1993 Honda Del Sol S

I figured I would get my build thread started on here for my Sol. I've only had the car for a few months now but a lot has happened in those few months. Mostly just cleaning up the car and repairing all the issues. But I feel that is the most important thing you can do after you get a new to you car. Tune-up, clean up, repair, and make it reliable as all can be. So I've done just that so far, actually I'm still in the process of doing that.

When I traded my 92 Camaro straight across for my 93 Sol I had a big project ahead of me. Within the first 5 hours of owning the car I replaced the stock leaking radiator with an all aluminum Silla radiator. Replaced the valve cover gasket, did a full tune-up, changed all the fluids, replaced the original PVC valve, and pulled all the interior out for a quick cleaning. Then that next morning it was going into the glass shop for a new new windsheild.

The car also was a bit riced out as well, removed the double 5% window tint, all the subwoofer and amp wires from under the carpet, removed the fart can off the stock exhaust and replaced it with an OEM style muffler while repairing a really bad exhaust leak around the resonator. Took off the 17" Motegi wheels for my 15" Drag DR-29's which I later traded for my 14" BBS basketweaves.

All of this was done within the first few days of owning the car, and set me back around $800 when all said and done. Then I came to notice I have a pretty bad oil burning problem... Great... Just what I needed right now haha. So I set off to trace down where my oil was going...

I started off with a compression test, followed the Honda shop manual procedure word for word. I checked each cylinder 3 times each getting the exact same numbers. From Honda themselves: Low compression is 170 and lower, high compression is 180-210. My numbers in order from cylinder 1 to 4 were: 205, 205, 205, 215 so I know my compression rings and head gasket are good. Next was the leak down test to see if I had bad oil control rings or bad valve stem seals, or some other unknown issue. Oil control rings held up just fine, and it came down to valve stem seals. Which is pretty common in a b7 after 222k+ miles.

Good news is in my garage is both a z6 head and a y7 head. The z6 is obviously for my z6 build I'm working on, so I thought here is the chance to use my y7 head and do a non-VTEC mini me swap. I made the list of everything I was needing to perform the swap and was able to figure everything out except which cam gear to use. So after searching and searching, and asking around a lot I decided to say screw it and bought an AEM TRU-TIME adjustable cam gear for the y7. Hopefully tomorrow the head goes off to the machine shop, I'll get my y8 MLS head gasket, and the intake manifold gasket for the z6 intake manifold I'm going to use. And spend a day swapping it all over, I will for now use my P06 ECU since I'm going non-VTEC. I will then look for another P06 or buy my friend virgin P28 and chip it, get a good street tune on the mini-me and drive it until the z6 is built.

The b7/y7 mini-me is still gonna be a peppy little engine for what it is, my compression will go from 9.2:1 to 10.1:1 and with the adjustable cam gear, and a good street tune. I should be making over 130hp to the crank. Then a nice exhaust, and intake I will pickup a few more ponies as well. But over all it is a build that will hold me over while I drive the car.

Then next on my list was to find an install an s20 B000 transmission, I've always felt the EX/Si trans swap was one of the best things you could do to these cars. So I went out one day to see what trans I had, saw the s20 on the front which is what I expected. But then the side stamp listed to my very good surprise B000, so it seems one of the previous owners had already installed the B000 trans. That saves me money and time trying to find one.

Anyways, that is where I'm at currently with my build. I'll try and keep this updated as often as something happens, stay tuned fellow tuners

My y7 head is at the head shop getting a special treatment, new valve stem seals are sitting in the passenger seat of the Sol. Once I get the head back and get the valve seals installed, I will be buying my:

head gasket
intake manifold gasket
exhaust manifold asket

Then next weekend I will start installing everything, should be done and on the road in less than 2 weeks

SpoonFed wrote:My y7 head is at the head shop getting a special treatment, new valve stem seals are sitting in the passenger seat of the Sol. Once I get the head back and get the valve seals installed, I will be buying my:

head gasket
intake manifold gasket
exhaust manifold asket

Then next weekend I will start installing everything, should be done and on the road in less than 2 weeks

Good luck with everything man. Can't wait to see some updates..

Pics or Ban







Lol, J/K man, Good Luck with the head swap

Man I really suck with updates haha. The car is up and going again, y7 new head, AEM TRU-TIME adustable cam gear, JDM d15b intake manifold, JDM d15b throttle body, Fel-Pro MLS head gasket, and my SSAutoChrome 4-1 header. Car is running great, except it's still burning oil pretty bad so it turns out it is my oil control rings after all. SO.... Tomorrow I'm picking up a complete z6 bottom end that is ready to have a head bolted on and go. Not sure when I will do this but it will have to be sooner than later for I HATE burning half a quart of oil per week...

Here are some pics:

AEM TRU-TIME adjustable cam gear:
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SSAutoChrome 4-1 header:
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The Sol after initial tear down:
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Finished product:
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Coming together nicely.

only one thing I noticed was wrong. That cam gear was supposed to come to me.

lookin fresh!

thought about going with a white v/c as well

and ahh im in the same boat as you when it comes to burning oil..=( it sucks!

Well, depending on how much money I have after I pay bills this weekend. I think I will be sending my z6 head off to the machine shop to be checked over. And maybe buy an oil pan gasket, and another head gasket to get this z6 ready to be dropped into the Sol... Then I can get my new stage 3 clutch installed as well... Wish I had the money for a lighter weight flywheel...

Wow, it's been a while since this thread has updated... A lot has changed and a different route has been taken with the car. Currently she is sitting in my garage on jack stands, and probably wont be seeing the light of day until at least July of this year. Because I will be damned if I miss AI three years in a row... So bear with me as I update this thread the best I can, I'm sure I'll miss some pictures and info but you all will get the jest of what I'm doing.

Since my last update I purchased a set of GXP lowering springs I was going to go ahead and put on my stock struts. I was just so tired of the car being 4x4 status haha. When that night I got my springs in the mail, I jacked the car up and put the stands underneath her. Knowing that I had a high chance of my rear LCA bolts being seized up I decided to try those first by hand. Sure enough they were not budging, it sucks because I have a friend who has NEVER had this issue on any of his Honda's but every Honda I've owned has had this issue. Anyways, I soaked the bolts in PB Blaster for a few days going out everyday to soak them more. Then borrowed a friends electric impact and went to town... Nothing... Not even the impact could break these free, so I said screw it. I'm either going to break these bolts free or I'm going to break them off. So I took my breaker bar with a 2ft extension and gave it a try. I felt some movement as I slowly increased the load on the bar, then... SNAP! The head broke off haha, at this point I was like, "Screw it"... Ended up snapping two more heads off before giving up that night in anger and frustration.

That brings us a little closer to now...

I knew at this point I was not getting my old springs off the struts without removing my trailing arms and LCAs, so that is exactly what I did. After removing everything, and getting the struts down to remove the old springs it dawned upon me. If I'm going this far to slap on a set of no name, off brand ebay bought springs... I'm doing it all wrong... I then made a pact with myself and the car, I was going to do it right and do it right now... So with my trailing arms, rear drum brakes, rear LCAs, rear upper lcas, brake lines, and suspension out of the car.

I decided I wanted to do a rear disc brake conversion. After about 20 minutes of looking on my local Craigslist ads I came across a guy with a complete Integra LS rear disc brake swap. Called him up and shortly after made a deal with him to meet half way between where we lived to pick up the items. After getting the Integra trailing arms and rear discs in I decided why the hell not and figured it was a good idea to replace all the suspension bushings since they were cracked, ripped, and worn out. After doing some research I decided I wanted to go with PIC hard rubber racing bushings, so with an order of those made I knew the next step was LCAs. After reading different threads, and debates on who made the best LCA. I knew my real only two options were stock with Hard Race bushings, or Function7's. So wanted to go all out on this build I opted for the Function7 LCAs.

1994 Acura Integra LS rear trailing arms and disc brakes:
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PIC hard rubber bushings and Function7 LCAs:
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With the process of getting my rear bushings replaced, and everything reinstalled in the rear I knew there was more to a rear disc swap than just throwing the discs on. So I got hard to work figuring out everything I needed to make this work correctly. About a day later I had an order for my Del Sol Si parking brake cables, and a set of Silvertone stainless steel brake lines.

UCAs and toe arms with their new PIC bushings:
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Rear disc swap in place with new bushings, parking brake cables, and Silvertone SS brake lines:
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Function7 LCAs mocked up to the car:
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Upon doing more research, I then had questions about my stock non-ABS power brake booster, brake master cylinder, and proportioning valve. And I was correct in questioning it because my stock setup was simply not going to cut the cheese. So I ordered a 1994 Integra RS non-ABS power brake booster, and 1994 Integra RS brake master cylinder, upon receiving them in the mail I cleaned them up and installed them. Oh by the way if any of you are wondering, a 6'1 225lb man does not belong under the dash of a Del Sol... But somehow I still pulled it off and got the power brake booster installed.

1994 Acura Integra non-ABS power brake booster and brake master cylinder installed:
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With the rear almost complete minus the suspension I decided it was time to start thinking about the front end. I already had all the bushings I needed thanks to PIC, but the rest of the suspension was still that of an 19 year old car. And upon looking at the inner and outer tie rods, upper and lower ball joints I knew they NEEDED to be replaced. So I got on rockauto.com and ordered everything!

Inner/Outer tie rods and upper/lower ball joints with a look at the PBB and BMC before installation:
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With just about everything I need to replace my suspension I knew I needed to start saving up for the main piece. The actual struts/springs, and at first I had my mind set on Function and Form Type1's. Until I ran across an amazing deal on ClubCivic.com a dealer out of CA had an overstock of Koni Yellow (sports) struts for sale, and his prices were going to stay until the last ones were gone. The front and the rear struts for $349.99 free shipping, now knowing these are the ultimate, cream of the crop struts for our cars. And knowing these go for well over $700 new from other sources. I could not pass them up, so the Function and From Type1's are out the window. And the Koni Yellows will be arriving at my front door today. So sorry no picture so these since I don't have them in my possession until probably after work. The next step is to purchase Ground Control coilovers and Ground Control top hats to setup for the absolute best aftermarket suspension you can possibly have.

But... That is not the end of this build thread just yet... While I was doing suspension research, replace, and repair I told myself I would not worry about my engine swap until the car was back on the ground. But I knew exactly what it was I wanted to do with my engine... I knew I wanted to be different, and I wanted to go the path less traveled from everybody else. So I opted out to stay with a d-series enigne, a d16z6 block with a d16y7 head to be exact. And before you try and guess, no I'm not going the boosted route, infact the exact opposite. While searching around on the interwebz I stumbled upon a deal way to good to pass up. And with it being the key ingredient to my build, I purchased them...

D16A1 PG6 pistons, NPR ring sets, and Clevite main/rod bearings:
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Picked it all up as a package deal for $100, and with that little engine update I'm sure you all have a clue as to what is next after the suspension is finished. If not I guess I can go ahead and release my little engine build:

D16Z6 block
D16Z6 crank
D16Z6 rods
D16A1 pistons
NPR piston rings
Clevite main/rod bearings
D16Y7 head
Supertech springs
OEM retainers
Delta 272 cam
AEM TruTime adjustable cam gear
JDM D15B VTEC intake manifold
JDM D15B VTEC throttle body


That just about lists my engine build, going with a 11.2:1CR high reving d-series VTEC killer. After a great tune I should be looking at around 140whp and a redline of around 8500RPM.

That just about brings us current to my build, as you can see plans have changed, and so has the car in the last few months. Currently I am working on the front suspension, the inner tie rods are giving me a huge headache and for some reason are not wanting to come out. But I'll get them out because I have no choice, they are so beyond shot it's unreal. So as more parts come in, and more progress is performed I will be updating this to let you all know what's up. My plans are to have this all done by July so I can drive her to AI in Nashville, TN this year. Even if I don't get it done, I will still be going in the girlfriends 2000 hatch it will be a blast.

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Coming along nicely.