1992 Civic Hatch- Reborn Challenge Car

So I found this old pile of bolts on Craigslist that I have quite a history with...

Long story short, this was the car that we used to start Texas A&M's GRM Challenge program. It had been sitting under a tree for a few years, and I bought it from the seller a few hours before it went off to the scrapper. Here's what it used to look like:

I'm the one to the right of the number plate. The guy directly to the left of the number plate is the other guy involved in this rebuild (for now, we're recruiting). So after finding this car on CL, we texted back and forth and decided it was unquestionable that we save the car. So after getting off work, I go pick up his trailer, and make sure everything's set the night before. We set off around 7AM, and get there about 10AM, almost exactly 24 hours and 30 minutes after I was sent the link to the Craigslist post. Not bad turnaround time.

The seller threw in the wheels for free (you can see why) and bolted up some GSR suspension he had laying around. We settled on $440. Got the car home before lunchtime, and unloaded.

I've got this Civic and an FSAE car in the garage, and the clock is ticking with the missus. She's getting a BRZ at the end of the summer, and the FSAE car will have to find a new home. My buddy (that also built it) will be getting a new place, so it'll probably go there. After we returned the trailer, we took a break, then decided to do a little cleaning and inventory.

I found the first of three wasp nests, two of which were still active. They were quickly neutralized with superior firepower/chemistry.

Miscellaneous parts in the back, and you can see the thick layer of dirt/mold/mildew on the floor. That's gonna take some scrubbin'.

Here's all the parts that were in the trunk. Some of them might actually be useful.

Swept and vacuumed out the interior, now it's starting to look more like a car and less like a trash can.

Shop supervisor, Enzo.

We wound up pulling the dash, too, but I don't have a picture of that. Nothing too exciting. We're hoping to get the interior washed out soon, then move on to suspension teardown/inventory.

Cool. Never actually taken one back into the collection but there are a couple I look for occasionally.

I'm just East of Dallas if you guys need a hand with parts or CL investigations.

Man, not much on that shell, is there? The nice thing is that you don't have to worry about stripping the interior down! This thing is like a blank canvas.

Love it.

Thanks guys. It's certainly a good starting point for a Challenge car, once it's cleaned up all we'll need to do is bolt up a powertrain and some suspension. Most of the hard stuff has already been done. I abhor bodywork, and we should be able to keep that to a minimum.

Sweeeet great job on not letting that there hatch be scrapped.....I'm in Longview, east of you.....let me know if you need anything........

Thanks, one of the guys involved is from the Longview area. We'll certainly some little things like brakes, shifter parts, etc.

May be picking up a motor this evening. It's kind of stretching our budget, but not as much as you might think. Stay tuned.

$500 will buy you half of that shell up here. Literally, with rust, half of what you bought. Jealous and wish I was close enough to wrench on it with you.

Damn, really? I was thinking I overpaid at $440 since I was too emotionally attached. I can understand odd cars that are somewhat rare like E30s, but I didn't think the same applied to Civics.

I hate deadbeat sellers.

I thought we had a line on a super cheap K-series swap. Through some text conversations, the guy said he was only selling it because his wife wanted it gone, but I don't think he's actually going to sell it.

I was going to go by and look at it at some point yesterday, but...

Me: Hey man, can I come by and look at that motor at some point today?

Seller: (4 hours later) No, I've gotta work.

Me: Ok, well when would work?

Seller: Are you free next weekend?

Me: No, Ill be busy. It's Labor Day Weekend. Are you free any time between now and then? Evenings?

Seller: No.

So I guess we know why it hasn't sold. Dick.

That had a lot less motor than I was expecting. Still interested to see how it goes. An assembly project sounds easier than a teardown/build.

Yeah, thankfully most of the cleanup/prep has been done. Just need to go over everything with some rags, and we'll probably call it good. Except for the front bumper. That's in bad shape.

If you want K power on a budget, look into an F/H swap instead ;)

Right now, we're going for ease of swap and availability. We're rapidly running out of weekends, and we're all working at least two jobs. We've got just about everything else figured out, except for the drivetrain and shocks/springs.

I know the whole different dynos thing kinda throws the arguement out the window, but here's a quick dyno comparison between a K24A2/bolt ons vs a F23/F22 non-vtec with a cam/sorted setup.

This car's for sale on RRAX

10cjennings said: 2007 K24A2 – Purchased from South Florida Auto Salvage with 42k miles on 12/27/2013. Looked at a 7-8 motors, this was the only one with perfect leak down numbers. Literally came out of a grandma’s automatic TSX, 50* VTC Gear, 4-2-1 Hytech Replica Header, RBC Intake Manifold, P2R Heatshield Manifold Gasket, B Series Throttle body conversion (No more K-series TPS issues), Skunk2 B2k TB Adapter, Skunk2 70mm TB (TB flange and adapter are port matched to 70mm), 3.5’’ Intake /w Velocity Stack, 3’’ Exhaust (35’’ long resonator and turbo style muffler keeps it pretty quiet), Kpro Version 3 (PRB-305 ECU) Tuned by B.R.I.A.N. (Dyno Graph below, my previous k20a2 made 215/156 on the same dynojet)

This car was built primarily for street driving and mid-range. Would make a killer Auto-x engine in SMF or on a road course. Very basic, too. The valvetrain really isn't 100% necessary, and the VTEC heads actually out-flow the non-VTEC heads as cast(blow them away on the exhaust side). It hasn't really been done yet, but the F23A*'s should make the best numbers without any porting. And they're dirt cheap. I just got my replacement engine for $300 and it came with way more than I needed. They're not impressive out of the box, but that's because the cam is so weak, the intake manifold makes them die at about 5800rpm, and there's no really great header option. Get those three main things sorted and there's a monster in there.

jdm92_accorn said: "well we finally figured out the dirty graph problem, she needs some bigger pipes. with the dump pipe, 27deg timing and AFR's 13.3-13.4 at wot she netted this....." K&N filter, BLOX 4" velocity stack, AEM BB6 V2 SRI, Skunk2 Alpha series 70mm TB, Skunk2 Pro series V2 H22 intake manifold, OEM RDX 410cc injectors, AEM adjustable FPR set at 45psi, balance shaft belt removed, fresh stock port PT6 non-vtec head, custom web regrind cam, Bisimoto Pro valve springs, Bisimoto billet aluminum rocker spacers, Bisimoto cam gear, NGK blue wires, OEM Honda new Cap and Rotor button, JDM F23A short block, Bisimoto V2 4-1 header, 3" exhaust turn down, M2S4 trans.

Kinda funny how close both are to the red NA SF1 is selling: http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/we-hate-red-cars-red-car-content/82542/page1/

In reply to beans:

Bring either of those cars to me and i'll tear them a new one. The red car is making a bit more power than the very old outdated dyno chart would suggest.

The part that will make you sick is that i could have brought that car to the Challenge and have the paperwork to support it. But it just felt "wrong."

Anyways, i support the F motor idea. Bonus points if you've got someone local selling an H2B setup. Otherwise, i'd just put together a ghetto LS-V and spray the bejeezus out of it.

Thanks guys. Definitely going to look into an H/F swap.

Cleaned up the bay and took the wheels off. Scrubbed up the dash some. Still trying to source some parts before we start putting it back together.

Something to look into: keep the D/B trans, ghetto up your own F2D/B kit.

http://www.d-series.org/forums/showcase/215978-f22-journey-2-2-liters-sohc-greatness.html

http://www.d-series.org/forums/showcase/165862-f2b-h2b-nonsense-build-thread.html

Also shows how to mount a K-series intake manifold and inexpensive DIY balancer shaft delete kit.

We don't have a transmission, so would there be any reason to go with a D or B if we don't have one already?

Scored a major coup on Craigslist this morning. H22 with a spare head, intake manifold, wiring harnesses, high compression pistons, and tons of spare parts. Some assembly required.

Nice! You can find disassembled H's for crazy cheap. If you want more torque, get either an F23 bottom end or just the crank. Should fit right in. 97mm of stroke and tons of torque on the cheap. There's a couple of passages on the block or head that don't line up perfectly, and one or two that need filled, but overall it's great for a torque DOHC head solution

Primary benefit of the D/B transmissions are tighter gearing and less drivetrain loss. Even the shortest geared H transmission is still geared fairly long. The stubby gears in the D-transmissions seem to be the strongest, too.

Interesting, I didn't know that about the F23 crank. Thanks.

There's some fitment issues with the D/B transmissions, no? Looks like they tilt the motor farther forward than the H series trans.

With the homebrew brackets(and some grinding/drilling), it retains factory tilt. The adapter plate kits from Evolution and whomever else tilt the engine forward. HiProfile's build is fairly informative on that front, it's worth it to sift through the thread.