EF7 hybrid ZC/D16a6 Turbo. Indexed

[doo0T!doo0T!]

This is the build thread I started when i first made the decision to Turbo the crx. It is by no means the beginning as it had previously been through a year and a half of paint/panel and an NA build but thats another story.

I have gone through and indexed it now and separated it into the juicy bits so it's easier to chew through.

For some reason the permalinks are not linking to the specific posts and are only linking to the top of the page the post is on so you'll have to scroll sorry.

1. Starts below.
2. Comparing the brand new d16a7 short block to Lofreq's gold top ZC short block
3. I decide to forge it and buy some H-beams
4. Very lightened flywheel, DIY FTW. ACT clutch and various bits.
5. DIY lightnened N1 style crank pully
6. New custom radiator, rear mount battery and dummy fit-up on existing engine
7. I drop my nuts on fully forging
8. The new engine all painted and prepped with block guard installed
9. Engine assembled.
10. Custom LSD gearbox assembly
11. Gearbox painted and engine bay smooth and paint begins
12. Baller oldskool 7" Work RSB's
13. Engine bay painted
14. Slinging the engine in the hole.
15. On the trailer and fuel pump install
16. Oil cooler, Mallory ignition, and Turbolink
17. The Koni's finally arrive! Dash in and gauges installed
18. Assembled but no exhaust
19. Exhaust planning begins
20. Start up and drive NA with no exhaust
21. Vids of it running
22. Fabbing up the complicated exhaust
23. Heatwrapped up and sexy
24. Final assembly and start-up turbo
25. Carbon buckies join the party
26. First road test
27. Off to Beyond Performance to get me ass rodgered
28. While crying over the shitty power output I design a cage
29. Cage done!
30. Jase takes better pics of the cage
31. Slotegs vid of me leaving BADCF4's old work, it sounds like satan
32. Rear sway bar out of SiR
33. Fuel pump with surge tank and 15/16th master cylinder
34. Cage padding.
35. Lexan window mission begins and another distraction hits the scene
36. Rebuilt turbo, new wastegate and all finished ready for trackday
37. First trackday
38. OM NOM NOM brakes for lunch
39. And the new brakes
40. Plan for new fuel system
41. Hondata S300 joins the whanau
42. Hondata installed and mugen cams and skunk gears installed
43. Carbon roof and NIMM and fianl tune 160wkw!!
44. F&F styles! i actually did blow the welds on my manifold!
45. Dyno sheet
46. Plans for 78mm forge (on hold thanks to an EJ7 shaped distraction)
47. 0-100km/h dash on touge tour targa stage

Well i spent last weekend fitting up most the plumbing etc just to check if everything was going to fit. Most the stuff came off an E-AT so i knew there was going to be some changes required.

Looks like it will work out well, the only problems being the IC location, it is too low and the inlet port position has to be returned to the original place it was when it was on the evo mitsi, this is good though because the end-tank is better suited to this position.

The IC it'self is a bit far to the right but will allow for a good location of an oil cooler on the left.

The frame work under the drivers head light has to be notched to allow the IC piping to pass through smoothly with out any kinks.
The front bumper will have to be cut away on the inside but it will not alter it's form out side and the piping is all contained within.
I have to make new bumper mounts because the IC is mounted over the top of the bolt holes on the driver side.

I was pleased that the piping on top did not need to be changed to much, the blow off valve will have to be moved but it does manage to clear the much bigger strut towers of the EF. (the E-AT has torsion bars and smaller strut towers)

There doesn't seem to be enough room for the EG radiator as it's too tall so I'm going to have to 'french' a channel in the cross member and lower the mounts to get it sitting lower.

There is not enough room past the fan shroud for a decent dump pipe so I will have to look around for a pancake fan off some late model nissan maybe?. And I'm thinking about running one on the front and one on the back.

I also had to rotate the compressor housing about 15-20 degrees to get the inlet out far and up high enough to mount the intercooler. This will require a new wastegate actuator bracket.

heres some pics.
1.- before....


2. after...(IC still too low, will raise 35-40mm)


3. Turbs & Steampipe manifold (mani will have the welds cleaned up and be chrome dipped along with any additional brackets)


4. The inlet pipe...(blow off valve is now at 90deg with an elbow joiner to keep it away from the dizzy & leads)


I'll keep updating this thread as things progress.

[BTLF3D]

looking nice man. :!:

[americ_ian]

so the extracters are for sale :wink:

[doo0T!doo0T!]

Originally Posted by americ_ian

so the extracters are for sale :wink:

Yeah soonish but I gave first dibs on them to <bigmatlock> but if he doesn't need them any more than yeah they'll be up for grabs.

[tarmac-]

use the air conditioning fan of a standard honda. works fine and are thin.

youll have to make up some piping from the turbo to the intercooler so it sits properly. should go well when finished

what management you using?

[doo0T!doo0T!]

Originally Posted by tarmac-

use the air conditioning fan of a standard honda. works fine and are thin.

youll have to make up some piping from the turbo to the intercooler so it sits properly. should go well when finished

what management you using?

I've got a couple of thin fans off a late model nissan pressa (pancake style) thin as.
I havn't got room to put the intercooler in front of the turbo, it'll put the intercooler out through the front of the bumper. i might end up altering the bumper "mouth" and extending it out to the edge of the intercooler core and I'll cut away a section behind it where the horn mounts usually to keep air flow.
The bumper already needs a re-spray anyway stone chips everywhere.

I'm using the standard ecu with a piggyback turbolink. Not the best i know but I'm sure it'll be fine for what I need.

[tarmac-]

yeh not the best at all ; chipping is the best by far and also the cheapest, but yeh itll work.

you shuld really try center the cooler, will look quite odd like that..

[jammos]

hey to help with the intercooler. get the end tank turned around so the pipe from the turbo enters the bottom of the intercooler. this will also help your low height position.

[melon]

...or replace it with a smaller vr4 unit, still does a good job and easier to fit

[melon]

...or replace it with a smaller vr4 unit, still does a good job and easier to fit

[doo0T!doo0T!]

Originally Posted by jammos

hey to help with the intercooler. get the end tank turned around so the pipe from the turbo enters the bottom of the intercooler. this will also help your low height position.

One step ahead :wink:
I've re-positioned the port to get the cooler sitting 35mm higher, any higher and it'll pop out the bumper.
Turns out its not as far off centre as I thought, the edge off the core is real close to the edge of the grille it'll be sweet, the oil cooler will sit in the free space on the other side.
And also I just found out my ECU is an external EPROM and is chippable.
I sourced a head gasket through franklin engineering for $35 and the cylindar head is at Kerry Jones engineering (world sprint car champ) getting the changes made.
I wont make the dyno day but at least I'm still on track.

[Boost Junky]

Mint 8) i remember how fun it was doing a turbo conversion, i wanna do another now lol are u enjoying it dooT!doot!, or u finding it a bitch?

[doo0T!doo0T!]

Originally Posted by Boost Junky

Mint 8) i remember how fun it was doing a turbo conversion, i wanna do another now lol are u enjoying it dooT!doot!, or u finding it a bitch?

Lovin it but the only thing I'm not loving is having to go to work to pay for everything!

[Boost Junky]

Originally Posted by doo0T!doo0T!

Lovin it but the only thing I'm not loving is having to go to work to pay for everything!

Haha aint that the truth atleast ur not dumb like me and just went and got a massive loan, im paying mine back with a part time job

[americ_ian]

building it wont be as half as fun as wen u 1st go for a drive! :wink:

[doo0T!doo0T!]

Originally Posted by americ_ian

building it wont be as half as fun as wen u 1st go for a drive! :wink:

Hell yeah I'm fizzing at the bung with anticipation (sorry for the odd mental picture)

[CIVTEC]

^^ HAHAH

Man I so want to turbo my Honda, I'm jelous !
Can't wait to see the end result, best of luck. :thumbsup:

[spiller]

Good luck with the install.

I'd love to turb the civic, but i bought a honda to get away from the massive fuel consumption of my 180sx! hmmm... maybe one day!

[doo0T!doo0T!]

Well the head has been drilled to fit the a7 block now and all I need is to source some appropriate head bolts.
I cant use DOHC ZC ones as they are 11mm and the a7 block is designed to run 10mm like a d15b vtec.
I cant use d15b ones as they are about 12-15mm short and wont give enough thread to be safe.

I have also lightened the living shit out of a flywheel and am in the process of getting it balenced with the ACT pressure plate.
It is probably around 40% lighter but I havn't calculated it yet. It came up real nice and I'm pretty confident it'll stay together by the way that i have lightened it.

I was told by various sources that the original brown top ZC/ D16a1 was alot more bullet proof in the bottom end, It allegedly has a large crank girdle that the Black Top didn't have and the conrods were supposedly alot bigger.
Well i have discovered this is not the case. After stripping the brown top motor that LOFREQ was running and finding it was still mint, I decided to open up my brand new D16a7 short block and see how it compared.
It has exactly the same crank girdle, it even has the same casting codes, and the conrods appear very similar.
(it was in amazing condition concidering it had nearly 250,000k's on it and was boosting 13psi with 177KW at the treads!!) The bearings were mint, the bores weren't worn and the pistons were still quite clean concidering the rich mixture it was running.

Anyway....I have decided i dont trust the size of the con rods though and will be ordering a set of forged H-beams next week for piece of mind. They will set me back about $360 landed from the states. Sedgedins wanted $650 +gst which is a bit steep.

A block guard will also be winging it's way here for extra piece of mind and longevity of the cylendar bores. $115 landed.

I have purchased some replacement exhaust valves and will get the valves and seats ground.

Anyway heres some photos.....
The dirty engine is the 1984 brown top dohc ZC / d16a1
The clean one is the 1993 black top sohc d16a7
You spot the physical differences........

[americ_ian]

nice to see a semi build ZC in the making!!

maybe ya shuld order some pistons as well!

[doo0T!doo0T!]

Originally Posted by americ_ian

nice to see a semi build ZC in the making!!

maybe ya shuld order some pistons as well!

Yeah I know but putting forgies in a d series means i need new sleeves like you, or otherwise the stock sleeves get eaten away over time.
I'm running 8.3:1 compression so the stock slugs should be o.k
The rod's I'm looking at are made by a performance airplane engine manufacturer in the states called revmaster www.revmasteraviation.com and they have slots in the side of the big end which squirts oil on the pistons and cools them. (like a 4agze)

[americ_ian]

oh okie dokie then :wink:
are u using stock rings with the pistons? honda oem bearings for the rods?

[doo0T!doo0T!]

Originally Posted by americ_ian

oh okie dokie then :wink:
are u using stock rings with the pistons? honda oem bearings for the rods?

Yep, after seeing how well Lofreq's motor coped after the strip down. His motor looked like it had another 50,000k's in it.
The main bearings were like new, and the big ends were only just beginning to show signs of wear. It was still toight as a toiger.