My recently purchased 99 Civic EXhas 130,000 miles on it now and has never had any scheluded maintenance aside from a few oil changes, belts replaced once, and tires put on it as far as I can tell. I replaced the plug wires the day after purchasing it in order to fix the miss it had and the cylinder 2 misfire code andcheck engine light. This weekend I did the timing belt, tensioner/idler pulley, water pump, fuel filter, spark plugs, drive belts, crankshaft front seal, cam cover gasket, spark plug tube gaskets, and added an AEM Short Ram Intakei stumbled across at the parts store.It was the only AEM kit in the store and happened to be for my car. I considered it "meant to be" and purchased it. My wife did not consider it the same way I did. Hehehe. The spark plugs I pulled out were worn down just about to the ceramic and thus had about twice the gap they should have had (amazed me I did not have any problems due to that). And the reddish brown crap that came out of the fuel filter was quite impressive when we blew it out just to see what was in there (again amazed I did not have any issues). Regardless, I have a few questions about the pictures I have attached:

1) I was told this is an SI style grill, is that correct?
2) I left the air tubes (marked with red dots) which fed the original air box, should I remove these or just leave them in place and why?
3) I have some type of strut tower brace (marked with a red line) which I assumed to be stock but I have not seen this in other pictures on this forum. Is this a stock brace or added? It bolts in above the struts which is different than other braces I have seen before.

I am pleased with my weekend's work and was quite tickled that I developed no leaks or skipped teeth in the process. The new SRI sounds excellent when I hear that little "woosh" when I hit the gas and I think I can actually notice a performance increase. I can actually hear my VTEC engage now!! All in all I enjoyed working on the car and would appreciate any assistance with my questions. Thanks.

[IMG]local://upfiles/29996/B6EE0AB830974E99A3FD21A71B8652A1.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/29996/5F1EB1181A024ACDB1B970A13213ABE8.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/29996/861130821E39498ABF41DBE9307C087B.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/29996/3CC8E838CC054F6EBFBB275004E4F3F1.jpg[/IMG]

 

Remove the old intake air hoses, if for no other reason than they look ugly cluttering up your engine bay, and that they serve no purpose now.

Good job on all that work! It sure is satisfying to finish a big job like that and have everything running tip-top when you're done.

 

Go ahead and remove the old air hoses. While you have the SRI in, they do nothing for you.

Great pictures! Nice work!