B20 EF Civic

[EF Ian]

Made it up to Dubshed. Had a great time there and a good many interesting chats and finally put a face to the car as it were of several members on here.

The EF was very popular, seems now they are so rare there are plenty people looking but very few to be found for sale. I realise it was a good idea to hold on to it. 14 years its been with me now.

Between the love shown for it at Dushed and the fun I've had driving it recently I've got some more love back for it again. The B20 is great, I can put it in 5th at 25mph with no issues but it can also scream up to 8400. Really is two engines in one. Its a blast on the coast road and I don't even need to engage the crossover when on that road to make crazy progress. But when you do rev it out its quite intoxicating approaching redline.

Its actually not 100% mapped yet, so I must sort this, was hoping to trailer it to AP Performance but need to be sure he is the right choice, 70% of my driving is low to mid range throttle and RPM on the twisties, so this area must be mapped perfect. But not sure how much work is put into this area, it would really need to be followed up with a road tune afterwards but I have heard he does not do this. Also considering flying Romain Levesque or Dave Rowe over when the RB is ready for a remap and doing both in one go.

Love that colour / finish scheme on the rocker that's class.

Thanks, thought it was something different, not seen it done before, but fits well with the colour scheme in the bay.

 

[EF Ian]

By the way, if anyone wants some parts restored and painted or done in Cerakote, get in touch.

 

[da.murf]

By the way, if anyone wants some parts restored and painted or done in Cerakote, get in touch.

replied to your last pm thx

 

[EF Ian]

Have been driving this when I can, still really enjoy it, especially how it handles and how it feels in the corners. I reckon someone who has only driven modern cars would struggle to drive it, its very raw and mechanical and a bit uncivilised and everything you do gets transmitted, but for me its just perfect for a fun car, wouldn't make a great daily though.

Failed MOT on rear calliper, unbalanced and sticking a bit, was due a full brake fluid change anyway so decided to refresh the calipers, was planning to do a ull coolant system rebuild so I did a bunch of jobs at the same time.

This calliper was original and looking old, I changed the other side about 10 years ago so it was just need cosmetic refinishing. I had planned to rebuild this calliper but was having problems finding the correct parts so I just bought a new one.

Ready for coating

Radiator came out at the same time. Hoses were done and leaky, radiator needed modified to correct size so I no longer have to use a smaller hose inside the main one and therfore no more drips from there.

Cross member was not looking great so that was added to list.

Bolt were very tight, broke two parts trying to remove, needed good heating with a blow torch.

Can't have it looking like that. Time for a good clean and blast back to bare metal.

This area needs cleaned up, those welds look crap

After taking it all to bare metal in the cabinet it received 3 coats of 2k epoxy primer, then a light sanding before a coat of black sealer followed by topcoat.

Thats more like it, paint was supposed to be a satin finish, but as you can see its more of a semi gloss

Water outlets were in a terrible state.

Had the radiator modified by Brookfab @PeteMoore Who did a great job on it.

Finish needed work

Buffed it to a nice shine

He also made a stronger bracket for my rear catch can and I decided to change the finish to brushed from polished.

Brake discs were still good, so just blasted and cerakoted them to look mint again.

Lips included

The front torque mounts don't last long and are not stiff enough.

So I made my own poly mount

I tidied up some of the wiring.

And the gearbox needed some cosmetic work

Manifold bolts were all changed to stainless flanged bolts

I coated the outlets in Cerakote, it looks like fresh cast alloy, but it will prevent any further corrosion.

 

[EF Ian]

These were not up to standard

Time for restoration

This wasn't good enough either, and I had new gaskets for both anyway.

This got re polished and then coated in cerakote clear so it can't rust and wont need polished again. The main body got the cerakote satin aluminium treatment. New gaskets mean no more slow oil leaks.

Waiting on a new sensor

Brakes came out great in Cerakote Glass Black

All done and looking much better, new hoses, thermostat, gaskets, fresh coolant, no more leaks, some items restored, new brake pads on the rear and a full brake fluid blush and bleed.

Gained a lot of brake force on the front rom just fresh fluid and a good bleed. Brakes feel great now.

Together with a 3G Civic

 

[ossy2004]

love it, you spend so much money and time on chasing perfection in your cars makes me happy.

I can’t wait to get the skyline back from paint to do more to it over winter, want to rip the suspension out of it and upgrade the suspension and get a lot of stuff powder coated potentially.

Keep up the good work Ian

 

[Burt2000]

That’s awesome work! Those changes make such a difference, hard to believe the cars age when you look at it.

 

[K55]

Still love this

 

[ScottIGLaw]

one of the best of this forum!

 

[big_pete]

Fantastic attention to detail. The cerakote stuff looks class

 

[EF Ian]

love it, you spend so much money and time on chasing perfection in your cars makes me happy.

I try not to spend much on the Civic, because I don't have it. Only really service items and a lot of my time at the moment.

Its nice to always have little bits to fiddle with/upgrade

I would be puting it on axel stands over winter and re coating some arms and stuff and a few new bushes. But I hope to have the Datsun in the garage by Jan, so that likely won't happen for a while as Datsun will take every spare second I have.

That’s awesome work! Those changes make such a difference, hard to believe the cars age when you look at it.

Thanks. I do the best I can, it does have some areas that show the age, but mostly only myself that notices. May well get the bare metal treatment in a year or two, If I can find someone in NI who I can trust to do the rust repairs well enough that it gone or good. Most panels are not available any more, so its more involved than drilling some spots welds and putting a new panel on.

All the little bits added together make a good difference.

Fantastic attention to detail. The cerakote stuff looks class

Thanks, I find it fun to slowly focus on all the detail with no pressure to do it all in one go.

I've now got cerakote parts all over my cars and bikes, on some household items also.


Got nearly £900 of it in stock at the moment, so like to use it where I can

 

[civicglacier]

Fantastic attention to detail in this.

 

[EF Ian]

Was looking through old videos and found this one from when I had the B16b. I may have been a little hard on the revs, its crazy that Honda made an engine that could take these revs, limiter was at 9200 though I changed gear at 9000 normally.



This is how you rev a Honda engine

 

[JH86]

A closer box would help that immensely

But what a car

 

[EF Ian]

A closer box would help that immensely

Looks worse than it was because it was spinning in first, so revs dropped too much going into second. But for sure the B16B with a close ratio box would have been great for everything but motorways, there it would have sucked badly.

Still the same gearbox with the B20, but with the extra torque they are close enough, a closer first and second would just result in more wheelspin, but considering it can do a 5.3 second 0-60 (5.2 if the stars align) (I can do 5.3 starting in second gear also, slower acceleration but less wheelspin and no gear change buy I feel its too hard on the mechanicals) its not bad the way it is. Shorter third would be great, but since its a car that exists to have fun on the road theres always a compromise. If I were to make it a track car I think shorter ratios would be in order.

Biggest problem with the B20 is that its only 5 speed, its got the torque that could make use of a 6 speed, 5 closer ratios and an overdriven 6th for touring.

There is a 6 speed sequential available for the B series, but I don't have £10k available for such things.

 

[natogreen16v]

Looks worse than it was because it was spinning in first, so revs dropped too much going into second. But for sure the B16B with a close ratio box would have been great for everything but motorways, there it would have sucked badly.

Still the same gearbox with the B20, but with the extra torque they are close enough, a closer first and second would just result in more wheelspin, but considering it can do a 5.3 second 0-60 (5.2 if the stars align) (I can do 5.3 starting in second gear also, slower acceleration but less wheelspin and no gear change buy I feel its too hard on the mechanicals) its not bad the way it is. Shorter third would be great, but since its a car that exists to have fun on the road theres always a compromise. If I were to make it a track car I think shorter ratios would be in order.

Biggest problem with the B20 is that its only 5 speed, its got the torque that could make use of a 6 speed, 5 closer ratios and an overdriven 6th for touring.

There is a 6 speed sequential available for the B series, but I don't have £10k available for such things.

Is it an option to stick a longer 5th gear into it? The mrs put a tdi 5th into the short ratio box in her Jetta and it dropped the revs nicely on motorway runs and keeps the fun of 1-4th

 

[EF Ian]

Is it an option to stick a longer 5th gear into it? The mrs put a tdi 5th into the short ratio box in her Jetta and it dropped the revs nicely on motorway runs and keeps the fun of 1-4th

No, parts are near impossible to get for these now. Not so much available like there would be for a VW. My gearbox is cable, after the EF they were all hydro, so the parts are not transferable. Never tried to convert because that would mean loosing my Quaife ATB.

Anyhow, I'm happy with how it is at the moment for how I use it. Enough torque that I can stick it in 5th at just 25mph.

And this thing doesn't have a budget for new things anymore, Datsun takes all the budget.

 

[nobby]

great attention to detail

 

[EF Ian]

Video I took back at Dubshed

 

[Gaz86]

Love this

 

[ScottIGLaw]

I have a friend that spent a lot of time in car parks a while back. We were looking through old photos. Easter cruise 2010!

 

[EF Ian]

Funny thing is I can still remember that day.


I love how much nicer the rear looks now that it did then and the fat fives were not great, too tucked under the arches, my current wheels are 1.5" wider and its all the better for it.