694 replies to this topic

[THE STIG]

mounts filled will post back toyou monday

[ginger_monkey]

Been a while again since my last post as always I'm too busy out enjoying the weather :cool:
The car has been having it's up's and downs. Have threatened it with being sold a few times but never followed it through. The car smokes a lot now. Might be a bit too high an oil level. She uses a lot of oil. I'm litteraly on a total loss oil setup :mad: Specialy if I have my boot down. Also when I start her after work to go home it can smoke out the car park. I know I need to replace the valve stem seals and will be doing this in the winter. I just hope my piston rings ain't shot.
i have dabbled with the idea of getting a complete new engine and just swapping the whold unit out. But if i can't get hold of a cheap engine that don't smoke I'm just gonna do the head work and see how it goes. If I do get a complete engine I'm gonna (over time) strip this engine down completely and maybe build up a turbo engine but this will be a bit slow time as funds will be tricky to get hold of for this. If any one knows of an engine going that I could have (B18c4) then cool.
I am also on the look out for a Type-R head so then I can just swop it straight over and then work the other head slow time. So if any one knows of a type-R head with cams all ready to go please let me know.
Other bits I have done is fit some poly filled mounts as I thought the handling issues I'm having might be made worse by the old mounts. The new mounts are brilliant. The engine movement is now minimal and feels a lot tighter. it turns out it wasn't this causing the problems but will look into that next. I have found that the vibrations are a little louder than before but not to a great extent. I would say to any one htinking about it that it is worth doing. If anyone needs the details of where to get it done just ask and I'll give you the contact details. They we £45 posted for the set.
Still working with OMEX trying to sort out the idle settings of the ecu. It's a lot better but still makes a sucking noise when at idle but not as loud. They say it will make a noise but I'm not convinced. Will keep at it.

[Daviewonder]

Thats an awesome caravan! How do you get on with towing it licence wise? I don't know if I can as I passed my test after 1997 so I don't know if my licence would allow me to tow it?

[Kam]

I thought you emigrated, again!

Hmmmm smokey smokey, is it only when you let off the throttle as thats your seals gone, if its all the time then yeah you'll need to whip the head off and have a look down the bores and investigate

As for your oil level, I don't think the allspeed engines sit exactly at the same level as in the civic etc I'm sure the 'tilt angle' is slightly different so that might be giving you a higher/lower reading than you need, the oil dipstick hole in the sump is not in the center its at the very front, the engine level is not as bad as having an R1 engine in there with it being tipped forward quite a bit but I'm sure ours sit different to a normal honda, just something to bear in mind incase you starting going OTT with the oil

Type-R lump, good move, turbo, your nuts

[ginger_monkey]

Thats an awesome caravan! How do you get on with towing it licence wise? I don't know if I can as I passed my test after 1997 so I don't know if my licence would allow me to tow it?

It's a strange way of going about trying to explain the licence on the website but from what I picked up is that as long as your max weight is not above 3.5T then it's ok. I did write them but as usual they didn't write back. The van is only 450kg so it's not massive and I have not lightened my mini so the van is never over the weight of the car. Just be carefull when loading. It tows brilliantly with this engine. We went down to Devon in it the other weekend and the car didn't miss a beat. We were flying past people up the hills when they couldn't pull at the same speed. Got a lot of attention too. Some people we're actualy pulling infront of us and slowing down to make us overtake so they could take a picture of the other side

kam - It is tricky with the engine oil level. I try and keep it on the minimum on the stick as have always thought the engine sits different to standard. When I do add more and try and take it up to the top level it smokes so bad. When I give it a lot of throttle it smokes as do most VTECs but i think we'll do the stem seals and see how it goes. Had a little look online last night about doing the head swop. If i go type-r it looks like it'll be a B16 head which will lower my compression and as a result I'll probably loose a few horses. might just keep with the B18 head as some people swear by them but maybe put some type-r cams, valves, springs and retainers. That should bring me closer up to the golden 200bhp figure.

[Kam]

Yeah stick with getting a type-r head, it will work well on yours, a guy on another forum did a comparison with something like his standard integra c6 engine and then bolted on his head on a c4 engine like yours - hardly any difference, so for the block your just paying for the badge

If you get the head and all the valvetrain then keep it as it is, waste of money getting port work done on it, its dam good straight out the box, type-r cams or a mild upgrade cam will be nice, keep a beady eye out for some.......

[ginger_monkey]

Well another couple of months since my last update. It's defo winter now so time to start working I have got another engine. Got it picked up by my mate around new years. Very happy with it as it came with intake and exhaust manifolds, an alt, inner drive shafts and has done around 100k miles less than what I am using now.




So have started to do a clean on it. Will be changing the cambelt, water pump, valve cover seal, oil change with filter and changing over all my covers that are painted up nice as this one has a bit of a dodgy spray job on it's cover.


A bit more clean and looks a bit more respectable.




Called up Geoff at Watsons yesterday and ordered a 3.7 final drive for my gearbox. Should come through next week. I have to say how amazingly helpful he was and explained exactly what I will be getting and we talked about how this will be the right one for me. I didn't want to loose too much of my acceleration but needed a better motorway cursing rev range. If I still need to bring it down then I'm going 13inch on my wheels. But will have a drive of it with the new final drive in and see what it's like first. I have a local gearbox guy that's gonna come around and collect my box. Take it away for a week and change it over, then bring it back home. All for £180. I'm happy enough with that as I looked into doing it myself but from past experience I must say I hate working on gearboxes so thought it best for someone else to do it

Also I was fed up with the battery going flat all the time so have fitted a solar charger to the garage. In the summer I can have it connected to my bike so keeping that topped up when not using it too. I'm fed up buying new batteries every year as I don't have power in my garage permanently.



So the fun has started again. Just waiting on parts and and engine crane to come and we'll get into it properly. Need to take the frame off and weld up the cracks in my floor but will get you pics of it when the frame is out.

Plus if anyone has a right hand fuel tank they are not wanting please drop me a message as I need one for when towing the van around.

Edited by ginger_monkey, 16 January 2012 - 06:57 PM.

[ginger_monkey]

Final got myself and engine crane and stand borrowed from some mates. So happy days as the engine is in a better position to work on. I'm just waiting on the belts to come through tomorrow and I can think about changing that out.



The mini is ready for me to start taking engine back out. Front is off and started to take a few things off but ran out of time tonight so will make a point of getting all the fluids drained tomorrow and getting a start on whipping it out




Also had a nice delivery today. One watson 3.7 fd






Best get the engine out so I can send my box off for it to be changed. Now really looking forward to having the first drive so I can see what difference this makes.

Edited by ginger_monkey, 23 January 2012 - 09:06 PM.

[ginger_monkey]

Well the engine is out. Was a bit more of a struggle than I thought as space is limited in my garage. Here is what it's looking like at the mo. A bit sad for itself. But you can see from the pic that there is no space. I'm holding the camera as far back as I can go.



I think that the engine was defo not very healthy as you can see all the oil and crud on the exhaust gasket. But it'll be better with a nice bit of shop work and some new internals

[Kam]

Well the engine is out. Was a bit more of a struggle than I thought as space is limited in my garage

The declaration of independence has been written on a grain of rice! anything is possible with the minimal amount of room!

Your doing a grand job though, keep at it

[ginger_monkey]

Cheers KAM. Yeah but there's no rice in my garage so thats no good

Lots of nice new bits to fit.



New engine now dressed and ready to be installed. New belt, tentioner, water pump, sparkies and the stuff off the old engine moved across. Tried calling the guy to do my gearbox but he's not anwering so will have to keep trying.



Here is the struggle I had getting the crank pulley bolt off. Am sure the old engine was never this much of a hassle when I took that one off.



Hopefully get to have a look at repearing the crack in the floor tomorrow ;)

[ginger_monkey]

Well today I got to have a good look at the crack in my floor. Here are some pics for you.





It's the only place it has done it. I thought maybe I had a bit of a gap between the plate inside and the floor but this is not the case. Must have been a flaw in it before I fitted the engine. So I have welded it up and it's all nice and solid again. This is it just before a final bit of welding to finish it off.



So a bit of paint and it should last a bit longer now

[ginger_monkey]

Well the gearbox still hasn't come back so will call them on Monday and see what's happening. Also I have got the rad in the shop for a bit of work as the lower outlet was too close to the drivers side front wheel. The frame is all back in the car after the floor welding was finished and painted up.

Started looking at what to do with my fuel tank as I'd like to have some more range as I'll be towing the van. So found some guys who could make me up a right hand tank a lot cheaper than buying a proper one. Also I wanted it a bit different to the standard So ordered one and got a few other things while I waited for it to come through like a shutoff valve to go between the two tanks.

Then started on the left hand tank. Drained it all out using the pump to sent it all into a fuel can then into my winter car. Took it out and took off all the ancilaries like sending unit and pump. Then filled it with water to get rid of all the fumes so I don't get a big bang

Once sufficiently vented off I started by drilling a small hole




and bought one of these to fit to the tank



So it ended up like this



Then fitted it back into the car. Fitted some fuel hose and the shutoff valve to isolated the two tanks.



So it was all done for now. Then the next day I had this small package come through. What could it be.







The filler neck is in a different place than the normally would but I didn't want to cut the body for an extra fill cap so had them design it like this. All will become aparant.
So fitted it into the mini. Still needs a bit of fettling but it's pretty much in place and how I want it.




I wanted to fill it from inside the boot and will have a non vented cap on it to stop leaking and fumes. Then will have both tanks connected at the top for a vent line. You can see that they did a good job at positioning the filler neck so it's up high and nice and close to the boot lid.




Am looking forward to seeing what milage I will get out of both tanks now. All that's left to do really is a bit of adjusting and make the boot lining kit fit around it nice so it all looks nice and tidy.

[ginger_monkey]

I sent my rad off to get the work done as I said before. Got a call back from them saying what I thought was £28 to get the work done. Sweet I thought and they even did free collection and delivery. So I waited and got the rad back on a Monday. Here is what I have.






Basicaly wanted an extension of alloy pipe to get the hose further away from the front wheel as it was very very close. I sent them a picture explaining what I wanted but unfortunately it didn't come back quite as I had planned. It will still work but I wanted it a bit closer into the rad. Then I realised that they had charged me £150 for it I couldn't belive it. Couldn't do anything about it that week as I still had no voice. Finaly got enough to travel down and have a chat with them about it. The guy behind the counter went into full angry mode straight out the box. Calling me a liar and all kinds. Even said I had told him I was drunk over the phone when I agreed for the work to be done Very strange as I was about to go drive somewhere so that couldn't have been right. So it took me half and hour of me being nice and calm and him going mental for the boss and the secretary to come out and after some mention of trading standards to them I finaly got my money back. I had to pay for the bit of alloy pipe which was fine by me. But if he even tried to claim that that bit of pipe on the rad cost them £75. Not a chance so I diffinately will not be going back to them again. And just to clarify I have had quotes from three different places for that same work and they all came back with between £25 -£30 to do it. In the end I paid £50 total. That'll do me.

I have changed over the fly wheel from my old engine to the engine I bought as it was pitted and nasty.



Old one



One on the engine going into the car



Also swapped over the clutch with it was it was new when I first put the engine in so I knew it had plenty of life left in it.

All starting to come together anyway now. I have got the gearbox back and all finished. The guy at the shop was real helpfull. He even let us have a quick look around because I spotted these little beauties.



Apparently they prime all the shells for heritage in Whitney. Also spray them if they want custom colours. Real Nice.

The gearbox was minging so I gave it a clean up today.




It's been a manic week. Managed to get the engine back in but then found out I had been sent the wrong intake manifold gasket Not impressed. Also the N/S driveshaft seal was leaking a lot when I put the box oil in So not happy with that at all. So I packed up and went to the pub. Whilst I was waiting for bits to come through I started on replacing my rear brakes. Went ok but yep you guessed it, something else went wrong. I could see it coming as the rear brake pipes haven't been off since I had the car. Whilst undoing the union for the piston the pipe started twisting and SNAP. Nice, so I have ordered some braided hoses to replce it all.

But today the intake manifold gasket and the driveshaft seals came through. i went for a Tegiwa intake gasket as I can re-use it if I need to remove the intake any time soon. The only thing i can say is it doesn't leave much of the bolt threads showing so I have banged it all oin and threadlocked it all so will keep an eye and if needed put longer studs in.




But as of now the engine is in. Mostly plumbed in and I have a few things to do tomorrow like driveshaft seals and add the rad fan. A few bits and bobs and maybe I'll get to start her up for the first time with this engine.

[Sleepy Stu]

Very nice Monkey!!!!!