'91 CRX Si Rebuild (UPDATE)

Hey guys! I had no clue that I was going to stumble upon my dream car! A little background: I have always been into Hondas because my older brother got me into them with his 94 Honda Civic. I also got into cars because of my brother. Well, one day I was sitting down at home with my father watching top gear (sadly, we were watching the american version...because it was one of the first episodes) Anyway, on this episode (i think it was the second or third episode) all of the guys bought what were their first cars when they were kids. Guess what one of their first cars was? A CRX! I saw it on this episode and I fell in love with it. I had a '92 prelude at the time and literally right after the episode, I got on the internet to look for a CRX. I was only in high school at the time, so I didn't have the money to buy one. So that was when I initially got hooked on CRX's. So, fast forward a good 3 or 4 years, to this past summer. ( I still had my prelude at this point...) I was set to go to Florida with my Fiance and her family for vacation on june 14th (which was also my 21st birthday. haha). About 5 days before we were set to leave, I was driving to work one day and saw a white '91 CRX Si! I immediately pulled over and took a look at it. I didn't have much time left before work so I had to leave. As soon as work got done, I ran back over to where the CRX was and found the guy that was selling it. I asked him how much he wanted for it and he said "i want a thousand, and im gonna get a thousand cuz i've had way too many people stop by just in the past 2 days." So I told my Fiance all about it (she was not thrilled to say the least...) and started figuring out if i could afford it or not. So the next day, I hopped in the car with my brother and went down to take a better look at it. We looked it over and realized it needed quite a few things, but at the most (mechanically) it would cost between 600-700, IF the engine was not getting compression (it seemed fine). So i made a deal with the guy for him not to sell it to anyone else and that i would go get the money and come back the next day and get it.

I went back the next day and grabbed that sucka and i was the happiest freaking person in the world. haha. Anyway, I started making plans as to what to do on it first...and 2 days of driving it...IT DIED. lol...ALMOST literally... Found out that I had no compression in one cylinder and low to no compression in another. (I like to say i was running on 2 and a half cylinders...haha). So, at this point i had to go to Florida. I put my prelude up for sale while i was in Florida but it didn't sell by the time i got back. When i got back, i started buying parts to pretty much rebuild the engine. I took the head to a shop to machine it and clean it up and when i got it back, the guy told me it was off by 15 thousandths!!! WTF!? I never knew it was that bad! haha. So this is what I did to the engine (with my big bro's help of course(i have never done anything this big on a car before and he taught me. haha))

I put in:
-Piston rod bearings
-main bearings
-new piston rings
-all new belts
-new radiator
-new header
-new downpipe
-new catback exhaust
-decked and machined head (replaced a valve that had a chunk taken out of it too...YIKES)
-new gaskets (of course)
-some misc. new sensors
-new oil pump (funny story here, my brother and I didn't see one of the bolts because of all the grime and we tried to "gently" smack it off...dented the oil pump and had to get a new one)
-new "ebay special" (as i like to call it

) short shifter
-All new hoses (they were so old and falling apart...)

So, after all that, and a full weekend of work (literally took up all day saturday and all day sunday and half of monday from the week prior) it finally came to life! It was an amazing feeling to hear it and feel it start up!

So I drove it for a few weeks having intermittent problems (knew it was going to happen, still crap to fix on it) and this is what i did then:

-new coil (first time i got a new one, it worked for 2 days fine and then intermittent problems again...i got such a headache trying to figure out what was going on and just the other day replaced the coil because it was under warranty and THERE WE GO, works great now! haha)
-new fuel tank! (thing was rusted solid through...)
-some new fuel lines
-new fuel pipe (can't remember the exact name...haha sorry. its the one in the back of the cabin, bronze looking, its literally what you put the fuel pump at the gas station into to fill your fuel tank.)

So now for pics!

It still has a LOT of work left, with a ton of crap i want to do on it. But the best part is that everything mechanically is perfect now! (it doesnt even smoke at all anymore! It used to just BILLOW smoke)

Night i got it!

Taking the D16A6 out!

Out now and nothing in the engine bay...

On the engine stand.

Sorry that I don't have any pictures of the dissasembly.

Somehow they got lost on my phone...

Dropping it back in! (thats my brother on the right, and me on the left, he's looking at the clearance for the mounts and telling me which way to move the engine)

BACK IN! (this was the end of Saturday night at around 9:30 pm. We had started at literally 9 am that morning...long day)

Sorry i don't have any pics of the engine bay now!

i feel ****ty haha. I'll take some pics later and post it on here. just wanted to get this build thread started since it's been over 2 months since this was done...haha)

This is what it looks like now! I took a drive today to hopefully find a Civic EX armrest...tried 3 places and none of them had it! GRRRR! Oh well! It was a great drive with the Rex and i got some okay pics! haha

And this is a cool pic of a house I found that looks like a castle. haha. Sign said "Under surveillance" so I just backed up real quick and shot my pic and left. They were probably like, wtf? haha. I'll have to go back and be a little more daring next time and get a better pic.

haha

I'll post pics of the engine bay and the interior later on. Next major things I have on the list are:

-Windshield (fucking huge crack)
-New tires (not rims...TIRES. haha)
-CD Player
-Seats reupholstered (my dad did his own Del Sol seats so he said he would do mine.

)

Thanks for looking guys! lemme know what you think! Also, I'm thinking on painting it silver...

'91 CRX Si Rebuild (UPDATE)

vtec=good

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