SirPaperbag

Took the time to do some more work on the ole Fastback today and installed a nice upgrade for the interior. The object in question being a very nice short shifter from Hybrid Racing and a set of stiffer shift-linkage bushings from Hardrace. The installation was pretty straightforward - take off the interior trim that surrounds the shifter, undo a few bolts and take out the b*tch pin, take off the old shifter and replace all the original parts with the shiny new ones. Even the rubber gasket went on there relatively easily, with a bit of lubrication of course ;) And the finished product looks like this: Had to take out the small plastic ring out from the top of the shifter boot to be able to install the 'swan neck' part of the shifter on top of it, but I really like the way it looks (and feels)! The biggest hold-up was the size of the hole where the shifter bolts onto the shift linkage. Had to take off some material or otherwise I'd have to choose between either only having gears 1 through 4 or gear 3 through reverse. Nothing bad though. File down, reinstall, take off again and file down a bit more and boom - bob's your uncle. There are still some vibrations to chase down, but nothing a bit of lubricant/machine oil can't fix. All in all, I'd say it was a huge upgrade for the driving experience - it's super notchy and rowing through the gears almost feels like racking a gun at times. I'd give the shifter itself a solid 9/10, feels well built, installation is straightforward and well documented by Hybrid Racing, they give you all the hardware you need and you don't have to damage or reuse old components (except filing down that linkage hole, but that's a M-chassis issue only).

It seems you might be missing some kind of plastic cowling / housing that would go around the fogs inside of the bumper hole. And I can only speak for pre-facelift models here, but the OEM fogs would be attached from the backside of the bumper where there are a bunch of sturdy mounting points for the screws to bite into. That's the part I'm talking about, btw - that plastic trim around the projector.

I don't think he's got a Hondata, cause they provide you with a bunch of basemaps. My best bet would be either on the Hondata forums, or over at the folks who use Daemon and the likes. Strongly doubt that someone on this site would have a map for a D15 readily available.

If you want to prevent the crank from turning, for example to undo the crank bolt, then you can either get a special tool (see picture), or undo the dust protection plate for the clutch and either jam a sturdy screwdriver or something else against the teeth on the flywheel to keep it in place. But that bolt is often super tight (>200NM torque), so beware when you go for the flywheel route!

So, did a good bit of work to the car again. This time I installed a proper mounting bracket for the cold air intake as the old hacked-off and jury-rigged intake mani bracket looked pretty bad, to be honest. Also installed a pair of much more serious sounding horns than that little beeper that the car came with. They sound a lot better than the OEM one did, and are quite a bit louder on top! After that I installed a set of new bumper screws - the original ones were completely rusted and cruddy, and one almost stripped completely when I took that bumper off! Then I got to work on my seat-project. As I said in my last post - the original seats make me sit a bit too high for my own tastes and I have been looking for either some high-quality (road legal) seat rails for aftermarket seats from either Recaro or some other brand, or a completely different way to sit lower than the original seats would allow me to. As it turns out ... you can fit CRX seats on the original M-chassis rails if you drill out the rivets and fabricate an adaptor plate out of steel (10mm thick in my case). I got lucky a few years ago and managed to take a pair of these seats off a guy for jsut 250 bucks total. :) Here's how the first prototype looks like: This was only to take a look and see if my idea could even work to begin with, and if it would make me sit lower than the OEM seats would, but as luck would have it ... this combo works flawlessly and I sit about 5 to 8 centimetres lower than I do in the stock seats! :D They are also quite a bit more comfortable, if a bit worn-out. Real plushy. :) But as things stand right now I'll just make a few more refinements to my adaptor brackets, give those seats a thorough cleaning session and maybe add some more side bolstering to give them a bit more of a sporty feel and I've got myself a nice pair of OEM Honda seats that do exactly what I want from them! :D

I fitted an EG6 rear ARB last year, using the 'same' OEM mounting hardware as you probably do. (They were pretty rusty before I restored them) In my case, there were small pre-drilled (and tapped!) holes next to the lower control arm mounts (center of the car) that I just cleaned up before I installed the brackets. But if I remember correctly, I indeed had to drill a pair of holes for one of the brackets' mounting points. I also used some sturdy metal tubing as spacers between the frame and the mounts to reinforce everything. Also, you gotta have a pair of rear lower control arms that actually have the required holes to fit your ARB to! And a bit of friendly advice on top - don't go with an ARB thicker than 15 or 16mm, because everything above that is going to tear our and completely wreck your rear frame without any reinforcement done to it to take the brunt of the force. Hardrace, Beaks and loads of other companies sell those kinds of reinforcement braces, some of which even come with their own mounting points for your ARB! :) Here is how everything looks now: Hope I could be of help! :)

So, a few boxes full of fun-parts arrived yesterday... :D I'm still trying to find a good machining shop to get a port and polish, a valve-job and to get the rotating assembly properly balanced, but things are slowly progressing on the new engine build. It's going to be unconventional for sure, but I'm going to be fully building an N/A D16Z6 that I've bought for this project. Forged conrods, high compression pistons, stage 2 camshaft, lightened flywheel, the whole nine yards. I've also done some test-fitting already and it seems that the 'LITE'-series of conrods from Skunk2 doesn't require any notching of the block to fit, which is a huge win in my book! Though I had to cobble together a pseudo-piston from a few pieces of plastic and foam for the test-fit, as the pistons I bought are .5mm oversize and I haven't had the block bored out yet. Worked super well, though! But I'm super stoked to see what kind of power gain this is going to get me, and especially how high I'll be able to rev it. Components-wise it should be fine up to 9.000 or even 10.000 RPM, but we all know that it probably won't make much or even any power up that high in the rev-range. Based on my research into other all-motor D16 builds and B20 builds I'm confident that it should definitely hold up to 9.000 relatively comfortably, as many people in the states rev their stock-rod B20s that high without much issue, running only ARP rod-bolts and nothing else. (B20 engines have the same stroke as D16s, btw) It's going to be a while until things get moving properly, but the first step has been taken and all that's holding me back right now is finding that machining shop! :D Some folks are probably going to ask why I would take a D16 that far instead of just going B-Series, and I'm going to answer that by telling you that a B-Series swap costs around four to five thousand Euros where I live. If you can even find one... That's a lot of money for just a stock engine and trans. And it's also why I'm going to spend about the same amount of money to build a D-Series that is going to make roughly the same power, as well. I simply want a built engine. Simple as that. I've always wanted to build a proper all-motor engine and I finally got the chance, both time- and money-wise to do so, and I'm going to do it! :D I've also been doing some research into getting a road-legal bucket seat, or any kind of seat to be honest, because the stock seats are just too high for my tastes and I constantly have to lean forward when I'm stopped at a red light. Someone else on this forum already made an extremely helpful post about the seat rails from Planted Technology, which helped me immensely, but I've also found a local engineering company here in Germany which is able to fabricate everything in-house and even get it entered into the car's paperwork the legitimate way. That comes with its price though... Well, anyways. That's the current state of my project. See ya 'round!

Had the same issue a while ago. Engine ran fine and then suddenly - dead. You could even see the tach have a seizure a few moments before the engine died. My only fix was to get a new complete dizzy, as they don't sell just the pickups/sensors inside of them. Even a whole new coil and ECM module didn't help and I even tested out a different ECU altogehter. The problem is that most aftermarket dizzys for our Hondas are ... hot garbage, to be honest. If you buy a cheap-ish one, you'll quickly find yourself ordering the next one sooner than later. The only quality brand I've seen is based in the US, by the name of "Dragon Fire". I know, sounds kinda iffy, but their stuff even meets the IATF standard, meaning it really is better than all of that Chinesium-garbage off eBay, and I've been running it for almost half a year now without complaint! Costs a pretty penny, though. :/

Finally got around to installing my Hondata and let's just say that I might have been a little nervous when I turned that ignition key for the first time, hah! But everything went well, and I now have a running, chipped D16Z9 engine, woohoo! It might be running richer than Jeff Bezos at a marathon for now, but a few good street-tuning sessions are going to take care of that. And I'm talking Lambda-0.8-at-idle-rich; Even a few seconds of cold-start are enough to make the whole courtyard reek of marzipan. Sadly I barely had any seat-time during the past few months, as the bane of every D-Series owner struck - ignition problems. It started as a random ignition stutter (rev-counter visibly took a dip) that quickly ended in a complete engine shut-off on my way home from work, and the car refused to turn back on again for at least five minutes after the initial shut-off. But it weirdly enough acted as if nothing happened when it did decide to work again. Spent a few weeks hunting down the issue, buying a new igniter, new coil, the whole nine yards, but the issue persisted. I suspected that the sensors inside of the dizzy might be the problem and looked up part numbers, but quickly found out that those are not sold separately. Dang it. That's when I went "F*k it, I'm gonna buy a whole damn new distributor." But, as it turns out, 99.9% of aftermarket dizzys for D-Series are hot garbage and people always have to buy new ones as they break down faster than you can say K-Swap. That's chinesium for ya... So I looked at those funny looking "Dragon Fire" -ones, which I admittedly didn't take seriously at first, and through their homepage I found out that they actually meet the IAT standard - Success! If something meets that standard, it's at least not as crappy as all of those cheapo replicas from China. The car has been running fine ever since and even gained a bit of torque down low! :D [A few weeks later...] Last weekend it was finally time for yet another small addition, as I finally grew tired of the original pedals and imported myself these beauties straight from the land of the rising sun. The instructions might be slightly difficult to read, but at least they included some pictures. And, well, installing pedals is kind of self-explanatory, y'know? Quick peek at them, straight out of the box. The installation process is actually super easy, as taking off the OEM accelerator-plastic is the most difficult step in my opinion. But with a small-ish flathead screwdriver and a little bit of convincing you can lift the plastic nose on the top and then just slide it off! After that, simply remove the plastic strips from the double-sided adhesive, set the covers in place and attach the small metal clamps that screw through the pedal covers to sandwich the pedal between the little clamps and the covers. This is what the finished product looks like. :) The clutch and brake pedal have that extremely grippy texture to them, which looks to be some kind of metal foam that has been injected into the frame. (Has even more grip than skateboard-tape!) Oh, and heel-and-toe has gotten a lot easier, as these pedals are a bit fatter than the OEM rubbers. All in all - way too expensive, but worth it. Mmm, take a look at that close-up.

Thanks! :D It really is right in the sweetspot in my opinion - low enough to look good and handle well, but still enough ground clearance to get over speedbumps without fearing for dear life. I also drive on unpaved roads from time to time, so I gotta clear those huge potholes. Living out here in the boonies definitely has its pros and cons. :'D

Had the same issue, fixed it by fabricating a set of roughly 15mm thick steel plates that go between the top of the shock assembly and the underside of the strut tower. Couldn't even drive into my garage anymore without scraping the front tow hooks. Now it sits at about the same height as before.

Yep, same experience here. Had to grind that little bracket for the brake hoses off my original shocks and weld them to that kinda dodgy, nondescript piece of metal pipe that came with the kit. Pretty disappointing imo. A big brand like Bilstein really shouldn't ship stuff that requires modifications on the customer's side to work, especially at that price point. If I had known that before I got them, I definitely would have gone with Spax dampers instead - those even come with adjustable damping!

Damn. that looks good! Didn't think that an Evo wing would actually fit that well... And what kind of spoiler is that on the boot? The smaller, lip-esque one, I mean. Kinda want one myself now.

The set I ordered was made for the M-chassis (in my case an MA8), but I also don't use the original springs anymore. The front was also a bit too low for my taste after installing the B6 dampers, so I fabricated some steel plates and put them between the shock towers and the top of the strut assembly to gain around 15mm height back. And I definitely believe you - putting them back together (even with lowering springs) was really tricky. Honestly a bit disappointed from how it all fit together. If I were you, I'd get a set of lowering springs and try them out, as driving around with over-extended dampers is actually even a bit dangerous. (For reference, I use ~35mm lowering springs from Eibach) Best of luck!