starting it up that it is a lot more quiet in the cabin area so that's good news.

 

[Hondad78]

Took a nice ride down to the beach area today, beautiful day and got a few shots of the ugly girl. Enjoy..

 

[civteck]

Are you happy with the mount changes?

Sent from my boujea ass phone

 

[Hondad78]

Are you happy with the mount changes?

Sent from my boujea ass phone

Yes, I still need to swap the rear t bracket mount but it is less noisy already. After driving 100 miles today the bushings have not moved at all. Only negative is with the supplied hardware, I received a mixed bag of bolts with no directions on which ones were to be used where. I had to spend time fitting and swapping. Seems odd for a product as expensive and highly rated as these are. They are solid and should hold up for my use.

 

[Hondad78]

Hey now, little update. Mini swap is done. A gift wrapped package from the machine shop.

and......done

Doesn't look much different but the y8 head in on, OEM head gasket, new dual core radiator, Skunk2 cap, new radiator hoses along with other OEM hoses and clamps and installed the rear hasport bracket. Had an issue with getting the FPR dialed in due to the fuel gauge not reading at all so after flooding the engine I removed the fuel rail and installed the OEM one and with new plugs it fired up. running the P2P ecu with the Y8 harness and pinned the secondary 02 sensor my the Y7 harness.
Took it for a test run yesterday and it runs mint, gets up in the RPMs a bit quicker. I cannot hear "vtec" kick in but there is a noticeable gain on the top end.
Thats all for now, next upgrade is a short shifter I hate how long the throw is OEM. After that collecting more turbo parts, currently only have the manifold and turbo. I will post that up soon. later.

 

[Hondad78]

Skunk2 dual bend and Battlecraft knob setup today. You can see the comparison from OEM.

I didn't plan on removing this, it decided to remove itself.

and glamour shot...

 

[Hondad78]

Finally got one, waiting on conversion harness and wideband and then I will swap it out. Still N/A, will give me something to do while I wait for more turbo parts.

 

[Hondad78]

Been a while. Car is running strong, now on boost. I don't drive it that often but when I do, it sure is fun. I will update this page when I get the time, kind of forgot about it. The exhaust has since been fixed. I want to paint another valve cover in a lime green along with the front calipers. Also looking into stiffening the suspension and some low profile rear spoiler(not finding anything I like for a sedan.)

 

[nd4sped]

Nice update man! My first Civic was a 1998 Sedan and I still miss the body style. I can say that IMO for what it counts, you have done quite tasteful upgrades to the car. I like it.

 

[Hondad78]

Thanks, it's no show car but that wasn't my intent. My goals were make it fast and make it fun. It does not disappoint plus I enjoy shocking people who don't know what a 4 cyl can do.

I have the boost control solenoid that I need to wire in next, right now it is on gate. Datalogging on a 20pd spring I have seen 22psi, so 2nd gear I have to ease into it and then I can full throttle 3rd/4th. Managing the levels will make it more driveable.

 

[Hondad78]

Still to be done yet, put in new plugs and wires, distributor cap, gas filter, air filter, pcv valve, repin the connectors and put in the new wiring harness, order new calipers and install them. That's all for this month. And a Big Thank you to nd4sped for helping me out with the Pin-outs diagram, I've been trying to find them for weeks. Going to try to sleep now, wish me luck.

Shooter,

Sounds like a great project and a ton of progress. Let me know if you need anything, I have a bunch of spare parts.