Bango San Rio Aka EE8

[Pablo13]

Welcome to my CRX thread for my third, a rio red UK VT.

Bought this a few months back, basically quite a standard car bar:

Koni shocks on standard springs
K&N panel filter
Drilled Discs & Greenstuffs
15" Honda 5 spokes (believed to be off a civic)
Momo Steering Wheel
Scorpion Exhaust (Still need to check from where, and if is still cat'ed or not)
Window tints

Only have the pics mainly from the for sale ad at the mo






Rear arches are pretty good, little ding to do on the front wing and I've spotted a bit of rust bubbling around the windscreen. The drive home highlighted a few issues to sort out, I have a knocking noise when coming on and off the throttle, so either bush, cv or possibly exhaust/engine mount issue, or a combo of all the above :lol:. The exhaust is also blowing so thats on the to do list along with a good comprehensive service.

I'm going to try my best to keep this pretty original and just tidy her up, although I have been thinking about a few things, such as fitting some kind of ram air intake into the resonator box to work with the original air box as I've done on my previous 16v's with good results. Space the steering wheel back a bit.....its been 8 years since I owned a rex and I could have sworn they have shrunk a bit Sunroof is getting stuck so is due a removal and refit, cam cover needs a repaint too and If I diagnose cv failure a Raxels order will be placed. I also smell some bigger brakes in the pipeline too.

Also on the cards is a bit of lowering, and possibly some snug fitment wheels. I will retain other wheels to use as and when needed as I quite like them too.

So watch this space

[Pablo13]

Had a little play today and did the no headlight on sidelight mod. Fitted led bulbs in the sidelights but didn't like how the headlights come on too. After a bit of searching on the owners forum I identified the culprit and unplugged it to test.

First bit of weight saving

How it looks now. Will try and find a more subtle location for the alarm siren when I have a chance.

The guy ended up taking his stereo stuff out when I bought it, so I also got some front speakers and a head unit fitted today, which was nice

Here is a close up of the rust by the screen that will need sorting at some point


And a cam cover in need of paint. Already have some black wrinkle to go on, just need some time to do it.

[Pablo13]

Well my first day off to myself since buying the old girl so I decided to show it some love and give her a service.

Old Denso's swapped out for NGK irridium, K&N cleaned and re-oiled, a drop of fresh Pro S 5w 40 and Honda filter.

A little while back I also bought a new indicator lens to replace my cracked one

Old one with Lens repair tape temp fix

And new

I also think I've found out where the majority of my knocking noises are coming from

And my missing rear plastic for the boot turned up, so I got that in too

I've been wanting to adjust my rack for ages now, but I can't for the life of me find my adustable spanner or anything to get the locking nut loose...I'm sure I've got one somewhere

[Pablo13]

Managed to get a couple of hours on the car yesterday. Swapped out my iffy starter for a reconidioned unit. No pics, but I'm sure you have all seen one before.

I also managed to talk DAL into welding up the blow in my exhaust. Identified the problem and whipped the centre section off.

Scorpy hole

And cracked on


And finished

Not the prettiest job to look at, but it sounds much better now

[Pablo13]

Got myself some of this

This

and these

And got to work, note obligatory tea

Actually quite clean inside

Got the cam cover off and my leaky vtec solenoid

Paint strpper FTW


At first it didnt look too much like crinkle finish

The destructions say wait 24 hours to fuly cure, which I didn't have, so sped things along with a heatgun

mmm clean

Nice new gasket, I also added a splash of hylomar blue to enure a leak free seal for as long as possible

Oh, and I changed the fuel filter

The arrows seemed to be the wrong way round when comparing old and new, my guess was the real crx part is discontinued and this is off a civic or similar that is mounted in a different position, thus messing up the arrows, so I refitted with the pipes in their orignal positons contary to the arrows.

Swapped out rear exhaust mount for something with a bit of adjustability

Before

After

Not a massive difference, but I could only summon up enough powerz to get it here

Will try for the closer hole when I've had my Weetabix

I finally found one of these

Which mean I could play with this

It was getting dark, but I got a shot of cam cover back on

Will give it a day or two to dry propperly and then sand the lettering.

The drive home was much better more stable with smaller steering inputs felt rather than the feeling of nothing-ness. The car also felt smoother and revved more freely too. So win win

Thanks for looking!

[Pablo13]

Sanded back the lettering

Managed to get a random mark on the left side though
also gave the inside of the bonnet a quick clean

This turned up for the interior when I got back from work, so popped it in

Gave it a quick clean too. Got the t-cut out and turned some pink into red Looking nice and shiny

I've also ordered myself some new whees, but they wont be going on straight away as I need to address the ride height beforehand. As its a daily I dont want to go too mad but I just cant make my mind up if I shoud get coilys or springs.....hmmm.

[Pablo13]

Today I got on and fitted some ram air to my rex. bumper off

Removed resonator. I may try it both ways to see if there is any difference, but I wanted more induction noise anyway, so out it came to be tucked away in a dark corner of my shed.

Cut down the bit removed from the front bumper to fit (ish)

and sealed with gaffa tape

One hole cut

On my 16v's when I done this it was much easier as there was no reccess, so I just cut a circular hole in the bumper and fitted a circular tube into the resonator box, but with the design of the later bumpers meant I had to get something like this and work with it

Initially I wanted to fit it behind the bumper, but there wasnt enough depth to fit it all in. Cut and trimed here and there. Bit of mocking

It was not a perfect fit and I ended up barstardising in all sorts of ways, cutting triming, heating with a heatgun to reshape until I ended up with this. Note this is very much the mk1 version and not as pretty as I wanted, but does serve a purpose

And back in

I was a bit sceptical to start chopping up such original bits, but had done it before with good results. There was a definate improvement in throttle repsonse, most noticable at motorway speeds. Did alot of driving today, and I think its very slighty decreased fuel consuption too which is a bonus.

[Pablo13]

Found an oil leak coming from the 2 make shift cam washers that were on there when I bought the car. So got me some of those shiny Tegiwa ones. They turned up nice and quick, so top marks, and I popped them on after work today.

Just need to clean up the mess left

Also got these now in a rather fetching shade of Daz


Waiting on some new track rod ends to turn up from Mr H some point next week.

Once all that lot is done its time for alignment, tyres and new wheels

[MEL]

Nice work Pablo

[Pablo13]

Cheers Dude

Got a moment today to get a few bits done, so started with the springs.

Not a moment too soon as both the front springs came out like this

Back in

While I was there.....


Ride height front

Rear

Took it for a little drive to let it settle and got a few pics along the way



Defo a bit of a nose down stance which is what I was after. While I was there I also noticed the shocking state of most of the rear bushes, so they will be added to the 'to do list'

[Quail]

Really nice little Rex man, very tidy.

[Pablo13]

Thanks

[sxbaz]

yo pabs i do love this and ive still been looking at them, keep up the good work dude

[Pablo13]

Hurry up and sell "ze tank" and you too could be rocking this

[M.D.]

nice work. love these cars. although i think id have to lop a coil out of those rear springs if it were mine, still sits a little high for me, front looks perfect though,

really liking the work on the ram air too, looks really neat. and very functional

[alanjuggler]

I think I'm getting bad thoughts about hondas and this thread isn't helping

my wife has a civic coupe (sohc D16Y7 non-vtec that I minime'd with the Y8 head, so ends up as a higher compression SOHC vtec y0! ) and she won't let me put a K20 in it. I've told her it'd be totally brilliant though she's starting to doubt my sanity.

I think I can convince myself that the B18 aerodeck civic is totally practical.

that adjustment nut on the rack - how far have you taken it in? my wife's steering is a bit floppy (ooer) and I imagine it's on all the civic type cars?

[Django67]

That's a flippin' gorgeous little car - it's got me wanting one too. FWIW, I really like the wheels it's sitting on at the mo. Looks really good with the new ride height.

[Pablo13]

Cheers Guys

I know what your saying on the rear. I was expecting it to be a tad lower too. When I fitted the rears as well as the bumpstop on the damper rod there were these three little rubber bits that sat on the coils at the top, sort of like a bumpstop for the springs. Like a doughnut I put them back on with the new springs, so I'll have another try without them before chopping coils etc. It has settled a bit more since the pics too.

Re, the rack. The manual tells you to tighten, loosen and re tighten the same small inner screw twice to 5 NM, then back off 15 deg, lock nut 68 NM

By the way best tank so far has got me 41.4mpg, which is great for the performance available

[raseri]

Lovin' the EE8
Good luck with her!

[Pablo13]

Finally managed to get a chance to get some rubber on my new wheels today. Don't think I've given you the specs yet, they are 15x8 et25 with a 195 50 tyre fitted.

Unfourtunatley my new AD08's intended for the fronts were 55 profile so I had to end up sending them back and using my original tyres for now until the right one show up

While it was up on the ramp I noticed my new lowness had caused a bit of scraping re-undersealed afterwards.

Did a bit of this

All done and looking nice and original from the outside.

Then got on and done the alignment, got about 1.2 deg camber rear and 2.3 front, no adjustable arms so could not really touch it much, but it was quite even side to side. I wanted a bit more camber on the front anyway. Caster was in spec, so my bushes cant be too shot just yet, and toe was reset to spec edging on a hint of toe out on the front.

And there we are......about time for a bit of whoring I guess

Enjoy




Close up of my red nuts, not fitted the centre caps yet as I don't think I like the look of them.

Little bit of poke

From Behind [Kenneth Williams] Ooh Matron! [/Kenneth Williams]

Its close, but not as cloe as it looks, bit of an optical illusion.