PROJECT B16. A TRIBUTE TO TIM: PART 3

Our initial aim was to have the little Civic built and ready to go on show for our Charity BBQ held in mid December 2014. As the date slowly approached it became apparent that there was no way this was ever going to happen. Some major changes in the business meant our bookings almost doubled and we were flat out just getting the service work out the door. There was almost no spare time to allocate to the Civic build. The nail in the coffin for that release date came when we spoke to our paint guy about the build. Scott from Unique Customs has given us some amazing pricing but with Summernats a few short weeks away and his shop full of cars intended to be on show at that beloved car festival, the Civic was never going to get a look in. So the target shifted and we aimed to have the car up and running and on show at our BBQ without the body and paint work completed.
Stage three of this build has become a get the thing running excercise. The most time consuming part to that was actully the throttle body and intake set up. We looked at the option to just have the stock set up on the day as time was against us, but Jon felt it was important to have the modifactions and parts we had shown in stage two actually fitted to the vehicle.
As we previously blogged, the Civic had blown head gasket issues so the cylinder head was removed and sent away for machining and some head work. Whilst it was all apart the engine mounts were replaced and the obvious mechanical repairs and replacements were done. Timing belt and water pump replacement were the first to happen.
In the weeks surrounding the build the workshop was flat out with service work and found very little time to do anything to the Civic. Yet every spare moment Hamish had, parts were removed from the Civic and wire brushed and painted. All the small brackets in the engine bay, the rocker cover and even the strutt brace got a look in.

In the end as the date to the BBQ approached we realised we were running out of time and a few night shifts were pulled to get the thing running. The cylinder head went back on but the frustrating thing with the Civic head bolt sequence was that after the car had warmed up and cooled back down the head bolts required re tourqeing. In most cases thats no problem however in this case the head bolts were below the cam shafts. So the timing belt had to be removed again and the cam shafts taken out of the head to re tourque the bolts. This is a process most mechanics skip but we felt that the instructions were there for a reason and so we followed them. The job was effectively done twice. The real average news is it needs to be done again once the car has done 1500 kms.

With it now up and running the modifactions were ready to go on. The extractors were an exact fit with no need for any chopping or welding which was nice. The works throttle body made up for that. Nothing was a straight bolt on with changes needed to make the charcoal canister line work, the throttle position sensor and the MAP sensor all work. An entire day was spent just getting the throttle body to work.
Another day was spent on the intake pipe. By now were were posting regular updates to our Facebook page and people were showing a large amount of interest in it. The pressure was on to have this thing running at the BBQ. Jon worked his usual magic and made some great modifications that took days, look neat, clean and easy.
We had the thing running. The fuel light was on and it had no rego but we had it done with a few days up our sleeve.
A few days prior to the BBQ, Tim’s father and sister visited the workshop for some repairs to another of the family vehicles. They enquired about the cars progress and Haimish had the pleasure of showing them how it was going and that it was now running. Obviously some mixed emotions surfaced with this but the comment from Tim’s sister that “Tim would love this” meant we had done something right.
The day of the BBQ came and the Civic was out there for all to see. The car ran and ran for many hours as it was the source of music for the day. We were pleased to see a lot of interest in the car. Whilst there were other cars on show that day that were far superior to it, people still flocked around it to see the progress of what was happening to the Civic.

Here is a small video of when the Civic started for the first time after the major rebuild.

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