1996 Integra GSR Sedan

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

....i was making so much progress until tonight. i had an appt setup for tomorrow to get my cat welded up for the exhaust but i had to cancel it. i'll get to that in a minute though. so work completed this weekend:ecu mounting, fuel tank swap, misc.odds and ends, repainted the timing marks, re-set the ignition timing, double checked the suspension bolts to make sure they were all tight, and removed the hood for easier access for abs system bleeding.

this car goes up and down of these jack stands too much


this transmission jack makes this job so much easier. i also like how the oem tank has a drain plug, the aftermarket one i purchased does not...


old tank out


new tank in


ECU mounted and i somehow tucked this wire mess up under the dash.


Re-painted the timing marks so i could see something with the timing light.


oh, i also rattle canned my "type r" lip with the same ford color i painted the engine bay with. As close as i'm gonna get to cypress green pearl for now without paying $20 an aerosol can


then fast forward to tonight. i had to get the lip on the car (well didnt have to but i wanted to) and i had to get the car back down on the ground. I did the lip first and then proceeded to lower the car back to earth. because it is on 6 ton jackstands, i had to lower it in 2 stages so the car wouldnt fall. so i lowered the whole car to the point that it was sitting on 3 ton jack stands on the lowest setting. then as i jacked the front of the car up and moved to go remove the jackstands, i heard this pssshhhh and teh car came crashing down...nearly pinning my freakin hand between the jackstand and the car. so i get up front and the floor jack is stuck now on the exhaust manifold. great...i get my other jack and work the car back up so i can remove my now junk 3 ton floor jack and i use my not so good floorjack to lower the car the rest of the way. then take the obligatory picture, its running in this picture.



and this is when i notice i smell coolant. i get closer to the car and i see this


See the radiator holders? when the car fell, it wasnt the manifold the jack hit, it was the stupid radiator. you know, the one i just installed and has like 1 mile on it....

oh yeah, there is coolant leaking out where the metal meets the plastic


so i will need to order another rad, replace it, then reschedule my appt with the shop doing my catalytic converter install. ugh, so close.

 

Ok, I now have 16 miles on the car since getting the car back together lol.

swapping the radiator out again...




Then I installed the new one, got the system filled up and let the car run for a while. Fast forward to today and I decided I really needed to get some miles on the car and see what/if any issues there could be. So far, there are 3 issues (besides an alignment).

My volts are all over the place. It will read about 14.6 volts, then shoot down to about 12.5 and seems to bounce between the two. During my 16 mile trip, I stopped at autozone to get an alternator check. Alternator checked out good, but battery checked low. Sort of concerning, its been on a trickle charger forever now. I thought it would have been maintained better. As I was getting ready to leave, an "old school mechanic" (I know this because he told me that is what he was lol) told me his surefire way to determine if it is a battery or an alternator issue. He said fire up the vehicle, turn on every light, turn on the defrosters, turn on the radio and turn on the heater. Then, go disconnect the negative terminal on the battery. If the car stays running, the alternator is good. If it don't, then the alternator is bad. I don't know how much truth there is to this, but I tried it and my car stayed running. After my 16 mile jaunt, I took the car home and put it on the charger again.



After the green light kicked on, I threw on my volt meter. I'm not sure how typical this is, but about every 3 - 5 seconds, i was losing 1 or 2 hundredths on the volt meter. That seems like it is discharging pretty quickly. Maybe time for another battery...

So onto the next issue. The car did this twice to me. I was accelerating up a hill and it just started sputtering really bad. I gave it gas and it just hesitated sputtered and wouldn't go any faster. I thought oh crap, this is how my drive is gonna end. So i pulled over and I'm watching my VAFC and the rpms are fluctuating around 500-550. The volts dropped way down too, then all of the sudden the car righted itself and ran flawlessly for another few miles and then it did it once again. Now, I am currently running a test pipe without the secondary O2 sensor. It does smell very rich, i'm not sure if without the sensor there it is running in a very rich condition and it is "flooding" itself out? I'll know for sure once i get my appt this week to get the new cat installed. Also, i checked for any CELs both times the car had its quick fit, and no new codes appeared. Right now it is only throwing one code, and it is for the O2 sensor that is not currently present.

And the last issue. I am hearing some creaks and pops from the front end somewhere. I'm not going to be overly concerned with it at the moment. As all the new suspension breaks in and I get my alignment, maybe these issues will work them selves out. If not, I'll have to get back under the car and see whats going on. I already checked all of my bolts, everything seems tight.

So all in all, today was a lot of fun. I did rip into vtec and the secondaries twice. Oh I did definitely miss that lol.

 

I picked up the teg Friday after work from the local shop that fabbed up my catalytic converter for me. The price was a little higher than i was expecting, but it looks great. It looks like it came that way from the factory. I'll have to snap a better picture of it next time i'm under the car. The set up isnt perfect, but that would be my fault for getting a 2.5" universal OBD2 cat. The placement of the O2 sensor port is a little weird, they messed with it for about 3 hours to get the placement right so the sensor and the wires didn't interfere with anything. So i picked up the car, and i brought one of my co-pilots with me:



The car sounds SO much better with a cat, the exhaust is still a little loud, but not nearly as annoying as before. Once the car warmed up to operating temperatures, it did the weird misfire thing and would eventually work itself out of it. I had a hard time believing it was the O2 sensor since its new, but i decided to unplug the primary sensor to see what would happen. Obviously it through a CEL for the sensor, but it did not do the weird misfire thing again. So, possibly bad sensor? I'm going to double check my wiring where i wired in the A/F gauge to make sure that connection is good. If that connection is good and if i test drive it again and it misfires again, I'll order a new primary O2 sensor.

Also, i finally preloaded the suspension (I didnt realize this was a thing when you tear into the suspension like i did). That was a royal pain in the ass lol. But, everything feels much much better now. I found one bolt i didn't tighten, so that explains the clanking i heard up front. After preloading the suspension, The car now sits correctly.


so hopefully no working OT this week and i can narrow down the possible sensor issue tomorrow so i can grab a new sensor if need be and get this thing legal this week.

 

I'll have to update this with some pics later, car is all legal now and aligned. Woot!

 

so a month later i remember to update. I have about 800 or so miles on the car now. everything is running great with exception of a potentially bad TPS sensor. I'm getting some weird voltage fluctuations in certain gears and at certain rpms. Kinda weird. So here is a few pics, couple outside before i rattle canned the primer work in the back and one in the ol garage after i "paint matched". I'm working on getting a quarter panel to repalce the driver's side rusted up one. I have a couple i found, just working out the details on whose shipping will be cheaper. I think next on my to do list is to also replace the window motors, its getting too hot to not have them work as they should. OH! I also found a new oem and paint matched hood and front bumper. i picked up both for $140, i threw the hood on but i'll wait to put the bumper on until the rest of the car is all ready for paint. Swapping out the hood made a huge difference. Glad i browse CL a lot lol.

 

Looks way better. Glad you got it all sorted out for the most part

 

Its so nice to actually enjoy the car now!

 

I bet. I can't wait to get mine running

 

about 1200 miles on the car now, i hope to swap out the TPS sensor this weekend. and i bought 2 new rear window motors that will get done at some point. i also pulled the trigger a driver's rear quarter panel so i can finish the body work. i'm not sure when i'll get to it, but i at least have the part now. I was definitely not anticipating on this place cutting and shipping the entire rear quarter of the car though.... i need to find some place to keep this at my house until its needed.

 

I need to do a driver-side quarter as well. I'm a little intimidated.

 

Oh i definitely was intimidated. once i made the cut in the quarter panel on the passenger side and i cut all of the rust out i had an Oh Sh*T moment. once i realized i could see straight into the trunk and there was a chunk of metal panel missing i said, well.....there is no turning back now lol

 

Sunday project. Stripped, VHT wrinkle black.

 

Nice, that turned out a hell of a lot better than mine did. I did mine when the temps outside where questionably close to being too low

 

The heat gun was the key. Nice and tight wrinkles.

 

I love Preludes, here are some pics of my 86 and 01. 86 was my first car in high school (2002). The Red one was my Brothers 88 SI on GSR Fat Fives.

 

I am pretty darn terrible at updating this. Approaching 4,000 miles since back on the road. Still fine tuning everything, but I have basically been daily driving this thing. Last tank of gas i squeaked out 34 MPG. Also did the first oil change and had it sent off to Blackstone for analysis. I've also snagged a bunch of extra parts i dont need at the moment from a you pull it yard off of a green integra four door, how lucky lol. Here is a couple of pics i took while i was walking my dog at a nearby park. the car is still in the looks good from far but far from good category lol

 

I ordered some parts for something for the Teg that I have never attempted before. I got a set of Honda S2000 HID projectors, I'm going to attempt a retrofit for this car. I have a couple of extra sets of headlights so i won't be too upset if i screw up once lol

 

retrofits are pretty easy and youll be much happier. i already plan to do them to the da as well

 

I've never attempted one before, and I've heard the S2000 retrofit is one of the more difficult ones. So there is a 50-50 shot of this working out lol

 

Glad I have these,