So, I love 1st Gen Honda Civics. The 1200/1300s, more than the CVCCs, but they are all great. I am basically a Euro car guy, but like classic Japanese stuff too. I ran across this one for sale, and the seller didn't really know anything about it. Bought it from a neighbor, installed the weber carb, and that was about it. It came with a spare engine and transmission, and I spoted a few things in the photos that made me think it might have some upgrades.
When it arrived on the shipper trailer, it looked kinda rough, but it started right up and idled fine (came from low altitude to 6500ft in CO so that's a plus). Driving it 8 blocks from the shipper dropoff to the shop, I was worried. It wouldn't rev much and had very little power. Sigh.
When I got time to really look it over a few days later, I was more positive about it. It came with Scheel Mann seats (!), extra gauges and a performance exhaust, upgraded ignition coil and electronic ignition. Running the engine code (thanks for telling me where it was Roman) it turns out it wasn't a 1500CVCC, but a later 1800CVCC out of a Prelude/Accord.
Unfortunately, the guys that swapped in the Weber 32/36 DGEV didn't know what they were doing and the throttle cable was bent and threaded through a linkage piece that it should never go through. Result - it only got 1/4 throttle and pulled mostly to the side of the linkage instead of straight on. Digging through my stash of carb linkage, was able to get a trunion nut to straighten the pulland modify the throttle cable bracket so it wasn't pulling up instead of back. The gas pedal bottomed out before full throttle, so I cut off the pedal stop on the pedal, and welded on a coupling nut to make an adjustable throttle stop so I get full throttle opening at the carb, but won't be stretching the cable past WOT. I also rejetted the carb slightly, as it had out-of-the-box jets in it, which IMO are way too big for the power level of the engine, let alone at altitude. I dropped the mains from 140/140 to 120/120 and the primary idle from 60 to 50. I have 40 idles, but I want to drive it a bit before making too many changes.
I ordered some wheel adapters to go from 4x120 to 4x100 to install later, larger wheels easily. You cana install hubs and brakes from 2nd gen Civics, but I thought I'd try this first and see how I like it. The front fit just fine (had to cut the caps off the factory enclosed lug nuts to make them open and not stand proud of the adapters and interfere with the wheel mounting), but the rear drums have a weird 3 bolt grease cap hoold down setup, so my machinist is opening up the center bore of the adapters to clear. I'm using Civic HX wheels - very light weight 14x5.5" size that should be fine for the power level and handling needed.
I removed the passenger Scheel seat and mount so I can fabricate a new mount for the Corbeau seats going in. Also ordered lots of parts - brake hoses, front pads, throttle cable, engine torque rod bushing, filters, tune up stuff. It's hard to find parts for these, so we will see what I can do to stiffen up the suspension a little bit.
