btjtaylor

Car is finally back from the exhaust shop. The tailpipe is pretty subtle looking but it sounds pretty angry (in a good way!) Not the best pics as was on axle stands today but it's got a 200 cell sports cat then 3" all the way through with a centre res and rear box. It's totally overkill for N/A but I wanted to prepare for all possible eventualities! Worked on a few other annoying issues. The throttle body was sticking open slightly but that seemed to be down to a rubber boot on the throttle cable getting jammed in the throttle body wheel. Secured that on properly and now it seems to be behaving itself. No signs of any check engine lights related to O2 sensor, I think my suspicion about it just being because it was at the end of the pipe was correct. Replaced the totally rotten and corroded bleed nipples on the rear drums and managed to do a full bleed of the brake system, that's working a lot better now. Battled with bleeding the clutch all day. The master cylinder looked like it was weeping so I fitted a new one but this didnt help at all, despite fluid coming through it still feels spongy. Next time im going to try a "reverse bleed" pushing fluid back up from the slave cylinder end... to be continued

Nice, yeah I haven't seen that version in the UK. The R45 spoiler suits these cars well I think!

Just took a rather nerve racking first proper drive of around 15 miles to a local stainless exhaust fabrication place before work. I've left the car with them as I really didn't fancy driving any further with the noise level/fumes but I should get it back next week! I've asked them to make up a 3 inch exhaust, with a high flow cat, centre res and back box. I want the least restriction but I don't want the noise level to be too crazy and get kicked off a track day so we'll see what they come up with. Its definitely overkill for NA but we might boost it once day so it would be "future proofed" for that. Car for the most part drives fine - the only things I've noticed so far: - The steering is a bit off centre - it could be just the boss isn't on right but I think it probably just needs an alignment as we've had the front suspension apart several times to fit driveshafts, coilovers etc. The power steering is working perfectly though which was a big goal of mine as most people delete the PS on these kind of swaps but it's not pleasant to live with off the track. - The throttle is a bit "sticky". Sometimes it idles at 1200rpm and then if you pull the pedal up with your foot it settles down. I have tried to adjust it once before to no avail and I've checked the TPS is calibrated properly. It may need a new throttle cable as im using the 25 year old original one. - Just as I was pulling into the exhaust place the car started to run really badly and stumble. I turned it off and back on then it was fine. I did notice on my laptop that it is running very rich - I am hoping it's just over fuelling due to the o2 sensor being almost certainly too close to the end of the pipe (its just before the flexi and there's no exhaust after that point). I'll not worry too much about this until there's an exhaust fitted! - The front end feels a tiny bit loose but ive not driven the car enough really to comment fully. We haven't adjusted any of the suspension or changed any worn bushes etc at the front so I will reserve judgement until thats all done. But honestly, for a first proper drive it didnt go badly at all. No fluids leaked out or parts fell off!! Did get a few odd looks as frankly the car sounds ridiculous but that will be all sorted soon enough... My father in law followed in his car with a bunch of tools and a jack in the boot but luckily we didnt have to do any roadside repairs.

Also another thing I forgot to mention. I fitted MG ZS front calipers but it turns out that they were faulty, the piston was getting stuck. I did look at getting a rebuild kit and trying to sort them out but I found upon doing some research that certain models of Accord used the same front calipers. I found these for £60 a side which is very cheap but when they arrived, they are actually the original Lucas calipers but remanufactured (which is what I'd prefer anyway to a cheap Chinese copy in all honesty). NK 2126141 Brake Caliper NK 2126142 Brake Caliper They fit perfectly into the MG ZS carriers. The carrier brackets unfortunately seem to have to be bought used, luckily mine were OK with a bit of grease on the pins. Might help someone doing a similar brake upgrade - although it seems like I may have bought the last pair!

Yes the whole car is very clean all things considered to be honest. Cosmetic condition was surprisingly bad (been sorted now for the most part) with lots of silly damage to the interior/exterior and low quality DIY repairs but the chassis has held up well. I think its just a combination of luck, low mileage, and lack of sunroof. There's not really any significant rot underneath but a lot of rubber parts are perished. I've fitted new rear lower arms which were the worst (had an repeated MOT advisory for about the last 7 years for them .. obviously lots of attention being paid to that !!). The main areas that still need attention are the rear trailing arm bushes are pretty rotten but as the rear is on drums anyway I plan to get some rear disc arms at some point, paint them and press in new bushes to kill two birds with one stone, so they'll do for now. Managed to get the cooling system bled with the aid of the vacuum bleeder (very cool thing, I can highly recommend one if you are having issues with bleeding). I just got a cheap VEVOR brand one off amazon for £55 but the quality seems totally acceptable for occasional use. Had a very brief first drive in the car on Sunday. It's incredibly loud inside (as the exhaust exits basically directly under the gearstick) and outside too so I didn't want to attract too much attention hooning it about (it's not mapped yet anyway so probably best not to) but it drives great apart from a few expected bits like needing a wheel alignment etc. Next port of call will be to have an exhaust made up at some point in the next couple of weeks VTI-S front lip painted and skirts on properly now! Just need to finish painting the side trims and I think that's about it for the exterior.

Managed to get the tank out and in at the weekend with surprisingly little drama. Plenty of WD40 and the impact gun on the nuts got them going. From there I just followed the instructions from the service manual without any major difficulties. Tank was very dirty with some surface rust but under all the grot it was in perfectly good condition. Gave it a quick clean off with some WD40 and a wire brush. I am lucky to have access to a 2 post lift.. I can't imagine trying to do this on axle stands. I the fitted the following walbro 255LPH fuel pump that I purchased from Tegiwa https://www.tegiwa.com/products/walbro-255-fuel-pump-kit-honda-civic-eg-ek-integra-dc2 Forgot to take photos of the important bit, the pump... But in summary, it's almost a "plug and play" swap - the electrical connector was the same, only thing I really had to do was trim a little bit off the rubber hose that fed the pump as the body of the walbro is longer. I also opted to use the original filter "bag" from the stock pump as it was a different size/shape to the new one that came with the walbro and I read an old post on here from someone saying they fitted one with the new bag and the car ran out of fuel at 1/4 tank so I didn't want to risk it! Tank reinstalled and the car fired right up with no signs of leaks, glad that job is off the list. It's still a complete mystery to me why there is no access hole especially as there's a hole on the other side to get to the level sender! I was almost tempted to break out the hole saw and make one.. Weve currently got an issue with the engine overheating, I am hoping it's just an air lock (I've heard k24 swaps can be notorious for this as the radiator fill point is lower than a lot of other components as the engine sits a bit higher than the d series would've done), and we have some funky shape hoses. I've tried massaging the hoses and jacking the front of the car in the air to no avail. I've bought cheap a vacuum coolant filling kit that you hook up to an air compressor from Amazon for £40 so will see how I get on with that... Fingers crossed that sorts it.

Fitment looks bang on - what spec is the wheels/tyres? I've not rolled mine and visually it looks OK but I've not driven it in anger yet so I may find out that I need to, we'll see I will eventually polybush all of mine, definitely need to invest in a press before I do. Getting just the 4x ARB bushes in with a vice was frustrating enough! Did you modify the factory seat bracket? I've been looking at the "Planted Technology" brackets for an older accord that seem to line up with the bolt holes for the MB, but i've not pulled the trigger yet. Unfortunately my passenger seat ended up on a bonfire (don't ask) so that rail is a bit worse for wear.

Looks great - did you change the mirrors and door handles? I believe they should be black on an MB2 (mine certainly were). They look much better body coloured anyway I think That Single DIN head unit is nice, what model is it?

Hardrace rear lower control arms fitted and connected to the new ARB drop links - looking fresh! Although I do feel that the rear drums are shaming me! (They're on the very long list..) Next job for the weekend, drop the fuel tank to put a walbro in. (Not looking forward to this but then it's done). No idea why the pump couldn't be accessible through the cabin on these cars but never mind!!

Had a few pics from my father in law today who has been doing a few bits on the car Anti roll bar is on - there was a bit of confusion because whilst the brackets themselves are shaped symmetrically they fit on the car asymmetrically. If you put the brackets on the same on each side the ARB sits at a strange angle and the drop links don't line up (Once its completely fitted I'll probably make a post listing out all the parts you need as it's not particularly well documented online) After a bit of back and forth I did eventually find a photo from an unrelated MG forum thread that cleared up the matter. Here's how it looks now (notice how the passenger side is towards the rear of the car and the drivers side is toward the front. Maybe this is common knowledge but it was not obvious to me! Next job - fit hardrace lower control arms as the poverty spec MB lower arms are missing the drop link attachment point (plus the bushes are shot anyway)

Looking good if I do say so myself! Headlights definitely letting the side down, need a good polish and coating.

Bought a set of (very) budget semi-slick tyres "Accelera 651 Sport Xtra" from a company called Tire Streets that i'd seen advertised on various youtube channels. I don't have particularly high expectations as they were extremely cheap (£280 for a set of 4) but according to various internet comments/reviews they seem to be reasonable. I can always upgrade them in the future if needs be. The rubber seems soft which is a good start for a track tyre. Normally I don't like to order tyres separately to fitting (as usually the fitting cost removes any savings) but I couldnt find anything suitable supplied and fitted so I paid the local tyre place £15 a tyre for fitting and balancing which seemed reasonable. Look forward to getting them on the car soon... Finally got around to finishing restoring an MG ZS 180 rear anti roll bar I picked up from a friend a few months back. It was in pretty sorry condition but it seems like they are not sold new any more. Fortunately, you can still buy drop links, poly bushes, and all the bolts so it was just a case of stripping it down, removing the rust, painting it and replacing as much of the hardware as possible. The bushes were a real pain to install without a press but after a lot of farting around in the vice I got there eventually... For reference here's how it looked before (!)

Yeah fingers crossed I'll get to have a quick spin in it, the plan is once the wheels and tyres are on, better front brakes fitted, and a few other small bits are sorted I can take it for an exhaust at least as somewhat of a test drive. Hoping to avoid the cost of getting it delivered there as we don't have a suitable tow car unfortunately. The car came with 12 months MOT when I bought it so we have a bit of time.. technically I am sure it's not valid any more as no exhaust is a fail but just to avoid getting in trouble (hopefully)... that is the next priority item as starting the car up is really antisocial at the moment for the neighbours! The car does run and drive but I've literally only been up and down the driveway in it so far 😂 but nothing flew off/leaked out of it yet so that's good progress... It still needs a proper map on the ECU and there's still a whole bunch of other work to do on the suspension and then safety gear inside (half cage, seats, harnesses, etc) but we can sort that over the winter and be fully ready for a show/track day in spring. To be honest that is all fairly straightforward fitment wise and more about saving up the money to buy everything than actually fitting it that will take time!

Been chipping away at jobs the last few weeks and should be ready to drive soon. Everything in the engine bay should be done now - had a quick tidy up any loose pipes/wires and made sure everything was bolted down securely. It's not a super tucked show car but I think it's neat and tidy enough for the type of build that it is. Plus everything is easily accessible for servicing! Fitted a small washer fluid bottle - £10 from Amazon so it's a bit cheap and cheerful but it connected straight onto the factory washer pump connector and lines! Removed the rear washer pipe as we've already removed the rear wiper. The Hybrid Racing cold air intake bolts into where the factory washer bottle sits so it had to go. Picked up a set of Enkei RP01 (15x7 ET35) wheels for a reasonable price (about the same as i'd pay for a set of Rotas or similar). Will get some tyres on them this week and see how they look on the car. The main thing is they fit fine over the MG ZS front callipers with plenty of room to spare. I wasn't sure they would initially as the ZS came on 16s, although admittedly with much less offset. They've been rattle canned by the previous owner but honestly he (or she) has really not done a bad job at all. Initially I was looking to change the colour but for now they will do as is, for now I'd rather spend money on getting the car working than cosmetics!

Thanks, it's an alpine unit so even though it's new I think it fits with the 90s-ish vibe of the car. It's no doubt the brand I would've gone for if I had the money back in the day haha. It has RGB lighting so I can change it to march the dash which is nice (I'm being picky but I don't like it when the colours don't match!) The car came with a pretty retro looking JVC CD player but only 1 channel was working for some reason and it had a really shoddy aftermarket Bluetooth kit (calls only) with wires bodged in all over the place so I thought it was best to bin it all and fit something new I did consider not bothering with a head unit but even though the build leans towards track car, I've been in cars which are totally stripped before and whilst you might be able to get an extra 20kg out by removing the heater, stereo, half the dash, etc, it makes the car unusable for anything other than trailering really Yes he basically said he managed to get it all down the side by sticking a pair of long noise pliers through the popped out hazard switch and holding the cables out of the way of the head unit I've stripped everything from the front seats back and deleted the air con (it was broken anyway) so I'm not even sure I'll be able to hear the radio over the rattling but that's about the extent of the weight reduction for now. It should be a lightweight chassis anyway as it doesn't have a sunroof or other luxury features 😂

Thank you very much for confirming this and your post - makes my car build a lot easier as I was expecting to have to modify the stock seat structure (which in itself is a problem because my passenger seat was accidentally disposed of - best not to ask)

Got this photo from my father in law this morning that he got the head unit in in about 5 mins on the first try, always the way 🙃

More progress MB6 dash installed and MB6 cluster fitted Modified the centre console slightly (basically just removing the tray in front of the gear stick) to accommodate the shifter box Cut a hole in the back of the glovebox and mounted the ECU inside Installed a steering wheel boss and OMP 300mm wheel Unfortunately I wasted a couple of hours trying to get the head unit to fit in the dash as I was struggling with all the spiders web of cables behind so I couldn't get it rolling today 🥲 but it's a marathon not a sprint!

No pics unfortunately as had my head down but some good progress on the car: Engine back in the car and running without any timing codes, great success! Managed to fix an issue with the shifter, I wasn't able to select 1st or 2nd gear. I tried getting another set of shifter cables as the ones I had with the shifter were a bit too short and didn't look like the pictures of "correct" sets i'd seen. Turns out I had set the gearbox cable bracket up wrong - for future reference the brackets should be in the "forward" position as per this image (thanks to the helpful soul on facebook who pointed this out when I posted a last ditch question in a kswap group!): Started to fit an MB6 VTI dashboard that I was kindly gifted by a chap called Sam who I bought a few other bits off. My original one had the fake wood trim which wasn't my favourite and some absolute vandal had attached a phone holder directly to it with wood screws! Removed the passenger airbag, removed the cover from it and refitted the cover back into the dash to cover the ugly hole that was left Another solid day on it and I reckon first drive soon (a very short one out of VTEC as driving on the wrong engine map, with open headers on 15 year old budget tyres isn't the greatest idea!!)

Spent the bank holiday installing the new timing chain/guides/tensioner, service manual print outs in hand and triple checking everything. All sealed up now, should be able to get the engine back in next weekend, all being well. Chain that was on was stretched - not by as much as some i've seen but the main difference I noticed is the chain tensioner was quite far extended whereas the new one is much less extended, maybe it couldn't take up the slack or something jumped on first start. Anyway, hopefully this is all sorted now. Also changed the crank pulley seal as I don't ever want to be going in there again!

Do I still need disc rear arms for this by the way? I assumed I would

100%! According to Google the amount it's stretched probably isn't enough for mr valve to meet mr piston so I think weve got away with it. Every cloud has a silver lining at least, it's given me an opportunity to change a few oil seals in the engine and sort out a few hoses that were bodged together quickly from the junk pile!

Thanks for that - totally missed your reply - thats great info Since this post I found the mistake and bought a set of MGZS 180 front 282mm calipers and carriers second hand for £80 delivered which wasn't bad at all really. The seals etc looked ok but they were a bit grotty so we soaked them in evaporust and then my father in law stripped them down and painted them in high temp silver and they look a lot better now. Still not got any pads or discs yet but that will come in time... A running engine first would be a good start 🙃 (see my build thread for the fun i've been having there...) I definitely plan to change to rear discs at some point but as it's quite a lot of work/parts required so I'm going to see how I get on with rear drums to start with until budget allows (currently diverted for more important topics) - whilst it doesn't look or sound very good it's not as bad as you might expect...

Well, one step forward, two steps back Engine wasn't running great with a lumpy idle (almost like muscle car sound!). At first I just put it down to the open header being super loud but we started to get timing codes logged on my ODB reader (p0341). I checked a few easy things like the wiring to the sensors etc but unfortunately after removing the cam cover we found the timing is out, most likely the chain was stretched and we didn't realise (even though we were able to set it right, which I can't quite get my head around) Moral of the story is, don't re use the existing chain even if you think its ok New chain, tensioner and guides ordered...

Big moment this morning after a few days of battling with electrical problems we finally got the car started! It sounds terrible as theres no exhaust, various vacuum leaks and things not plugged in, but feels great to get to this point, absolutely buzzing that we can start to tidy everything up now and get it driving To be continued...