January 10'-11' Build Off '87 CRX HF budget build

[bondo]

Originally Posted by texan_idiot25

HIDs in Halogen housings is for riceboys and *** holes.

and you're about 50/50 on both fronts....
you wanna be a REAL asshole,put the HID's in the brakelights..
I'M STOPPING!!!

[BulletsRain]

Originally Posted by texan_idiot25

HIDs in Halogen housings is for riceboys and *** holes.

I must be an *** hole then... one who can see very well when driving at night.

[texan_idiot25]

Unless you have projectors, you're still causing other's problems regardless of how low you aim your halogen housings. They're not made to aim the bright light of the HID properly, unless you have them aimed so low they're useless for seeing. I save the CST10's spotlight-like highbeams for HID conversions.

you wanna be a REAL asshole,put the HID's in the brakelights..
I'M STOPPING!!!

HA!

In other news, got the little thing outta the car.
[IMG][/IMG]

[Bananabrain]

It looks pretty big until you set it near the bike tire. lol

[texan_idiot25]

The whole thing is about 3 feet wide, 2 feet deep, and 2 and a half feet tall. That's an entire civic drivetrain, minus the drive shafts.

[texan_idiot25]

The CRX now has "big" brakes. The tiny stock solid disks weren't cutting it in Austin.

Our cars are great at a lot of things, but in my opinion, stopping isn't one of them. The TINY solid disks are adequate for city use, but on the highway and in the hills I find them sketchy and prone to shaking and fading when hot. After a week of driving in Austin, I knew it was time to upgrade.

It was mentioned here that 88-91 Civic EF disk brakes bolt on, so I thought I'd give it a try. Many of the pro's included more available brake parts, larger diameter disk, bigger calipers, and most importantly for me- vented disks!

Off to the junkyard I go. I got 91 Civic sedan disks and calipers for a total of $55 bucks. Prices may range as high as 60-70 at regular price. I've made friends with the owner of this yard and he slices off a little discount for me. However, the regular price was $15/disk and $15/caliper at this yard, so keep that in mind when pricing around.

Parts needed
-EF front disks & Calipers (Save the caliper bolts too)
-Brake lines (If your current ones are in need of replacement. Stock CRX lines will bolt on)
-Pads (if your junkyard donor didn't have any, or are worn. Mine had lots of life left)
-10mm box wrench (for brake bleeding)
-14mm socket (brake line bolt)
-17mm socket (caliper bolts)


So, off go the wheels and off go the old parts! It's amazing how small these brakes really are. Take note of the size of the stock disk compared to the dust shield.



The screws that hold the disks on are a *****. All of mine were stripped, and thank Jesus-H-Tap-Dancing-Christ for the el-cheapo striped screw remover I had. May have destroyed it in the process, but it managed to dig out all screws with little issue.


When removing the old caliper, leave the brake line attached and just set it behind the strut on top of the axle. This saves a bit of trouble for later when it comes time to bleed the brakes.


Now that everything is off, lets compare-




Pretty much an inch bigger, and a good bit thicker due to the vented design. The calipers are also larger with more pad surface.

Mock everything together. Give the disk a and brake pads a good bath of brake cleaner before assembling. It's OK that the rotor rubs and makes a slight scraping sound on the caliper. The surface rust is causing it. Surface rust is not an issue, but I would make sure to ask how long the car has been in the yard before taking the disk. A good yard inventories, and will know. This car wasn't here a month ago when I was there, so I was OK with it. It wouldn't hurt to carry a set of measuring calipers either to check rotor thickness. I didn't think of this, but there's no concerning wear marks or lips in the rotor, so it seems to be a-ok.

Also, notice how the dust shield is totally behind the disk! Big difference in size.

Time to check for clearances between the disk and dust shield. I found it easiest to put a tire iron on a lug and spin it. The sound of the shield hitting is a much higher pitched scrapping sound. The dust shield should clear fine, but if it's bent it may scrub.


Now that everything is good, go ahead and transfer the brake line to the new caliper. The brake line bolts will interchange between the two, one had stubborn crush washers that didn't let the old bolt slide out of the brake line, so I went a head and stuck it into the EF caliper. Same thread, no length problems, no leaks. Good for me.

Now, bleed the brake and double check all of your bolts. Hit everything down again with brake cleaner and put on the wheels.

HX wheels JUST clear the caliper.


Rinse and repeat for the next side. I would also recomend following the bedding in process like you would for new brakes to clean off the surface rust from the rotors. After this, my rotors were completely clean of rust, and looked just as good as the disks that came off.




And there you have it! Bigger brakes and calipers for under $100 bucks. Hawks HPS pads seem to be the general recommendation for a good set of pads around here. The CRX stops with much less drama than before, and most importantly is fade free after a series of 60+ mph panic stops.

[XMDrifter]

is painting the calipers on your to do list?

[Bananabrain]

Nice, should make stopping alot better.

[texan_idiot25]

Originally Posted by XMDrifter

is painting the calipers on your to do list?

They were painted no-rice black.

[XMDrifter]

Originally Posted by texan_idiot25

They were painted no-rice black.

ah, good. black is always classy

[FinalGear]

Keep it up....

[2jack3jack]

Originally Posted by texan_idiot25

They were painted no-rice black.

W8 I painted my calipers red, my camaro is now a ricer . Anyways Great little gas saver you got there. I just hope you don't forget about your truck that would upset me lol.

[texan_idiot25]

W8 I painted my calipers red, my camaro is now a ricer . Anyways Great little gas saver you got there. I just hope you don't forget about your truck that would upset me lol.

Painting these red would be like saying "HAY EVERYWON, LOOK AT MY STOCK CIVIC CALIPERS YAWL!"

May actually sell the car in a few days, get me something RWD again. The truck is the weekend toy at the moment. Nothing cheap left to do on it, cab swap, paint, and overdrive trans are up next, and all cost $$$ and time. Maybe next summer.

[2jack3jack]

Lol the overdrive tranny shouldn't cost to much, were im from they are around 500$$. Ya i'm sorry but you bought the crx I had to double take lol I bet your truck was ****ed.

[texan_idiot25]

I could easily throw in a junkyard 700R4 for rather cheap, but their not terribly strong stock, and I'd need to do more work to the truck to get it to fit.

Part of the cost is I'm looking for the slightly harder to find 200R4, and will rebuild it to eliminate it's weaker internals. It's the exact same size as the TH350 that's in the CST10 now, and will just be a bolt-in swap. Roughly $1,000, and then I'll be able to use it as a DD much more often again. The non-OD TH350 winds the motor up way too high for it to be a real long distance cruiser, as I found out on my Dallas trip. 500 miles with ~50 gallons of fuel.



HOWEVER, the saga of the CRX may end soon. Might be selling it and gettin' me a Miata. HAY BOYS! The CRX's 50 horse power is a complete kill joy in Austin, it handles great but the fun has to stop everytime I go uphill. That, and I'm tired of no A/C. Found a buyer with a good offer, and once everything is said and done I'll laydown the details.

[bondo]

Originally Posted by texan_idiot25

I could easily throw in a junkyard 700R4 for rather cheap, but their not terribly strong stock.

wait...whut?
700R4's are one of the best GM trans out there.
by no means are they bulletproof but you'de be hard pressed to shred one with anything less then 450 ponies.

FWIW, mine are purdier....

who says calipers have to be red??

[texan_idiot25]

They do fine in third gens. Trucks can tear them up rather quickly behind a healthy 350, dat weight.

That, and I'd have to drill new holes for the xmember, shorten the driveshaft, **** **** ****. Get a useless 1st gear too. The 200R4's 1-3 gears are close to the TH400 if I recall right.

Either route I go, it's getting beefed up some.

[Bananabrain]

My truck has a 700R4 Tranny in it, works like a charm & that overdrive sure is nice for the highway.

Bondo those brakes sure is purdy.

[texan_idiot25]

Originally Posted by Bananabrain

My truck has a 700R4 Tranny in it, works like a charm & that overdrive sure is nice for the highway.

Bondo those brakes sure is purdy.

TBI 350s don't have 360 ft lb of torque.

[2jack3jack]

Your only putting out 360 ft lb of torque? I would think more. But anyways so is the deal final yet?