86 civic DX HB 5spd carbed w/1.5 EW1 engine

[marvin S]

Hole in oil pump screen caused oil control jet to plug causing CVCC head to seize camshaft and twist-off timing gear. Cam is NFG and head is repairable but is not wanted. Rest of engine seams OK. Want to rebuild engine using Honda parts from other cars(read junkyard). Want more HP but not willing to spend big bucks, after all the car has 1/4 million miles and is 20 years old.
What are my options?

[lxndr]

An '84-'87 CDM Civic/CRX DX head or any '85-'87 SI head will give you a little more power and bolt right on.

[marvin S]

lxndr, just the man I wanted to talk to. Read your response to a thread 5/05 and you offered good advise. You then mentioned boring to some new diameter, installing different pistons, different intake and different exhaust.
Would you expand on that theme for this engine in more detail ? I have a budget of $600-$800. THANKS

[lxndr]

Yes you can bore the block to accept D16A1 pistons, but the cost of machine work and new pistons, pins, bearings etc will wipe out your entire budget. Since you will only gain about 100cc by doing this, you'd be better off doing some port work in the head. If I had to make a choice, I'd choose a ported and polished head over 100cc's any day.

Or you can buy a $500 '86-'89 Integra parts car and swap the D16A1, tranny, 4 wheel disk brakes, yada, yada, yada.

[marvin S]

Should I elect to use the CDM Civic/CRX DX head or the SI head, what about:
existing CVCC pistons ?
timing belt ?
use existing carb & manifold ?
existing exhaust manifold ?
yada, yada, yada ?
If these questions have been asked before, is there a thread(s) I can go too ?
Eagerly awaiting your reply

[lxndr]

Here's what I would do if I were on an $800 budget:

SI/CDM DX head (stock, no port and polish)
Header/exhaust
Reground SI/DX cam
Motorcycle carburetors with cut off intake manifold

This should make for a zippy little car that won't break the bank!

There shouldn't be any complications with the pistons, or timing belt, if you need to you can use the stock carb and exhaust manifold, but this will create a bottle neck around the better flowing head and you probably won't notice much difference in performance. At the very least use a stock SI exhaust manifold and down pipe. The SI and Canadian DX heads are essentially the same casting, the SI head just has a notch on the top of the intake side to allow room for fuel injectors (nothing to worry about)

The idea behind engine building is to get the motor to flow more air/fuel. A motor is basically an air pump and the faster you can get air/fuel in and out of it the more power it will make.

One thing you'll need to consider is that when you build up the top end of the motor, the stock 20 year old, 200K bottom end won't be able to keep up and eventually you'll blow the rings or a rod. I experienced something like this just by putting a rebuilt head on my old SI motor, once the top end was holding compression, the rings blew about 2 weeks later.

Have you checked out www.redpepperracing.com? There are several people there who are running motorcycle carbs and/or D16A1 heads on their stock EW/D15 blocks (I don't recommend using the D16A1 head on the EW/D15 block, AKA a Hydra swap). If you ask around I'm sure you'll get 20 different opinions as to how to get more power out of your block, but they will all have something to do with better air flow. You'll find me there too under the same screen name.

Hope this helps!

[marvin S]

lxndr thanks for your thoughts, you've given me alot to consider. I will search "redpepperracing" and see whats there.

A parting question. Has anyone made a diesel out of a honda gas block like VW in their rabbits ?

[lxndr]

I don't know.

However I do have a friend with an electric CRX.

[marvin S]

to: lxndra or other knowledge based units
from: marvin s
re: above subject
Have replaced CVCC head with 86 CRX SI head and EM. Have ported the head,EM, and original CVCC carbed IM. In process of devacing the carb using data from redpepperracing and other sources. The question now is: What are my options for distributor w/vacuum advance and fuel pump ?

[lxndr]

For the distributor you can install softer springs on the counterweights so it will advance faster. This is actually an old Hot Rod trick that I have used on my other cars, but since I have not actually done this to my Honda (I have electronic advance) you might search www.redpepperracing.com for more info. I know several people on RPR have done this mod so you should be able to find some helpful info.

The stock fuel pump should work fine, but if you want to go all out, you can install an electric pump and a fuel pressure regulator with a return line back to the tank.

Good luck!

[marvin S]

Let me rephrase the question:
now that the old head (CVCC) PE0 has been replaced with an 86 CRX SI head (PE7) the orginal distributor and fuel pump no longer work. What Honda make and year distributor w/vacuum advance will bolt up to the new head ?
marvin s

[lxndr]

Originally Posted by marvin S

Let me rephrase the question:
now that the old head (CVCC) PE0 has been replaced with an 86 CRX SI head (PE7) the orginal distributor and fuel pump no longer work. What Honda make and year distributor w/vacuum advance will bolt up to the new head ?
marvin s

Ahhh...

You need an '85-'87 SI distributor and an electric fuel pump.

Thanks for rephrasing.

[marvin S]

The saga continues:
Unwilling to pay $50-$75 for a SI distributor, I instead fabricated a shaft extension for the original CVCC distributor using a 1/2" SAE connecting nut, and a 12mm bolt. First I removed the camshaft pawl from the distributor. Then drilled and pinned the connecting nut to the distributor. Then jammed fit the SAE nut and the metric bolt. Cut the metric bolt to lenght and drilled small hole to accept original distributor/camshaft pawl. Set engine to TDC by aligning crankshaft mark to engine housing and with the head cover off checking for "loose" exhaust and intake valves. Twisted jammed nut/bolt so that rotor was pointing to no.1 position on distributor with cap removed. Assembled all and did a normal timing operation. Engine runs normal and only cost $4.50.
Next, kept orig fuelpump on dist housing to cover hole and since the fuel pump arm contacts nothing I added an electric pump between the firewall outlet and the fuel pump input thereby using the original pump and hoses to regulate the pressure and distribute the fuel to the carb and back to the fuel tank.
Now I need some really good articles on devacing and Heihin carb operation.
To start, what is the carb model?
What say you forum moderators?
mws

[lxndr]

Got any pics of your distributor mods?

[marvin S]

No, was too busy creating and building the shaft extension to do the pix thing. If it is usefull I could do a drawing, but then I'd have to figure out how to get it to you.
Continuing on, the next problem to solve is carburation. The '86 Civic CVCC IM was ported using the IM gasket as a guide and a power drill with a ($3.19) rotary file. A hardwood 1/2" dowel was then jammed into the area where the CVCC port is under the carb and was cut-off. Then the rubber/metal carb insulator.the dowel and part of the manifold was ported to have all three carb throats going into a common area. The carb was then devaced "as per Eldo" and the results are only "fair". I need some good advice on tuning-up this system, so what say you!
mws