in which monkee drives home with sparks flying out from under the car

"MonkeePuzzle" (monkeypuzzle) 12/04/2019 at 11:00 • Filed to: RuqSaq

4

18

as I left the office, my car was doing its best to let me know what I was in for

we get it! my CEL is on and even my radio thinks I’m a failure #420

blocks from arriving at my wife and kid’s special dinner I came to a lane that was suddenly unplowed, and a huge chunk of snow bottomed the civic out and...

not an entirely unexpected event. you can see in that pic that there are two shoddy welds at the rear of that resonator, there’s more stick welding at the rear of the exhaust and when I bought the car that joint looked like this...

so a good hit was all it needed to break through. I was prepared, and have a spare exhaust at home, in part becuase I knew this one would fail and suspected I’d need a good one to pass emissions, but importantly because the location of the Cats is different between the d15 engine and the d16 I’m swapping in

but first, how to get home. at my former rally car driving dad’s advice I pulled up onto the curb to get some access, a trick he’d apparently used frequently for roadside repairs

being a prepared man, I donned my gardening gloves and grabbed my tie down straps I keep in the car and tied up the exhaust

then ran it over the car

a ll wrapped up like a present. ( on t he drivers side I ran it behind my door to avoid having to climb in the window )

got her home, jacked her up (my dad was in town, so both kept me company in the garage and documented the events)

did I mention the shoddy welding on the exhaust? the rear bolt on part had been cut off and solid welded, so I needed to cut it of. of COURSE this part was good solid steel, and didn’t just crumble when breathed on

then wrestle the front broken parts off their hangers

I highly recommend a rubber hanger removal tool after years of not having one, it makes this a doddle

oh boy, rusted right around in ~1 year :D

more work with the grinder (12 minutes until the 10pm noise rules are in effect!) to remove the rubber hanger... which oddly had been welded in also

the only tricky part: on my current engine the cat is mounted as part of the header, just in front of the engine. on the new engine the cat is mounted aft of the engine. The result is to use the new engine’s exhaust I had to scavenge a part of the old exhaust (about 1.5feet of it) and slip it in between. on this night I just kinda jammed it in (sounds fine, couldnt be worse right!), but I’ll mock up a true connection for longer term use until the actual engine swap occurs

the EG SI stock exhaust is slightly larger diametre, has a different design of muffler, and a little tip for added slick looks

and drove it to work just fine this morning :D

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > MonkeePuzzle 12/04/2019 at 11:10

3

FAILURE

Michael > MonkeePuzzle 12/04/2019 at 11:13

0

At least throw a B16A or ZC in there while you’re at it :D

Michael > Michael 12/04/2019 at 11:14

1

Holy hell how are B16A’s still so expensive in a world of K swaps?

Oppenheimer - not missing my shitboxes anymore > MonkeePuzzle 12/04/2019 at 11:17

2

Love this kind of stories. People might think I am crazy, but I’d like to go through these experiencies as well.

Fist bump, fellow red honda owner. Too bad mine is a CVT Fit 1.3 ...

MonkeePuzzle > Michael 12/04/2019 at 11:20

2

in the long run I will build a b18c1 swap.
I needed the EX coupe as it was the only way to get the wiring harness and parts for power doors/locks/mirrors and A/C that would fit the hatch.
so I’m swapping in the d16z6 to gain some performance while I build a b swap.
and the d16z6 will be a good backup after the b-swap so if I do have an issue I can always swap it back in. 

MonkeePuzzle > Michael 12/04/2019 at 11:24

1

I’ve seen Del Sols with the stock B16 go for far cheaper than the swap alone. If I see one come up I might go that route to source a B

MonkeePuzzle > Oppenheimer - not missing my shitboxes anymore 12/04/2019 at 11:25

3

aside from the inconvenience to my family, I was more than happy. I love a night in the garage and achieving things. 

Michael > MonkeePuzzle 12/04/2019 at 11:30

3

This was my first car

Oh hello

Man that thing was fun. Did the whole half cut, LSD transmission, brakes, gauge cluster. Everything in the car was manual so less to worry about wiring-wise.

Michael > MonkeePuzzle 12/04/2019 at 11:32

1

A B18C1 would be a very, very fun hatch

razorbeamteam > MonkeePuzzle 12/04/2019 at 11:39

1

How melty was that strap by the time you got home? 

Urambo Tauro > MonkeePuzzle 12/04/2019 at 12:00

1

Well, I think I know what the next addition to my toolbox is going to be!

benn454 > MonkeePuzzle 12/04/2019 at 12:05

1

This happened to me in my old 87 S-10 I used to have. On the interstate. Luckily, it happened right before my exit, so I just pulled over, yanked it off (with gloves, of course), and threw it in the bed. Wasn’t even that late for work.

 Also, I learned that, apparently, a straight-piped Iron Duke sounds a lot like a Harley. Who'd have guessed that.

Derpwagon > Oppenheimer - not missing my shitboxes anymore 12/04/2019 at 12:06

1

I too have a red Honda.

Pich, with Z32 now featuring Civic [Si] / No > MonkeePuzzle 12/04/2019 at 12:18

1

thats some serious danger to manifold

M.T. Blake > MonkeePuzzle 12/04/2019 at 13:21

1

Having your exhaust fall apart on the road is NOT the Rocky Mountain High that John Denver was talking about. 

MonkeePuzzle > razorbeamteam 12/04/2019 at 15:10

0

as the rear of the exhaust was not attached, it was not melty at all

...it was however torn up from scraping on the road

MonkeePuzzle > benn454 12/04/2019 at 15:10

2

pipeless civic just sounds droning fart

benn454 > MonkeePuzzle 12/04/2019 at 16:42

2

 So no difference, then. :P