B series ek hatch build thred


ZachFlanagan97

New Member
Joined
Oct 18, 2016
Messages
17
Car(s)
97 civic dx hatch
Alright so ive decided to come to ek9 from honda tech. I had a build thread on honda tech for a few months, untill a moderator came and gave me attitude for it being in the "wrong" forum. (he said, and i quote: "there are plenty of rice forums for you to post your build in") So im done with honda tech, shout out to chad. Let me give you a bit of back story of my hatch. I bought it augest 4th 2014 with a b16a swap. Car was pretty beat up im not going to lie. It had horrendous paint, an ebay exhaust, and leaked a fair amount of oil.
14741600_10211056514753514_38003705_n.jpg

Thats how she sat when i picked it up. A great starting point, at a reasonable price.
The car had a few stages. The day i got my licence a lady was on her phone and plowed into me. Damage was minimal, but it needed a new bumper and fender. Heres how it looked after that.
14725325_10211056597235576_1797541109_o.jpg

I also added a type r lips, wing, black housing headlights, hoodrisers, a mugen style grill, a full invidia n1 exhaust, no name header, and an nrg bucket seat. After that i got tired of looking at faded clear coat, three different shades of black, and scratches every where. So it was time for some change.
14725304_10211056648036846_875621587_o.jpg
This is the car with a few coats of primer. I liked it alot more than the haggard red that it used to be. I was planning on painting it this fall but plans change.... Its also a bit lower, because i had put on function form type 1s and some other suspension goodies.
14787603_10211056656317053_215608125_o.jpg
Ok so now that you have a brief history of the hatch, lets get down to business. I loved the b16 that was in the car. It pulled surprisingly hard for a bolt on b16. It made great compression, and was extremely healthy. It had never left me stranded. Until June 11th that is... I was wrenching on the car all day with a buddy, smoothing out an oil leak, and doing a retune. Then my buddy suggests that we go out on a cruise. I decided to open it up a bit and at the big end of first the car broke up a bit. I hit second and stayed in it, and the car completely fell on its face. I knew right away that something was up, so i pulled over. At first i thought i threw a rod for some reason. I popped the hood and got out. There was no oil anywhere. The motor was still in time, so it couldn't have jumped. I called a flatbed and had the car towed home.
13467490_10209914978655825_2053943794_o.jpg

As soon as i got home and paid the tow truck driver, i started diagnosing. I decided to pull the spark plugs. Cylinder 1-3 came out as they should, and looked fine. I get to cylinder 4 and it was incredibly tight. After cracking it loose and getting it out this is what i found.
13453399_10209922297398789_773493384_o.jpg

As you can see the plug was a little beat up. When i was on the side of the road waiting for a tow truck i was talking to my friend. I had recently seen a video of a k series eg dropping a valve, and what happened to my car sounded exactly like that. Guess i called it lol. The best part about this hole thing, is that i had a gopro running on the driver side window the entire time. The next morning i got to tearing the car apart.
13460830_10209914978895831_166155069_o.jpg

Ignore the rats nest of an engine harness. Ill touch on that in a little bit. But clyinder 4 is completely dead. Time to yank the motor out.
13467604_10209914979455845_1240246120_o.jpg

Had it out, on a stand in my basement after a few hours, and a trip to harbor freight. I tore the motor down, and found a chunk of piston in the head right before the intake valve of cylinder 1. It blows my mind, but it must have went up through the intake manifold all the way over to #1.
13446395_10209922296878776_1909197011_o.jpg
13452997_10209922297678796_1551356163_o.jpg

Thats the chunk of piston, and whats left of the old head. The next day i went ahead and painted the engine bay and cleaned up the engine harness a bit.
13460901_10209922298158808_697101562_o.jpg
13453068_10209914980175863_1930869160_o.jpg
before
13460886_10209914980295866_937919804_o.jpg

After. The previous owner was going for a tucked look. I just went ahead and re-wrapped everything in some electrical tape, so it wasn't so exposed. I ran out of electrical tape. i ended up going in and wrapping up the center of the harness a bit better.
13518021_10209957380715850_51981224_o.jpg

So the same buddy, who i was out cruising with when the car blew up, happened to have a b16 head laying around. It got a mild pnp, and he gave it to me for a firm handshake lol. I owe him one big time.
13499925_10209957380675849_437643746_o.jpg

A while before the car blew up i found an absolute steal. I picked up this manifold, bnib, for 50 bucks. I couldnt pass up the offer so i picked it up, and now would be a perfect time to install it. Im not a fan of red so i had to do something about that.
14795681_10211056165104773_1054877656_o.jpg

A little bit of wrinkle black was all it needed lol. So let me touch on what the hatch will be used for. Its my daily (in the summer), and i want it to be an all around car. I want it to move in a straight line, but still be able to take to a track and drive a road coarse all day. Being as i wont be driving it in the winter, i decided to take all the heating components out. They never worked anyway lol.
13499839_10210010988576013_493780408_o.jpg
13509574_10210010989096026_1624975579_o.jpg
13548782_10210010987895996_1534325511_o.jpg
13555539_10210010987975998_1828022537_o.jpg

The photos arent in order, but i also went ahead and relocated the fuse box inside, and under the dash. I still need to find a forever home for it. I cant upload any more photos on this posting, so ill post a part two in a few minutes. This is all the progress ive made between June, and now, October 17th. Trust me ive gotten alot more done, youll see lol.
 
So part two. The day i got the dash back in i had also sent out the block and head to my local machine shop. The head was being resurfaced and the block was being bored 20 thou over. I got them back a few weeks later and immediately got to work.
painting block.jpg
trans painted.jpg
head painted.jpg


I went ahead and painted up the head, block, and trans, so itll at least look decent. Then it came to assembly time.
checking clearances.jpg


I had to check some clearances. For the mains i used acl std bearings.

oil clearance.jpg


Its a bad picture but they came out to 15 thou across the board. Which i was content with.
all bearings.jpg
bearings in place.jpg
crank in place.jpg


With all the clearances good i went ahead and assembled everything.
block back together.jpg


Got bored and threw the rest of the parts on the block. Now it was time to give the head some love.
before valve seal.jpg
after valve seal.jpg


I went ahead and put supertech valve seals in it. After a bit of research i decided to go with supertech because they are rumored to have more "clamping" power around the valve, so theyre less likely to leak than oem.
14632718_10211056165264777_751858565_o.jpg


Now where the fun really begins. I was originally going to go with an all oem rebuild. Ive always wanted to put the car on boost so i figured i might as well build the bottom end. So i picked up some manley h beams.
14787106_10211056164144749_780959448_o.jpg

After a little bit more saving money i grabbed some manley pistons. The main reason i went with manley, was because they offer the compression ratio that i was looking for. I wanted high 9s, and they offer a 9.8-1 piston so i went with that.
14795932_10211056164184750_849864429_o.jpg


They look incredible lol. I used acl race stdhx bearings for the rods. They landed me between 15, and 20 thou. Which is exactly where i was aiming to be.
14697139_10211056163904743_1598633617_o.jpg
Gapped all my rings, and now its time for assembly.
14787096_10211056163864742_453781765_o.jpg
Rings on the piston. No they are not clocked yet, i did that before install lol.
14795890_10211056163544734_1723468685_o.jpg

Pistons, and rods installed. This put me that much closer to finishing up this motor and getting it back on the road.
14787475_10211056163704738_1890368618_o.jpg


I had to do it lol
 
Part three: Just a few more little things, and that will be all for now. Like i said most of this was previously on honda tech. Once that thread was locked down i lost most of my motivation to make another. So this is all what ive gotten done between june and now (october). I will be posting updates periodically when i get things done. For now heres a big change i went with a few weeks ago. Ive always like the idea of black and orange. I love the two colors together. I intend on painting the hatch jet black in the spring, and it will make this that much better. The paint on one of my wheels was pretty much toast, which is what made me go through with this.

14787716_10211056164544759_1720053205_o.jpg


Before

14724168_10211056164344754_1479574181_o.jpg
14796249_10211056164384755_580078387_o.jpg


Primer, and all buttoned up.

14697142_10211056164464757_460289920_o.jpg


On the car. I gotta say im in love with the look. Theres a few other things i sprayed orange aswell. Battery tie down, spark plug cover, and rear swaybar. Really happy i bit the bullet and went through with this.

14632508_10211056164744764_1608250756_o.jpg
14786968_10211056164984770_1757513137_o.jpg
14787126_10211056164704763_1180798257_o.jpg


These are a few gifts i got from friends and family for my birthday lol. If anybody has any tips on how to wire a gsr cluster into an ek please do share. TIA. So yeah ill be posting updates here and there. Just threw this together, because it helps motivate me get things done on the hatch.
 
Brilliantly done bud ! I be watching this build,
The black and orange is real good together,
Well done :beer:
 
How's it "rice" I don't see no body kit or big chrome. Good progress keep at it, don't let the Internet put you down from doing what you like, there's always someone who will hate on what you do.
 
:welcome: Nice build write up! she's looking good, and those pistons/rods! :dance: clean engine bits are just so sweet
 
Brilliantly done bud ! I be watching this build,
The black and orange is real good together,
Well done :beer:
Thanks haha i appreciate every bit of support i get. I had been debating on painting the wheels for quite some time. I finally went through with it when i realized that one of my wheels was nowhere near as white as the others lol
 
How's it "rice" I don't see no body kit or big chrome. Good progress keep at it, don't let the Internet put you down from doing what you like, there's always someone who will hate on what you do.
Thank you sir! I guess the other guy was just having a bad day and took it out on me lmao. Im already liking ek9 alot more. Everybody is much nicer
 
:welcome: Nice build write up! she's looking good, and those pistons/rods! :dance: clean engine bits are just so sweet
I almost didnt want to put them in the block they looked so good lmao. Thanks for the support :D
 
Ill have another update coming in sometime this week. Ive got a few goodies coming in the mail :D
 
Sweet ride man! I love how Honda's always have a story to tell. And that story building block of the intimate relationship of the driver and the car. Keep us updated with any goodies. And never let the man hold you down.
 
I was lovin this till u sprayed the wheels orange they wer savige white haha.

But i cant say much iv green wheels hahaha.

Gonna follow this anyways :)
 
Ok so i have a pretty big update coming at you guys. Since june ive been piecing this motor together. I got a few goodies in the mail this week to finally finish it up.
14924082_10211240088422741_992172086_o.jpg


Gates belt, tensioner, and waterpump.
14975840_10211240088382740_2014019235_o.jpg


oem headgasket. Finally its assembly time.

14958210_10211240088302738_892675121_o.jpg


Copper spray on the headgasket, and it in place.
14971652_10211240088262737_1220021916_o.jpg

Head in place and snugging up the headstuds by hand.

14959136_10211240088182735_1879431894_o.jpg


Torquing everything down.
14971716_10211240088222736_1138577716_o.jpg

lubing everything up
14923040_10211240087942729_1709526474_o.jpg

Cams in and torqued to spec.
14958242_10211240088062732_10395975_o.jpg

And it finally looking like an engine again. I threw the new waterpump, tensioner, and timing belt on. The timingbelt is not tight, and its off timing by a tooth. So i still have that to do. I also did a valve adjustment once the cams were in place. Overall im incredibly happy with how it looks lol. Its a big milestone for me. I should be picking up a bnib moroso pan from a buddy some time soon. As well as on payday ill be ordering an acl oil pump. Ill post updates whenever i get them. Maybe ill try to figure out how to embed the video of me blowing the car up lmao. But i need to go to work. Ill be posing another update soon. My goal is to have the car running and driving 100% by honda day in april. So if you stick around for this winter things should get pretty serious lol.
 
Ok so its been a few months and i do apologize. I haven't gotten a whole lot done. But i did make some progress. My hours have been slowing down slightly at work, and its been postponing the build quite a bit. So here is what i have gotten done. Its time for me to bring you guys up to speed.


moroso pan.jpg

Picked up the moroso pan from a buddy. Ive been reading about people having issues with the placement of the return line. Apparently oil runs up the return line causing the car to smoke? If anybody has any info id appreciate it at this point. Its just the 5 qt baffled pan.
acl pump.jpg

The acl pump in place. If you notice on the waterpump that there are two "non oem" bolts, that's because i snapped one while installing the pump. Had to drill it out, tap it, and install a thread insert. It ended up being a long annoying process, but i got it done. One of my post mount holes had stripped out as well. Luckily a friend of mine had a bit, tap, and insert, that he loaned me. Got the post mount done in maybe 10 minutes.
pan on in time.jpg

I hate timing these motors. Got it done with some help lol.

done.jpg

There she is in all her glory. Done. Ready to go whenever i am.

oil snapchat.jpg

Topped her off with oil, and some ngk plugs.

header.jpg

trans apart.jpg

I went ahead and yanked the trans apart. I was going to go mfactory lsd. But i want the car to run and drive by the end of January so that will be in the future. Since i already had it apart i went ahead and cleaned the case out. The magnet was pretty gross but that is to be expected. When i bought the car it had a slight third grind. I changed the trans fluid a little bit of time after i got my licence and it went away. So i was a little worried about the shape the syncros would be in. But surprising enough everything looked absolutely mint. It had to have been rebuilt at some point, because the syncros look great!
trans cracked.jpg

I dont have a picture, but the trans is now back together all sealed up.
clutch.jpg

I picked up this competition stage 3 clutch. Its rated to 400 ft/ibs. So it should hold up. I also grabbed a Luk oem replacement flywheel. It was cheaper than having mine resurfaced lol. It should hold up just fine. I also grabbed an exedy clutch slave. For 15 dollars the quality is amazing. Beyond thrilled with it thus far.
transfluid.jpg
axle.jpg

I went to the local honda dealer and picked up some trans fluid. My neighborhood nappa could get me a re manufactured axle next day so i went ahead and had them order it for me. I grabbed a new axle because when i pulled the motor it didn't quite want to come off of the half shaft. So me being impatient, having just blown my car up, i just cut the boot lol. At this point i'm just waiting on a nice enough day to throw the motor in. Its all ready to go. It has been raining here for the past week or so. Just my luck lol.
turbo.jpg

Lastly, my buddy came across some b series turbo parts for cheap. We worked out a deal, and i ended up walking away with the manifold, downpipe, turbo, intercooler, and wastegate, all at a good price. I wont be using this turbo, as it is just some ebay junk with bad seals and a good bit of shaftplay. I intend on grabbing a holset at some point in the near future. I will be breaking the motor in N/A, and driving the car for a bit. Ill piece together the turbo kit, and when i have absolutely everything i need i'll slap it all on and hit the rollers. Once again, sorry for the lack of updates. I will post as soon as the motor is in the car, and fired. Should be pretty soon here. Thanks for sticking around and being patient!
 
Well here comes another late update. I've been slacking with the updates big time. Mostly due to loss of motivation with the car, and not having a whole lot of time. I've been working my a** off lately, and i still end up living paycheck to paycheck. With little to no money to spend on the car. So the mental 400hp winter build i was planning pretty much fell on its face. BUT i did get alot done since the last update.
motor on stairs.jpg

I think that picture speaks for itself. Its outside? Why is it outside? That can really only mean one thing.

engine on slide.jpg

In all honesty, getting the engine out of my basement, to the car, was the hardest part of the entire build. This is a little "sled" i crafted up. It made dragging the motor across my mossy yard an easy process. Sloppy, but it worked out really well.
clutch.jpg

After scrambling to find the last pressure plate bolt the competition clutch, and Luk flywheel went on without a hitch.
engine in air.jpg


Didn't get a picture, but the trans went on, as well as the engine harness. We had it 100% bolted in in a matter of 10 minutes.
soon.jpg

It looks really good sitting in there.
engine bay.jpg

That's where we called it quits for the day. Didn't get to fire it up. A ground issue, bad starter, and leaky injector were all that held me back from starting it. Ignore the mess of a bumper lol. It has been sitting in my yard since the fall.
dud.jpg

I began working on the car in between work shifts, and bad weather. Ran into a few more issues. Mostly involving the shift linkage, and my own stupidity.
sitting in street.jpg


But soon enough it was time to fire it up. Finally had all the little issues sorted out. My nerves were going crazy at first. I turned it over a few times with the injectors, and distributor unplugged, to build up some oil pressure. Plugged everything in, primed the fuel pump twice, checked for leaks, and started cranking. After a few second of turning it over it fired right up. It died right after. So i cranked it again and it died...again. So i cranked it and started pedaling the hell out of it. It would run fine as long as i pedaled it. My buddy suggested that the TPS and MAP sensors might be switched. So we criss crossed them, and the car fired up, and idled like an absolute dream. I went to sleep happy that night lol. The next day i changed the oil, finished up a few small things, and took the car around the block. It drives fine, and shifts perfect. The clutch grabs, and doesn't chatter or anything unpleasant. I incredibly happy about the pedal feel with the clutch. I was a little shocked at first thinking something was wrong. It has an oem pedal feel, and a very smooth engagement. So big shout out to Competition Clutch for making such a streetable application.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BQMHqJ0Ady7/?taken-by=zachflanagan97 That's a link to the video of the first fire up. Where the map and tps were switched.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BQMNi_4A5pR/?taken-by=zachflanagan97 That's the link to the video of it idling like a dream.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BGiSqQxzNsa/?taken-by=zachflanagan97 THIS is the video of the car actually dropping a valve lol. There's plenty of pictures and videos on my instagram.

Now that pretty much brings us up to date. The car fires right up, runs and drives as it should. But i haven't touched it in weeks. I still need to seat the rings. I drove it around the block maybe twice. Its road legal and basically just waiting for me to really finish it and take it out. I should pull a little bit of fuel out of the tune, as it was pretty rich when it ran before. I just ordered a new vtec oil pressure sensor, because i broke mine the day i blew the car up. I also ordered a vtec oil press pigtail because i somehow managed to rip mine off of the harness when i went to plug it in. Whenever those come in maybe ill find the motivation to seat the rings, and put some miles on the motor. Thanks for sticking around guys!
 

Attachments

  • sitting in driveway.jpg
    sitting in driveway.jpg
    159.1 KB · Views: 454
Sweet update. These things... they take time haha. I feel ya on the nerves- I've built alot of cars, but every time I build one for myself, it always gets the nerves on point. I like where your ride is going. Good luck on the build. Hope you find more money and time in your future :nice:
 
Man, that's ******* sick.

Always love seeing/reading the stories behind the builds, and even moreseo pictures of the build coming together.

I hope one day I can sit at home in my own spare time and give it a crack. Until then I'm paying professionals :))

Must feel incredibly therapeutic to see something you've built come together.
 
Sweet update. These things... they take time haha. I feel ya on the nerves- I've built alot of cars, but every time I build one for myself, it always gets the nerves on point. I like where your ride is going. Good luck on the build. Hope you find more money and time in your future :nice:
Thank you sir! Its been quite some time since ive had an update. Im starting at a new job come monday, so i should be able to make some big moves soon lol. I did get a bunch of stuff done on the hatch in the mean time. Should have an update soon
 
Man, that's ******* sick.

Always love seeing/reading the stories behind the builds, and even moreseo pictures of the build coming together.

I hope one day I can sit at home in my own spare time and give it a crack. Until then I'm paying professionals :))

Must feel incredibly therapeutic to see something you've built come together.
Its great seeing the car look somewhat like ive wanted it to since i bought it three years ago. Were far from done though lol
 
So apperently i can update on my phone. Had i known that i wouldve been keeping you guys up to date quite a bit better lol. So we left off without the rings even being seated. I think i took the car out on a sunday? Not entirely sure. Either way. I had my buddy come over and we took it out for a rip. Car drove great. No funny sounds or smells. Had an issue where when i would downshift into third it would almost lock itself out of gear for a second, and then plop in. I did two pulls on the first drive. The first one i rolled into it in second gear on the same stretch of road i blew the car up on. Car felt amazing and pulled strong. No smoke or anything. The second pull i did was in first gear from about 20mph. All of first the car absolutely ate. I grabbed second and the car fell on its face big time. It was a weird issue where it almost felt like i was hitting a rev limiter..... which it kind of was. It turns out i had thrown in my junk ecu stepdown harness during the last bit of the build. The pin for the vss was loose in the harness, and it would cause the ecu to see the vss read 0-mph for just long enough to throw it into 2 step. So i ordered a speedfactory stepdown, and that took care of that issue. The day after the rings were seated i drove the car to my work. Sat in bumper to bumper traffic for a good bit of time and the little hatch didnt skip a beat. Didnt get hot or anything. Clutch broke in and it became a bit more aggressive. Still a really nice feeling clutch. The second issue i found myself facing was with vtec. The car would go into vtec fine, i would shift and it would hang in vtec. Still havent quite figured that one out, BUT i havent been driving the car. I took it to work a few times and to a local car meet. I was sitting in a dunkin donuts drivethrough and i noticed that the car was begining to get hot. That turned out to be a faulty rad fan wire, that my tire happened to rub through. Overall i put 200 miles on the motor. I did an oil change and everything looked ok. No excess of flakes in the oil or anything of that nature. I bought four new dunlop direza dz102s. Absolutely love the tire. A few weeks after that, out of the absolute blue an old friend of mine shot me a text. He had gone to a local school for collision repair/painting. He asked if i wanted to work with him a bit, and after a bit of talking i liked the idea of it. Now, im by no means bashing the kid. In any sense. My car was for the most part pretty straight. No rust at all. But being honest my prep work when i primered the car wasnt exactly ideal, as i had never done it before. He took my car in with ambition. When i got it back i hate to say it but i was a bit disapointed. There was a fair bit of orange peel, and quite a bit of overspray. So then i started the process of cutting/buffing/polishing. After probably over 30 hours of it, i had the car where i was actually content with it. It is by no means a show car. It has its fair share of flaws. Thats a good thing, because now i wont be afraid to drive it lol. Thats the way i see it now. But after recieving the car from paint, it did kill the little motivation i had with it. Now were back on track though. Its around this time where i picked up a new daily driver. A 99 ex with 230k miles on it. Trusty old thing hasnt left me hanging yet. It needed tires and i didnt have the money at the time. So i put my orange wheels on it for a bit. Literally the day i picked the coupe wheels up from having new tires mounted, i was driving home and got a flat. My brand spanking new dunlop had a nail in it. So now the orange wheels are back on the hatch, waitint to get one new tire. Somewhere in the mix i picked up and installed speedfactory detent springs, and a new bwr billet shifter bushing. I am VERY pleased with the feeling of my shifter now. No slop what so ever. A very firm gear engagement. Also changed the trans fluid in the process. I am hoping those three things combined took care of my downshifting into third gear issue. As of my plan right now is to take the car out and do some “testing” once before it snows, and then take it off the road for the winter. I did a compression test on the motor today and it made between 180-185psi across the board. That really lit a fire under my a** and now i just want to drive lol. Sorry for the lack of updates. Stay tuned for pictures.
 
Back
Top