I haven’t had much time to do any work on my 1993 Honda Civic for a while now but I still drive it daily and every time I get behind the wheel I get excited. It’s not the excitement of a new car or 500 horsepower but instead it’s the fact it works great and I did all the work myself. The turbo is still coming just on hold for now, but once that gets installed in her she will have a new ROAR to expel from her tail pipe. There is a special bond between some people and their car not just as a physical item but as a form of freedom and total control. When I drive my Honda Civic I know every sound, every creek, every reaction that she gives to me when I propel her through the roadways. It’s almost like were connected as soon as the engine starts, we become one entity and each one knows what they expect of the other. This might sound a bit weird for some but hey I don’t really care because when I drive down the road I know exactly what my Honda Civic is capable of to keep me safe from all the crazy driver out there. And you ask why I call my Honda Civic “She or Her”, well everyone knows that a guys car is a some what a female form.

I finally got my D16Z6 engine block back  from the machine shop yesterday and took a bunch of pictures to post up the blog. 

As you can see the Block Guard is nicely installed in my D16 Block.

The machine shop did a very nice job on boring and honing out the cylinders.

After the top of the block was decked you can see the sleeves are more visible.

The main bearing cap is nice and clean after hot tanking process.

The main bearing bores were checked by machine shop to make sure they are true.

The Crankshaft was micropolished and looks really nice now.

The FJ R SPEC Connecting rods and Vitara Pistons look really sharp in these pictures.

My next step will be to plastiguage the main bearings.

My D16Z6 block has been sent to the machine shop and hopefully I get it back in a week or two so I can start building the motor. Once I get my block back I should start posting more updates regularly so come back to my site soon or register for my RSS Feed to keep up on the updates. Till then I got some more things to do in the mean time so watch for updates.

It’s the 9th of January and this is my first post of 2009. I’ve been lacking on posting updates on the blog as I haven’t been doing any work on the RC D16 Turbo Build or any type of work on my Honda Civic. Ever since the 19th of December we have been hit by a ton of snow and it just won’t go away. The last few weeks I was spending a lot of time cleaning the driveway, but now the rain is back and melting all the snow away.  It was a nice break to just stay inside and watch tv and play World of Warcraft but now I will have to get back to building the RC D16 Turbo Engine. I have to save up some money to take the block to the machine shop but I think I can do this in a couple of weeks.

The XMAS holidays were very different this year with Rocky’s passing and the crazy amount of snow, so I wasn’t really into doing anything on my RC D16 Turbo Build. I had 2.5 feet of snow over the week so I spent a lot of time just plowing my driveway. XMAS eve was great to spend with my family and I even got new floor mats for my Civic.

I did get stuck in the snow with my Honda Civic at work so after that I had no choice but to borrow my brothers AWD Mazda CX-7 and park my Civic. The snow was so high that my Civic was plowing it with the front bumper and hitting my undercarriage.

I think next year I will get a beater civic to drive in the winter and keep my turbo one in the driveway under a car cover. I always said I wanted my car to be a daily driver even after performance mods but seeing how this years winter was on my car and the stupidity of other drivers in the snow, I think it would be better to park it for the 3-4 months during winter.

We’ve had our first big snow storm this season and my Honda Civic drives pretty good in it. I swapped my wheels back in October to my old 13″ steel wheels and added a set of snow tires upfront and a good pair of all seasons on the rear.  She’s a bit lower then a stock 1993 Civic but being front wheel drive and 5 speed the traction in snow is great. She’s no 4×4 but she handles way better then any other rear wheel drive vehicle on the road. Caution is always a good thing to have in the winter months and having more control is always easier on the nerves. Below is a picture of my 1993 Honda Civic in the snow, click on it for a larger image.

My D16Z6 Turbo build parts finally arrived today and man did I have a smile on my face after opening the box. The Vitara pistons and I-Beam rods are of great quality and craftsmanship and the block guard looks nice too.

I have all the gaskets that I will need to redo the bottom end now and with the pistons and rods here, I just need to finish chasing the treads on my block and it’s totally ready for the machine shop. I will have to see if I can squeeze in the machining before Xmas but if not then early January is fine too.

 D16Z6 Full Gasket Kit and BlockGuard

75.5mm Vitara Pistons, FJ R SPEC I-Beam Rods, ARP Rod Bolts, Rings, Bearings, Water Pump and Timing Belt

Vitara Pistons and FJ R SPEC I-Beam Rods

Great Craftsmanship on the pistons and Rods

FJDistributors D16Z6 parts are of great quality and an affortable price.

FJ Distributors.com

After 2 more hours I finally finished notching the cylinders yesterday. I went through a bunch of grinding bits as some fell apart from cheap glue and others just got used up after intensive grinding. The I-Beam connecting rods should work fine now with the vitara pistons but if needed I can always touch up any cylinders that might need it later.

For anyone else that might be considering doing this job, my suggestion is to get yourself a respirator and a good pair of eye goggles. The metal shavings fly everywhere and without the proper gear it’s not safe. I used a dremel drill with a flex cord attachement, but I believe that if you use a die grinder you might be able to get the job done faster.

Here’s a picture of me notching the other side of the cylinder and also a picture of the finished job.