Selling the frankencivic $1000

[Matt Timion]

Two things.

Did you click on "vehicle runs" when you asked for the quote? It would make the difference between 550 and 750.

Secondly, it does run. The battery is drained and I still need to charge it. I have driven it to Provo before, which is about 30-40 miles away. I've made that drive on a few occassions and had no problems.

I only say it isn't road-trip worthy for a few reasons:

1) I've never taken it on a roadtrip

2) it isnt' been used since october

3) it has a few bugs to work out.

Other than that, I'll email you some pictures possibly tomorrow. I need to clean it up a little bit first.

[kwtorbe]

Cool, I did check the vehicle runs part. I think it is that Houston is such a big port city that they may be able to send a truck back here with it or something....or at least that is the only sense I can make of it.

As far as the bugs...does the lean burn work properly?

I'm not afraid of body work, wiring, window regulators, or anything like that....

[Matt Timion]

Originally Posted by kwtorbe

As far as the bugs...does the lean burn work properly?

I have no reason to think it doesn't... here's what I do know though.

After I got it all together I couldn't get much more than 27mpg in it.

My guess is that this is due to a few things:
1) I had a really old o2 sensor (160k miles-bought it used).
2) I never set the timing.
3) spark plugs, wires, etc.

I have since replaced the o2 sensor with a brand new one and put new plugs and wires on. I havn't adjusted the timing, however, as I've never done that before. I'm sure it's easy. I also lost interest in the car after I bought the Fit.

I have actually never driven it since the new o2 sensor was put in.

My guess is that when this thing is properly tuned and the hood is fully closed, it'll break 45mpg consistantly on the freeway. I don't say 50 because this vehicle is heaver and less aerodynamic than the VX for which this engine was designed. I'm certain that 50 can be broken, however, depending on the driver.

[kwtorbe]

Timing is really easy to adjust on d16y5 and I think it is the same on d15z1. I'd say loosen the 3 bolts around the distributor and turn towards the front of the car to advance it with the engine running. You want it advanced as much as possible without detonation so turn it almost all the way. You're idle speed should increase. Then adjust the idle down by disconnecting the iacv and turning the screw on the side of the throttle body that is towards the front of te car slight amounts. Then unplug the battery to reset the ecu ad you'll be good to go! It's really pretty easy and will take you like 15 minutes to do both.... My hx ran a ton better once I did that.

Can you post some pictures?

[Matt Timion]

Originally Posted by kwtorbe

Timing is really easy to adjust on d16y5 and I think it is the same on d15z1. I'd say loosen the 3 bolts around the distributor and turn towards the front of the car to advance it with the engine running. You want it advanced as much as possible without detonation so turn it almost all the way. You're idle speed should increase. Then adjust the idle down by disconnecting the iacv and turning the screw on the side of the throttle body that is towards the front of te car slight amounts. Then unplug the battery to reset the ecu ad you'll be good to go! It's really pretty easy and will take you like 15 minutes to do both.... My hx ran a ton better once I did that.

Can you post some pictures?

Sorry for the delay. I was swamped with work today. I should have time tomorrow to take some pictures for you.

[kwtorbe]

Well my dad talked me into saving money for college. Darn rational things to do.....

Awesome civic though.

[Matt Timion]

Originally Posted by kwtorbe

Well my dad talked me into saving money for college. Darn rational things to do.....

Awesome civic though.

Glad the money is being used for a good cause, and sorry I didn'get the pictures up earlier. I was out of town all week and wasn't able to snap photos.

I think this car needs to go on ebay anyway, and perhaps the spare parts will be sold individually.

[kwtorbe]

Well then how much do you want for those HF drums? I'm interested if they will go on the back of a '97 civic with rear drums...

[leviathan4444]

While I just signed up to gassavers.org so that I could post, I have had your thread on the d15z1 modification to your Civic in my bookmarks for a while. I've wanted to do it myself to my 91 LX, but haven't had the time or the money. You're a long way away from me, so I probably couldn't buy your Civic, but if you don't mind a few curiosity questions, here are a few:
1) Is the car still available for sale?
2) Is the car reliable in its current configuration? i.e. Will it make it on a 1800 mile road trip without any more work? (There's an off chance I could afford to buy it, but I could NOT afford to deal with a breakdown halfway home.)
3) I never saw on the forums what kind of results you ended up getting with the new O2 sensor. How good is the gas mileage so far?
4) Does the VTEC work? Does it run properly under full throttle acceleration all the way to the redline?
Also, should you become desperate to sell it, and the price goes down, please do let me know. However, I seriously doubt you'll have a problem as your asking price, with everything you've included is VERY VERY reasonable.
Anyway, if you've got time to answer my questions, that would be great, if not, that's fine too.
Curt

[Matt Timion]

Hey Curt...

1) Still for sale. I plan on cleaning it and putting it on ebay soon
2) As mentioned above, I wouldn't risk a road trip as it's never been tested on a road trip before. I've had it die on me twice for no reason at all, and I had a wiring issue that I still can't track down. I suspect that the wiring issue has something to do with the ECU, as it only happens when the ECU is tucked away.
3) After buying the new o2 sensor, I never drove it. Kind of a waste.
4) I tested the vtec once and the car died. I posted about it here. I think it could be due to a number of things, including the fact that the vtec wasn't used on this engine for a really long time. It also takes a LOT of effort to even engage vtec. With such low RPMs it would never engage.

As mentioned on the first post, there are still a few demons to work out, which is why the asking price is so low. It's all stuff a honda-person could easily deal with though.