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Old 10-13-2008, 06:17 PM   #151
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Thanks! Yeah, I'm sure that having the moonroof opens is costing me some MPG, but I don't mind. It's quite rare to have a moonroof on a VX and I love it.
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Old 10-25-2008, 08:02 PM   #152
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Well I did a valve adjustment. I took pics and posted a how-to: http://www.gassavers.org/showthread.php?t=9361

I test drove it and it idled rich which is not what I expected. Tightening the valve clearance increases the amount of air entering the engine. Perhaps the valves were so uneven that it was causing problems with uneven fueling. I don't know. I leaned it out in the cells I could reach using only the IACV. Luckily I did a baseline smog test beforehand. We'll see whether the valve adjustment will improve my embarrassingly high HC emissions at idle. I'll get to it some time this week depending on how busy and/or lazy I am.

I'll post up my baseline emissions levels. This is a stoich mixture with the factory 12 degrees advance timing. This is a dyno test on a 5 gas analyzer.

*later
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Old 11-01-2008, 09:08 PM   #153
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4-2-1 o 4-1 header and cai its a good idea for better mpg?
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Old 11-02-2008, 04:03 PM   #154
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mrbass View Post
4-2-1 o 4-1 header and cai its a good idea for better mpg?
For city driving yes; particularly in a big city or a city with lots of elevation changes. The increase in power gets you to coasting speed faster and requires less throttle so you don't spend much time in the safely rich tuned portion of the calibration.

For freeway driving, no, not really. It could actually caused increased load at cruising or in the case of the VX, it can reduce low throttle, low RPM power requiring more throttle to maintain speed.

I didn't install a CAI and header on this engine for FE. I did it for power. More than 50% of this build is for performance and not fuel economy. In the first post I described my goal of having a car that is faster than an Si and more economical than a VX. I'm still working on that. The only obstacle has been my low income and high debt.

I don't guess that you take your avatar name from the Descendents song, Mr Bass? If you do, then you're my hero.
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Old 11-15-2008, 09:04 PM   #155
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Winter Tire Choice



Well if anyone's paying close attention I think I may have mentioned at some point in this bloated thread that about six months ago I picked up 3 Civic HX rims for $100 (no tires). Well just recently I broke down and bought a 4th HX rim on ebay for $100. That's right, $100 for just one, used, 10-year-old rim. That's ridiculous. But total for all four puts me at $200 and that's not bad.

Currently on the car are 15 inch Rota Slipstreams that I've had for about 5 years left over from my previous hatch. I couldn't retain the stock 13 inch VX rims because they would not clear my front Integra calipers. So some lucky bastard (actually he was a nice kid) unwittingly got my auto DX with VX rims. Note that I will have to grind some material from my front Integra calipers for the HX rims to clear. Rear calipers as you know are much smaller than the fronts so they clear the rims quite easily.



In any case, living in San Diego at the time of course I had some ultra high performance summer tires (Kumho Ecsta SPT). I didn't know that I would be moving to Utah. I'm pretty spontaneous like that. Summer tires are very specialized and do great in warm temperatures but they absolutely suck in freezing temperatures. I got some firsthand experience one morning driving to work in the snowy slush. I was doing 35mph at one point and hit the brakes, hydroplaned and stalled the car. If I hadn't been maintaining a big following distance I would have wrecked. Needless to say I drove the rest of the way to work at 25mph. So those are the circumstances that led me to pay an inflated price for an HX rim and complete the set.

The HX rims will get some winter tires and the Rotas will be stored away for brighter days. I've never owned 14 inch rims so I didn't even know what tire size to look for. Tirerack.com lists the stock tire size for the Civic HX as 185/65/14. But for some reason I didn't quite trust those numbers so I googled "tire aspect ratio calculator" and found a site that let me plug in some numbers. Here are the results:

96-00 Civic HX
stock tire size 185/65/14
tire diameter 23.47 in
sidewall height 120.25 mm

Actual speed when VX speedo reads 35 mph: 33.77 mph
Actual speed when VX speedo reads 70 mph: 67.55 mph

92-95 Civic (except Si)
stock tire size 175/70/13
tire diameter 22.65 in
sidewall height 122.5 mm

15 inch Rotas
tire size 195/50/15
tire diameter 22.68 in
sidewall height 97.5 mm

Actual speed when VX speedo reads 35 mph: 34.95 mph
Actual speed when VX speedo reads 70 mph: 69.9 mph

My Choice for HX's on a EG
tire size 185/60/14
tire diameter 22.74 in
sidewall height 111 mm

Actual speed when VX speedo reads 35 mph: 34.85 mph
Actual speed when VX speedo reads 70 mph: 69.71 mph

Significance
The Tire diameter is the critical factor. It affects your final drive ratio at the wheels. The larger the tire diameter, the longer your gearing* and the heavier and more expensive the tire. It determines whether your speedo is correct. If your speedo is incorrect, not only will you not be driving the speed you think you are, but mile-per-gallon calculations will be incorrect. Your odometer will be incorrect.

*Longer gearing results in a higher theoretical top speed, slower theoretical acceleration (I say theoretical because there are other variables in effect such as aerodynamics and engine power), and possibly better fuel economy on the highway while worse fuel economy on the street.

Sidewall Height
Many armchair racers believe that with sidewall heights; lower is better. This is not true. Like many things in racing, you have your stock spec, your ideal spec, and then anything beyond that just causes performance to suffer. A small decrease in sidewall height from stock usually results in increased performance at the expense of ride quality and increased rotational mass. Going smaller from that point results in poorer traction in real world conditions such as imperfect roads as well as wet or slippery conditions. It also results in unpredictability in that the tires don't give you much notice before they lose grip. Road harshness increases quite a bit. Rotational mass increases even when the rims are lighter than stock because you are in essence replacing rubber sidewall with metal which is much more dense. It is commonly accepted that 195/50/15 is ideal for a street Civic.

Conclusion
My conclusion from the above calculations is that when using HX rims on a 5th generation Civic, 185/60/14 is the ideal tire size. Do not ask for 96-00 Civic HX tires. Do not enter "96 Civic HX" into the text field at tirerack.com. If you do, you'll end up with 185/65/14 tires. This will throw off your speedometer, your odometer, it will increase your effective gear ratio, your tires will be heavier than they need to be, and you'll pay more for tires that are too big.

The tires I decided to go with are the Michelin X-ice Xi2. I considered all season tires since I really just need something that will work better in cold temperatures than my summer tires. I liked the Michelin Pilot Exalto A/S based on customer reviews and test results at tirerack.com, but they didn't offer them in the size I need. The clincher is that they are discontinuing the Xi2's in my size so they are on clearance for $43.

Slipstream vs HX



The Rota Slipstreams are 15 x 6.5 inches and weigh 11.9 lbs. The Kumho Ecsta SPT 195/50/15's weigh 18.3 lbs. Total comes out to 30.2 lbs.

The HX's are 14 x 5.5 inches and 11.75 lbs. The Michelin Xice Xi2 185/60/14's weigh ???. Total comes out to ???. The smaller diameter, thinner HX's have less rotational mass.

For reference, the DX steelies are 13 x 5 inches and 16 lbs.
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Old 11-16-2008, 04:01 PM   #156
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Want to know another tire size you could try with your HX rims? How about 165/65... Going off of the tire rack website, apparently you can get 165/65 tires for 14" rims which would work for your HX rims since they are 14". 165/65 would have a smaller diameter than 185/60, making it closer to the stock 165/70 with 13" rims.

Here is an idea of what I'm talking about:
14in rim=355.6mm
13in rim=330.2mm
So with 14in rim 185/65=596.1, 14in rim 185/60=577.6mm, 14in rim 165/65=570.1mm and with 13in rim 165/70=561.2mm. These measurements are total mm, that means rim+tire. I created an excel file detailing the different tire+rim sizes on various civics so I have all of this stuff pre-computed. The 92-'95 civics have a range of 561.2mm all the way to 583.6mm in wheel size. So I have to wonder where the calibration in wheel sizes is done on these cars...maybe it's in the gauge cluster.
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Old 11-16-2008, 05:15 PM   #157
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$200 for hx rims without tires is still a fair price. its no steal, but its not a ripoff.

also you could get a 3mm spacer for the front wheels to clear the caliper... it is questionable though, some would prefer to run longer lugs and i dont recall if you pressed longer ones with the integra brakes.
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Old 11-16-2008, 07:49 PM   #158
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I ran across a good tire size calculator on a dsm forum. Check it out: http://www.dsm.org/www.dsm.org.1998/tools/tiresize.htm

Being a safety inspector, I'm no fan spacers. I'm comfortable grinding off a little bit of the caliper. Thanks for the suggestion though.
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Old 11-23-2008, 01:44 PM   #159
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HX Rims, Integra Brakes



It's widely known that 96-00 Civic HX rims don't fit the Acura Integra. This becomes a problem when you've swapped Integra brakes onto your Civic and then want to fit HX rims. At first they look as though they'll fit. It's not until you torque them down do you realize that the bracket that faces the wheel just barely rubs on the wheel.

There are two possible solutions. One is to fit spacers. Spacers will actually fail the safety inspection that some states require when you take your emissions test. Most spacers are "universal" meaning they don't fit any car properly. There's no way to center them perfectly. They also prevent the rim from carrying heat away from the brake hat.

The other solution is to grind 1mm of material away from the corner of the bracket. This is not difficult and it doesn't compromise the structural integrity of the mounting bracket.



Here is a before pic.



Here you can see how I ground down the corner of the bracket to clear the rims. You can use an angle grinder or a die grinder.

I'm waiting for it to snow to get some pics of the HX rims on the hatch.
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Old 02-14-2009, 07:39 AM   #160
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