Joule's K20 EK9 build - Update 14/04/13 - Wiring time

[Joule]

Table of contents:

EK3 build

• Buying parts, cleaning, and installing new suspension and rear sway bar kit (below)
• Cleaning and spray painting of engine
• Better shots of engine, more cleaning, and partial assembly of engine
• Removed d-ninja, replaced brakes and front sway bar
• Further disassembly and installation of Integra shift linkage
• Weird NZDM ECU woes, pin-out diagram found
• Cleaning engine bay and painting cluster
• Some fail engine assembly (KO Vtax) and more engine pics
• Engine and radiator test fit
• Making the NZDM Engine loom work - wiring fun! Part 1 & Part 2
• Some more goodies
• It lives!
• Engine running clip
• Exhaust made and installed
• Engine bay and speaker umbrella pics
• Untuned (lean as F*) dyno results - 126.6wkW
• A public service announcement: Why car wash machines are bad..
• Shiny knob
• Innovative mounts haft arrived
• Gauges and some mounts installed
• Arrival of rims and on the car
• CTR clone grill installed
• Modding lights to CTR-style and more pics of
• Hondata whoring
• Converting to OBD1 & Arrival of custom spring rate Ground Control coilover kit
• Hondata S300 chipped ECU installed
• Exhaust-mani bash-plate installed, GC's installed, and sacked shots
• Cleaning & painting prelude calipers
• Prelude brake setup installed
• Injectors
• Painted Intake Mani
• ASR brace installed
• DIY OBD1 to OBD2a adapter harness
• VC shaving & choice OBD1 injector plugs
• VC painting
• VC letter painting

EK9 Build / EK3 de-build

• First EK9 pics
• Some more pics
• Yet more pics
• Suspension reversion on EK3
• Starting the swaps
• EK9 B16b removal, B18c install
• Colgateam's D16y4 removal, loom converting, 1uz Hilux
• EK9 OBD2b to OBD1 loom conversion finished
• Frankin-loom being converted to OBD2b, A plug done, B plug done, and finished.
• B16b installed into Andrews EK
• Attack of the Goods-truck
• Rant, why a certain panel beater sucks and part 2
• Temporary B18c
• Some cleaning of said engine, headlight, removal of wires for Africa, and tweeter placement
• Tweeter and crossover installation
• Boot cleaning
• DIY how to make front speaker adapters
• Finishing up sounds install, and pic of front speaker setup
• Vtec solenoid painting
• Bumper cleaning, trying to fix 6x9 rattles, LCA installation, tie bar painting, and new B18c dyno run comparisons between chassis & ecu's
• Rear sway-bar tidy up
• Pics from EK3 weekend
• Honda vs Repco thermostat replacement comparison
• Chromed rear swaybar and thermostat replacement
• Chromed swaybar install
• S2000 clutch MC & braided lines
• Beaks
• Rear-subframe repainting
• B16a2 fuel rail polishing
• How To: Extend/join shielded wires
• Custom boot floor board
• Bumper blacking and soldering station
  
  
• K20 Arrives, another pic, transport pics
• Engine trolley and starting to strip down K20
• More undressing, and cleaning of the gearbox

Todo list: (likely both incomplete and outdated)

• Remove B18c
• Tidy bay - wire tuck, brake tuck, possibly shave+smooth+paint, relocate battery.
• Adapt and tuck engine loom
• Install K20
• Exterior Panel & Paint (eventually)

Background...
Summer of 2009 I decided I was going to put the money I was earning at my new job to "good" use, and thus I slipped into the black hole that is modifying cars.
I had owned my Civic since ages ago. I purchased it with around 130K on the clock and passed the 200K mark at the end of 2010. It was almost a bog standard EK3, about the only thing that wasn't standard was that it had a pod filter! .

Having decided I was going to replace the D ninja (which was starting to get a bit smokey) with something else; I whacked up a thread on this forum and asked for opinions on which engine I should get. I ended up settling on a B18c which after much hunting, was found in a DC2 wreck along with plenty of other useful parts. (You will notice that asking people for their opinions is a common theme in this build, as I fail at making my own decisions!)

But an engine conversion wasn't the only thing on my mind, and I proceeded to draw up a list of other mods that I would like to do... And as the list got bigger and prices more correct, the projected total project cost went higher and higher.

Background part 2
As you will read later in this thread, I eventually decided that the EK3 just wasn't worth what it was going to cost to get it how I wanted, so I called it quits and started looking for a face lift EK9 while reverting the EK3 back to stock. A EK9 came up for sale and dropped to a price that I just couldn't ignore, so I begged and borrowed and flew up to Auckland bought it and drove it back.

Then came plans for a big B build, so I sold the B16B out of it and swapped in the B18c from my EK3 keeping the excellent S4C gearbox from the CTR. Almost half way through acquiring the parts for the monster build I added up the expected cost, and decided perhaps it wasn't the best idea and that same amount should be spent on getting an engine I always later dreamed of putting in my EK9 anyway - a K20. So I sold my parts at a loss and saved for a K20. Shortly later I had one and this is where I'm at now

Where is my build going? Who knows, I guess ultimately I'm aiming for a clean daily that's a little special and lots of fun to drive.


Enjoy:


From: Sat Jan 31, 2009



What I had done: Cleaned most of the gearbox - still not complete. Most of the engine has been degreased and is starting to look cleaner but there is still a long way to go! You can also see that I have removed half of the paint off the rocker cover; this I did with a blade and a wire brush..

My father reminded me we had some paint stripper *facepalm*
So I removed the rest of it with that...



I also went so far as to shine the nuts and bolts, here's a before and after of one of the rocker cover nuts:




From: Sat Jan 31, 2009

Started sandblasting my rocket cover with my newly purchased sandblaster


Unfortunately our old air compressor didn't like being used so much and finally kicked the bucket. Luckily we have another air compressor but its only small, so sandblasting is very slow now


From: Feb 03, 2009

Sandblasted my intake mani:




From: Feb 13, 2009
(cell phone pic warning...)

Several boxes of shinies arrive courtesy of Adam (here's some of it):







From: March-ish

Installed my new shocks and springs:



Talk about an improvement in handling love it . I later decided I wanted it to be lower so I moved the clips down on the Koni's to their bottom most position, but the car still doesn't sit low enough for my liking



From: Apr 02, 2009

Received more goodies...

PasswordJDM 4pt rear strut brace courtesy of Adam:


Some heat wrap (also from Adam):


And a DC2 NZKW radiator (from Riceboy) and a slimline fan (from Adam again):




From: Apr 12, 2009

Found out that all the hard work my friend Andrew and I had done cleaning my bores etc, had been undone due to the buildup of some (what looks like) crystallized oil. I had covered the bores with some glad wrap and left it for a while which I thought would have been fine. Perhaps one of you know what it in fact was..




Cleaned, and this time covered in engine lube:


Working / hiding from camera (time for a haircut lol):


Rear sub-frame kit and sway bar all installed:

[P Wizz]

That is the best name for a compressor. ever.

Car looks good man these things always end up costing 3 times as much!

[Joule]

Here's the final dump from other forum!

From: Apr 20, 2009

Today I cleaned then spay painted my engine block...

Testing dark silver


It was just too dark so I decided I would use it for the nuts and bolts, black for the brackets and other bits, and silver silver for the block (which meant another trip to Total Bodyshop Supplies, so I got some cleaner and masking tape while I was there).

Gearbox before spraying:


Intake side before:


After cleaning and prepping for spray:



Gearbox / Exhaust side after spray:


Intake side after spray:




From: Apr 21, 2009

Today Andrew came around and we finished most other bits. The three major bits left are the head, intake manifold, and rocker cover (but it can wait).

Here are some more pics...


The various spray paints I have at my disposal...


I put the gold in there for the lols, and did plan to use it on my vtec solenoid but it didn't come out very well and I'm not planning on using it for anything else so it was a bit of a waste of ~$20.

Which leads me to...
My Vtec Solenoid all polished and clear coated


And a bunch of various sprayed engine components (oh, and a table saw... )




From: Apr 22, 2009
Today I cleaned the black off my intake manifold - originally it was going to be sprayed black and I had tested it on a "small" area - instead I decided to spray it dark silver. Here's a pic of it almost done:



After that I started reassembling the engine, rather proud of my colour choices

Then Sundeep came around and we cleaned the metal chips (from getting the head planed) out of the head, and I quickly spray painted it, then we installed it back on the block.

So here it is, in its partially assembled glory 8)




---
Added at 02:40 AM, Previous post was at 02:35 AM
---

That is the best name for a compressor. ever.

EDIT: Lol yeah "Rambo". That's the little one. It does the job. But not really in the case of sandblasting - tedious at best.

Car looks good man these things always end up costing 3 times as much!

Yeah, I don't mind so long as I have fun and the final result is worth it. Which so far it has been

[YRUWET]

Looking good man, nice to see youve set yourself a plan and thought it all through, Hows that swaybar kit? i got the same one but my exhaust is in the way so havent put the bar in yet just the re enforcement stuff and tie bar...

Noticed your actually not even using your c pipe in the exhaust haha

[colgateam]

Noticed your actually not even using your c pipe in the exhaust haha

Yeah, he's not..which makes it farking loud which i found out the hard way.

Build's looking good so far man, I'm gonna have to get busy on my civic soon..

[VTEKIN]

dude that bay's going to look really tidy, maybe a wiretucK?

good work man, will keep an eye on this.

[EVLTEK]

Looks great!!

Wish I had the motivation to go through all of that tidy up/painting stuff!

[Joule]

Looking good man, nice to see youve set yourself a plan and thought it all through, Hows that swaybar kit? i got the same one but my exhaust is in the way so havent put the bar in yet just the re enforcement stuff and tie bar...

Noticed your actually not even using your c pipe in the exhaust haha

Cheers.
Sway bar kit is great. That and the rear strut give me some good oversteer in corners when its pushed..
As for the missing C pipe, yeah its off atm, but the car isn't being used. Its going to stay like that until I get the new exhaust made up.

Yeah, he's not..which makes it farking loud which i found out the hard way.

Build's looking good so far man, I'm gonna have to get busy on my civic soon..

You need to come over next weekend and help this build progress further!

dude that bay's going to look really tidy, maybe a wiretucK?

good work man, will keep an eye on this.

Cheers bro. I'm planning on doing a wire tuck. I will decide once I have the old engine out and the engine bay is clear to play around in.

Looks great!!

Wish I had the motivation to go through all of that tidy up/painting stuff!

Ty
Yeah, the motivation isn't always there. It has been a bit on and off.

[Joule]

Update
Today wasn't very productive (need sleep lol) but I did manage to get a little done.

First, here's some better shots of the engine:





Today the first thing I did was clean up the injectors...


I used one of the wire brush attachments for my dremel which came out good enough to consider not spraying.




And then I installed the fuel rail onto the intake manifold and then installed the intake mani onto the engine

[civiconfire]

Looking good man, hope you enjoyed the spin the other night! Can't wait to start building mine up!

[Joule]

Planning on it bud.

Sweet

Looking good man, hope you enjoyed the spin the other night! Can't wait to start building mine up!

Cheers Jono. The spin was great. B18c Civics ftw.

[CoupeTurbo]

clean clean engine looks good.

[XPLOIT]

Where did you get the spray paint from? Is it easy to work with? Any tips for using it?

Im doing the exact same detailing on my Austins engine/bay before re-fitting.
New nuts, bolts, washers and wiring loom!

[4VTECN]

That engine looks bling!

Im thinking about doing mine too and was wondering what you used to clean the block before painting?

[Joule]

Where did you get the spray paint from? Is it easy to work with? Any tips for using it?

Im doing the exact same detailing on my Austins engine/bay before re-fitting.
New nuts, bolts, washers and wiring loom!

I got the paint from "total bodyshop supplies" in Lower Hutt. The brand is K&H which apparently has been bought out by 3M, who isn't continuing their range. So basically buy up while you can.

Its pretty easy to work with, perhaps the best spray paint I've ever used (not that I have any major experience with spray paint).

Just thoroughly remove all dirt and grease from the area, then spray it in single horizontal runs down the block, starting the spray stream before you hit the area, and after you leave the area (you can do vertical runs but you have to be extra careful). Don't worry if it hasn't completely covered the area first spray (as it will turn out great after a couple of coats, which is a lot better than it running) - this is especially important for the black, as it bubbles and runs very easily. Wait 5-10 minutes and spray over the area again doing it the same as before. Repeat until you are satisfied. I did maybe 5 coats over the engine, but I got more and more generalized with the spray each time.

I wouldn't worry about buying new nuts and bolts (or washers) - wire brush attachment on a power drill ftw! Stick the target in a vice grip (not too hard for the bolts) and go nuts. Takes less than a minute to make an old nasty bolt / nut / washer look like new!
Most of my bolts & nuts I wire brushed, then spray painted dark silver. There are some that I just left bare, which is very bling (look closely at the nuts and bolts attaching the intake mani to the block). I have unfortunately run out of dark silver. Total Bodyshop Supplies told me repco stocks/ed the K&H brand, so I may have to hit them up and see if they have any left.

Oh, and make sure you wear gloves etc. using the black stuff very quickly leaves you spotty. I used it (very shortly) a couple of times without a long sleeved shirt on or gloves - my arms and hands are now spotty, and I can't get it off as I'm out of the cleaner that I describe below...

Also, spray your stuff WELL away from everything else. My mp3 player was maybe 5m away from where I was spraying, in the corner of the room, and not even in the direct line of fire, and was left with tiny silver dots all over its screen after I sprayed my block. Same went with my brand new camera, and that was even further away and hiding behind something!! So cover everything, or do the spraying in another room, or outside where the wind isn't going to blow it onto anything you don't want contaminated.

That engine looks bling!

Im thinking about doing mine too and was wondering what you used to clean the block before painting?

Cheers
The total body shop supplies place had this cleaner that was completely unbranded. It's what I purchased as they don't stock turps. I don't think it really matters, so long as it can remove grease and doesn't leave a residue behind. It took several goes over each area before it was ready.

I applied the cleaner with a small painting brush and then wiped it off with a rag. An old toothbrush would be best.

Another tip: The cleaner that I used I had to watch around anything I sprayed as it removed it pretty easy. Its the only thing that did - unless I used engine degreaser - but that only really had an effect before the paint had finished drying.

[XPLOIT]

Thanks mate, I havnt seen that stuff in Repco before but i'll have another look.

The reason I am replacing nuts/bolts/washers is because they are near on 40 years old and some have thread damage. But I will clean some of them up that are good anyway.

So you didnt use any undercoat at all??

I was going to use black but your intake manifold looks awesome so will probaby go for the Dark Silver(?)

Cheers

[Joule]

Thanks mate, I havnt seen that stuff in Repco before but i'll have another look.

No probs. I hadn't either, but I wasn't looking for it. I'm hoping the Total body shop dude is right tho. I need more dark silver!

So you didnt use any undercoat at all??

Nope. This stuff recommends bare metal contact. You can use it over top of other paint, but I didn't notice any primer / undercoat at the store that's heat resistant (wouldn't want to use non heat-resistant stuff to only have it all peel off!).

I was going to use black but your intake manifold looks awesome so will probaby go for the Dark Silver(?)

Yeah I was going to paint my intake mani black too. Of the area that I originally sprayed black, it looked pretty nice, but the dark silver tops it imo

---
Added at 09:42 AM, Previous post was at 09:39 AM
---

Update
I'm going to have my breakfast then wake up the neighbour, and then the plan for today is to tear my d ninja out!
Once the d ninja is out, we will install my CTR front sway-bar and I will start cleaning the engine bay. I will also look into how I'm going to do the wiring..

[Hayce]

Engine looks great

[P Wizz]

Just read you're going to do a 2.25" exhaust...I would go with 2.5' being an 1800cc

[Joule]

Engine looks great

Cheers

Just read you're going to do a 2.25" exhaust...I would go with 2.5' being an 1800cc

Yeah, I'm still tossing up what to do. Several people have said 2.25" will be best and that 2.5" is going to make the engine more peaky, and I don't really want that so much. But I do plan to do some engine mods with next summers paycheck, and a 2.5" may suit that better. I don't know.

---
Added at 08:05 PM, Previous post was at 06:43 PM
---

Update
Today a lot got done

The D ninja got the boot, the front sway bar got replaced with a CTR one, the front brakes got replaced with the ones from the DC2, and the rear trailing arms also got replaced with ones from the DC2 with the disc brake assembly.

Here's some pics:

Prepping the d ninja for removal (that's my neighbor Mike)


Useless unneeded crap - removed:


Engine ready for removal:


Going up...


D Ninja separated from its old resting place:


Removing the old front brakes:


Brakes cannibalized from the dc2 wreck - installed:


Old sway bar removed:

(didn't take a pic of the CTR sway bar installed..)

Removing old crappy drum brakes:


Teg rear discs installed(ish):


Its surprising how much bolts straight up off the wreck like it was meant to go there...

We did run into one problem however.. Unfortunately the left rear trailing arm is bent , so we are going to have to spend additional effort taking the disc brake assembly off the dc2's rta and putting it onto my original non-bent rta. One of the problems of getting a wreck that's been involved in an accident I guess. Or it was my fault...

Looking at my work load for this week, I'm not going to have any time to clean the engine bay or to start the rewiring, looks like its going to have to wait till next weekend, which means installing the engine the weekend following.

[g0at]

Awesome build thread!

Do you know what kind of paint is used on that rocker cover? Looks mint!

[Gudgen]

looks good. good ol upper hutt, turning out another fully extreme build of sorts@@!!!

[Joule]

Awesome build thread!

Do you know what kind of paint is used on that rocker cover? Looks mint!

Cheers.
I have no idea, but I want to find out. I was just going to print it out at some point and take it to some places to see if it could be matched.

looks good. good ol upper hutt, turning out another fully extreme build of sorts@@!!!

Ty.

[Trivium]

Looks great man, after a year of owning my old EK3 I did the same swap with the B18c...its totaly a different car when its done

[Wozza]

Jono was telling about this at work. Looks impressive, lots of attention to detail. Will keep checking for fresh pics.