Living the Dream - 3G Civic Track Car: Chapter 1

As  you know, from my Chasing Dreams post, my journey towards motor sport competition has recently begun.  Once the initial elation and excitement from actually getting a track car died down, it was back to business.  The car came with a list of things that needed to be completed prior to use.  The main chore being machine work to the engine.  The car came lightly assembled.  When the previous owner decided to sell the car, he was in the middle of redoing much of the car.  The wiring harness had been removed to consolidate connections and remove what wasn't needed, and the engine had been removed due to an internal failure.  Instead of putting the car back together before selling it, he decided to put the engine back together (nothing torqued down) and back into the car, and any loose pieces in boxes.  This is how I received the car.

Before I could do anything though, I needed more work space and storage for all the extra parts I got along with the car.  There was no way I was going to disassemble an engine with the bench I already had.  Mostly because it was covered in parts from another project.  So I built myself a bench along the back wall of the garage with a lower shelf for all the spare parts.

With the new bench built, the first chore I needed to tackle was to tear down the engine.  In the middle of an AutoX run, one side of the engine was briefly starved of oil which caused a crank bearing to spin.  Gladly, no serious damage was done, and prior to the car changing hands, the previous owner had reassembled the engine with a new crank and bearings.  Unfortunately, OE bearings were difficult to find, so he was forced to purchase larger aftermarket bearings instead.  I took on the car knowing that some sort of machine work would be needed to have the new crank and bearings fit the block.  What that will end up being is still in question.  As it stands, the engine is apart and waiting for me to find a good engine shop.

I know that's not a lot to share for the first chapter of this build, but this is more of an introduction than anything.  The next steps will be to complete the engine rebuild, and get it back into the car for testing.  Then it's on to the tuning shop.  I want this thing to fly!

Photos by Stephen Dettman