Hi! New here, and first time civic owner!
13-Jun-2007, 02:59 PM
#1
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Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 11
Hi! New here, and first time civic owner!
Hey wassup? I'm new here, but I figure I'd say hello and hope that maybe I can get some support/questions answered when/if my new honda has any issues down the road.
To give you all the quick rundown, I bought a sweet 1991 honda civic wagon this week for a few hundred bucks. No rust, and almost all new parts under the hood and drivetrain with the exception of the engine and some of the body panels which could use a little body work and paint. Needless to say, being my first honda, I'm pretty excited since I expect it to be mostly problem free compared to my current ride (custom supercharged bmw project car). I mainly purchased the wagon to be my daily driver while I finish up the bimmer as driving a project car which is ''in-progress'' around is simply just asking for headaches. I finally got sick and tired of minor repairs to the body, re-tightening the intercooler piping, re-gapping worn plugs every few days just to get to work and back, so I grabbed this puppy the first moment I saw her. A lot of people I know were quite amazed as to why i would buy such a strange lookig vehicle but something about owning a wagon and dropping in a B16 or something in a year's time makes me laugh to myself so I couldn't resist. On the flipside, I do a lot of home renovations on the side as well so the wagon will hopefully be a pretty decent workhorse for me to haul around lumber etc (poor civic!).
Well thats about it for now, I'm still in the midst of getting everything plated up and insured but hopefully by this weekend i'll be rollin on 13" four lug steelies
If there's anything I should know about these cars please, let me know now so I can check them out while I swap all the fluids out and change the plugs this weekend.
Thanks!!
Adam
p.s. if anyone wants any tips or has any questions about engine management or OBD1 tuning, feel free to ask! I just started up a side business modifying bmw/audi/vw chips but the theories should still apply to these cars as well
To give you all the quick rundown, I bought a sweet 1991 honda civic wagon this week for a few hundred bucks. No rust, and almost all new parts under the hood and drivetrain with the exception of the engine and some of the body panels which could use a little body work and paint. Needless to say, being my first honda, I'm pretty excited since I expect it to be mostly problem free compared to my current ride (custom supercharged bmw project car). I mainly purchased the wagon to be my daily driver while I finish up the bimmer as driving a project car which is ''in-progress'' around is simply just asking for headaches. I finally got sick and tired of minor repairs to the body, re-tightening the intercooler piping, re-gapping worn plugs every few days just to get to work and back, so I grabbed this puppy the first moment I saw her. A lot of people I know were quite amazed as to why i would buy such a strange lookig vehicle but something about owning a wagon and dropping in a B16 or something in a year's time makes me laugh to myself so I couldn't resist. On the flipside, I do a lot of home renovations on the side as well so the wagon will hopefully be a pretty decent workhorse for me to haul around lumber etc (poor civic!).
Well thats about it for now, I'm still in the midst of getting everything plated up and insured but hopefully by this weekend i'll be rollin on 13" four lug steelies
If there's anything I should know about these cars please, let me know now so I can check them out while I swap all the fluids out and change the plugs this weekend.
Thanks!!
Adam
p.s. if anyone wants any tips or has any questions about engine management or OBD1 tuning, feel free to ask! I just started up a side business modifying bmw/audi/vw chips but the theories should still apply to these cars as well
13-Jun-2007, 03:07 PM
#2
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Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Hamilton
Posts: 6,647
Welcome. A Civic wagon is quite a change from a turbo BMW. Although its a Honda, it is awfully old, so I wouldn't expect it to be totally problem free.
I don't know much about the older generations of Civics, but thereare lots on TCC that do. I would give it a good tune-up. Change ALL of the fluids, plugs/wires/cap/rotor, maybe the timing belt if it has never been changed.
A torquey B20 would be a decent and cheap swap. Oh, and no avertising of your business on TCC. Good luck with the car.
I don't know much about the older generations of Civics, but thereare lots on TCC that do. I would give it a good tune-up. Change ALL of the fluids, plugs/wires/cap/rotor, maybe the timing belt if it has never been changed.
A torquey B20 would be a decent and cheap swap. Oh, and no avertising of your business on TCC. Good luck with the car.
22-Jun-2007, 04:49 PM
#14
Registered User
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 11
Thanks everyone! I'll post up some pics of both rides maybe this weekend if I can remember.
You were right that I wouldn't have a problem free start with this car, as when I was delivering it to my house it was overheating like crazy most of the trip. Luckily it was just a munged thermostat and I swapped it out in the parking lot of crappy tire along the way
One of those bolts was a pain in the **** to get at, but I managed and now the temperatures are sane. To rule out any more surprises I opted to do a full brake job, drop in some brand new plugs (glad I did too, the old ones were almost worn out completely!), flushed the engine and put in fresh oil/filter, and cleaned the engine bay with a good powerwash. To top things off I chopped the stock intake and stuck an open element filter on things as the old filter was WAYYY to filthy to even bother using, and I just happened to have a spare HKS foam filter around. Quick, dirty, and easy
Aside from the above issues, the car has so far run the last week without any issues at all, and is actually very peppy, maybe even more so than I expected from the car. All in all, I think it's going to turn out to be an awesome daily driver, I just really want to tighten up the suspension a bit with some new parts, and slap on some 15" alloys before I'm fully satisfied. MAYBE I might consider rear disc conversion too but so far the drums aint bad.........for now
You were right that I wouldn't have a problem free start with this car, as when I was delivering it to my house it was overheating like crazy most of the trip. Luckily it was just a munged thermostat and I swapped it out in the parking lot of crappy tire along the way
One of those bolts was a pain in the **** to get at, but I managed and now the temperatures are sane. To rule out any more surprises I opted to do a full brake job, drop in some brand new plugs (glad I did too, the old ones were almost worn out completely!), flushed the engine and put in fresh oil/filter, and cleaned the engine bay with a good powerwash. To top things off I chopped the stock intake and stuck an open element filter on things as the old filter was WAYYY to filthy to even bother using, and I just happened to have a spare HKS foam filter around. Quick, dirty, and easy Aside from the above issues, the car has so far run the last week without any issues at all, and is actually very peppy, maybe even more so than I expected from the car. All in all, I think it's going to turn out to be an awesome daily driver, I just really want to tighten up the suspension a bit with some new parts, and slap on some 15" alloys before I'm fully satisfied. MAYBE I might consider rear disc conversion too but so far the drums aint bad.........for now
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