So where were we? Oh, yeah, engine now where it should be, I wasted no time in tying up all the loose ends before turning that key for the first time.
Engine oil was drained prior to purchase, so I replaced the sump plug for that fresh new Spoon Sports magnetic plug. I checked the gearbox for any residual oil by removing the lower square-drive drain plug, only to find that too required fluid, so I proceeded to fill it up until MTF began to dribble out the upper fill hole.
Of course I was eager, as anyone like me would be. This car hasn’t been with me for long, but this vision entered my consciousness way before I even realistically considered the idea. It’s always been one of those objectives I’ve had in my mind. A recipe that you know you’ll eventually try out, but only once the ingredients are ripe and ready.
Three cars: the EK Civic with a K20, an RPS13 Sileighty with an RB, and my non plus ultra being an FD RX-7 with a 20B (nat-asp). These are and will probably be forever my bucket list cars. In today’s market, the chances of the latter two – especially the RX-7 – may not come to fruition for a few reasons, the main one of course being financial cost.
The Civik is, without a doubt, my idea of the perfect roadcar. Paired with one of the greatest four-cylinder engines known to man, I had tunnel-vision once the next step involved cranking it to life!
Alas, the universe had other plans. Or should I say, my dumbass-self overlooked something, but we’ll get into that later.
I went ahead and used leftover grounding cables to connect the engine and gearbox to the chassis. The last couple of photos of the gearbox ground cable is from Halfords, and would not recommend using such a long wire. Nothing’s gone wrong so far, and I seem to be getting adequate voltage supply to all the electrics, but I am yet to sort this out.
Haha. I’ll mention this later…
So, fuel lines plumbed up, OEM engine wiring harness plugged in, and a fresh Honda battery hooked up, we were ready to crank it over and hear it… do f*ck all but prime the fuel pump. I’ll spare you the agony, but for a good 2 weeks, I was going around the bend asking anyone and everyone why my engine wouldn’t fire up. I thought it was a bad starter motor/alternator/electrical ground issue, then I thought it was charge wiring harness related, then I thought maybe a blown fuse.
Moral of the story guys, plug in the car’s immobiliser, located on the backside of the plastic trim panel that sits below the steering column. All that was causing the classic “no-crank-no-start” symptom, was my daftidity. My excuse was, “why would I need to connect the immobiliser up if the ECU is the JDM immobiliser-less type?”. Turns out the chassis wiring must see a signal from the immobiliser, in order to then forward that signal on to the ignition via the ECU. Or some shit like that…
See ya next time!
志向 