The new ZC is in the works and I'm going to try and document all the steps involved in putting it together, complete with pictures.  I said, I'll try because between work and school I don't have a whole lot of time to work on the motor and therefor even less time to take pictures and update this site.  So for now this page won't be well organized.  It will most likely consist of quick notes and images that are just thrown up without much cropping or editing.

March 30, 2000 - My Eagle rods and custom Arias pistons arrived today.  They are absolutly beautiful, the quality of the rods is amazing.   Not a single scratch on them, every contour is perfectly smooth, the clearances and machining is top notch.  I'm hoping to throw the rods and pistons together tomorrow and bolt them into the bolt so I can check valve clearances before sending the block to the machine shop.  I've been having this recurring nightmare that the custom pistons are going to hit the valves.  I got the rods and pistons from Race Engineering in florida, you won't anyone more knowledgeable about building motors and willing to help share the knowledge with you so your project is perfect.  The rods were $339 and the pistons were $458.  I don't think you'll find those rods cheaper anyplace else, the pistons are normally under $400 but mine were more since they were custom made for my desired c/r and nitrous use.

April 3, 2000 -  Finally got around to completly tearing down the old engine that blew and was amzing by the amount of damage inside.   I was expecting chunks of metal everywhere but found a whole mess of pieces about a centimeter in size.  Its as if the metal just exploded...which as I think about it is more of less what it actually did :-)  I was hoping to reuse the oil pump and the crank out of the motor but during the one second or so after the engine blew enough metal "dust" was sucked into the pump to warrant spending the money on a new one, ouch!  The crank look ok, there was also some "dust' embedded in the bearings but they didn't hurt the crank journals.  It may need to be machined though, I don't think so but the machine chop guys are the experts.  I'll be seeing them this afternoon or tomorrow for their opinion.  I'm going out to the garage now to strip the new block, take all the brackets and bolts and other stuff off of it so the machine shop doesn't loose them.

Aptil 3, 2000 - While out in the garage this afternoon I decided to measure the crankshaft journals just out of curiousity.  I didn't like the results!  According to my calipers the journals are all too small for the crank to be reused.  I'm hoping my calipers are just messed up.  When I installed the crank in the last motor which was only about 2,000 miles ago it was checked with the bearings in place using plastigauge and it was actually a little bit on the tight side so I don't know how it could now be too small.  I guess I'll find out tomorrow when I show it to Rick at RPM machine shop.  The oil pan had a small dent in it from when the last ZC exploded so I took a hammer to it to smooth the metal back out.  This worked great on the dent but cracked the paint so I sprayed it with stripper so I could repaint it.   Once it was stripped I discovered that I didn't have any black paint and it needed to be painted immediatly since bare steel begins rusting immediatly and I wasn't about to have to run to the store only to return home and start wiping off the rust so I searched the garage and found some nice gold hi temp paint and some aluminum hi-temp.   Needless to say I used the aluminum color.  The color looks funny on an oil pan but I think I may keep it.  LOL.  I was going to put some pictures up tonight but apparently the camera is out in the garage and I'm too lazy to put shoes on and go get it.

April 4, 2000 - The block is at the machine shop and they weren't concerned about the size of the crank at all so I feel a little better now.   I need to stop back over either tonight or tomorrow and talk to the guy who will be doing all the work so we can decide on exactly what needs to be done.  Look for another update in probally a week or so since I have a LOT of schoolwork to do to catch back up since I spent a couple days playing with the engine instead of schoolwork.   Of couse I forgot to grab the camera out of the garage but thats probally a good thing since I have about 25 hours of c++ programming to do before thursday.

April 24, 2000 - I called back on thursday and was told to check in on friday.  I called friday and was told it should be done monday.  More than a little bit annoyed at the moment!  Today is monday, including today I have a total of 4 days in which to put the motor together, pull the old motor out, put the new one in, and deal with whatever problems arise.  It'll be a long 4 fours but I should be possible.......that is, if I get my damn motor today.   I'm off to the store now to pick up various supplies, oil, filter, paint, some new misc bolts, brake cleaner for the clutch.  I'll let ya know tonight what happens with the machine shop. 

April 30, 2000 -  Still no block!

May 7, 2000 - Still no block!

May 11, 2000 - Picked up the block yesterday, it looks great.   They ran into some weird problems with some of the clearances and stuff but its all ok now.

May 12, 2000 - Ran into a MAJOR problem yesterday.  It turns out that the block is not the right ZC block!  Guess that explains the weird clearances. When I first got it I checked a few of the tranny bolt locations, head gasket, the shape of the water pump, oil pump, several of the larger bolt holes and everything was there.  It turns out that there are small differences all the over the place and the main problem right now is that the block is missing the drivers side motor mount attachment points.  That and the oil pump for this motor is about 1/4 inch shorter than the ZC pump, the water pump has 1 bolt hole moved a little bit, the tensioner is even slightly different.  The engine is a ZC but so far I have no idea which one it is since there are 2 ZC's besides the normal one we all use.   Today I'll be changing the clutch in my crx since I've been putting it off way too long in hopes of doing it at the same time as the engine swap.  While the tranny is out I'll check to see if it'll work with the "zc".  If so then I will work on building a custom motor mount over the next few weeks as well as finding an oil pump, water pump, and tensioner that fit on the motor.  I also hope I can find a timing belt that will work properly with this motor, since it will have a newer style head and gears on the older style block.  If anybody out there knows some info on the earlier model ZC motors then drop me a line.

May 14, 2000 - I got called into work the other day while working on the project so I haven't had much time yet to really look things over but have come up with a plan.  Heres a list of what I know so far.

• The head fits on the block perfectly
• The alternator attachment points should work, although it looks like the lower side os about 1/2 inch lower.
• The drivers side has no motor mount flange on the block, after some looking at it I have deicided that I can fabricate a custom mount that will attach to the front of the block where the power steering pump was in Japan.  This area is built up well and has alot of ribbing in it for strengh.
• The other 3 mounts are on the tranny so they will be ok
• The tranny will physically bolt to the block but it will need some mods the bolts on the top and the front match up exactly.  The 2 bolts on the rear side as well as one of the starter bolts are misaligned by 1/3 inch.
• I should be able to have someone weld up some aluminum on the tranny around these bolt areas so that I can drill and tap them for the new bolt positions.
• I still need to discover what oil pump, water pump, and belt tensioner will fit on this motor, I'm thinking they may be from the early model integra or crx.  I'll be heading to the junk yard this week to look at some cars and try and find a match.
• Finally I will need to find a timing belt that will work on the motor.  I'm thinking it will still be the same belt as the normal ZC but don't know yet.
• Did I mention that I need to check each and every one of these things as well as others that I'll find before I can buy or start building anything since I still don't know if this will work.
• I've tried contacting the person that I bought the bare block from (who said it was the one I needed) but of course he hasn't responded to my emails and he lives on the oppsosite coast from me.  I do have his real address though and If I can confirm he still lives there I will very likely be spending my vacation this summer going to see him. 

May 16, 2000 - I received a picture of an bare 87 CRX Si block yesterday(thanks to http://www.turborex.com ).   I'm now 99% sure that my ZC block will use the 87 water pump but I'm not positive about the oil pump.  The bolt holes on the one side line up perfectly but as you move to the left side they don't match quite right.  This is hopefully just due to the actual picture itself being off a little.  A friend of mine works at a parts store and she's going to special order some parts for me so that I can test fit them.   Right now everything still appears that it will work

June 2, 2000 - I've made some progress the past couple weeks.   The motor uses an 86 Integra oil pump and an 87 crx water pump.  I'm pretty sure I found a belt tensioner that works too.  Now that I think about it I never did check the crank seal that goes on the end of the oil pump, I hope that its the same as the one I already bought.  The 89 Integra timing belt should work with the motor since everything is in roughly the same position and the pulleys are the same size.  I saw my "welding guy" today and he says he can build up the area on the block and the tranny so that I can drill and tap them so this damn block will bolt onto the 2nd generation crx tranny.  He also gave me some 3/8" steel plate that I'm going to use to build the motor mount with.  I still need to look into the alternator mounts.   I've noticed that the main bracket attachment points are slightly lower on this block than the normal ZC one but haven't looked into it any more than that.  My next step will be to work on the motor mount and disassemble the short block so the "welding guy" can work on that.

June 24, 2000 - I haven't even looked at the motor in the past few weeks, well not until yesterday when I built the new motor mount.  I needed some time away from it to build up my ambition to even want to work on it again, this whole thing has been such a nightmare.  LOL. but i'm ok now.  I rented a nice oxy/acetalene welding/cutting torch yesterday and managed to get the bracket finished.  I've get some pictures soon.  The thing is ugly right now, since the metal plates are all rough from my cutting and welding.  I'll either grind the edges smooth or let my welding guy do it when he puts "real" welds on it.  My welds are good enough for some things but I don't think they would last very long in a motor mount.   Next task is to dissassemble the short block and deliver that and the mount to the welding guy so he can move the bolt holes so it'll bolt up to the tranny.

June 28, 2000 - The short block is dissassembled and marked for the welding guy.  I also tore apart an old broken tranny that I had laying around so that I can cut it up and use its bellhousing as a guide for drilling and tapping the new bolt holes.  It feels good to finally be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  

• Heres a pic of the two blocks showing the location of the 2 bolt holes that need to be moved.  You'll also notice that the shape of the outside flange is slightly different but that doesn't matter.

• A pic of the nearly completed motor mount which bolts to the frontside of the block instead of the usual side position.

June 29, 2000 - Everything is at the welders and should be done towards the end of next week.  Next weekend is CRXPO-E so I won't be working on it then but probally should be able to assemble the motor within a week or so after that as long as I don't encounter any more problems.

July 13, 2000 - I got the block and everything back from the welders a couple days ago but haven't had time to do any work on it yet.  I need to drill and tap the block so it'll bolt up to the normal CRX tranny and will probally have time to do that by the end of next week.  All that'll be left then is to assemble the motor and install it.  I just had some new tires arrive at my front door since I realized my old ones were very very bald.  My trip to CRXPO-East also destroyed my muffler, the baffles in it are rattling real bad so now I need to replace that which means I might as well redo the entire exhaust from the header back.  All this makes me hope the engine doesn't have any more expensive surprises since I'm officially very very poor at the moment.

July 25, 2000 - The block is now 100% drilled, tapped, welded, grinded, and smoothed.  I threw it in the parts washer last night and put on a coat of paint this morning.  I'm on my way out to start assembling it now and should get at least the short block put together today.

July 26, 2000 - I got the crank, rods and pistons all assembled last night but I'm going to pull the main bearing cap assembly off again before I go any further.  I machine shop which did all the machine work so that everything would clearance properly had to remove some metal for the main bearing girdle structure so that the bolts from the rods wouldn't hit.  However after looking at it all last night real close I'm scared to hell by how close they come to hitting the girdle.  I grabbed a scrap piece of paper and folded it perhaps   4-6 times and it was thick enough to jam up the assembly.  The machine shop that did the work is the best in town and I'm very sure they know what they are doing but I'm going to grind away a little more aluminum from the girdle.  Not much at all, just enough so I won't spend the next few months worrying about the metals expanding or flexing and slamming into each other and created a few thousand dollar mess.  Expect to see this whole project finished soon since school will be starting soon and the niagara meet is less than a month away.

July 27, 2000 - I ground some aluminum off the main bearing girdle to provide a little more clearance and piece of mind.  Spent some time hammering on the oil pan, turns out it was slightly bowed out on one side from the last motor exploding.  Installed my shiny new oil pump.  Then ran into a small problem, it turns out the support bracket on the pick up tube is in a different location on the first gen ZC bearing girdle and I'm using a second gen pickup tube so theres noplace for me to bolt the brcket too.  Tomorrow I'm going to drill and tap a small hole in the girdle so that I can secure one end of the support bracket.  These little problems are getting real annoying. Especially when I only have an hour or two at a time to work on the motor.

July 29, 2000 - I spent about an hour in the middle of the night yesterday after I got out of work working on that oil pickup tube.  I really didn't want to remove the main bearing girdle again just to drill and tap one hole so I ended up taping rags around the spot so that the metal flakes wouldn't fall into the motor.  It worked surprisingly good and the support brace now has a place to bolt to.   I locktited the bolt since theres only one and it only has about 1/4 of threads to hold it in place.  Probally won't have time to work on it again till tuesday, but I expect to get alot done that day.

July 31, 2000 - Ran into more problems today but managed to solve them.  The tube that the coolant runs through on the backside of the block has some connections in different places but its ok as long as I used the first gen zc thermostat housing.  This puts the oil cooler water connections in different places but I'll worry about hoses for that later.  The big problem came when I set the head in place and started dropping in bolts.  The holes were filled with what appeared to be dirt!  I'm not even going to try and guess how it got in there.  Especially since I've washed the block 3 times and the machine shop had it in their very nice washer at least 5 or 6 times.  I jumped in the car and ran to the store to get a tap so that I could clean out the holes but they were already closed.   I ended grinding a bolt flat on two sides so that it would act like a tap and clean the holes.  Then while cleaning the holes I discovered that they weren't the same depth as the second gen ZC so my head bolts couldn't be used.  Then to make matters worse one was an inch deeper than the rest and one was barely an inch and half deep.   The first gen zc is similar to the first gen integra motors so the bolts might be the same but they probally wouldn't work either since I wasn't using the head that honda intended for that block.  I debated over using normal grade 8 bolts which after some research I discovered are of similar strength to a head bolt but the stretching properties would probally be different but I was starting to get desperate.  I decided to call it a night and started cleaning the garage since its been a very long time since its been done.  While cleaning I managed to find 3 different sets of Honda head bolts just laying around.  It took me about an hour but I was able to mix and match them into a set that fit each depth that I needed.  Only one needed to be shortened by 1/8 of an inch.  Tomorrow morning I'll bolt the head on.

August 1, 2000 - The motor is all together for the most part.  Todays problems were small and not worth mentioning.  I discovered that the intake support brace on the back of the engine is different,  but I can make it work with a little bit of cutting.  I still need to adjust the valves but thats nothing.  About the only thing holding me up now is the timing belt tensioner.   I ordered one and it should be here within the week.  I have the old one on there temporarily so I could spin the motor around a few times and insure nothing was binding.  I've been working on this project for so long that it feels strange having it all together.  I did check today and the lower alternator bracket sits about 1 inch lower on this block and I haven't looked much at the upper mounting point yet.   Worse comes to worse i'll simply have to use a first gen integra mount.  I'll need a new oil dipstick as well.  The normal one is about 2 inches too short.   I'm going to guess that the 1g integra one will work.  As soon as I get the belt tensioner i'll figure out when I'll have a couple days off to install the engine.

August 12, 2000 - I spent a few hours yesterday cleaning the garage and getting things set up for the swap.  Today I jacked up the car and started ripping away at it.  I got everything drained, unbolted, removed, disconnected, except for the motor mounts.  The engine lift is sitting over the top of the motor and I'll pull the thing on tuesday probally.  I would have done more tonight but my honey whos in the Navy just got home and she comes before the car.   Yikes, thats kind of scary, I've never let any woman come before my car....... I must be getting old or something.  Thats all for today, she just got here.

August 14, 2000 - Pulled the motor out tonight and started transferring the various small parts to the new engine.  The alternator bolts up ok,  I was worried about wether the lower bracket would bolt to the new engine but it went on without much trouble. I had to run a tap down one of the holes since the threads were messed up.  The alternator does sit 1 inch lower on this block so I may need to tap the frame rails with a hammer a few times during the install. 

August 15, 2000 - Today I discovered theres a shortage of hose clamps in my town.  I had to go to 3 different stores to find a simple clamp!   I unbolted the tranny from the old motor and spent quite a while cleaning it.   Remember I had my last tranny blow apart a couple months ago and I replaced it with a very dirty used one without any cleaning at all.  I also removed my rear tranny mount and filled it with JB-Weld to create a much more rigid mount.  I did this to my front mount 1 1/2 years ago and it has held up perfectly  I probally won't have time to work on the motor again till thursday.  Hopefully I'll get the new motor bolted into the car then.  Heres a pic of what it looks like so far.

August 17, 2000 - Attached the tranny today and ran into some small problems but they were nothing a good grinder couldn't solve.  Currently the motor is in the car but only has the three tranny mounts bolted in.  The drivers side mount, the one that I fabricated, is slightly too long and needs to be shortened about 1/4 inch.  I'll be getting up early tomorrow and i'll find someplace with a cutting torch to trim it for me.  Then it'll be just a matter of bolting it to the engine. Bolting the other half to the car and then drilling the two holes for the bolts that connect the pieces together.  Thats all for now its 10pm and I'm heading back out to the garage to continue working on it.

August 20, 2000 - For the past few days I've worked on the project for an couple hours per day and its 99% done.  The starter decided to go bad which really pissed me off cause it was fine when I pulled the motor out.  I'll pick up a new one tomorrow morning.  I also had some serious issues trying to remove the bolt to fill the tranny to oil.  Lets just say, its not coming off and I doubt it ever will, and yes, I did try everything.  I'll have to pull the axel out and fill it through that hole.  The axel hole sits a little lower but as long as I tilt that side of the car up some it'll be ok.  Tomorrow I will have the project finsihed, its my only day off of work before the niagara meet at the end of the week.

Auguest 21, 2000 - Today was a very long day but everything is finished except for bolting the hood back on.  I'm going to need to get some cam gears since the cam timing is off due to the head and the block both having been shaved.  It runs ok for now though.  There is a little noise coming from the center of the head which I haven't looked into yet. I'm hoping its just a valve or two that isn't adjusted right or it could be something bad.  I'll check into it tomorrow.

Auguest 22, 2000 - I ordered a pair of cam gears today and they are being sent overnight so I'll have them tomorrow morning.  I drove the car without its hood around the block today and it sputters and doesn't run real smooth when its under load.  Which is what made me decide that I had to have the cam gears in order to tune it right.  Checked my valve lash today and a few were pretty tight so I loosened them up.  The noise is still in the head but the motor sounds bad because of the cam timing so I can't tell what it is yet.

Auguest 24, 2000 - Yesterday sucked, it just sucked.   It turns out that the zc engine does NOT use 89 Integra cam gears which is   the popular belief.  I'll tell you what they are tomorrow once I have the new ones on the engine and i'm posative they are right.  The new gears are again being shipped overnight and should be here any time.  I'm really really starting to worry about the car being ready for niagara in time.  I'm suppost to leave tomorrow morning.

August 31, 2000 - It took longer to get the car ready than I thought, I ended up leaving for niagara about 15 hours late.  The car ran perfect though,  It took nearly 700 miles before the rings set in and stopped burning oil, which had me a little worried but its all ok now.  I'm still getting a code 9 but I haven't been able to find that perfect spot with the cam gears yet. Trial and error, trial and error, it takes forever.  I'll post a final update in a week or two once I get the gears and the timing set perfect.

November 2, 2000 - Sorry, I forgot to do a final update on the motor.  Its running quite well.  The nitrous pulls very very hard.   I have done a couple 1/4 mile runs with the g-tech and the times have been in the high 15's.  This is due completly to my inability to get any traction.  The trap speeds have been just over 100mph which means there is enough power there to pull times in the 13's.  This winter i'll probally be doing some suspension work to the front end to ensure that I can keep the front tires planted on the ground in the spring when the car comes back out.  One strange problem I'm having with the nitrous is with the engine coolant overflowing the tank when i use the nitrous.  This problem is very strange and all I have is guesses as to what is happening so I won't speculate here but I'll be doing some exploratory surgery on the motor this winter.