Project Steph's 1978 Honda Civic 1200

[Steph]

I've ordered the idler pulley in the photo, although the photo may not be the exact one I ordered. The one I ordered should provide no mechanical advantage, or disadvantage, as this case may be. From as close as I can measure, the pulley I've selected has pretty much the identical radius to the OEM throttle cable quadrant. The pulley comes in 3 variants; nylon with no bearing, nylon with sintered bronze bush, and nylon with fitted bearing. I chose the one with the bearing fitted. Unfortunately they were out of stock, so I have to wait another week. In the mean time, I 'fashioned' a mock pulley out of cardboard to fill the gap. It really is quite a simply solution to a perplexing task.

KISS I heard someone say?

You may also notice my custom torque arm, the polished engine mount bracket (i have a NOS bush to press in after it's been chromed). And there probably other stuff to, like the custom, stainless high tension lead supports (spark plug wire support). They were inspired by overhead power wires like you see in the street. I am soo exhausted...

That's all the prep work on the engine done...

pulley_u_idler_nybb.jpg (5.94 KiB) Viewed 205 times

[Steph]

oh yeah, I didn't go with stainless braided hoses because they weigh a ton, and really are weak sh1t IMO. I used to love them, but not so much now...

...shame really, because I bought all the Spectre stainless hoses, but once I started fitting them, it looked really... how shall I put this... well, not to my tastes.

the extra weight thing just makes no sense at all to what I'm doing.

not to worry, I'll use them on the bike I'm working on next.

[bob78cvcc]

Sweeeettt!!

[geejohn1488]

Dang thats what i'm talking about

[ac1]

That is some BAD A$$ work! Definately a work of art. It looks awesome just like that on the engine stand.

[Steph]

cheers for that... once it comes back from the machine shop, I'll eventually be hanging the engine from my engine crane, with the 5-speed bolted on... then I'll get some really nice photos, from all angles... I'll also repolish the block, and repolish each component as I add it to the assembly... what would be really nice, is if I could install the engine with the intake already installed, and just lower it in, bolt it in place and fit the exhaust? even better, with the exhaust primaries fitted as well as the intake? talk about instant gratification :P

next I'll be polishing the axles before sending them out for reconditioning... it wasn't that long ago that I fitted these ones new, but they've always had the slightest tapping sound under full acceleration while turning, which makes me suspect they weren't the best quality to start off with... better to be sure they won't give me any trouble when I really start pushing them hard, as in, with a fresh motor with a fair amount of performance.

today I've been making some small 'supports' to sit inside the air filter edges to hold it in place. I was going to make a frame up initially, but the tabs were far less intrusive/noticeable, and they work really well.

[Bill]

It's really looking good! I am getting anxious to hear it run, and see it move!
If it proves necessary, we have high strength braided stainless lines made in the US, I know they are available in colors, have any end configuration you want and are about the same price as the well known hose suppliers. I can always look for the order info if anyone is interested.
=Bill

[Steph]

I started re-polishing my header again today, and I couldn't help taking a couple of photos while it was off. The front has been polished with Autosol, whereas the back still needs a good polish before it 'catches up' with the front. Again, the head will be painted after a small amount of cleaning up... don't forget, this motor is still in need of a rebuild... this is just prep work... but I've got to say, this certainly looks better than the greasy old motor I pulled out several months back.

[Layspeed]

Shiny!!! 8)

[steve.ewing@ottawa.ca]

Keep looking at it and taking photos. That's your reward for all the hard work. Our reward too but with a certain amount of envy.