98 Hatch slow motion build.

Killa_CiViC

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I admit I'm a little jealous of guys that have access to a shop lift. Can't wait to see the new wheels on the car. Think they'll look great with that body color. But, 205/50/15 with 8 inch wheels? I guess you're going for that stretched tire look?
It's nice having a good place to work on my car. The problem becomes, since I work on dozens of other cars throughout the week, when it comes time for mine, it's very difficult to make myself stay late or work on my days off to work on yet another car... I've only recently begun enjoying working on my own car again. Before this year really, it's been like pulling teeth to even make myself change my own oil.

Some slight progress this week, finally got my replacement wheels (two were dropped and damaged during shipping), and new rear wheel bearings/hubs.




New Vs. OEM sizes



I couldn't bring myself to buy any directional tires, so I paid a tiny bit more and ended up going with Bridgestone Potenza RE11a tires, in 205/50/15 and holy crap, are they sticky!

This is before I went old school (hammers) on my fender lips, and before I adjusted the camber so they tuck good on bumps.... also looks a little high in the rear because there's no interior in the car at the moment, while I'm fixing more water leaks and re-covering the headliner (which may take weeks at my pace).
Aftermarket lug nuts also on back order, but should ship out the middle of this month, I hope.

I would like to point out, the rattle can paint job I did on the hatch, looks much better than what I'd previously done on the roof. The hatch job built my confidence to be able to do the whole rest of the car myself throughout this summer.
 
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endo617

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Nice I have the previous Gen RE11, they are amazing for AutoX. Mine I noticed need to be at like 36-39p psi to help with transition through turns but they were awesome in the rain at 32 psi too.
 


Killa_CiViC

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Nice I have the previous Gen RE11, they are amazing for AutoX. Mine I noticed need to be at like 36-39p psi to help with transition through turns but they were awesome in the rain at 32 psi too.
They are crazy soft and bouncy, but I normally keep my tires inflated pretty high by default. They do grip like a gorilla though! So much so, it's kind of annoying without any interior in to deaden the sounds of little rocks hitting the insides of the fenders in the back, as the tires pick them up and toss them indiscriminately.

Latest picture, post camber and fender adjustments. (I hate the auto resizing and resolution lowering)
 

Killa_CiViC

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Finally got around to getting my bearing sizes and ordering main and rod bearings, and new piston rings for the K20.
 


Killa_CiViC

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New lug nuts came in this week, finally.

 

CHILD

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I admit I'm a little jealous of guys that have access to a shop lift. Can't wait to see the new wheels on the car. Think they'll look great with that body color. But, 205/50/15 with 8 inch wheels? I guess you're going for that stretched tire look?
this is 205/50/15.....technically a stretch, but not very much at all.

Did you ever think of replacing the head? EP3 has that funky VTC.
the EP3 has VTC like every other K series engine. VTEC is different, like a sohc D series. As you can tell from the cams photo, VTEC is only on the intake camshaft. VTC the advance/retard of the intake camshaft.
 

jameswanser

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Yeah, I can see now by the pics what you mean. I used to run 205/50/15 on a 6 1/2 wide wheel on my 92 sedan and the sidewalls were pretty much square to the tread. I wasn't sure how it would look on the 8 inch wheels
 

Killa_CiViC

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Updates for a few things I've done over the past few weeks... My car is getting worked on a little here and a little there.
Headliner is done... it's still not perfect, but I'm getting better every time I do one... if there is a next time, it'll be perfect. Valve guide seals replaced in the K20 head. Accessory lighting installed. Integra power steering to manual rack conversion almost complete (have to paint or powder coat it before pictures). HardRace bushings came in yesterday and are going in my Integra lower control arms.
I still need to take the subframe, arms and shock forks to be powder coated...
But... I'm starting a new job on the 26th... and my wife is pregnant with our second child, so it looks like I'm going to have to buy a bigger vehicle for the family at some point....:guns: Timelines shot to hell.








 

Killa_CiViC

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Forgot to mention... bought a nice new big compressor for the garage, a stud welder, a cheap wire-feed welder and ordered a HVLP spray gun... as soon as rain gets out of the forecast, I'm going to start on body work, but so far, this is one of the rainiest years in north central Texas history. 5 years of drought, and now 6th wettest year on record already, by mid May.
 

mymmeryloss

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Ah man. Dont flux sheetmetal. I would suggest an eastwood mig welder and use gas.
 

Killa_CiViC

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Ah man. Dont flux sheetmetal. I would suggest an eastwood mig welder and use gas.
It's not for the sheet metal on the car. It's for making some brackets, and welding some tubing for some other things I want to make for the car (not a roll cage).... which may not work out, so I didn't want to spend a bunch of money on a MIG welder, yet.
 

mymmeryloss

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Flux is gross. It spatters all over. A mig weld is way nicer and you can weld single pass over 1/8" and up to 1/4" depending on the model with no problems.

Flux is for outside welding and things where you cant use gas.
 

Killa_CiViC

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Flux is gross. It spatters all over. A mig weld is way nicer and you can weld single pass over 1/8" and up to 1/4" depending on the model with no problems.

Flux is for outside welding and things where you cant use gas.
I really just wanted to try the cheap welder... got it cheap, since they were discontinued and rebranded and raised the price.

If all else fails, I already have acetylene at the house too.
 

jameswanser

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Forgot to mention... bought a nice new big compressor for the garage, a stud welder, a cheap wire-feed welder and ordered a HVLP spray gun... as soon as rain gets out of the forecast, I'm going to start on body work, but so far, this is one of the rainiest years in north central Texas history. 5 years of drought, and now 6th wettest year on record already, by mid May.
I hear ya. It's been what, about a week or two of rain every damn day? Can't plan any repairs that might take more than a couple of hours, because I might be rained out halfway through.
 

Killa_CiViC

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Been busy with everything but my car.... went to work for Tesla... very quickly went back to Lexus. Been extremely busy at work.
Got the crank installed on my K20, but that's as far as it's going to stay for aa while. Been trying to talk my wife into getting a larger vehicle before our next baby comes along, but she won't have it.... so since hers is burning so much oil, and the transmission bearings are starting to get noisy, it will be the focus of my attention for the next several months. I want to make sure it's reliably fixed by the time January rolls around (due date).
It's a 2007 Si with 175k miles on it... bought new in 07, and the longest I've ever owned a car. Ordered transmission bearings (OEM), clutch (ACT), another lightweight flywheel (MFactory), and since its nearly impossible to find a K20Z3 for a decent price, and I don't have time to pull the motor and rebuild it, I'm going with the unbelievably cheaper option of putting a K24A2 in it.... Straight swap. Nothing special.
 

CHILD

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I'm going with the unbelievably cheaper option of putting a K24A2 in it.... Straight swap. Nothing special.
I wonder who the retards are that's selling a TSX engine for less than a Z3. I'm guessing you have flashpro for the Si already too?
 

Killa_CiViC

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I wonder who the retards are that's selling a TSX engine for less than a Z3. I'm guessing you have flashpro for the Si already too?
hmotors wants 2800+ shipping for a 60k mile Z3 long block, just to name one example. I can get a K24A2 locally for 1200.

Don't yet have flash pro, but it's on the list. Pretty much everything else is plug and play.
 

CHILD

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The 60K mileage on it makes sense. It was kinda like my k24a2 with 30K on it, but I feel ya on the pricing.
 


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