Patxi's '99 Civic EK1 Barn rescue - From CVT to Manual turbo

[Patxi]

Well, after introducing the MB3, now time for the fun car. 

 

On december 2019 I was looking for some spare parts for a friend and saw this car adverted, really cheap (Arround 1/3 of the normal price in my country). I called the owner and after an hour explaining me a lot of details, I called a friend, we made 500 Km, and bought it in the same day. It was the 2nd owner, car was bought new by a friend of this and gifted to him because it was going to be scraped. The second owner used the car 3-4 years to drive to his orchard (he made less than 1500 Km in this time, but changed timing belt, water pump...). He told me car had only one issue, the auto trans when you flat the accelerator, revs really high. I was expecting an normal auto and find out it was a CVT and he didnt knew how this work. 10 minutes after buying the car, I washed it (it was scary how dirty was), made the first pic and drive it back home with no issues.

 

 

The car was really dirty. This guy was a huge smoker and never emptied the ashtray. He also allowed his dog sleep inside and had a lot of mud due to all the trips to the orchard. Also, the trunk was like a swiming pool. I spent a week to dry, clean up and remove the cigarrette smell. Here are some pics of how I spent my christmas holiday (apart from cleaning, I tinted the floor mat and reupholstered the roof).

 

The first mods were a genuine EK9 rear lip, first molding front lip and DC2 rear seats.

 

Next was a brake upgrade to 282mm disks and DC2 calipers.

 

At the same time, I modified the headlights:

 

 

I found a guy selling a seeker V2, Tein coilovers and DC2 recaros and the same week I bought in UK the wheels I wanted and were imposible to find in Spain:

 

And a friend gifted me a good looking steering wheel:

 

We got confinated for 2 months home in my country, so I made some upgrades. First one was rear brake conversion, from drums to 260mm using MB fastback arms with EP2 calipers.

 

[Patxi]

And... I took out the CVT trans and install a S40-P4F from EJ8.

 

Last big mods where LCA, ASR, rear sway bar and Invidia G200Ti exhaust

 

Now I have this waiting to install, but Im a bit lazy to take of the dashboard

 

...and I started collecting parts for the next upgrade:

 

 

I found this couple at a good price (I'm going to sell the DC2 UKDM cluster) and I will install the JDM civic VI RS in my EK. Now that the EK9 clusters are so expensive (I remember paying less than 300$ some years ago) this option is similar and really good looking.

 

 

I also tested to fit everything on the top mount manifold to see if I've got issues here too, and of course, I need to do some modifications. It looks really tall, I hope it wont hit on the bonnet. Next days I'll test fit.

 

 

So, I was bored and cleaned engine bay & sprayed the valve cover. Car is waiting a certificate to be legal here in Spain, so until that I cant pass the inspection and I'm avoiding tickets... Modifying in Spain is a serius s**t to be street legal...

 

I've sold the fake Skunk2 manifold and I'm porting the OEM D16Y8 to match a 63mm DC2 throttle body (same size of turbo pipping I'm going to use) and delete the FIA module holes for the inyectors.

 

I've got a D16Y8 OBD2B wires that I will need to install because my D16Y5 intake manifold hasn't IACV and with the P28 I've read that check engine light will be on. I'm going to prepare it to do a little wire tuck, I want to change the location of the plug that goes inside in the left side.

 

 

The 2 din dash its intalled and fully working. I also installed a 2 din android radio with dashcam, reverse cam, steering wheel control (goes under the turn signal/light control). It doesnt look a OEM fitment of a 20yo car. Looks younger now.
 

 

Not as easy as expected, I used a drill and detailed with the dremel and ported to 63mm the intake manifold like the DC2 Throttle body. 
 

 

Thanks black friday for cleaning my wallet
 

 

 

Gauge holder and gauges fitted, now I have to wyre

 

ECU ready to use thanks to a friend

 

Changed the radiator

Bought a D16 to make a vitara build

 

And started with the turbo fiting and measuring the pipes.

 

This one I will cut and weld to use less silicone hoses

 

I will need to make a custom pipe to link the compresor with the intercooler

 

And the oil radiator will fit on the A/C radiator mount

 

 

I swaped the intake manifold easily. I installed hondata at the same time and solved the IACV 3 to 2 pin conversion easily. Also installed the oil radiator and the oil feed for the turbo.

 

All gauges are working. The boost gauge is useless at this moment but it was the time to wire the Innovete dual oil pres/temp, so I take a step to wire the Greddy one also.

 

I painted the wipers and window-dont-know-name-in-english because they were all silver 

 

The chinese 2din died in only 2 months of use, so I bought another and I dont know why the hondata app doesnt run in this one

 

The pipes are cut and done. I need to make some welds (the Ktuned IAT sensor adapter and the BOV adapter). I was lucky that the turbo side pipe was easy. 90 degre silicone hose- 45 degre pipe-135 degre silicone hose.

 

And bended the pipes with these home made tool

 

Changed the shifter. Now it feels really cool, gears engage real short and the hardware that comes to bolt it helps a lot to reduce the slack not like the previous chinese shifter

 

 

Right now, car is "sleeping" I need to get time to find a shake when I go ober 130kmh and install the turbo kit for ECU tune. Text could sound a bit strange, I have copy-pasted from another forum. Thats all for now, I will keep this updated when I continue working on.

[dr_broon]

Love what you've done to this ek - plenty of nice work there. 

[Patxi]

4 minutes ago, dr_broon said:

Love what you've done to this ek - plenty of nice work there. 

 

Thank you. Plans for this one are forged D series, respray in your color and reupholster the recaros in HKS look like

[dr_broon]

Nice! 

[Dave]

Loving this project, and well done on saving her from getting scrapped. Such a transformation from when you bought her and some really classy mods.