The Civic 25XT

[ChargeR]

I had a great little EF just like this in manual!!! So much fun!!! I miss the little twin carb d15

D15 power! Honestly it seems like it's a great deal slower than the Micra. I'l reassess once I have a manual box in the car but I think it might need a few tweaks to match the outright pace of the K11.

Makes me miss the ED!

How did you find such a beauty?

Beauty is a bit of a stretch, it's a pile of junk . I bought the car from a friend, who had bought the car at auction after it was written off due to hail damage. I spotted it at the auction and realised what it was, and it was a good deal considering the JDM trinkets. He'd had the car for a year or so and didn't have time to tidy it up so after some discussion we came to an agreement and it was all mine.

Poor Paddington! Good to hear you were ok after that Tom, looks like it was a fair shunt to do that much damage!

Poor old Paddington indeed, but it's how he would have liked to have gone. Thanks mate, I was pretty pleased to walk away completely undamaged too!

[Timmy_B]

DAMN...
so glad your ok after that crash

[ChargeR]

So I had better bring this thread up to date. Firstly I should mention that the car came with a few mods courtesy of Daz the previous owner; the brakes had already been converted to ED9 CR-X stuff with 242mm ventilated discs on the front and solid discs at the rear, along with braided brake lines. Of course first I had to test fit the old SSR Formula Mesh of the departed Micra:



This met with partial success, the barrel of the wheel cleared the calliper but the back of the face fouled on the calliper bracket so a 5mm spacer would be required for them to work. For now I'll relegate these wheels to the lounge room storage pile until I have some spacers and some slam to see if I can pull off 13s. I also scored a cheap set of Black Racing wheels, and salvaged the 350mm Nardi from the Micra, I'll be looking to strip the wheels and put wider lips on them:

DAMN...
so glad your ok after that crash

Thanks mate, it was a little scary!

[hello]

hahahahahah thanks for sharing man
glad youre okay, dont neglect the k24 build but i guess this comes as a priority cos you need it for daily?

btw qwhat tires were they

[Setanta]

Don't throw out that rear spoiler ever - being a different shape/compound/design to the Aussie/US EDs they are worth a small fortune - I sold one for 500USD in the late '90s... and it was broken (replaced it with one I sourced from NZ for 200 ) on my EF9.

One thing that is worth doing is checking to make sure that where it is attached to the glass... it's still attached. My first one had lost adhesion (turned out to be double sided tape) and the plastic around the bolts broke. I ended up using a dab of Sikaflex on the replacement - it never shifted

[ChargeR]

hahahahahah thanks for sharing man
glad youre okay, dont neglect the k24 build but i guess this comes as a priority cos you need it for daily?

btw qwhat tires were they

Thanks mate. The K24 EF will get there eventually, this thing is just easier and cheaper for now! On the SSRs? It says Hankook blackbird v on the sidewall, I just asked my local tyre shop for the cheapest 13" tyres small enough to fit a K11 when I bought them.

Don't throw out that rear spoiler ever - being a different shape/compound/design to the Aussie/US EDs they are worth a small fortune - I sold one for 500USD in the late '90s... and it was broken (replaced it with one I sourced from NZ for 200 ) on my EF9.

One thing that is worth doing is checking to make sure that where it is attached to the glass... it's still attached. My first one had lost adhesion (turned out to be double sided tape) and the plastic around the bolts broke. I ended up using a dab of Sikaflex on the replacement - it never shifted

Thanks for the tip, after comparing the EF2 with EDs I had seen around I realised that mine has basically the same exterior bits as an EF9, and don't worry I won't be binning any of it .

To bring this thread more up to date here's what I got up to a few weeks back. Firstly I fitted up a spare rebuilt 7/8" brake master cylinder that I acquired some time ago, to replace the itsy bitsy 13/16" one in there, which isn't girthy enough for the bigger disc brake pistons. While I was at it I put in a proportioning valve, purported to be from an ED9 CR-X, to match the brakes on this car. Hopefully it's the correct one, I know the one that was in the car is incorrect, so at least by changing it I've improved my chances of having the correct brake bias. It will all become clear the first time I'm hard on the brakes.



I also fitted the secondary bonnet restraint, pilfered from the corpse of the Micra. It will serve should I decide to take the Civic down to PI or Sandown.



While I was at it I cleaned up the spare set of front calipers ready to go back on the car. After an hour or more's scrubbing during the week at work, I was left with calipers that still looked pretty manky, but with patches of the beautiful original Honda coating peeping through. I thought I could do better though, so with that goal in mind I chose a new weapon: Oven cleaner, with pretty serious sounding warnings on the back it should do the job.





And the result, the bits all cleaned and ready to go back together. I'm pretty pleased with it. Painting the calipers was never an option, as the finish will never be as durable as the OEM coating, and I'd just end up having to do it again. I raided the my bag of OEM bits and bobs for the new seals and boots, and reassembled the calipers with the colourful array of Honda greases; here's the finished product:



Then I put them on the car, here's the feral yellow calipers that I was replacing:



And the much nicer freshly rebuilt bits:



After a quick flush of some fresh ATE Type 200 fluid through the lines, thanks to Mugsee for lending his leg, the result is much improved pedal feel. Before this the pedal would be nearly on the floor to get the thing to stop, it is now approaching passable.

The only issue now is the handbrake mechanism in rear left caliper has siezed internally, so it won't self adjust as the piston extends which means that the piston is sitting a handful of millimetres off the pad, which makes for a soft pedal as the hydraulics take up the slack. So I'll be rebuilding a spare set of rear calipers from the growing EF/ED parts bin and swapping them on shortly to correct that. On top of that I'll fit some new rotors and a set of pads (I'm thinking Hawk HPS at the moment) and then I can move on to the next issue that needs fixing for roadworthy, the rusted out exhaust.

[felixR]

Nice update. So much skill.

PS, I love that rear spoiler.

[45SET]

This guy... can imagine you were thinking "Hmm... what car next" once the Micra stopped rolling!

Good to see you are ok (Even though I saw you the other night :s)

[ChargeR]

Nice update. So much skill.

PS, I love that rear spoiler.

Thanks boss, not sure about skill though.

This guy... can imagine you were thinking "Hmm... what car next" once the Micra stopped rolling!

Good to see you are ok (Even though I saw you the other night :s)

Thanks mate, I was pretty pleased to be walking and talking after the incident too.

In an effort to bring this thread up to date in preparation for the public debut of the 25XT here's what I did a few weeks ago. I bought a car. Manuel. Manuel is going to give his life so that I can have a 3rd pedal in my Civic and choose from 5 available gear ratios whenever I please. I'll also pilfer some interior bits, the exhaust, and maybe the carbs if the EF2 doesn't stop carrying on and refusing to run properly.



First to be reappropriated was the seat slider for the driver's seat. After owning some Japanese import and locally delivered EF and ED Civics and CR-Xs I've realised that the driver's seat slides back further on the Australian delivered models to suit our lengthier legs. So I was hoping with a quick swap of the sliders I'd have enough room to operate the pedals. Here's the difference:



Unfortunately it wasn't as simple as I initially hoped, the bolt spacing on the seat pan for the outer slider was different on the JDM rail, so I'll need to make a small adapter bracket to fit this up correctly. Apart from that, great success, I can now stretch my legs out:

[ChargeR]

Okay it's time to try to bring this thread up to date. Got a round package delivered a while ago, it's been a while since I got wheels in the post I forgot how enjoyable it is. Inside was what's pictured below, another Black Racing 8 spoke wheel in a dashing shade of red. I've always wanted to have a set of aftermarket wheels with a matching spare so once I've decided the wheel plan I'll get all the centres painted and put them on the car with 4 good tyres and one crap one in the boot.

Taped inside the barrel of the wheel was an HKB boss kit, it's "Special Order" so obviously no-one in Japan has EFs anymore.

[ChargeR]

Following the previous delivery I did some more work on the Civic, edging closer and closer to roadworthy status. I worked on the interior to begin with, here's what it looked like at the start:





Firstly I fitted up the ex-Micra 350mm Nardi with the HKB boss kit that I received the previous week from Mr. Streeter. The result is a much improved driving position, especially given that the column on an EF is height adjustable. This is unspeakable luxury after living the Micra life. I also put in the head unit salvaged from Paddington, pleasingly the EF already had a similar Sony device installed so the replacement was plug and play.


Last of all on the list of interior tasks was to fit a climate control repair panel that I had acquired from an enterprising gentleman on eBay. The panel is a clever piece of laser cut aluminium, coated matte black on the front side with sturdy double sided tape on the back side to hold the thing together. When I removed the climate control panel it came out in two pieces and some hopefully non-essential lumps of plastic fell out as well. The good people at Honda hadn't mastered plastics in the 80s it seems, despite them getting pretty much everything else perfect. Here's the panel fitted:





And this is the final interior result, note the hobo spec jeans, standard issue when you drive a car that's worth less than most people's tyres:





I also pilfered the exhaust from Manuel since the EF exhaust was more hole than pipe. After swapping the cat from the EF (The one on the ED sounded like a maracca) I put it on complete with excellent oval tip and stainless steel "TURBO" muffler:





Then I changed the spark plugs and rocker cover gasket with fancy red labelled parts. Previously the plug tubes were half full of oil and upon removing the plugs the first time to work out why the car wouldn't go, all that oil ended up in the cylinders, and after that it definitely wouldn't go. Dual carb fury:








With that done a bit of cranking and a lot of throttle got the thing rattling into life, and after running for a while the serious misfire cleared up and it will now run on 4 cylinders much of the time. Last of all I test fitted the 5th Black Racing wheel to see how I felt about the wheel colour choice and desired ride height:





The result of these decisions were Red and Slammed respectively, so I'll organise those things sometime in the next couple of months. More immediately though, when my next batch of Honda parts turns up I'll rebuild the rear calipers and do the usual maintenance items: water pump, timing belt, tensioner, thermostat, plug leads, valve clearances, air* and fuel filters*. After that it should be good to go to the friendly RWC man.


*I'll have to get these items locally at an exorbitant cost probably exceeding what the rest of the items on the list combined, since the US never got an excellent dual carburetted D15. Their loss I think.

[ChargeR]

Another day, another box of OEM Honda parts, and another weekend of EF works. In the box is a new water pump, timing belt and tensioner, tie rod ends, various brake seals and dust boots, thermostat, and spark plug leads. First up was the tie rod ends, a quick job with a spanner and BFH:





It always offends me when I replace a part and its cleanliness is just a drop in the ocean of filth that is the underside of my car. Then I started on the motor:





The old belt was Gates branded, so I know that it had been changed at least once. The kms on this motor were unknown though as it wasn't the original from this car, the JDM D15B being long gone, most likely due to the unkindness of an Australian owner. In its place is an AUDM D15B4, which I think is essentially the same thing, but probably with slightly less JDM tunings resulting in the different power rating between the two.








I hate folk that slather things with sealant. If you use a Honda water pump, and the water pump that was on there has sealed against the block perfectly for the past 100,000 km and the mounting face is in good condition there's no reason to think that the new pump won't seal just as well. Idiots. For all that the old water pump looked okay, but I'm still glad I elected to replace it. All the new bits in place:





At some point on Saturday rain stopped play, so I reassembled on Sunday. The pitch was heavily rain affected by this stage, see below. So after bolting it all back together, cranking it over to find it sputtering to life on first go, but on the 3rd battery, only to find water coming out around the lower radiator hose where it clamps on to the thermostat housing, and the persistent idle misfire still present. Foiled.





Quite dismayed at the weekends poor result and also quite damp, I went home and ordered more OEM Honda parts. Next up is a new thermostat housing, radiator hoses, and radiator cap. I'll then fit up the rear calipers I've been rebuilding on the side, and swap the carbs from the Manuel to see whether that fixes the misfire. Which it should as Manuel ran fine on the drive to his doom. Since Manuel is a manual there's no place on the throttle linkage on the carbs for the kickdown cable, so I'll need to drive it in sports mode all the time...


Then Roadworthy Certificate. Maybe.

[ChargeR]

More works on the old Civic. A few weekends following the previous post I continued on. Firstly I finished cleaning up the rear calipers from the red CR-X parts car, and started putting them together. I fitted new sliding pins, new boots and a new main piston seal. I left the handbrake mechanism alone as I didn't have the fancy pants Honda circlip pliers required to get the damn thing apart. So I just crossed my fingers and hoped that the handbrake bits were in working order.





The calipers partially assembled. Two of the pins came old school blue printed Honda packets, which makes me think that I'm the only guy that buys this stuff and they've been sitting in a warehouse since the late 80s. Here's the calipers all ready to go, and then installed.








After a quick one man bleed I tested the handbrake and all was well, so the brakes are nearly complete for the foreseeable future. I've got some new RDA rotors to go on it thanks to DCW, but I'm waiting until I put new pads on before I fit them.


Before the action above though I pulled the carbs off the car, after meticulously marking every vacuum hose with secret symbols. Past the point of no return:








At this point I wondered WTF I was doing as I didn't have a complete car to compare to anymore. I swapped the nicer looking hoses and bits from the EF2 carbs to the ones from Manuel. All re-installed:





After all this the car fired into life first go, once I had lively enough battery, and settled into a high idle on all four cylinders. Something is still not right though as even the hot idle seems to be a bit high, but that's a fix for another day. It's heaps better than what it was, and from memory when driving Manuel to his doom it did idle a bit funny.


I think I did the valve clearances at this stage as well. They were all very tight so loosening them up should free up some horsepowers haha. The car should be ready for RWC now, just need the new thermostat housing and hoses to turn up. Then slam.

[ChargeR]

Continuing on I finally got the Civic ready for its first assault at a roadworthy certificate.


First up I fitted the new thermostat housing and gasket, then after much fussing about I got the new radiator hoses on. Much lubrication and boiling water was required to stretch them over the necessary bits and they definitely won't leak. After a test drive with water on board and a clear bill of health for the cooling system I put in some Honda blue coolant.











Next on the agenda was to remove and empty the water out of the tail lights, seems like this is a standard EF feature. I'll order some new gaskets to correct it, but for now I have to hope it doesn't rain much. The right side one has seen better days as well so it's time for a trip down to Imlach's self serve on Centre Rd to pick up a replacement.





I also pulled out some of the interior trim again to trace the wire from the secondary O2 sensor. The Australian cars don't have this secondary sensor, so there was nowhere for the sensor to plug into in the cat converter since I swapped on the exhaust from Manuel. So I turfed it, and took the bulb out of the cluster so the light that looks like a steaming sausage roll won't be illuminated up all the time.


Oddly there is still another O2 sensor in the exhaust manifold, but I have no idea how this carbureted car has closed loop A/F control. Must be something to do with the spooky black box in the rear left corner of the engine bay. That'll get binned soon enough though.





Then I took the car for a final test drive down to the car wash to clean the engine bay to remove the evidence of the various oil leaks. The bay actually looks pretty good in person now. Last of all I pilfered a set of wheels with roadworthy tyres in EF suitable sizes from an unattended white and black Micra nearby. Ready to go:

[ChargeR]

The pre-roadworthy inspection I had done picked up a few more things that I needed to fix up, so I ordered more bits from the US. Then I bought a wheel:





It's another J's Racing/Rams PR-6. This time in an original weird dark green/grey with the original sticker on it. So now I only need one more.