Trondelond's EK4

[Trondelond]

Thanks, sir.

Grownup life caught up with me, so I haven't been able to do as much as I'd like for a while. I've got some things out of the way though :

Gave a friend's son a lift, and we stopped at a gas station. As he was fiddling with something in the car, I gave him the keys and told him to lock. When I got back to the car, this is what greeted me :

Later, I found the lock inside the door, I have NO idea what he'd been doing. And he didn't know aaaaanything about it. As the doorcard was off, I freshed up all the clips and got a slightly less rattly door.

I still had trouble throttlewise after having changed distributor, rotor, cap, leads and throttlebody, but a different sort. Had a hesitation when giving it some gas after feathering the throttle for some time. The last culprit I could see here would be the 02 sensor, and the day I was going to replace it, I suddenly got the check engine light in the morning. Yup, it was the o2 sensor. So that had to be replaced.

Did an oil and filterchange, and put in a new sump plug as the old one felt like it was about to give in when I fastened it the last time. Turned out the threads were going.

Started changing the RTA bushings, and I've done one side. Will do the other one tonight, methinks. Using Aerodeck bushings for that Mugen feel. As these supposedly are the same items as Mugen calls "uprated".

The exhaust manifold is scraping everywhere, and I don't want to ruin a good Mugen manifold. So I've gotten a hold of the Private Label mfg Try-Y header. Quite a mouthful, I guess it gives about an inch more ground clearance. My phone died on me, so I didn't get any pics installed. But here's a comparison I managed to snap before it packed in.

So there.

 

[Trondelond]

Here we go, ripped the rear camber arms off last night, they were ripe to say the least. Got new SPC/Eibach items to put on, they seem a little more solid than the hardrace ones that were on :

The top one just fell out, the bottom one I pushed out with one measly finger..

At the same time I got the RTA off, and replaced the main bushing. So that's done then!

Everything nicely torqued up in the rear, and I removed the front hubs as well. These were handed in for pressing today, getting new lower balljoints and wheel bearings. Hopefully I'll get them back today, and I'll try to get it all togheter, along with SPC/Eibach upper arms. These seem like really nice bits of kit (I wanted an alternative to skunk2/buddyclub etc which I don't trust), with both camber and caster adjustment, and a generally solid feel :

 

[Trondelond]

SPC kit installed in the front, along with new wheelbearings/balljoints :

Have driven a few miles, and even without a wheel alignment it feels a lot better. Those bushes where shot.

Got a little package today as well, haven´t decided if they´ll be trackday or summer wheels, must see how they fit after my wheel alignment.

 

[Gav-EK9]

nice delivery mate, cant go wrong with bronze te's

 

[Trondelond]

Heh, that is true, which is why I bought them. Whatever you choose to use them for, they´re just.. right. I have a set of white ones as well, but they´re 4x100 for my Pulsar. This is the bad thing about my 5-lug swap, I have to get new sets of wheels!

 

[Trondelond]

Finally got around to putting on the last inner fender, these things up the comfort-factor by a lot.

And while I was at it, slapped on new OEM discs and pads in the rear. Will definately have to overhaul the calipers, but not quite yet, as I need the car for DD duties. But sandblasting and new pistons are definately on the horizon.

 

[Trondelond]

Wheel alignment sorted!

 

[Trondelond]

Started last night with ripping the steering wheel and surrounding areas out, so I could wire the horn into the DC2 steering wheel. Figured out I'd forgotten my service manual at home, and randomly selecting terminals to hook the horn up to caused too many sparks. Better try later.
Also put in a new fuse and holder for my stereo power cable, as the old one sort of just... fell apart.
Did the camberkit up with loctite and correct torque after the alignment. And I just had to see what it'd look like :

Not too shabby. The offset and width seems spot on for the wheels, which probably will leave a little to be desired in the rear, as there seems to be more room there. And the R888 205's may be a little too wide. But I think normal 205's should fit nicely.

 

[Trondelond]

Bit of an update, I've tried more wheels/tires and it seems like the 5-lug swap doesn't leave much room for going crazy with tires/wheels, so I've ordered a set of Potenza RE002's with 195/55 for the fronts, and 205/50 for the rear. That way I can experiment a little and see what fits best in the front.

I've flipped the rear ARB around, and suddenly the exhaust didn't rattle anymore.. oh, shut up.
While doing that, I noticed that the new ARB bushes are shot already. Not surprising, as I tried using Civic droplinks with DC2 bushes. So I've ordered a set of ASR metal bushes for the ARB, along with adjustable ASR endlinks.

Aaaand, for MoT purpouses the front sidewindow tinting had to go :

My girlfriend's driveway claimed another victim - one JDM foglight. So the other one had to go :

The front bumper got a little crack, and I now have every excuse in the world to do an EK9 front conversion, as there's not one panel in the front I want to keep.

What else.. well, I've tried a couple of different donut gaskets as I have a slight leak between header and cat. Think I may have to space the gasket out a little and see. I've removed a fair bit of wiring from behind the headlights, as a lot of wires have been cut and spliced and lead nowhere. Must get new OEM frontlights along with park light sockets, as this was a problem at the MoT. The aftermarket lights that are on now don't have park lights. :|

I've ordered a button to wire up the horn somewhere on the dash, as the copper plate at the back of my steering wheel is missing..

And I've started fixing my seat rails, after a tip from simone on here that the ek9 rails sit higher than the dc2 ones. So I'll modify the ones I have now :

Elongate the mounting hole that doesn't line up with the floor :

Caress one piece of metal picked up at the local hardware store with an angle grinder and install :

Now I can have someone weld this together, and I'll paint it and enjoy four mounting holes. Noticed that there's a lot of play in the seatback, so I've ordered a set of replacement hinges for the seats as well.

Oooh, and a buddy gave me a present, almost new DC2 front brake pistons! Just need slider bolts front and rear now, and I'll get cracking on overhauling the calipers.

Whew.

 

[Trondelond]

...and there we go, all welded, polished and painted. The flash really brought out the best from the paint.

 

[Trondelond]

Got some more stuff done, and some underway here..

Summer tires arrived, the fuel consumption rating leads me to think there might be some grip available here :

The old door seals (both inner and upper) were completely shot, the inner one had ben cut and spliced somehow, so lots of wind noises and whatnot. Replaced them ,and things got better :

Ripped off the brakes, and had them blasted. Then it was a bit of priming :

I was going to paint them black, but in the store I noticed they had gold. Had to try it.

Tonight I'll start the overhaul part of the brakes, got a ton of bits to replace :

And I'm on droplinks v2.0, with ASR endlinks and Function7 metal bushings. I'm not completely happy with the angle of the endlinks under load, but I managed to space out the lower part, the upper part requires longer bolts, so I'll have to source that.

 

[Trondelond]

Blingin´.

Aaand, installed with new OEM hoses :

Unfortunately I got the overhaul kit for the small rear brakes, but I have the bigger piston version. So that´ll have to be changed later. At least I got the pistons out and removed rust. Also lubed up the boot and inner seal while it was out.

 

[Topher-EK9]

Really nice updates dude, Lots of work enjoying your build

 

[Trondelond]

Thank you, I´m starting to enjoy it as well now, less panic work and more preventive maintenance. Hopefully I can start to focus more on the interior/exterior as soon as I´m happy enough with the engine and handling bits.

 

[Curtis.]

Great work!

 

[B.Easy EJ8]

Nice build so far man, really enjoyed the work that you've done. Some owners simply don't know how to treat a car. Keep up the good work

 

[Trondelond]

Thank you! I honestly don't think it could have been done much worse, so anything else is an improvement!

Well, summer wheels and tyres are on. Potenza Re002's, and I'm glad I chickened out on the dimensions :

Not much to work with in the outwards department here. But now I have a pretty good case of the rubs, especially during tight low speed corners when the front dips. I suppose I'll have to get the damper/spring setup road approved as soon as possible, and then go on with Spoon springs and a bit more camber.

Does anyone know if the Spoon dampers are longer than the EK4 Koni yellows? I'm guessing they are the same, but..

And here's all of her as she sits :

 

[Trondelond]

Believe it or not, there´s more to do. Got tired of all the oil running down the head and gearbox. I´ve changed the VTEC solenoid gasket, so next on the list of suspects is the cam seal. So the old one had to go.

A buddy gave me a set of longer bolts for my droplinks, but if I had used these and spaced them out as I wanted, the bolt heads would catch on the dampers when the car was jacked up. Or during jumps. Which obviously is more likely. I rearranged the different spacers and whatnot with the old bolts, and they´re aaaaalmost vertical now, so that´ll have to do.

 

[Trondelond]

Yep, it was the cam seal. Gearbox is dry as a bone now. Whoo.

Changed the little nylon knobs on my seats, as I had some sideways motion in the seatbacks.

It got a lot better, but there's still a little movement. Must figure out what causes this.

And I finally got my mitts on an OE headlight. The car came with blackhoused ebay lights, which sucked. Replaced one, but I got the wrong one for the right hand side. So all sorted now.

And MoT tomorrow. Fingers crossed.
Oh, and I've ordered polybushes for the front ARB and endlinks, along with stiffer rubber bushings for the front lower control arms. Will slap these on when I get the Spoon springs and dampers I've ordered. Yay.

 

[Trondelond]

Gotta get out to the garage and do some more work soon. 1" brake master cylinder from a DC2 and Mugen front LCA bushings arrived..