It's nice that you can do the hub work your self. I have a full extra set that needs done. I took time to polish the rear hubs without new bearings, I assumed that it would be easier to keep clean despite loosing the initial shine.

I think that you can still order the stock rear steer bushings from Japan. expensive though.

 

Yeah...I bought a press a few months ago on a really good deal at the cdn equivalent of Harbor Freight. I figure for the price, I can do these bearings, need a few bushings now and I assume the rest in the future + my brother needs a couple done for his FC...By the time we do all that, it will have paid for itself and can sit in the corner collecting dust!

I had thought about cleaning them completely and applying some ceramic coating or wax to help prevent dirt from sticking so well...They're not back on the car yet so it could happen still.

As interesting as the DTSS is, there is lots of other things on the list that need attention (read money). Maybe one day I'll come back to it.

 

Started pressing the bearings back into the carrier and the hub into the bearing. A little janky since you have to press the bearing into the carrier first, replace the massive snap ring and then press the hub into the inner bearing race...

Had to use the press to go back and forth a little to get every thing together, not have play but also not feel like the hub was tight or catching/binding. Got the pass side assembly back on the car and decided it was time for break. The plan now is to torque it all down, put a wheel on and check for play again. Then do the same for the driver side.

Worse case I'm buying new bearings and trying again!

 

Rear bearing carriages back together and on the car. No play found, took the car around the block a couple times and didn't notice anything out ordinary, no weird noises, or smells so I decided to move on to something else on the list.

Next on the list was a quick change of coolant since I don't really have much history on the car, I figured it was a good idea to change. I also picked up a new tstat so I figured this is a good time to replace that too. Then I realized I should replace that seal too. So now the car has no coolant while I wait for a seal to arrive. So back to immobile again!

However, I did get a bunch of unexpected OT at work and decided to treat myself and ordered up a replica Odula/Feed replica lip from Corksport. I know some folks think this lip is played out on the FC, but it's my car and I love the look of it. Plus 1/3 of the factory lip was missing anyway, so I was always going to have to do something with this.

Fit and finish is pretty good from 10' away. Just did a quick test fit with 4 of the 8mm fasteners, the rest are getting a quick clean up and shot of paint. Later this summer I'll do something with the lip. Originally, the plan was to just hit with a quick and dirty layer of black, but I'm kinda digging the white. Reminds me of a guy I used to hang out with way back in the day who had an EG Civic with an unpainted white lip.

So, next, get the tstat seal, and refill the coolant. Then I think I need to start addressing some of the worn bushings.

 

Played out or not, I like that lip a ton. I was considering picking one up too!

 

No pics but there was a couple warmish days so dumped out as much coolant out that I could, replaced the tstat and seal. Refilled the coolant and ran the car for quite awhile trying to burb the coolant system. Definitely need to change it again in a few months, saw lots of mixing going on.

Side note, while idling, engine was surging. Gave up trying to post a video, mp4 is not an accepted file format. But I'm thinking that looking for vac leak might be worth checking next instead of bushings. Any suggestions on where to connect for smoke testing?

 

I connected the tester to my GXL at the pressure sensor near the air box with a t-fitting. It also works for smoke tests.

edit: I forgot to mention, the only time that I had my engine surge like that was when I was adjusting the TPS. The 2 volt method works well and better at the ECU. The two light way works pretty good as well.

 

Thanks! I'm highly suspicious of vacuum leak. Not just the surging but also seeing very high AFRs at idle. Like 16.x but immediately drop to 11.x when on throttle.

 

Feeling vindicated in my diagnoses of a vacuum leak. This tear definitely explains the idle hunting/surging and high AFRs.



Did a quick search last night and I'm shocked there doesn't seem to be many options for aftermarket replacements for this "intake duct" as it appears to be referred to. Is that because people move from the MAP sensor to a MAF and use a standalone to manage it? After that you could use whatever piping and couplers you wanted pretty easily, I think?

Anyway I think I'll just duct tape it and put the clamp over top as a short term fix while I figure out a permanent solution. I've seen 1 that is a few hours away and a few on ebay. But I'm really interested in something aftermarket, simply because it would be newer. I'm thinking I could put a coupler/reducer off the turbo to an elbow pipe, clamp the upper half of this ducting on that and that might work well. Sort of a hodge podge solution, but if it works, it works.

 

Someone used to make a nice welded aluminum replacement because these are known failure points. Duct tape might work for a few min, but remember that turbo gets HOT and it's going to make a gooey mess. You CAN buy them new still, but they are a bit pricey.

https://www.atkinsrotary.com/87-91-T...9-13-220A.html

You might be better off just making a custom one yourself. It's not a complex shape and some prebent aluminum pipe and some silicone couplers would get you up and running reliably.

 

I had spotted this link from atkins and looked around ebay and marketplace etc. While looking around I stumbled across a post from about 10+ years ago with a rough description/how to. So I ended up buying a 2.5"-3" silicone elbow for way cheaper than any of the OEM replacements that I've seen. I'm thinking this elbow should replace the lower half of the OEM ducting I have and with some luck and maybe another piece or 2 I can couple it to the existing upper half of the OEM ducting. The only thing that stops me from going fulling alum/custom intake is the nipples required for some vac lines that come off but I'll cross that bridge when I have to.

 

I spent some time cobbling together half the OEM ducting to this silicone 90 deg silicone reducer.

Had to do some cutting to get it to fit, but it works! When I first started the car, it ran even worse and smoked like hell. I thought I had really messed up but realized I had some clamps that were loose and I forgot to plug the MAP sensor back in.

Having said that I think this silicone is questionable quality. But it was really cheap and I have a lot of other work to do on the car before it's even remotely road worthy. So I've bought some time. I think as need-a-t2 has pointed out, some pre-bent alum piping, couplers and some T clamps and should be able to make something that will last.