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  1. #1
    Registered User tommy's Avatar
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    2004 NJBP Purchased May 2015 - now Type R Swapped



    Test Pic - will add more with history soon

  2. #2
    4 TDs in Single Game usedep3's Avatar
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    Congrats on the swap
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  3. #3
    Registered User tommy's Avatar
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    Ugh. Not so fast, unfortunately. Car dumped all coolant last night when I started it up after work. Houston, we have a problem...
    Might be out of commission for a bit. Time to dust off the CRX and see how badly I fit into its tight Cobra fixed back seat.

  4. #4
    Registered User tommy's Avatar
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    Pretty easy fixes, it looks like, thankfully. Fuel rail wasn't tightened down appropriately, so that's the fuel leak. And the belt wore a hole at the bottom of the overflow tank. Which I guess is a tight fit on a Type R with the RBC manifold. So will just have them get an aftermarket one and relocate somewhere that's actually not completely stupid like the OEM one. Mishimoto has a sexy one powdercoated in red; that may be functional as well as fit into my blingy engine bay area. We'll see!

  5. #5
    Registered User tommy's Avatar
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    I guess some explanation is necessary here. I dropped off the car at the shop for having the swap done the day before I was going to be going on a two-week HI trip; figured I'd have almost no down time when I got back. Well, that didn't happen, and more importantly for the explanation of this pic, the mechanic drove me to the train station, and on the way back, the car was rear ended by a blonde. Totally her fault, of course. The mechanic didn't think it was a biggie, and went ahead with the swap.

    I finally took the car to a local body shop two Fridays ago to get an estimate on the "simple" bumper repair. They then found out that the exhaust needs to be replaced, and that the bumper hangers need to be worked on as well. Total estimate: over $2k. So it's basically been there ever since (pic is from Sunday), most of the time waiting on a new exhaust from Magnaflow (can't order just the muffler section). I also decided to kill two birds with one stone and gave them a urethane rear lip that I had bought previously to paint and install. They're saying it should be done on Friday; in the meantime, i'm driving a Veloster, which is a weird thing. Probably much better with the turbo.

    To clear up what happened with the bay, the pic below shows the DC steel tower bar installed, a Mishimoto overflow tank that was installed and relocated, and everything basically completed, except for maybe a cooling plate to clean up the radiator area. Pic:


  6. #6
    4 TDs in Single Game usedep3's Avatar
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    Glad she's ok.
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  7. #7
    Registered User tommy's Avatar
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    Well, little update here. I was finally able to get everything except the tuning all resolved last week, and was able to drop off the car at Xenocron and have Chris do his thing on it. I was getting a weird vibration/bad air-to-fuel ratio (my guess) from 2k to 3k on the tach. I figured it was either the tune that Xenocron had stuck onto my stock ECU when the swap was being done, or the TPS needed to be recalibrated (had seen a post that sounded to have a similar issue). Anyway, got it back on Thursday afternoon and Chris just said that it was that the tune needed to be finally done. Sounds great, runs great, and am fully happy with it now. Did a run to upstate NY and over 6 1/2 hours of driving over the weekend, no issues, so I'm saying that everything is now fine.

    Couple of issues: the cutout for the rear urethane lip I had installed when they were fixing the rear bumper isn't big enough for the Magnaflow dual tips, so I'll just get a razor and trim that open a bit more as it melts with the heat. No biggie. Needed a new license plate bulb as the right one continually falls out of the opening and then gets filled with rain water. I have to figure out a way to get that to sit correctly, most likely involving tape (simple solutions is usually easiest). Also, the driver's halo around the HID retrofit isn't lighting up any more, so have to see if I can see a way to get that to work; otherwise, back to Lightwerkz, which is only a 30 min drive, so probably a lunch trip this week, esp since my inspection is up this month.

    Finally, Chris said that my intake was severely limiting the gains, so I'm now thinking about what to do. Obvious answer is Injen CAI, but am concerned about hydrolock. Just not sure if I'm making a mountain out of a molehill. Don't need to kill my newly-installed K20A just for a couple extra ponies, but at the same time, if it's the best answer, I don't want to be a little girl about it, either. Otherwise, probably get something like a K&N Typhoon - the red color is a huge positive in its favor.

  8. #8
    Registered User tommy's Avatar
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    I did some quick work on the car this morning before it got too hot.
    Replaced the vent tube from the block to the intake with a 90 degree bend one from Pegasus - original tube had split, I had replaced it with a straight one, and the straight one was too firm to bend well. The 90 degree one is better, but am waiting to order an Injen CAI, so it will do for now.

    Replaced the led rear license plate lights with new ones. The right side on keeps burning because it doesn't seat right and water gets in, I think. But seem to have gotten it to finally seat correctly today - we'll find out after a couple of storms hit here.

    And thirdly, saw the ASR dog bone being talked about on the FB site, so figured what the hell. I could use it on my CRX, as I have a fixed back seat with a seat bracket with no slider, so could use some adjustability in the shift knob for that car if I don't like it on the EP3.

    Pic, in 3rd gear:


    It's a bit goofy, and now feels like stock (I have the BCSS). It also blocks getting to the stereo a little. I'll give it a couple of days, but if I were a betting man, I'd say that it's going on the CRX when all is said and done. It does feel very solid though.

  9. #9
    Registered User tommy's Avatar
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    Saturday's Work

    Finally got a weekend free with clear skies eventually, and got busy. I did the passenger's side headlight with the Griot's Garage restoration kit - it was really yellow. Once I got that done and allowed it to cure a bit (basically an excuse to have a couple of donuts and watch some early morning Velocity shows), I ripped out the interior:


    The green part is the aluminum brace that many people have swapped in place of their thinner steel ones. I like how it tightened up cornering. Anyway, the main goals of the day were to swap in the red OEM carpeting and the Bride Euroster II that's been sitting in my apartment since January. Removal of the old carpet went pretty simple - ended up taking it off in several pieces to make things easier. In the process, I pulled out the ground wire from the JL amp that sits underneath the passenger's seat; had that replaced on Thursday under warranty, and I think they just didn't do a good job of tightening it down (good thing I did the carpeting this weekend, then, and fixing their shoddy work). Then in with the "new" carpeting. To makes things simpler, I cut slits in the rear where the carpeting goes around the tabs in the rear seat - from past experience, I had no interest in taking off the seat base again, and no one will ever know that the carpet is slit, so it was a no brainer. Same thing with all of the middle part around the console trim.

    The bottom screw that holds the footrest in is rusted, so I just left that in for now; am PB Blasting it, and it will yield to my authority eventually.

    The seats went in pretty easy, but the bolts didn't align at first. Ended up on both seats putting in the rears a few turns, then put on the fronts with some wiggling, then tightened down the rears, then the fronts. That worked out well. The Bride is really comfy - it sits a bit lower than stock, and I sit more in the Bride than the stock seat, which felt more like a chair to me than a driver's seat. It looks good enough next to stock to not worry about buying a twin for the passenger; even if I had $1200 to blow on it and the bracket/slider, I still wouldn't feel it necessary. Couple of pics:





    The SRS light is now on; found a thread this morning, and will attempt the paper clip in the connector thingy. I also have the chrome falling off the ebrake handle thing the same way that you all have, and was curious about it.

    Here's how it looks when you've dremelled off the old chrome button:


    Yes, it's pretty nasty - a smaller solid black plastic button. If you can see that nub on the passenger's side, that's what I had to file down (the mild steel files down very quickly with a hand file) to get my replacement NRG handle to work. Here's a pic of the NRG button that I glued on this morning. I'm hoping it will hold fairly well.


    I'm waiting on a package from Majestic with one of the console pieces that was broken during the engine swap, then I'll put it all back with the new ebrake handle, hopefully just in time to get my inspection on Friday before the long weekend.

    I'd still like to do the red inserts on the door panels, but not sure I want to wrestle with the door panels again, drilling out the plastic welds, etc. just for a little bit of bling.

  10. #10
    Registered User tommy's Avatar
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    Reset the SRS light last night in the work parking lot. Fun! I was able to get the yellow plug out without dropping the fuse box, but ended up dropping it anyway, as it was impossible to work with in that position. What I ended up doing was sticking a small, mostly straightened paper clip in each of the two connections, then used another paper clip to bridge the gap. So I only had to connect the third pin to one of the others to complete the connection. I have no idea how anyone would be able to stick a paper clip in the holes every time instead. Once I got the Dance Dance Revolution moves down on connecting, disconnecting, connecting, I was able to get the two blips feedback that it worked and was good to go.

    Of course, no good deed goes unpunished, so when putting the fuse box back, I cracked some of the plastic, and also managed to f*ck up the relay for the led turn signals, which I have to use extensions for, as the relay box that Diode Dynamics sells is too big for our box. So will have to get some double female spade wire connectors today and redo that tonight. I really hate dropping the fuse box again, but no way out of it.

    Also, the slider on my Bride seat gave up the ghost; I've thought it's a flimsy POS since I put the seat together over the winter, but was at least hoping to get a couple of years out of it first. I'll call Evasive today and see if they have any suggestions for something better. Luckily, the seat's in a good position, and I'm the only driver, so I could be a cheap ass and just leave it as is. But would like to find a stronger slider to get in there.

    That's my story for today. Always an adventure!

  11. #11
    4 TDs in Single Game usedep3's Avatar
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    Nice job on the button replacement. Please post pics when youre done. Everyone's e-brake flakes eventually it seems.

    I think I saw your car near GSP mall last night. I was stuck in traffic when you passed in the opposite direction. It looked good.
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  12. #12
    Registered User tommy's Avatar
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    Might have been me - can't think that many people are stupid enough to have rims like mine.

    Majestic's box will be here today, so will have the center console/parking brake all done tonight or tomorrow.

    I got the turn signals back to working - the wiring in the male spade connectors is very happy to back out, though. I think I'll do another set of extensions and use shrink tubing as a way to keep them in place while driving.

    Talked to Hue at Evasive last night; he said that the Bride sliders have had very few problems. I'll take a look eventually, but will probably order a new one anyway and just be careful when assembling it/putting the seat on it. I put the seat together months ago, and the handle on the slider did get cockeyed during the process; I might have weakened it when getting it back to straight, who knows. But it's a little over $200 that I'm not too eager to spend right now. So will go without a sliding seat for a while and just see how annoying it becomes.

  13. #13
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    Just popped in to lurk around a little bit. I like the button fix. Did the button go on with out any filing or modding?

  14. #14
    Registered User tommy's Avatar
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    Yes, it did. But of course, I glued it in a downward-projecting angle (front to back), so I couldn't then put the handle on. I could have cut off a part of the ebrake mild steel sleeve, but that didn't make sense to me, so I just bought another ebrake handle and dremelled off the one that I had glued on. Came off pretty easy - you can see the shavings on the pic. I ended up not gluing the new button on; it's right now just held in there by the handle itself. I didn't do the three set screws yet, as I wanted to make sure that it never snagged or did not release properly. It's been over a week now, so I'll go ahead and now tighten things down. I'm very happy with the results.


  15. #15
    Registered User tommy's Avatar
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    And yesterday, after having come back from a week vacation, I figured that the most fun thing to do was to go ahead and install an Injen CAI.

    Took me 5 hours total to do everything; I did some other things (running the wiring over the front fender liner for the fogs, for example), with a bunch of breaks in there so I didn't hulk out.

    Several pics:

    With old intake and battery out:



    Pic showing the square-ish bracket that you have to remove (you can feel the spot welds from the top, so drilling them out was a piece of cake [2 of them]):



    And final pics:





    Couple of random thoughs:

    1) I look forward to the time when I'll never have to remove/install that front end again. I always lose or kill at least 2 of the plastic clips.

    2) The Injen installation pics are really all you need. I did have some instructions for an RSX install that I found, but they really didn't add anything to what Injen had stated.

    3) I did give it 10 minutes to relearn everything. The additional power was noticed, but it wasn't huge. I'm sure that I'll notice the lack of heatsoak, though.

    4) No real tricks to the install. Slow and steady and anyone should be able to do it. To me, the worst part is trying to not break any plastic bits.

    5) As you can see, that new Gates upper radiator hose is a requirement, especially with an RBC. The 60 degree bend looks more like a 90 as you put everything together, but does loosen up a little when fully installed.

    6) The grommet had a tendency to want to fall inside the intake tube as you pushed in the sensor. I just used a little grease on the outside of the sensor where it touches the grommet, and it eventually went in without collapsing the grommet.

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