bairdandrew77's SOHC ZC CRX

[bairdandrew77]

Finally have a worthwhile update. The Skunk2 full size aluminum radiator came in the mail maybe 3 days after my last post. Cost a total of $180, very reasonable price in my opinion. Other than grinding down a small tab where the AC fan would have been, it was a direct fit and the quality seems pretty good.

As for the air leak, that turned out to be the TB gasket. I tried using a spare F23 gasket from my old Accord, which apparently has an opening for the FITV, causing a massive vacuum leak on the bottom, very hard to find with carb cleaner. I bought a thermal gasket from "torque solutions" for $22+shipping, a total of $28ish. Quite a lot of money for a gasket but I decided to help out a lesser known company.
Quick review of the gasket: very happy with shipping time, only a few days. I've never had another thermal throttle body so I can't do any comparisons, but I feel like it was a bit "plasticky" considering the price. I'm sure it will last a long time though. On the flip side, fitment was perfect. I like the clear-ish white color. They make gaskets for a huge variety of cars, and have a wide range or TB sizes that most companies offer. I don't like the price very much and feel they should drop it a little, but it's overall a good product.

Anyways, my right front brake caliper took a crap on me and started leaking so I took the front brakes from the parts car. The calipers are slightly different and don't work quite as good with the DX prop valve and rear drums, but it still works and will save me in an emergency stop (tested on an empty street).

So my car's finally still needs a bit of work, but I'm happy to take a break from DDing my Aerostar. Here's a couple pics, got too dark to take any more.

Comparison of the 2 radiators. Huge upgrade.

Oh yeah, I picked up another personal project shown above... 1972 Honda CL350 motorcycle. 8k original miles, not running. Not sure yet if I'm going to make a thread on it.

 

[bairdandrew77]

Forgot I made a build thread on this car, whoops. Anyways... I've mainly been simply driving it to and from work and school almost everyday while slowly getting parts on the side, like some Tokico blue lowering springs and shocks for cheap. Going to put them in at the same time I do the rear disc brake conversion. Still don't know when that'll be though, maybe not until next year unless I find a decent garage to work in.

Plus I got around to doing the Accord climate control mod. Looks pretty good and everything functions properly. The knob for the hot/cold mixer was missing at the time so I used the CRX's original knob just for testing.


Also.. Some slight changes in the overall plan. With a couple bikes and a truck, this car is only going to get around 10k-15k miles a year, tops. So I decided to forget about the half a million mile goal. And as nice as the ZC is, I decided I would like a very slight bump in acceleration. So I found a B16 head from a 99-ish Civic and a JDM B16A shortblock Block is missing a few things on the outside, but they both have good internals. Looks like I'm going to be B swapping both of my CRXs then!