Project Hazmat '09 Honda Civic Si

I really like the wheels + flares, looking good, when are you adding the yellow and/or green vinyl hazmat touches?  Also I'm totally jealous you got to get out and get track time right now. 

Well... I lost my job this morning.. so my current plan is seats back in and make it a car again. Everything else is secondary for obvious reasons. 

E36 M3tiest update I've read in a while.  Sorry to hear that.  If you need help finding something else just say the word... I know myself and I'm sure others here have plenty of contacts 

What kind of work do you do? I'll keep my ears open in McKinney area.

spacecadet said:

Well... I lost my job this morning.. so my current plan is seats back in and make it a car again. Everything else is secondary for obvious reasons. 

Blegh. Sorry to hear that. I'm assuming it's due to the covid.

Sucks about the job man. Keep your head up though something will work out I'm sure. Glad hazmat did so great at the track. I checked with my work and was pretty much told short of people to shovel dirt all day there isn't much there till the world finds some new kind of normal. 

Thanks guys, the upvotes and your comments mean a lot. 

I have what look to be very positive prospects for full time engineering work here in TX that i'm chasing right now. 

an old boss offered me my service advisor job back when things get back to normal so that's an option if I cannot find engineering work. 

I also had a phone call with Rob Fields from Fields Auto Works about being involved with the engineering and sales of the Cardinal Coupe and other projects. which is not an immediate thing.. but it was a great phone call and there may be work to be had there in the future... 

I am very positive about what my future looks like.. I stayed up late last night and managed to get into the unemployment website at 2am when the demand dropped. 

it's a process...but I will not go down without a fight. 
 

Well I started smelling a coolant smell the other day when i was getting out of the car.. i thought there was still coolant in the overflow as of the other day

started to run hot today running an errand and it took about 1/2 of a gallon to top it back up. 

for mostly not needing a car... the timing is great.... for being unemployed.. the timing is pretty terrible.. so I'll look at it tomorrow and try to identify where it's leaking from... 

In reply to spacecadet (Forum Supporter) :

That sounds like the story of my life. 

spacecadet (Forum Supporter) said:

Well I started smelling a coolant smell the other day when i was getting out of the car.. i thought there was still coolant in the overflow as of the other day

started to run hot today running an errand and it took about 1/2 of a gallon to top it back up. 

for mostly not needing a car... the timing is great.... for being unemployed.. the timing is pretty terrible.. so I'll look at it tomorrow and try to identify where it's leaking from... 

ah crap.  seems a common point of failure in high mileage K20s is the thermostat housing o-ring.  maybe even the cap.  also heard a common point is the metal pipe that runs to the heater, it has an o-ring as well.  fingers crossed its not the HG.

I've been smelling coolant... So i'm fairly confident it's not the head gasket. 

I ran the car for 15 minutes today trying to identify the source of the leak. But i was unable to find anything. SO i'm going to have to elevate the front of the car and get the front bumper off to find the source. 

Luckily I have time.. so I'm going to start digging and then go from there. 

it's not pissing coolant like i originally thought. so i'm going to monitor the level more closely and see wheat happens. 

if it needs a head gasket.. it's getting a motor eventually.. Mazdaface and I have already had a discussion on using his family lift if it comes to that. 

 

In reply to spacecadet (Forum Supporter) :

From the auto parts stores you can "rent for free" a coolant pressure tester. Just a slight bit of pressure pumped in and the leak should be obvious and easy to find. 

check the back of the block by the filter too...IIRC some odd blocks can crack and weep coolant in that area since the casting was thin.  such a weird, uncommon thing to happen to a modern engine but i've seen it a couple times on the facespace groups.  

also what John said, and if it comes to a K24A swap...i'll feel bad that it happened to you but man it'll be a beast at that point.

Civic hasn't moved still... I'm going to have to take it to get groceries tomorrow.. 

But Job stuff is making good forward progress. and I looked at the budget again.. I think I can actually last a bit longer than I thought without unemployment... which i'm hoping to not have to rely on anyway.. but... idk... we'lll see... 

 

Hazmat has coolant in the oil, so head gasket or cracked block... or who knows... but either way... bad timing.. . 

Wellllllllll berkeley 

Couldn't come at a worse time :( 

Wonder if something happened during your track day?

In reply to Kenny_S2K :

yeah not sure if it went first or the coolant loss caused it..


mostly irrelevant now.. 

You still have the miata, right? So not completely berkeleyed?

Bummer. Sorry to hear. Dump it, or fix it, or replace it?

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

Yeah . Miata has its own issues.. but yeah... I've just swapped them out on insurance and I'm moving the Miata out of the garage to put the Civic in... 

mr2s2000elise said:

Bummer. Sorry to hear. Dump it, or fix it, or replace it?

Hopefully fix... Eventually... 

Sucks. 

spacecadet (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Kenny_S2K :

yeah not sure if it went first or the coolant loss caused it..


mostly irrelevant now.. 

Oh come on! As a fellow high mileage 8th gen owner I feel like there might be some cheap K24 donors popping up during the shutdown. I hope?

spacecadet (Forum Supporter) said:

mr2s2000elise said:

Bummer. Sorry to hear. Dump it, or fix it, or replace it?

Hopefully fix... Eventually... 

Good to hear!!

clutchsmoke said:

spacecadet (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Kenny_S2K :

yeah not sure if it went first or the coolant loss caused it..


mostly irrelevant now.. 

Oh come on! As a fellow high mileage 8th gen owner I feel like there might be some cheap K24 donors popping up during the shutdown. I hope?

next steps depend on what my job outlook looks like. A friend who isn't Mazdaface(who also offered up a lift, just a few more logistical challenges) who's a bit closer to me offered to let me use their lift and a correctly sized table that's been used to pull k motors before to  pull the motor... sooo we may try to pull it, take it apart, put new seals on it and pop a new head gasket on it.. .. 

but the much easier answer is find a K24, swap over the manifold from the K20 and pop it into hazmat.. 

idk... we'll see.. the head gasket option is cheapest.. but a BIG gamble.. 

the K24 option isn't eye wateringly bad.. but it's still going to be a few grand once it's all said and done.. cause i'll need to have an aftermarket intake installed and i'll need to have the car tuned....