Owen M Barnes

Engine is now at P.E.A.C.H Performance, being stripped down and inspected. Hoping to get a call this week re the condition (I know the oil rings have had it), then hopefully on with the rebuild.

Im also investigating my options for getting a diff installed and a new clutch. At the moment I’m looking at a Cusco helical diff and an Exedy Sports Organic clutch.

Have had a fun month so far. I recently shifted houses, and was in a mad rush to try and get the road worthy for the Civic. Unfortunately, I discovered after I booked it in that the parts store had ordered the wrong bushes for the lower control arms (front and suspension bushes are cracked). They were able to get me the right ones a few days later (and gave me a discount for the trouble), but at that point it was too late to get sorted.

Oh yeah, I also had to get the old tint off the rear glass. Took it to a tint shop who said the only way to get rid of it was with a blade (the black rubbish/amonia/steamer trick does not work!). Issue with that is it kills the demister lines. So located a new screen and had it fitted.

Next day I started the car and notice it was running a bit rough and smokey, but didnt have time to look into it.

A few days later I drove the car over to the new house (still sounding/feeling rough, but no drop in power or anything) and it decided to blow an insane amount of oily smoke out the exhaust about 500 meters from the new place. I had thought the PCV was blocked, but thats OK. No oil in the intake manifold. So either the rings or the valve seals are gone.

So its not going on the road quite yet, but my plan for an engine rebuild has been accelerated as a result.

I’ve ordered/received the following:

• ACL Race Bearings
• ARP Head Bolts
• ARP Rod Bolts
• Nippon Low Compression Pistons (81.5mm)

I was having a look around Ozhonda and found someone locally selling two garret turbos, one of which they had on their Integra, running at 10-15psi. Managed to get the second garret for free, both in good condition.

Not overly impressed with the nippons, but really a given as they cast rather than machined. The tops of the pistons are quite rough.

Still to order/locate:

• ARP main studs
• Skunk2 Cams, Springs, Retainers and Valves
• Intercooler and piping (there are kits on ebay that would cover this).

#Title: Enumerate Active/Inactive Printers #Author: Owen Barnes #Website: http://ombarnes.net #Description: # #Loops through event logs on print servers to ascertain whether a given print queue is in use. # #Set variables $hostname = "xxxxxxxxxx" #Name of server you wish to run this script against $thisDate = (get-date).addmonths(-6) #how far back to obtains logs. Must be negative!#Load files/event log $printerports = Get-Content "PrinterPorts.txt" #Text file containing names of printers $events=get-eventlog -Logname system -ComputerName $hostname|where {($_.eventid -eq 10) -and ($_.timewritten -gt $thisDate)} #get system logs from hostname, filter all event ids bar 10 (successful print) #$events = Get-Content "logs.txt" #Text file containing the event logs - less cpu/network intensive than doing live #loop through each printer listed in printerports.txt foreach($line in $printerports) { $counter = 0 $found = 0 while ($counter -lt $events.count) { #if the current event contains the printer name, report in use if ($events[$counter].message -match $line) { write-host $line " is in use" $found = 1 $counter++ break } $counter++ } #if above while does not locate printerport within the logs, report not in use if ($found -eq 0) { write-host $line " is NOT used" } }

As per my previous posts, I needed to get a safety done to be able to register the car. Dropped around to the mechanics this morning and just come back with the following minor things:

1. Tint impacting driver vision (bubbled/torn)
2. Wipers can’t be reflective (no paint)
3. Air Intake pipe must be secured
4. Door handles need to be secured
5. Lower Control Arm bushes are torn
6. Rocker cover valve must be plumbed back into the air intake, cannot be blocked off nor have a filter put on it.

Will have to get something made to hold the intake pipe. I am thinking something along the lines of this: http://www.knfilters.com/images/l/69-1209TS.jpg. Though a cold air box would be better? I knew about the door handles, but wasn’t sure about it affecting the inspection.

I received my Skunk2 manifold awhile ago and I’ve been putting off installing it due to the ‘perceived’ difficultly. However I tackled it yesterday and got it installed without issue.

Seems whoever last had the manifold off was rather enthusiastic with gasket sealer, but nothing a sharp blade couldn’t deal with. The inlets all looked clean (no build up), same with the injectors, o-rings, etc.

I was also able to use a cold air gasket I had made by someone on NZHondas over a year ago and never used. Bolted all together, bypassed the FITV and connected the hose straight to the IACV.

Got it all back together and started it up. Sounds quite healthly, though the idle speed is far too high, even with the engine warmed up and the throttle cable adjusted as far as it can go. Tested for vacuum leaks and found none. I’ve blocked the EVAP valve on the IM as charcoal canister has been removed – the evap solenoid was still on the IM but not connected.

This civic has the MAP sensor on the firewall, but the skunk2 throttle body has a mount point on the bottom of it for one. Fortunately I had a spare MAP sensor and bolted that on and removed the firewall one.

I’ve got to test the TPS, as I took that off a spare throttle body rather than use the one that was on the engine to begin with and have no idea what condition its in. The only other thing it could be is the IACV, but it was working ok on the previous IM.

Gotta remember to upload some pics tonight.

Fuel Rail removed

IM removed

IM + TB installed, fuel rail, sensors, throttle etc plugged in

Throttle Body. I want one as a paper weight – srsly awesome piece of machining.

Late last year, I took out the left hand drive shaft to replace the boots. Got that done without too much issue and started putting it back together. Despite reading various diagrams/instructions, I installed the bearings back to front. Of course it doesnt prevent you from doing this and slid in without issue. It wasn’t until I put a bit of downward force on the wheel to get the suspension fork in place when then was a very loud clunk. I checked everything out but couldnt see anything wrong, and took it for a test drive. Soon became evident that I had shattered the bearings on the drive shaft.

Of course I find this out the day before I flew out to NZ for the Christmas holidays, so I had two and a half weeks to mutter/curse my stupidity before I came home and be able to fix it.

I checked out prices at Repco and they wanted $250AU for a drive shaft. Luckily I needed to pull out the drive shaft to find the correct size before ordering one and was speaking to my flatmate who mentioned a similar shop around here called Bursons. A quick 10 minute drive later and I had a replacement drive shaft for $150 – never going back to repco for car parts.

Last night it was finally cool enough for me to work on the car – its been reaching 35 degrees around home and high humidity which makes it unbearable for working on cars. Took off the wheel, unbolted the LCA, steering linkage and sway bar and fitted in the new drive shaft with ease (after clearing out all the remains of the bearings). It took less than an hour to do – certainly becoming a lot quicker with these things. I did manage to crossthread one of the bolt holes, but my flatmates going to rethread it for me (handy having a flatmate who works as a mechanic at the airport).

Drove the car up and down the driveway a bit and couldnt feel/hear any issues which is great – meaning I can continue my plans of getting it registered/safety certed.

Going to order the stage 2 cams very shortly – I seem to be following NZJonos build closely

One of the things different in Queensland is that we don’t have WOFs every 6-12 months (though rego still has to be done. Instead, you only have to get a safety cert when you intend on selling the car registered. If its unregistered its not required.

I’ve now got the car to the point that its ready for the safety certificate. I am legally able to drive to the mechanics without plates to get the cert, then off to the registration office. Its probably going to cost around 700 and unfortunately means I’ll have to wait till mid January as Im coming to NZ for Christmas and will need wait for my next pay day. Then the fun will begin – install Skunk2 stage 2 cams, Skunk2 air mani, BC coilovers and then to start piecing together the turbo parts – I will be finding a local place to fab it up and install – as much as I’d like to get a kit and do it myself, I’m too inexperienced at this stage.

I didnt have much to fix, though it took a while as Im a noob and its far too hot to be working in a garage in Aussie weather (leaving late at night or early mornings): IACV, knock sensor, vtec solenoid/pressure switch, alternator belt. The previous owner didnt seem to like bolting things up properly – I found the AC pumps bolts where halfway out, the exhaust pipe was missing bolts on the brackets that are supposed to hold it on. A broken exhaust stud (still to fix, once I get a stud extractor). New supercat tires from Bridgestone – I wanted to get Potenza tires but I spoke at length with people who had them and came to the decision that while they are an awesome tire, they wear out far too quickly and have a very high price (whilst I could afford it Im not loose enough with my money to justify it).

I snapped the radiator bracket bolt and attempted to drill it out but mangled it instead. Not sure what to do there – I might still be able to get it out with an extractor.

I picked up two books from Amazon that covers Honda engine swaps (geared towards USDM hondas, but still a lot of handy info) and one for rebuilding B16/17/18 engines which will come in handy.

Picked up various bits and pieces today to assist with this build/tidy up. Grabbed carstands, trolley jack, soldiering iron and heatshrink (to fix the ecu wiring). On the look out for a decent spanner set, which I think I’ve found at Repco for 160$ – but shopping around. Also picked up some new rotors and brake pads for the front axles, which I am installing today. I’ll be looking to upgrade the brakes and get something larger and more heavy duty, but these will be sufficient for the time being.

Whilst I had the wheels off, I found the boots on the steering rack have split so will have to locate some replacements. Haven’t pulled apart steering before so will be a learning experience.

Wil pay a visit to BCF and find a boat battery box for locating the battery in the boot – but failing that, I’m designing something in Solidworks to possibly get fabricated.

As you can see all the clear coat on the top has come off. The white around the sides just flakes off, looks so rangi . Suspect I will have to attack with wet/dry sandpaper to get rid of it, but will get everything else sorted first before I deal to the paint.

I have been looking for a project ever since I moved to Brisbane. I picked up a not so cheap 1997 Honda Civic (EK1) when I first moved over, but have never been happy with it. Very much a EFx fanboy. I had been looking at turbo’ing the D16y4 engine in it for a bit of fun.

However that changed once I located a 1995 Honda Civic Sedan locally. The paint job is pretty rough looking – all the clear coat is coming off due to the Australian sun. Body has done 170,000K, but the previous owner just recently dropped a replacement B16A2 in as he ruined the main bearing (oil leak apparently), which only has 100,000 on it. Had an Exedy Heavy duty clutch – not use to it yet.

ECU is a P28 (OBD1) with a Hondata S200 attached. The seller also gave me the old B16 (which I’ll strip and use for spares), new CVs, random dash parts, headlights and tail lights.

The car itself has a few issues, which I’ve posted in the tech forum about: http://nzhondas.com/tech-help/131297-various-minor-issues-vtec-solonoid-ecu-etc.html

Current plans are to fix the issues listed in that thread and then the following:
Wire tuck
Relocate battery to the boot
Obtain and install strut bars. Came with a factory one in the front, but it bolts on to the towers, rather than the struts themselves.
Install Central Locking/Alarm
Install adjustable cams
Replace the two radiators with one aftermarket one.
Prep for installation of turbo and intercooler.
Remove the sun roof and get it welded over and painted
Roll cage
Im also thinking of getting the door handles shaved. All in all a fair bit of work – glad to have a car I can finally do this sort of thing with.

I’ll upload some photos tonight