HCF Project Section - Chuckles Engine Build/Mild Wire Tuck

I don't know that I would consider it a project so much but I was off work and board so I decided to clean my bay up some yesterday. I started out with a bottle of degreaser in my hand and ended up with paint, it always seems to end up that way.
Anyways, I was tired of my bay being dirty so I started cleaning it. After cleaning it I realized the rust on the brackets and rusty bolts were an eye sore. So I took alot of them out and oainted them black. I decided to paint them because I don't have the money to get new brackets and a bolt set. I like the outcome though, it cleaned up nicely. I have alot more to do though on my next day off. All imput is more than welcome, just want to here what you guys think.


Painted the battery tie down, the strut bolts. The metal bracket that keeps the radiator stable and a bunch of bolts.
http://i580.photobucket.com/albums/ss243/chuckles_civic/91809.jpg

http://i580.photobucket.com/albums/ss243/chuckles_civic/918091.jpg

Also wanted to see how a few night pictures looked so I puarked under my motion light. I think they look ok for a cell phone camera.
http://i580.photobucket.com/albums/ss243/chuckles_civic/918093.jpg

http://i580.photobucket.com/albums/ss243/chuckles_civic/918094.jpg

My favorite pic. I like the angle and how its kinda dim.
http://i580.photobucket.com/albums/ss243/chuckles_civic/918095.jpg

Looks good. Next time your bored you want to come over to my house?:D

a little update:
Tomorrow we are taking the ls out and I'm going with a y8. Its a downgrade but its only temporary, I have a few things I need to tend to so I need the money. Anyways.... the y8 has Hasport mounts, Exedy clutch, tucked harness and chipped ecu to jump obd2 to obd1 and aftermarket Header(cant think of the brand off-hand).
while we have the motors out we are going to go ahead and relocate the battery, and depending on what time it is we may also re-run my light harness/wires under the fenders and reloacte the fuse box.
This weekend I should be putting my new bumper and fender on, if that happens then I'll be installing my fog lights.
Lastly I'm trading my buddy a few parts so I'll have my new HX's on, TenzoR seats in, and new tail lights in :) Busy weekend for the civic. Getting a complete face lift. I cant wait :)
Everyone complaments how clean my bay is so I cant wait to see the feedback I get after we clean it up more are relocate everything.

chipped ecu to jump obd2 to obd1 ????

your car is obd1....
chipped ecu doesnt convert obd2 to obd1
its to change the base map or rev limiter and stuff

yeah I cant remember how he explained it exaclty because he has the y8 in his eg and i was talking to him and said so it has a z6 dizzy, harness and ecu. He said no it was chipped or maybe it was his harness hand a jumper. I'll have to ask him later. We were working on 4 cars last night so it's hard to remember everything we talked about.

the way it should be hooked up is y8 motor z6 intake manifold, p28 ecu, z6 dizzy.
and you will need to run the 2 vtec wires to your ecu if you dont have a ex model

why switching out the LS for a y8, just wondering.

because ever since my tire blew it did a bunch of body damage and i want to get it fixed on a limited budget so im using the money from the trade to fix it up, figured i could always get a new engine next spring.

this isnt a project...

Hes still doing more work to his Civic in one weekend than half this forum has in the last year.

Hes still doing more work to his Civic in one weekend than half this forum has in the last year.

haha sooo tru

so first cleaning up the bay, then swapping engines, doing a mild tuck, new rims, seats, lights, bumper, fogs, fender, and a few other misc things isnt a project? i usually dont start stuff or get mad about what ppl say but i thought i would share with everyone, im sorry i cant start with a shell and build a complete car. just thought i'd share what i thought was a fun little project

^^^well i didnt read that anywhere so i thought u were just posting pics of how you cleaned your engine bay.

can you post lots of pics?
pleeeeaaaasssee;)

Lol yeah Ill post pix hamorhead.

So yesterday we got my ls out and the y8 in. Removed cruise control, power steering and a few other misc. things. I was going to put my TenzoR seats in but I got a sweet deal on a set of Celica seats that already had eg rails welded on, I was iffy about them until I put them in and they looked nice. Plus for the deal I got I couldnt pass them up.

This weekend hopefully my bumper and fender will be here. Waiting for the fogs to come in and I ordered a type r lip that should be in this week. Tomorrow we will be relocating my battery and maybe my fuse box. If I have time I'll be re-running my light harness behind my fenders to hide it also. Going to rewire my engine harness and shrink wrap it to give it a cleaner look. Painting my valve cover to match my bay. I sholud have my hx's on this weekend as well. Going to pick up my new shift knob tonight, just a knock off ITR knob. I think thats about all for now unless I find more free time to tiddle with it.

I am at work and cant upload pix from this comupter so I should have so uploaded tonight. It's been raining for 5 days here in Cincy so if it stops I'll run out and take a few pix with my phone.

Ok so I took a pic of the seats, again its raining and I used my phone so its not the best quality. I figured everyone would see that I put Celica seats in and say wtf!!! so I wanted to show that they actually look nice in it. Lol

http://i580.photobucket.com/albums/ss243/chuckles_civic/seats.jpg

I have never seen Celica seats in a Civic before. They look good. I have seen a complete front and rear set of Monte Carlo leaters in a 2000 Si though. They fit perfect with almost no modification actually. haha. Post a pic of your whole car!

they have the Celica sliders with eg rails on them, there are pix of my car in my profile, its not looking to good right now, have to put my new panels on this weekend

Ok it stopped raining long enought to take a pic of the bay. like i said earlier I still have to relocate the battery, fuse box, and with removing the power steering resevoir. I also have to rewire the harness and hide my headlight harness behind the fenders, paint the valve cover and wash everything this weekend so right now it looks a mess. After looking at the pic I forgot I have the remove the washer resevoir. It looks pretty tacky having the power steering and washer resevoirs sitting there with the hoses in them, ran out of time last night so i'll take care of it tomorrow

http://i580.photobucket.com/albums/ss243/chuckles_civic/y8.jpg

looks good man
and how do thode seats feel are they comfy?

thanks, yeah they very comfy, they hug you real well and have a good center of gravity. I have only had them in for 24 hours and 6 of my freinds are trying to buy them, I cant keep anything for myself lol.

Ok so I havent updated the status in a few days. We are still working on the mild tuck. I havent had time to mess with it the past few days :( But so far we have removed most of the ac and power steering componants. Tonight we will be relocating the battery, fuse box, and hiding some of the harness. I will be removing the rest of the ac and power steering wires and lines, also the wind shield washer resavoir. Possibly installing my catch can if I go pick it up after work. We havent started any of the body work yet becasue i want to focus on one thing at a time and not get side tracked having a million things going on at once.
Like I said it is nowhere near done but I snapped a pic this morning before leaving for work just to give an update so here it is, over look the mess and dirtiness lol.

http://i580.photobucket.com/albums/ss243/chuckles_civic/tuck1.jpg

well its been awhile since I've been one here, Had some things I had to take care of. Well most of the tuck iss finished. Just need to clean the bay up real nice now. This weekend Ill be doing some of the body work. I haven't been able to upload the pix of my digital yet but here is one from my cell phone. Sorry its blurry, I'll ge tthe clear pix uploaded soon.

http://i580.photobucket.com/albums/ss243/chuckles_civic/mildtuck.jpg

nice! take some pics of the new battery and fuse box set up. Also, did you delete your heater too? or just AC?

yeah man thats real nice, can you post pics where you tucked your stuff?

im pretty sure that tuck isn't mild or anything near mild lol very nice

Very nice job. Where can I get some information on wire tucks? How much trouble is it to do the tuck? etc, etc....

I really like the look of a clean engine bay.

thanks guys. I still have my heat, just removed ac, ps, cruise control. Its been raining for 5 days straight so I'll get pix asap. The fuse box is under my glove box, battery is in the trunk in a battery box thats just held down with four screws. I don't know if there are any write ups on doing tucks. We just winged it. Stood over the bay and said "hey we can move this here and re-run this over here etc..etc.." Ill get detailed pix for ya showing indepth stuff soon. I call it a mild tuck because I havent wleded up all the old holes and repainted the bay yet, so until I clean it up I dont consider it finished. But thanks again for all the feedback. I'm glad to be apart of a forum where work is appreciated and not criticized _(speeleing).

Looks good. I want to see the new fuse box location and setup haha. Ive been wanting to move mine. Already have the PS and AC gone and have an LS swap in it. But I couldn't figure out where people are mounting the fuse box inside.

The fuse box is a pain because it is bigger and unless you want to cut extra wires the best bet is to put it under the glove box. Mine isnt bolted down yet, just laying there snug against the panels. I'm going to try to snag a few pix on my lunch here in a few minutes, looks like it stopped raining for a little.

Ok so on with the new pix. As you can see the battery is in the trunk in a battery box, power wire is ran like an amp wire under the carpet and seats into the trunk and the ground is under the spare tire. The fuse box is under the glove box. As far as the wires and what not go you can see I covered as much of them in electrical tape as possible to get rid of all the color of each wire. I have to recover all of them again soone because the electrical tape i used sucked and was stiff so it didnt wrap the way i wanted it to, It is kinda loose as you see in the pix. The headlight wires are run under the frame and come out behind the housings to have as much wire hidden as possible. All of the harness was taped together and ran as low as possible to keep it hidden and only clumped together in a few minor spots to keep it from looking clutered. Everything done so far was done by hiding wires without cutting/extending anything except the battery wire obviously so it turned out pretty well so far. (more to come ;) ) Please excuse the mess from the dirty and grime. Take your battery tray outand see how dirty it is under there lol, its a pain to get it all cleaned.

Fuse box
http://i580.photobucket.com/albums/ss243/chuckles_civic/fusebox.jpg

Battery box
http://i580.photobucket.com/albums/ss243/chuckles_civic/batterybox.jpg

Where battery and fuse box were
http://i580.photobucket.com/albums/ss243/chuckles_civic/newtuck1-1.jpg

A large group of harness conections were here. Reran them under the brake booster
http://i580.photobucket.com/albums/ss243/chuckles_civic/newtuck4.jpg

Where wiper resivor, p.s., c.c., a.c. lines and light harness was on driver side
http://i580.photobucket.com/albums/ss243/chuckles_civic/newtuck3.jpg

Passenger side under air filter, you can see we wrapped as much as possible in electrical tape to protect and give stealth mode lol.
http://i580.photobucket.com/albums/ss243/chuckles_civic/newtuck2.jpg

Overall product. Again I'm not done, want to move my fuel filter, cover my resivors with some type of Socks/cloth Sleeves (whatever you want to call them). Also may relocate my coolant resivor to the opposite side of the radiator and down about 6 inches to hide it behind the frame.
http://i580.photobucket.com/albums/ss243/chuckles_civic/newtuck.jpg

All feeback welcome as always.

Also if someone could resize these pix to be smaller that would be great, photobuck wont let me resize and save them for some reason.

what kind of header is that? don't normal ones just run straight down and not cross over?

Im not sure what kind it is. It was on the engine when I got it. Stock exhaust manifolds usually run straight down but almost all aftermarket headers that I see cross over one way or another.

So I had a semi productive weekend. I was tired of see a yellow valve cover so I finally painted it. It turned out pretty good but has a few small runs I need to sand and repaint and the paint was still soft when I picked it up so it smeared in one spot :( I also painted my air intake for kicks to see if it would look good. Im still undecided if I'm going to keep it painted this color, I may paint it black again.

I usually just paint them a solid color but I was feeling creative this time lol.
http://i580.photobucket.com/albums/ss243/chuckles_civic/valve1.jpg

http://i580.photobucket.com/albums/ss243/chuckles_civic/valve2.jpg

Overall view with it painted now. I like how the valve cover matches the bay now, its a more fluid clean look.
http://i580.photobucket.com/albums/ss243/chuckles_civic/valve3.jpg

I like the intake painted that way. I like when people do stuff to the valve cover too. You should do the writing in a different color, might pop more. How does it feel going back to a D motor? Bet it feels slow as hell.

you should also paint your intake manifold i did mine on my old 91 hatch it came out really good. and sand/polish up the honda on your valve cover

pics kinda messed up for somereason but you see what i mean
http://i889.photobucket.com/albums/ac91/unholy_mitch/91hatch.jpg

I was going to do the lettering in black but i didnt think it would stand out well with the purple so i went with white. It sucks going to a d series but its only temporary :)

I am going to take my intake off and degrease it and sand/polish it to try to clean it up real nice and if that doesnt work then im going to paint it a gray/silver to look fresh. If it turns out the way i want and looks nice im going to do the same to the block and tranny.