98 Civic EX K20 Swap Thread - Project Track-ho - Page 6 - Honda Forum / Acura Forum

kommon_sense · 07-27-2007, 10:08 AM

No exciting updates. Been busy with work this week. I made a harness to connect up my thermostat, fan switch, and ground wire on the radiator hose coolant insert. So my fan works now

I found out that I have a bad primary o2. So I ordered a brand new one from www.sparkplugs.com for $175. Local dealer wanted $300

.

Also ordered fittings and such for hardlines to wire up a power steering cooler, so I will be bending lines this weekend so I can just put the fittings on when they arrive.

My ebay air intake should show up today. I just wanted the piping. I've already got a 3" unifilter ( www.unifilter.com ) waiting for it.

So I guess that I will put the interior back together this weekend and upload more recent pics.

kommon_sense · 08-01-2007, 09:08 PM

These pics are a few days old. I'll fill in the gaps soon. Car is running. Everything is hooked up. In theory, it should drive just fine

I made a simple harness to connect to the radiator hose insert. I ran the car long enough tonight to verify that the fan does turn on. That fal fan really moves some air

Now time for the p/s issues. Notice the hood won't close.

Inlet on the p/s pump seems to be the culprit.

The bolt that secures the inlet left a nick on the hood webbing. Use that as a point of reference to take measurements and figure out where to cut. I tried not to cut into the curves since they provide strength to the hood.

Put an old sheet over the engine bay to keep the dust out while I'm hacking on the hood.

Generated a lot of dust

Hole came out pretty decent. I love my dremel. You have to cut slow and have a steady hand. I noticed that the cutting disc generated enough heat to cook the paint where I cut. So if you hit the outer skin for the hood, it may make a visible mark in the paint on the other side.

Put some cam lube on the spots on the pump where I thought I might hit the hood. You could use anything thick and sticky here. Lotion probably would have worked as well.

Tried to close the hood. Looks like I still have contact.

Cam lube and coffee

Noticed a dent forming near my cut. So something else must be hitting. This time I put the lube on the dent on the hood to see where it landed on the pump.

Found it... Did a little more cutting to clear this up.

I found out that the old p/s pump inlet from my d-series pump is a perfect fit on the k20 pump. It points the fitting straight down and it is made out of metal, whereas the k20 fitting is plastic. So I figured I could cut it thinner and use a button head bolt to get better hood clearance.

Shaved nearly 5mm off of it. Cleaned it up a bit with the dremel after this.

Took the front bumper off to start routing the power steering cooler. You can see the cooler on the right side of my red creeper. It is roughly 12"x5"x3/4". with 3/8" fittings on the end.

speedjunky01 · 08-01-2007, 09:30 PM

great work! sick swap!

keep it up and it will be on the road very soon good luck and have fun with it once its done

kommon_sense · 08-02-2007, 06:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by speedjunky01

great work! sick swap!

keep it up and it will be on the road very soon good luck and have fun with it once its done

Thanks man. Yeah, it should be done soon. I would finish it up tonight, but need to cut my grass before the homeowners association comes to get me

dom yo · 08-02-2007, 07:04 AM

what else is done to your car? any suspension mods?? im just asking cause from the front it looks stock as hell.. i dont know many people who keep the stock grill, im not saying it looks bad i was just wondering, i think a k20 in a stockish civic would be awesome

kommon_sense · 08-03-2007, 12:18 PM

I like the stock look. It doesn't attract attention

I simply have the ctr front lip and paint-matched sideskirts.

Suspension is completely changed. I've been doing track/hpde events with the car for a few years now. I was pretty good in the corners, but too slow on the straights. Thats the main reason I decided to do the swap.

I took the car for a ride around the neighborhood last night. found that I still have a few places under the hood that are rubbing, so need to clearance them.

also my a/f ratio was sky high, but you could smell the car running rich. I had wired in the primary o2 backwards

so it was reporting lean, and the ecu was trying to compensate by dumping more fuel. I don't have time to fix it right now, so the car will have to sit for a few days until I can get back to it. I should be driving it to work next week

commador · 08-03-2007, 06:25 PM

What have you been driving in the meantime?

kommon_sense · 08-04-2007, 03:58 PM

picked up a '06 Acura TL w/6spd MT last year

But actually looking forward to driving the civic again on a regular basis.

.TheCriMson[K20] · 08-05-2007, 06:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kommon_sense

picked up a '06 Acura TL w/6spd MT last year

But actually looking forward to driving the civic again on a regular basis.

mm TL

juice'sEk4 · 08-05-2007, 10:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kommon_sense

I like the stock look. It doesn't attract attention

I simply have the ctr front lip and paint-matched sideskirts.

Suspension is completely changed. I've been doing track/hpde events with the car for a few years now. I was pretty good in the corners, but too slow on the straights. Thats the main reason I decided to do the swap.

I took the car for a ride around the neighborhood last night. found that I still have a few places under the hood that are rubbing, so need to clearance them.

also my a/f ratio was sky high, but you could smell the car running rich. I had wired in the primary o2 backwards

so it was reporting lean, and the ecu was trying to compensate by dumping more fuel. I don't have time to fix it right now, so the car will have to sit for a few days until I can get back to it. I should be driving it to work next week

Sleeper to the core

carbonlip · 08-07-2007, 10:02 AM

aw man i cant wait till im out of school and i can
afford to do this

kommon_sense · 08-07-2007, 09:12 PM

Got the o2 wires cut, and re-soldered. a/f ratio looks correct now. Settles out to about 14.8 at idle. Car drives pretty well, but if I rev the engine and take my foot off the gas, it stumbles a bit when it drops to idle. I'm going to redo my grounds and do some more searching. Seems like I recall people talking about issues with having the usb cable plugged up. I've been datalogging w/k-manager connected each time I've started the car.