Makin' pancakes, makin' facon pancakes.

Motor is assembled.

I need to find a solution to the issue of the difference between the passenger mount for the AT vs MT.  I think that I should be able to take the AT or MT mount and make a bracket so that it adapts to the bolt holes on the transmission.  Measurements will happen after the motor is in the engine bay.

Interior is now completed.  There is just something about a manual lever, EDM floor mats and an 8k redline cluster that just makes an EF owner happy. :)

Working on a car 30m at a time.

It's been a while since I've done a swap, and I think I need to layout a roadmap next time.  This is my first auto-manual swap so I'll blame it on that.  I got the flywheel on (used some old MT flywheel bolts from a friends A6), and the clutch lined up and then I got my bag of AT parts and realized that the bolts for the torque convertor aren't the same as the ones for the MT pressure (In retrospect...why would they be?).  So a quick trip to the internet and Majestic Honda's website and 6 MT pressure plate bolts are on the way.

The trusty Ikea shop scale.  Dead on...ish.

 9lbs as advertized. 

 Have not used this brand before but have some drag friends that swear by them.  SFI approved and one piece design which can be resurfaced. 

I've been an Exedy guy for 20 years.  I loved the quality of their product for the price you paid.  After buying my first ACT clutch I am totally converted.  I actually bought an Exedy clutch for the wrong year (I was thinking motor year not trans year) and when it arrived it was all the parts in a box, with a piece of cardboard between the disk and pressure plate and everything else loose in the box just flying around.  The ACT kit had the pressure plate and clutch vacuum sealed and everything else in it's own plastic bag.  For slightly more it seems like a much better product just from the packaging alone.  The springs on the disk seem tighter and the whole piece just seems a step up in manufacturing.  

It's a...been a while.

With the Africa Twin entering my garage in early summer most of the last two seasons were spent riding rather than wrenching.  That has recently changed with the advent of the first few big snows of the winter to hit in the last couple weeks.

This past week I dug into the steering rack to find that the Quaife shorter gear kit didn't fit a power steering rack.  So I need a manual rack, no biggie.  Looked into that and realized that I need a manual rear engine subframe to go with the manual rack.  F.

So now Im in the process of tracking down a rear engine subframe.

Until I find that I'll be putting the engine together with the trans next week and getting everything as ready as possible so that once the subframe/rack go in I can get the rest finished quickly!

The great part out.

You want parts?  I'll give you parts.

Stripping out a rusty car is a lot of fun.  You don't have to worry about leaning on the fenders, throwing tools on the roof or generally anything you would normally worry yourself with when working on a car.

Took about 10h total with a friend helping.  Good times.

Photos of parts: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6fP58Ir8r9PSDdsVXBnMDlxeU0

6 on the floor.

I bought a manual transmission which was fortunately able to be shipped in this old beat up civic.

I brought up some RPF1s I got the weekend before and Caitlin and I drove back in whiteout conditions.  The motor is strong and the trans pretty smooth, but the car was rusted badly and the suspension had no life left in any part.  The car drove home...but it was a fight the whole way.  I'll be keeping the trans and manual parts for the swap but parting out the rest (minus the wheels).

Washed, waxed, put up for the winter.

The guys at Metro Hand Car Wash in Milwaukee did an awesome job with the wagon.  She's getting put up for the winter and parts will be added as they come in.

http://metrocarwashanddetailing.com/

B Series dreamin'

There was some hope for a while that a B2D kit still existed for the RT4WD community.  I can say for certain that all hope is lost.

To start...this is what a $100 B16A2 looks like:

With the cost being almost nothing I had planned on tracking down the fabled B2D kit which is an adapter and some brackets that allow a B Series motor to be connected to a D Series transmission.  I followed some threads which lead me to Swap Shop Racing in California.  Their site had H2B, D2B, F2B and a 'discontinued' B2D conversion kit.  I was hopeful in the fact that it was still listed on their site.

I called them up yesterday and they gave me the low down.  The original runs of the B2D were in essence 'prototypes'.  They used the D2B parts and modified them, there were about 5 made.  There are no CAD drawings, there are no spare parts, and the guys who worked at Evolution motorsports (the place where all the conversion kits are made) who did those first kits don't work there anymore.  He said even if I offered them double or triple they wouldn't want to do it simply because they likely wouldn't ever sell another one.

At $1200 for the initial kit I understand why.

Whelp...back to a turbo D series.  :)