My D16Z6 block has been sent to the machine shop and hopefully I get it back in a week or two so I can start building the motor. Once I get my block back I should start posting more updates regularly so come back to my site soon or register for my RSS Feed to keep up on the updates. Till then I got some more things to do in the mean time so watch for updates.
I was surfing D-Series.org again today and found yet another great turbo build in progress and thought I would share this with you. Click Here for the link.
The weather was really nice today so my friend and I decided to wash our cars. We took out the hose, a bucket with hot water and soap, and the mighty sponge. I was washing and she was doing all the rinsing so the cars got washed pretty quick. It’s amazing how dirty your car gets in the winter from all the salt, dirt and grim that’s flying around from car to car. Now that my car is cleaner my wipers should work better too. I’ve washed my car at a public car wash before and no matter how well I wash it, I can never get it as good as I can at home with a sponge.
I’ve owned my current Honda Civic just shy of 2 years and I love it. It’s not a brand new car but it’s got lots of character and plenty of potential. I’ve done lots of work on it for the last 2 years and would do it again if I had to. It’s easy to work on, parts are decently priced and you can’t beat Honda quality. It’s a 17 year old car and I know there are better models available now but for what I need it’s perfect. I have owned previous models of Honda Civics and have always loved the design and quality of each one.
My first Honda Civic was a 1982 4 door hatchback that had to be fixed before I drove it. The engine was in pieces when I bought it so I had to get a friend mechanic to help me put it back together and I learned a lot during this process. I drove this Civic for a number of years and I believe I put about 30,000km on it. It was a fun ride and cheap on gas which was great while driving around. The engine was a 1.3 Liter 8 Valve Honda Motor that put out about 55hp which was plenty back then.
My 2nd Honda Civic was a 1986 2 Door Hatchback that was light blue and had a 1.3 Liter 8 Valve 60hp Honda Motor. It was a nice improvement from the 1982 as it was easier to start and a little more roomy. When I bought it, it was already 12 years old so it needed a little TLC but I was OK with that as I loved working on it. About a year after owning it the transmission input shaft bearing gave out and not knowing how to fix this I was in the midst of junking the car. But luckily with some advice from a friend I bought another Honda Civic, took out the transmission and used this to fix mine. Doing this with the guidance of my dad I managed to put the transmission back on the my car and got it working. It was such relief to get my baby back on the road. I spent about a week and and a half doing the transmission swap but during the process I got lots of hands on experience that would help me in the future.
My 3rd car was not a Honda Civic but rather a 1987 Acura Integra which was actually very similar to my 1986 Honda Civic but with a lot more options. The frame design on the Acura Integra was actually very similar to my 1986 Civic and the engine was made by Honda. After 1 month of driving it the rust ate the clutch shift fork so again I had to pull the transmission off. I put a new clutch into it and this time I had air tools so I was a lot quicker doing the job. This car was from back east so it had lots of rust on the under body but I fixed this and drove the car for the next few years.
After my Acura Integra I had a few Mazda’s but never had the same feeling about them as I did with my previous Honda Civic’s and the Acura Integra. So finally on March 27, 2007 I bought my 1993 Honda Civic and have loved it ever since.
If you ever wondered what’s inside a VTEC Solenoid assembly then here you go. I cleaned mine out from my D16Z6 engine and snapped a few pictures for reference. As you can see in my pictures below my pressure switch has a broken plug socket so I will have to replace that before I mount it back on my engine. The pressure switch gives the go ahead to the ECU when the oil pressure is high enough to engage VTEC. Once the ECU sends the signal to the VTEC Solenoid it opens a valve and feeds oil to the VTEC Assembly, this engages a higher torque cam lobe and gives you more power.
Today I had some extra time after work so I went ahead and setup my parts washer and filled it with 2 gallons of solvent. I started washing the exhaust valves first one by one and made sure all the components were accounted for including the valve, valve seat, spring, retainer and keepers. I used a small plastic container for each valve set to make sure everything was properly organized. If you look on the picture below you will see how I organized the parts after cleaning them with solvent. Once I got all the exhaust valve parts clean, I turned off the parts washer and dried everything off. After drying off one valve set at a time I put the parts in their own ziplock bags for storage. I repeated the process for the intake valves and also cleaned the VTEC solenoid.
I used 16 small zip lock bags and named them exhaust 1, exhaust 2, exhaust 3, all the way up to 8 and then the same for intake. With this method I will keep all the parts organized and easier for assembly later on.
Parts washer with 2 gallons of solvent.
Washing a valve spring in my parts washer.
Organized valve train parts in their own buckets.
I finally got around to getting some work done on my D16 block today. I sprayed degreaser on it again and pressure washed the left over shavings from doing the cylinder wall notching last December. I also got around to using my new tap and die set and did some thread chasing on the smaller threads. I didn’t touch the top head stud threads and the bottom main cap threads because I didn’t want to mess those up just in case I made a mistake. I’ve been lacking on doing any updates on this build as I haven’t really done anything since mid December ’08 but I’m hoping to get it going forward again very soon. My next step is to drop off the block, crankshaft, main bearing cap, Vitara pistons, connecting rods and bearings at the machine shop to get everything all matched up and machined, and hopefully assembled before end of February.
Tapping threads on my D16 Block
D16 block with cylinders showing slight surface rust.
Image of my crankshaft and my main bearing cap.
Lets face it building or rebuilding an engine is not cheap, lots of time, money and sweat have gone into your precious engine so why treat it like crap. Always do a proper break in by NOT USING synthetic oil, change the oil and filter after first 25kms and make sure you have proper cooling. But hey don’t listen to me and kiss your new engine good bye, it’s up to you!. Here is another great link on what to do and what not to do on an engine break in. Click Here for link.
I stopped by Pet land after work today and picked up a 100watt heat lamp to replace the heat bulb they broke last night. This ceramic one should have a longer life span and also not burst when cold water hits it as I suspect that’s what happened to my other bulb by one of the turtles. While I was there I also picked up some algae wafers and shrimp pellets as I was out of both of them. I give the wafers to my Plecos every other day or a few times a week to cut down on over feeding them. The shrimp pellets are for my crayfish and my small algae eaters. These particular shrimp pellets are good for keeping your tank cleaner as they don’t make as much mess as some other brands while they get consumed.
After screwing in the ceramic heat lamp I changed the water in the turtle tank. This water change was larger then usual as I wanted to suck out as much of the old water as possible and any bottom debre using my gravel cleaner.
100w Ceramic Heat Lamp
Algae Waffers and Shrimp Pellets
