WonderBart

After bolting on the connecting rods I bolted on the main cap girdle and noticed that I have very little room between my ARP rod bolt and the girdle so I had no choice but to notch the girdle. As you can see on the image above the space between the ARP rod bolt and the Main Cap Girdle is not very much. I used my new Dremel Tungston Carbide Cutter bit to notch what I needed. Up top on the right you can see the first step of my notching process and then the the final job on the right. I didn't want to take too much off at first so I notched only a little bit of the girdle but then after bolting it back on the engine, I realized I needed way more and went back to notching it. As you can see in the images above that I have way more room for the bolt to clear after notching which makes me feel a bit more at ease when pushing so much horsepower through this engine. ... Read More

Last weekend I had some time to check the connecting rod bearing clearance which was again interesting to do. All 4 of the rod bearings were in the .0013-.0015" clearance range which is a bit on the tight side but still within limits for this turbo build engine. Just like the main bearings I placed a piece of plastigage on the crank journals and tightened up the rods bolts slowly. I made sure I did them evenly to make sure the rod cap went on straight. I already had ARP molly lube on the threads and head of the bolts from the machine shop so I tightened the bolts up to 25ft-lbs first then to 43ft-lbs. I loosened of the bolts with a 2 stage process and knocked of the caps with a piece of wood being very carefull. I then used the Green Clevite's Plastigage to check the rod bearing clearances which were all around .0013 to .0015".  On the right is another picture of my bottom end with my rod caps on. ... Read More

Not too much progress on the engine today but I did do some more research on the forums and found out that I will have to notch my Main Caps/Girdle to have proper clearance from the connecting rods. So I looked around and found the proper Dremel 9901 Tungsten Carbide Cutter Bit at Home Depot today so this should help me notch the main caps  a lot faster and use less bits in the process. ... Read More

I picked up some much needed tools yesterday which will be very important for the next step in my D16 engine rebuild. I got them up at Princess Auto and they were actually quite affordable. The piston ring compressor is a very important tool when your ready to insert the pistons into the cylinders. It keeps the rings compressed and aligned for easy insertion of the piston into the cylinder. These C-Clip pliers are very important as I will need them to insert the c-clip into the piston once I get the wrist pin aligned in the piston head. As you can see they have really fine point tips which are only used for C-Clips and not for general purpose use. ... Read More

Last Sunday I got around to checking the main bearing clearances and got some good results. All 5 of my main bearings were in the .0013-.0015" range which is within the limits of what it's suppose to be. I had some time today so I posted how it all went. I wiped off the area where the bearings sit in the block and placed the new bearings in place. I then used the Green Clevite's Plastigage to check the clearances I cut a small piece of the plastigage and placed it across all the journals I then put the other half of the bearings on the main caps.  As you can see in the picture on the right the plastigage is barely visible. Two of the main cap bolts in the D16Z6 are longer then the others so I made sure I inserted them in the 2 middle holes on the main caps. I remembered to lubricate the bolts and the washers in oil for better torque feel. Working from the middle I started finger tightening all the bolts first, then to 18 Ft-lbs then to 38 Ft-lbs. Once they were all tight I loosened all the bolts in the ... 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 was checking into any more info about this years Driven to Perform show at BC Place Stadium and stumbled upon some bad news. The DTP show is suspended this year due to the global economic situation and the auto industry taking such a big hit. I was really eager to go and see this year's event and this news is really disappointing to hear but more importantly lots of businesses that were suppose to be at this years show will definetly be affected by this news. Hopefully next year the situation will get better and the Driven to Perform event will be back at BC Place Stadium to inspire and wow future car enthusiasts. Click Here for the Link to the Press Release from DTP about this cancellation. ... 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

I went to the Vancouver Auto Show today and took some pictures of some vehicles and thought I would share them here. ... Read More

Below is the list of wonderbart.com top Entrecard droppers for March 2009. Thanks to all that have dropped on my site. Dropper # of drops Life's A Pizza Pie 30 Freebie Reporter 30 BMWF1Blog 30 Big Boys Have Toys Too 30 Blogger Templates 30 Random Ramblings 29 All blogspot templates 29 Computer Aid 28 All contests 28 Traceys Blog 28 ... Read More

Fast and Furious 4 is coming out this Friday and I can't wait to see it. They've brought back original cast from the first one and this one looks like a winner. Check out the video on the right and if you want to see the website click Here. ... Read More

My D16 Engine block should be back from the machine shop soon and one of the steps that I will have to do is gap the piston rings. I found a great link on how to gap the rings. Click Here to for the link. ... Read More

If you buy a used engine with a damaged or malfunctioning Throttle Positioning Sensor(TPS), then you'll need to replace this before starting your engine to make sure it will run properly. The throttle positioning sensor sends real time throttle position to the ECU which in turn adjusts the flow of fuel through the injectors to make sure you getting your proper fuel mixture to run your engine properly. Click Here for a link to a Do It Yourself that was posted on D-Series.org on how to swap out your TPS on your throttle body. ... Read More

MugenKid18 Honda Civic Wallpaper courtesy of ClubCivic.com Pick your screen resolution 1024x768 - 1280x960 - 1600x1200 ... Read More

Here are the March 2009 upcoming movie trailers. Check them out they are really good. The Taking of Pelham 123 Mutant Chronicles Echelon Conspiracy American Violet Dragonball Evolution Observe and Report Miss March State of Play ... Read More

Below is the list of wonderbart.com top Entrecard droppers for February 2009. Thanks to all that have dropped on my site and hope you do the same for March 2009 and be listed below. Dropper # of drops Life's A Pizza Pie 31 ThemeLib 31 Big Boys Have Toys Too 31 Not Your Ordinary History 30 John Wright Art 30 More Than Sew So 30 BMWF1Blog 30 Bingo Sites Online for Women 30 Computer Aid 30 1 Blog and 2 Sides 30 ... 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

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. ... Read More

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. ... Read More

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 ... Read More