Seems like updates are short and far between…
I have done a lot since my late update. It’s been sort of difficult to update this as I go since I’m the only one working on the car, so taking pictures tends to not get done. Since it’s raining, I decided to make this update.
Current Status
Weather.com says the rain is almost over, and I can’t wait. It seems like spring is never going to show its light. I was lucky enough to get two full days of nothing but sunshine and I took full advantage of it. The first day I took apart my dashboard, and removed the heater core. Removing the heater core was the biggest pain in the butt. What gave me the most trouble were two hoses that lead from the heater core to the engine bay. Good thing I have small hands otherwise it probably wouldn’t have happened. It would have been a lot easier if I had done it when I pulled out the engine. I really like how the fire wall looks like without the heater core, but unfortunately I’m going to have to keep it. I did some research and it turns out if I want to avoid getting my widows fogy when racing I should keep it. Oh well.
After removing the dash and most of it’s components I removed the engine and transmission. This was actually easier then I thought it would be. My cousins came over to lend a hand. Since we didn’t have an engine puller we had to improvise. We managed to unbolt the engine from it’s supports and placed it on two car jacks to lower it onto wooden blocks, we then took one of the jacks out and raised the front of the car as high as we could and then slid the engine out from under the car. It was pretty shady but it worked. It was actually really easy this way and I think I’ll do the same to install the new engine. One thing to note however, is the curse of working on cars; they are defiantly a money pit. Every time I remove a part or make an inspection, something is broken or needs to be replaced. This time it was the motor mounts. The rubber on all of them is cracking or has already ripped all the way through. I don’t even know how the engine stayed put in the first place. How much is this going to cost? At least $420. 
Brakes and Exhaust
About 3 weeks ago my cousin Martin, my brother, and I took a trip down to Southern California to pickup some parts. The parts we picked up were disk brakes for the rear of the car and larger ones for the front; a 2.25″ custom made exhaust; some extra front calipers and rotors. First stop was Special Projects, where I was going to pick up the exhaust. I met Jeff “Kiwi” Owen, who I had talked to on the phone before heading down there. He asked me if I could do him a favor of bringing him down 3 sets of rims and tires, so I had those to deliver to him as well (along with a couple of bottles of wine 
). He gave me the extra calipers, new rotors and SRR lower control arms which he said he would ship to me later, and I picked up more tires to bring back for a friend of his. So with exhaust and misc parts I headed out to pick up the brake swap. I got those from a member on honda-tech named El Vap133. Now the hatch has rear disk brakes!
Since I upgraded the rear brakes I also had to upgrade the proportioning valve. I got this part for a steal at $25 shipped. I’m still in the middle of changing it, what proved to be difficult was changing the brackets that mount to the fire wall, they have a tamper proof Torx bit. I had to buy a $27 screw driver set just to get the right one. Bummer.
The Wing
I ended up trading my Autopower roll bar for a carbon fiber duckbill wind and cash. I should have just taken the cash. This wing fits like total crap, I ended up breaking the base where one of the bolts mounts to the car. If you wondering what wing this was, it’s a JDMshit.com, the name says it all. Don’t every buy there stuff.
More to come
Other things I have purchased are Ground Control Springs and Koni shocks. I will make another entry on those because currently on the fronts are on the car. I had a problem with UPS damaging two of them, but they should be on monday. I also have new axles, which you can kind of see in the exhaust pic. Anyways, I’ll update on those early next week, till then!