bairdandrew77's SOHC ZC CRX

[bairdandrew77]

Picked this car up back in November, DX model with a SOHC ZC non-VTEC (basically just a D16), bad transmission, springs that lifted the rear an inch and still DPFI. On top of that, the previous owner spray painted the interior black & white which looked terrible! Its main goal is to be a reliable daily and kept simple. Good news is it only had 190k miles, I put on another 5k before deciding to fix the issues.

Here is everything I've done so far/am in the progress of:
- Bought a CRX SI parts car
- Innovative D series mounts 60A bushings.
- Replaced trans with hopefully a good one, didn't test yet. Also used a new OEM throw-out bearing to be safe.
- DPFI-MPFI conversion. still need to put everything back together and start for the first time in weeks.
- Swapping most of the interior for the SI interior, hate the spray paint job so much.

Here's my future plans so far, subject to change anytime:
- Accord climate control mod
- Suspension. Get my stock height back, get lowering springs, or use budget-friendly coilovers. Not happening anytime soon so I have plenty of time to decide.
- Rear disc brake conversion, going to swap over from the parts car.
- Decent sound system. Going to reuse my pioneer deck from the Integra with 6" speakers and tweeters in the SI door panels and upgrade to 6X9 in the back.
- Sound deadening. Don't have this one figured out yet, it's at the bottom of my priorities if I even get around to it.
- Replace driver door. current one is rusted and it's going to be easier to use the one from the parts car.
- Fix small rust areas.
- Respray stock color.
- Drive it as much as possible and hopefully hit 500k miles without too much trouble!

On to some pictures! Unfortunately I didn't take any pics of the trans/mounts replacement:

The rust on door:

My 3 CRXs. GSR swap project, parts car, ZC swapped daily:

There's my old Integra in the background!

 

[xci.ed6]

nice find!

I had an Si, a close friend had a Dx like that.

First step is MPFI, I hacked the hell out of PM6's

27C256 (btw)

 

[bairdandrew77]

Thanks! I don't plan on chipping or tuning the pm6 ecu I have, just want a properly running car that'll start every time

 

[RedRyder]

It's so nice to have a parts car sitting right next to the car you're working on to grab parts from. Looks like you have your work cut out for you, keep it up.

 

[bairdandrew77]

It's so nice to have a parts car sitting right next to the car you're working on to grab parts from. Looks like you have your work cut out for you, keep it up.

Thanks. hoping to get the crx started in the next couple weeks so I can test drive it and make sure the trans and wiring is good. The parts car is really helping keep costs down, already got my money's worth out of it!

 

[bairdandrew77]

Finished the entire DPFI-MPFI conversion except for the distributor side which I don't have the right plug for yet. Soldered and used heat shrink on everything. It looks like a massive mess in the picture, but I'm going to go over everything with electric tape to make it look a little nicer.


I also found an OBD0 throttle body laying in my pile of random crap, so glad I never sold it! This makes it so I don't have to relocate the MAP sensor and can keep the charcoal canister and purge solenoid. Most people delete those without issues, I just want to keep this as emissions friendly as possible.

 

[bairdandrew77]

Well I got a pretty good amount done, decided to share it. Finished the DPFI-MPFI and got everything hooked up a couple days ago. Went to start the car and nothing happened, there was absolutely no power going to any part of the car. A couple hours of testing led to the transmission ground not properly grounding anymore.
Fast forward to today, I had enough time to relocate the ground. Now the car cranks perfectly!
Then the LED on the ecu stayed on, indicating a bad ecu. an hour later I found out someone messed around in it and dislocated a metal wire on a chip. Carefully bending it back into place fixed that issue. Now there's just no spark with a code 15 (ignition output signal). The coil tested out of spec and I didn't test the ICM yet. Luckily I have a spare OEM distributor at my parent's house, just have to test it put it on and try again whenever I have more free time.
So there's my day, here's some recent pics of my progress:



Yes, I got red injector plugs. Surprisingly there's not very many obd0 cars with MPFI at my local junkyard anymore.


A picture of the interior, slowly getting redone with a few SI parts


A quick picture of my car with my 2 newest projects in the background. Oh yeah, I started getting into bikes just a couple months ago

 

[bairdandrew77]

Good news and bad news.
So I got the car started a few days ago! I was able to start it for a few seconds then shut it right off until I put coolant in, which didn't happen until today. Today I let the car idle up to operating temp to bleed the coolant, make sure it doesn't overheat and see if there's any leaks.
Well it was bled properly and did not overheat even slightly, but the RPMs were bouncing up and down (hunting), indicating a possible leak. I sprayed carb cleaner around possible areas and found nothing. Completely blocking the throttle body should kill the car, but it just smooths out the idle, so I'm even more sure there's a leak somewhere I can't find. Plus the brakes don't seem to work, I'm guessing that's because the brake booster isn't able to do its job with the leak.
While I was looking for the leak, there was a little steam creeping from the radiator. I figured it might have been spilled coolant burning away. Turns out the radiator had a tiny leak because after a while it blew up and sprayed coolant over the engine bay. Luckily I happened to be in the car when it happened.
Soo that's everything up to now. That misfortune at least gave me an excuse to upgrade the radiator. While I'm looking for a good quality one to order I might as well clean the IACV, look over the hoses to see if I missed something and do a lot of research.

No new pictures, way too dark.

 

[Russianred]

Radiator is not a big deal.. Could be much worse, I was expecting something more when you mentioned a coolant issue. When you install new one, ensure that you bleed the whole system properly as this can also cause issues.

Regarding the idle surge, I have found that if there is a leak in any part of the intake manifold, this may be the symptom. I would double triple check all gaskets and ensure they are tight - specifically the intake manifold gasket. Firsthand I have had an issue with my Integra GSR where the idle would bounce and surge no matter what I did - come to find out the bolts on the intake manifold were loose where it mates to head, causing a leak in the thermal gasket. Not a hard fix. If all gaskets are secure, then you definitely have a vacuum leak in some other place. If you are sure there are no vacuum leaks after troubleshooting - I would consider testing the system with another IACV to rule that out as the problem.

 

[bairdandrew77]

Yeah I'm pretty glad it's just a 25 year old radiator that gave out and nothing else. It actually looks like someone tried patching it up in the same place before. Really not a big deal though, I ordered a skunk2 full size replacement yesterday. Just not sure how long it'll take to get here since I chose free shipping.

As for the idle, I'm positive I tightened everything down but I'll recheck, I have been wrong about that before.. carb cleaner trick didn't work and the engine refuses to die if I fully choke off the throttle body so it should be an air leak, but I'll swap and clean the IAC if I can find a spare one somewhere