WonderBart

I haven't had much time to do any work on my 1993 Honda Civic for a while now but I still drive it daily and every time I get behind the wheel I get excited. It's not the excitement of a new car or 500 horsepower but instead it's the fact it works great and I did all the work myself. The turbo is still coming just on hold for now, but once that gets installed in her she will have a new ROAR to expel from her tail pipe. There is a special bond between some people and their car not just as a physical item but as a form of freedom and total control. When I drive my Honda Civic I know every sound, every creek, every reaction that she gives to me when I propel her through the roadways. It's almost like were connected as soon as the engine starts, we become one entity and each one knows what they expect of the other. This might sound a bit weird for some but hey I don't really care because when I drive down the road I know exactly what my Honda Civic is capable of to keep ... Read More

Engine / Performance JDM D16A VTEC Engine Honda P28 ECU Centerforce Dual Friction Clutch Vibrant Short Ram Intake NGK Blue Ignition Wires Megan Racing 4-2-1 Chrome Header 2.5" Exhaust with High Flow Resonator Magnaflow Muffler with Chrome Tip Aluminum Radiator B&M Fuel Pressure Gauge Interior Custom Center Gauge Pod - Water Temp / Oil Temp / Voltage - Coming Soon AutoMeter Boost Gauge - Need left pillar for install Suspension / Brakes / Wheels Dropzone Lowering Shocks + Coilovers Red Painted Calipers and Drums 15" Sorat 5 Spoke Aluminum Wheels 195/50 Bridgestone Fuzion ZRi Tires Exterior Projector Headlights Fiber Glass Vented Fenders - Waiting for Paintjob Carbon Fiber Hood - Waiting for Paintjob Audio / Security Alpine Head Unit 10" Alpine Type-S Sub Sony 1200W Mono Amp Delphi XM Radio Clifford Alarm ... Read More

I finally got my D16Z6 engine block back  from the machine shop yesterday and took a bunch of pictures to post up the blog.  As you can see the Block Guard is nicely installed in my D16 Block. The machine shop did a very nice job on boring and honing out the cylinders. After the top of the block was decked you can see the sleeves are more visible. The main bearing cap is nice and clean after hot tanking process. The main bearing bores were checked by machine shop to make sure they are true. The Crankshaft was micropolished and looks really nice now. The FJ R SPEC Connecting rods and Vitara Pistons look really sharp in these pictures. My next step will be to plastiguage the main bearings. ... Read More

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. ... Read More

It's the 9th of January and this is my first post of 2009. I've been lacking on posting updates on the blog as I haven't been doing any work on the RC D16 Turbo Build or any type of work on my Honda Civic. Ever since the 19th of December we have been hit by a ton of snow and it just won't go away. The last few weeks I was spending a lot of time cleaning the driveway, but now the rain is back and melting all the snow away.  It was a nice break to just stay inside and watch tv and play World of Warcraft but now I will have to get back to building the RC D16 Turbo Engine. I have to save up some money to take the block to the machine shop but I think I can do this in a couple of weeks. ... Read More

The XMAS holidays were very different this year with Rocky's passing and the crazy amount of snow, so I wasn't really into doing anything on my RC D16 Turbo Build. I had 2.5 feet of snow over the week so I spent a lot of time just plowing my driveway. XMAS eve was great to spend with my family and I even got new floor mats for my Civic. I did get stuck in the snow with my Honda Civic at work so after that I had no choice but to borrow my brothers AWD Mazda CX-7 and park my Civic. The snow was so high that my Civic was plowing it with the front bumper and hitting my undercarriage. I think next year I will get a beater civic to drive in the winter and keep my turbo one in the driveway under a car cover. I always said I wanted my car to be a daily driver even after performance mods but seeing how this years winter was on my car and the stupidity of other drivers in the snow, I think it would be better to park it for the 3-4 months during winter. ... Read More

We've had our first big snow storm this season and my Honda Civic drives pretty good in it. I swapped my wheels back in October to my old 13" steel wheels and added a set of snow tires upfront and a good pair of all seasons on the rear.  She's a bit lower then a stock 1993 Civic but being front wheel drive and 5 speed the traction in snow is great. She's no 4x4 but she handles way better then any other rear wheel drive vehicle on the road. Caution is always a good thing to have in the winter months and having more control is always easier on the nerves. Below is a picture of my 1993 Honda Civic in the snow, click on it for a larger image. ... Read More

My D16Z6 Turbo build parts finally arrived today and man did I have a smile on my face after opening the box. The Vitara pistons and I-Beam rods are of great quality and craftsmanship and the block guard looks nice too. I have all the gaskets that I will need to redo the bottom end now and with the pistons and rods here, I just need to finish chasing the treads on my block and it's totally ready for the machine shop. I will have to see if I can squeeze in the machining before Xmas but if not then early January is fine too.  D16Z6 Full Gasket Kit and BlockGuard 75.5mm Vitara Pistons, FJ R SPEC I-Beam Rods, ARP Rod Bolts, Rings, Bearings, Water Pump and Timing Belt   Vitara Pistons and FJ R SPEC I-Beam Rods Great Craftsmanship on the pistons and Rods   FJDistributors D16Z6 parts are of great quality and an affortable price. FJ Distributors.com   ... Read More

After 2 more hours I finally finished notching the cylinders yesterday. I went through a bunch of grinding bits as some fell apart from cheap glue and others just got used up after intensive grinding. The I-Beam connecting rods should work fine now with the vitara pistons but if needed I can always touch up any cylinders that might need it later. For anyone else that might be considering doing this job, my suggestion is to get yourself a respirator and a good pair of eye goggles. The metal shavings fly everywhere and without the proper gear it's not safe. I used a dremel drill with a flex cord attachement, but I believe that if you use a die grinder you might be able to get the job done faster. Here's a picture of me notching the other side of the cylinder and also a picture of the finished job. ... Read More

I finally got some time tonight so I went ahead and took out my dermal drill and started notching the cylinder walls. It's not a hard job to do but takes lots of patience and a steady hand. I had to swap a few sanding stones to get the botom side done so for the opposite side I will have to pickup some more sanding stones or a carbide bit to finish it off. My only suggestion is make sure you are wearing some protective glasses as metal shavings fly everywhere and also if possible wear a nose mask or a respirator. Picture on the left is the un-notched block and the one on the right is notched. ... Read More

The next step while waiting for my pistons and rods to arrive is to chase all my threads and to notch the bottom part of my cylinders. The notch is 3/4" wide, 1/4" deep and 1/4" down the cylinder wall. The reason I need to notch the cylinders is because the I- Beam connecting rods are a little bigger and thus would hit the cylinder walls. Click Here for a link to a website that shows what exactly cylinder notching is all about. ... Read More

I sand blasted my D16Z6 block, cylinder head, intake manifold, and valve cover today and man do they look sweet now. Once I do the machining and put the bottom end internals in I intend to paint the block. I haven't picked a color yet but I'm thinking of a high heat orange-red, but this is still up for grabs.   I ordered the Vitara pistons with a full gasket kit, I beam connecting rods, and a block guard from FJDistributors yesterday so the parts should be here in about a week. My next step will be to notch the cylinder walls after dry fitting the pistons with the I beam connecting rods. ... Read More

I finished masking all the parts that need sandblasting tomorrow so this should help keep the key areas from getting damaged,  although I know that some of the tape might get ripped off which is OK. I also cleaned the old gasket of the intake header surface that mates with the cylinder head. I used a razor blade scraper and brake cleaner and it worked like a charm. It took about 30 minutes to prep the entire surface and after that I took 400 grit sandpaper and a block of wood and gently sanded the surface to make sure it's completely flat. As you can see the intake header surface is really clean and should mate well with a new gasket. ... Read More

I had an early day at work today so when I got home and I started back on the turbo build. I sprayed citrus degreaser on the block, valve cover, intake manifold, main cap and the cylinder head and then pressure washed them to get rid of the oil. Now I washed the cylinder head last night but today using the pressure washer it worked a lot better. I am going to hot tank all the parts after the machining, but it had to be cleaned before sandblasting anyways. Once everything was cleaned I air dried them and then started masking off the top of the block and the bottom journals so they wouldn't get damaged during the sandblasting. Now I know a sandblaster could rip of a piece of tape like butter if it's pointed right at it, but this is just for over spray protection not for direct spray. While sandblasting I will try to be as careful as possible and stay away from those critical areas.  I still have old gasket to take off from the intake manifold and the cylinder head but that can wait till next week when I have more time. I pulled off the valve seals using pliers and then took off the valve seats and put them in the appropriate valve zip lock bag ... Read More

Last night after work I disassembled the D16Z6 cylinder head with the help of my friend Tracey. I pulled everything off the head including the rocker assembly, VTEC Solenoid, valves and springs. I tried to pull off the valve seals but couldn’t do it by hand so I left those on for now. I later checked on the net and you can use pliers to take those off. While disassembling the cylinder head my friend Tracey labeled my zip lock bags so all my parts were all organized and kept my valves and their related pieces separated. Being organized while taking it apart will be very useful when I start putting it back together as I will know where each part if from and don’t mix any screws or parts up. Down below you can see how I labeled my zip lock bags to separate the individual valve parts, I did this also with the engine block parts. After the head was completely bare of any parts I used some degreaser spray and a plastic brush and cleaned the head of any remaining oil. I was careful when cleaning the area where the camshaft makes contact not to damage this surface. ... Read More

I've been busy with other interests and hobbies so I haven't had to time work on my engine build this week. Tonight I went into my shop and decided to cleanup as it was muchly needed. There is nothing worse then trying to do a good job and you can't cause your tools are unorganized or your tripping on engine parts. I cleaned up the shop and now I am ready for some more D16Z6 engine building. My next step will be to disassemble the cylinder head and the intake manifold of all sensors. Then the block, head, rocker cover and the intake manifold will have to be degreased and dried out. This will have to be done in order to be ready for sand blasting this Friday. ... Read More

Nothing really new about the turbo build today, it's been pretty quiet lately so I decided to do my oil change today. I went to Canadian Tire and picked up some Penzoil Full Synthetic and an oil filter and since I knew I was going to get a bit dirty anyways I also picked up some regular oil and oil filter for my moms van too. Both the oil changes went pretty smoothly except the oil filter on my moms van was a bit hard to take off so I had to find an oil filter wrench and use that. Once I used the wrench the rest of the oil change was a no brainer. I'm at 219,500km on my Honda Civic so at about 225,000km will be my next scheduled oil change. I was down about 1 liter from my last oil change but that's expected with such a high revving engine. ... Read More

Before I send out the block to the machine shop I need to order my pistons and connecting rods. Once I have the proper parts I can send the block and the parts to the machine shop and get everything fitted and the necessary parts machined. Click Here for the link to my bottom end parts page on my site. ... Read More

These are my first images of my D16Z6 engine, and as you can see it looks very stock right now. There are a couple sensors that are broken and plugs that are bent, but all in all the engine looks to be in good shape. It did not come with a distributor or a crank pulley but for now I don't need those. I still do have my old D15B7 engine so if needed I can use my crank pulley from that engine, as I believe it's the same on the 1.5 and 1.6 liter. But I am not 100% sure so I will have to double check this first.   Here are some images of the black valve cover and the VTEC valve train. Here are 2 more images of the front and back of the engine with the distributor and the crank pulley missing. ... Read More

My D16Z6 turbo build has officially begun as I picked up a D16Z6 engine from the wrecker today. I'm really excited to get this project underway as I've been wanting to add a turbo to my Honda Civic since the day I got it. I don't have a picture yet but soon as I get a chance I will snap some shots and post them up on the blog. It's a complete engine consisting of the block, head, intake and exhaust. I will have to dissemble it, send it out for machining, add some performance parts and then put it all back together. Once the engine is done I can start focusing on acquiring the Hondata 300 ECU piggy back, GlowShift Gauges and Turbo kit. So stay tuned as this build should get exciting. ... Read More