New Project Car, 1983 Civic

[GasSavers_Ryland]

A short while back a little silver 1983 Honda Civic Hatchback DX fallowed me home, it needs a new tranny, and at first I found one for a DX just like this that was ~90 miles away for $150, then yesterday I found an FE tranny for $150 that is ~50 miles away, so I did some checking, the Honda Civic FE had a 1300cc engine with peek tourqe of 68 ft.lbs @ 4,000rpm, Civic DX's engine is 1500cc with 77 ft. lbs @ 3,000rpm, my figures show that with the FE tranny my 60mph 5th gear engine speed should then drop from 2,500rpm to 2,200rpm, other then the higher geared tranny, the Civic Hatchback FE would have things like an aditional fuel cut off solenoid on it, and the fuel cut off kicks in at lower engine speeds while coasting in gear, the ignition timing is the same, valves open and close at the same crank rotation, carburators have the same venturi openings altho they have different modle numbers, I think for the lean burn stuff, and differnt jets, but over all they didn't seem to be drasticaly differnt the DX weighs only 84 pounds more then the FE, so a total of 1,867 pounds curb weight, with a 1500cc engine that puts out 63hp@5,000rpm (compare to 60hp@5,500) seats 5, has a fold down rear seat, it even has the same 4x100 honda wheel lug pattern.

[GasSavers_Erik]

Ryland- I am looking for an FE tranny for my 87 civic- especially for that price. How did you locate it? A website? Calling around to junkyards?

Junkyards in this area want $300-$350 for transaxles- even for old cars...

[GasSavers_Ryland]

I used www.car-part.com to find both the tranny for my civic VX and this one for the '83 hatchback, for an 87 civic you want to look for one from a CRX HF, when i took a look at the site it looks like western Kentucky-ish area might have them as cheap as $150-100, altho their listing seemed to be a little screwy saying that some of them came out of DX's and I'm not sure why, so you might want to call your junk yard of choice and make sure it's the correct part.
also most junkyards aren't going to have every part for every vehicle so, at least around here they tend to communicate with each other,so if they one place doesn't have one then they should be able to check with other junk yards in the area for you to find the part you are looking for,

[omgwtfbyobbq]

Keep us posted! I'd like to get an older civic as a backup commuter.

[GasSavers_Erik]

Ryland- Thanks for the info! I'll definitely check into it!

[GasSavers_Ryland]

It's in!
I finely installed my civic FE transmition! took about 3-4 hours to remove the old one, longer then I was exspecting, mostly because some of the bolts were really stuck, and hard to reach, but it came out just fine, the guy I got it from said his dad put a new clutch in it less then 20,000 miles ago, well the presure plate looked like someone had taken a corse belt sander to it, it was so scrached up, and uneven! the friction plate looked fine, along with everything else, but to get a new presure plate I had to get a whole clutch kit, so I put a whole new clutch in, and new pilet bearing, cleaned it all up, greesed the moving bits, and put it all back together, instalation took about 4 hours because I triple checked each bolt for tightness.
The last step was filling it with oil, the FE tranny had a little bit of sludge that I found when cleaning it up on the bench, so I put in regular 10w40, and after a few hundred miles I'll flush it, then put in some synthetic if everything is working correctly.
with the 2 mile test drive I did it seems to be great! it shifts smooth, and the bad muffler makes it easier to hear the changing engine tone, so it was possible to tell when the engine was lugging, it didn't seem to like going much slower then 50mph in 5th gear, altho it seemed to maintane that speed on a flat road without lugging, but any slower, and it ran rough or lost speed, however at 65mph it just purred, so it should do great on the highway.
as I said, I still need to fix the rusted out muffler, and part of that is figuring out if I can put a catolitic converter back on (going to check to see if one from a later civic might bolt up) and figuring out how to deal with the rest of the hole free, but oversized (2") aftermarket exaust pipe, then check over the rest of the suspention, and brakes, then the only thing left is to figure out what kind of mileage it gets.

[smithenhiven]

You need to post some pictures of this beast. I always wanted an 83 Civic, because that's the year I was born.

[lovemysan]

Originally Posted by Ryland

It's in!
I finely installed my civic FE transmition! took about 3-4 hours to remove the old one, longer then I was exspecting, mostly because some of the bolts were really stuck, and hard to reach, but it came out just fine, the guy I got it from said his dad put a new clutch in it less then 20,000 miles ago, well the presure plate looked like someone had taken a corse belt sander to it, it was so scrached up, and uneven! the friction plate looked fine, along with everything else, but to get a new presure plate I had to get a whole clutch kit, so I put a whole new clutch in, and new pilet bearing, cleaned it all up, greesed the moving bits, and put it all back together, instalation took about 4 hours because I triple checked each bolt for tightness.
The last step was filling it with oil, the FE tranny had a little bit of sludge that I found when cleaning it up on the bench, so I put in regular 10w40, and after a few hundred miles I'll flush it, then put in some synthetic if everything is working correctly.
with the 2 mile test drive I did it seems to be great! it shifts smooth, and the bad muffler makes it easier to hear the changing engine tone, so it was possible to tell when the engine was lugging, it didn't seem to like going much slower then 50mph in 5th gear, altho it seemed to maintane that speed on a flat road without lugging, but any slower, and it ran rough or lost speed, however at 65mph it just purred, so it should do great on the highway.
as I said, I still need to fix the rusted out muffler, and part of that is figuring out if I can put a catolitic converter back on (going to check to see if one from a later civic might bolt up) and figuring out how to deal with the rest of the hole free, but oversized (2") aftermarket exaust pipe, then check over the rest of the suspention, and brakes, then the only thing left is to figure out what kind of mileage it gets.

Now its time for a triple dose of seafoam. Carbs love seafoam.

[Gary Palmer]

You made a wise choice in going with a whole clutch kit. I think you'll find the clutch will last you a very long time, particularly if your driving it GS style. It sounds like the taller gearing is working ok, so you should be able to get some pretty decent mileage out of it, I would think.

[red91sit]

ooh, i'm a sucker for old civics. But one question, WHERE ARE THE PICTURES? haha