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Build Thread: Rebirth of a burned out Rex

42K views 85 replies 26 participants last post by  HunnyBunny 
#1 ·
Hey guys,
I just registered for this forum.
My beloved 88 CRX Si caught fire while driving on the freeway about 2 month ago. Thanks to the good heart of a passer-by that had a power washer mounted on the back of his work truck, not the whole car burned down. He dowsed the flames until the fire dept arrived, so the damage is only in the engine compartment.
I decided that my CRX will rise back from the dead.
Would you guys be interested if I documented the whole process in writing and with pictures?
Suggestions and comments welcome.
 
#3 ·
I would have loved to, but he disappeared while I was dealing with the guys from the fire dept.

Question: Does anybody have to sell engine bay parts for an 88 Si? If yes, let me know what you got and I can tell you if I still need it.

I will start with some pictures of the aftermath and with gutting out what's left in the engine bay. I'm not too much in a hurry but I'll try to keep a steady flow of posts.
 
#8 ·
Thanks for the welcome everybody. I'm in Riverside, Cali. and Craigslist is full of parts for sale. The only challenge sometimes is to find stuff that has not been modified, usually in a bad way.
So far I have bought:
- Engine wire harness
- Under dash (main) wire harness
- A/C fan
- Intake manifold
- Injector resistor box
- Radiator expansion tank
- All A/C aluminum tubing
- Engine bay fuse box
- Brake master cylinder
- Timing belt covers
- both headlights
Plus parts I had already and I'll buy all the hoses new.
I think that's about all of it for the moment. But I have to do some inventory pretty soon.
And I found a guy that has pretty much all other parts I need.
I'll end up having to change the dashboard too, since I have to remove mine to change the wire harness. And mine looks good from the outside, but I know it's all cracked internally. So once I remove it, a bunch of plastic pieces will fall out and I doubt I'll be able to reuse it.
Some initial pictures will follow soon.
 
#9 ·
I have a question:
Can I attach pictures onto the thread here, or do I have to post them somewhere else and just put the link in the thread?
In other threads I see the words "image" but no pictures show up or open.
Thanks for the help
 
#13 ·
Yea, I was lucky since fire falls under the comprehensive coverage. They ended up paying me $2450 after all the deductions.
Luckily rust is one issue we here in southern cali don't have to worry about, but nonetheless you're right. My plan is to pull the engine and all the parts out, have the engine bay sandblasted and painted, maybe sealed. I'm still debating if I should tear the engine down and have it overhauled, once it's out of the car.
 
#14 ·
Okay, here is the first batch of pictures. I haven't started the tear down yet. These just show what I'm dealing with after a fire that lasted maybe 5 minutes.
























This round thing in the middle of the picture is the only thing that is left over from the radiator fan and shroud - the motor


This is my 89 Si, wit a little of front end damage




The parts I have bought so far


Both headlights, radiator overflow, top timing belt cover, intake manifold with throttle body, under dash wiring harness


MAP sensor array, fuel injector resistor, engine bay fuse box, charcoal canister, engine wire harness, brake master cylinder, A/C tubing, A/C fan


My 88 and 89 Si's




Must have rolled over the 340K mark about 10 minutes before the fire happened. This little motor achieved this without major engine work!!

Before I'll start with the tear down, I have to move some tools, shelfs and stuff into this garage I'm renting. I hope I can start with the actual work before the end of the month.
 
#15 ·
I was thinking of putting in a ZC motor since I have to pull the engine anyway. Anybody has experience with that? Any problems with having A/C in the car?
 
#18 ·
@ asianflava: with saying that's undersized, you mean the CRX A/C in general, right? Not because of the ZC motor..

Yea right...the only thing that still looks like before the fire is the header wrap...lol

No idea what caused it. Was driving 85 on the freeway, saw something orange fly by the windshield, thought to myself: was that an amber?, looked down and saw flames pouring out between the hood and fender. About 2 seconds after that the interior filled with smoke and about 2 seconds after that my brakes were almost completely gone...was fun :(
I decided to keep it because of all the work I had already put into it. Front and rear suspension, all bushings (even rear trailing arms)...all new, interior...all complete and everything worked, great sound system.....I just didn't want to have to start from scratch again and I LOVE driving them.
 
#21 ·
CrxFun said:
@ asianflava: with saying that's undersized, you mean the CRX A/C in general, right? Not because of the ZC motor..
Yeah, I think the system is undersized for all Civics of this generation. Turns into a sweat box when stuck in traffic during 100 degree heat. Converting to R-134 makes it worse.

andypwnz said:
makes me consider keeping a small fire extinguisher handy and if i saw another car on fire i could help them out too
I keep one in my truck (because I have the room) but I should keep one in all the cars too.
 
#23 ·
makes me consider keeping a small fire extinguisher handy and if i saw another car on fire i could help them out too
Actually the first person to stop and help was a truck driver. He gave me his little fire extinguisher and I'm really grateful he did. But honestly, if you can't get the hood open it's useless. There is no way to get the stuff onto the fire source, which is all the rubber and plastic in the bay. Maybe if I had 2 or 3 large extinguishers I would have been able to take the oxygen away from the fire. But 1 small one didn't do anything. I guess they're helpful if something in the interior starts burning, so it's still good to have one in the car
The only reason the car didn't go completely up in flames, was the guy with the power washer that kept the fire at bay until the fire dept. arrived. Even they couldn't get the fire out completely until after they propped the hood up and stuck the hose into the bay.

Thank god for people that make the effort to help somebody that is in need!!!
 
#26 ·
If that happened to my crx I'd throw up right there then pass out.
:rofl:
Yea, that kinda how I felt

Yeah, I think the system is undersized for all Civics of this generation. Turns into a sweat box when stuck in traffic during 100 degree heat. Converting to R-134 makes it worse.
I have used this product for years in my Rex and it makes that tiny A/C work almost as well as todays systems. And best of all, it only uses about 30% of the charge of the R-12 or R-134. That means you run much lower pressure and it saps much less power. On the freeway I could literally not feel when the A/C kicked in.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/R12-Industrial- ... 23097553a0
 
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