Got this today and quite excited to be a Libra owner again, even if there will be a bit of cash and pain before I get to drive it

It's a factory built 07 Libra with a 1.6 VTEC Honda motor, the running gear needs attention, all 4 corners will be refurbed, new bearings joints bushes whatever it needs and everything blasted and powder coated including the engine cradle. Needs new shocks, going to fit a Passat rad, wheels want powder coating and by the time I've done any bits of repairs etc and seen to some star crazing it'll need spraying.

Also the motor has likely done big miles (62k on car and doner Unknown) so I'm planning on getting a 1.8 b18c bottom end, throw some new bearings and rings gaskets etc at it, use the 1.6 head which I've found out is the same casting as the type R head and some type R cams/springs, get the ecu chipped with the right map. Should be good for 190hp+ then. Probably get a new exhaust made too.

Thankfully, whilst this sounds quite extensive a lot of the work is just hard graft. Car is nice inside and is generally finished off quite well being a factory built.

Always like the Libra, fantastic looking car looks like you got yourself a good example. Never looked at one close up thou.... more pictures needed.

Got a full Type R B18C6 Short motor ..Thankfully the bores and crank look very nice. It will be getting the bores honed/deglazed, new rings, ACL race bearings. The B16A2 head (same casting as type R head anyway) with type R cams, dual springs and wasted valves, maybe a bit of a port clean up then back together with all new seals gaskets etc...

Got a fidanza aluminium flywheel, new clutch etc.

Bought loads of POR15 base and chassis top coat, hopefully shotblast and get some paint on the bits this weekend.

Oh I've also sourced an LSD box with the desirable 4.7 final drive, has a bit of crunch in 3rd gear but apparently the bits from my good box are interchangeable so between them I should be able to build a good LSD box for little outlay. I will also swap the 4th gear out of mine as it has a shorter gap from 3-4 with that combination. A popular mod I can do for nothing as I have both boxes.


..And I won this on ebay brand new removed from a exige in 2007 in favour of a sports exhaust... £36 if I can make it fit great, if not, doesn't really matter. Should be able to get it to work and it's 2.5 inch which is perfect for this motor. Just means modifying the clam slightly for centre exit.



Passat radiator fitted last week and new hoses, re did some bits of wiring etc...

Engine and cradle off at the weekend too, and front wishbones off last night... bits are grim, the factory paint finish was pants, consisted of a layer of satin black. Real shame they weren't done properly as every libra I've ever seen has had manky wishbones etc. All these bits are an absolute bastard to unbolt, contortionist job with your arm through small holes in the tub, but it's getting there. My mate did say you should only have to do one of these in a life time, this is my second but I sure as hell won't be doing a third, so the belt and braces approach is new bolts, shot blast, POR15 for everything and possibly waxoyl over the top of the wishbone mounts - not pretty but that's not the point.



These came yesterday too

new protech shocks and refurbed cam cover





So some progress being made, I can be quite hard on myself/obsessive but I guess I'm doing OK as I only got the car on the 20th Feb.

[Edited on 8/3/16 by Yazza54]

Spent a few hours last night removing the wishbone and shock mounts, a few more hours tonight and they should all be off ready for blasting and painting over the weekend. It's a head down by the pedals legs hanging out the door job, small holes in the monocoque for access, feel like I've done some rounds with Mike Tyson.

lovely cars!

Loved my Libra, but I should of built a new one, not second hand.
I see yours has the updated rear suspension, mine had the early Land Rover track rods ends which lasted 2000 miles, got feed up changing them. Then the new type came out and I couldn't buy it for love nor money and after being mugged of by GTM for two months I gave up and sold the car.
Mine had the Kv6 was ridiculously fast

quote:

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Originally posted by DRM Black7
Loved my Libra, but I should of built a new one, not second hand.
I see yours has the updated rear suspension, mine had the early Land Rover track rods ends which lasted 2000 miles, got feed up changing them. Then the new type came out and I couldn't buy it for love nor money and after being mugged of by GTM for two months I gave up and sold the car.
Mine had the Kv6 was ridiculously fast

---

Got some bits done over the weekend, uprights painted and rebuilt, new balljoints. Driveshafts cleaned up and painted and all the wishbones, cradle etc blasted and POR15'd. If it sticks to them as well as it's sticking to my skin I think we're in business. :p

Had a mare with the shotblaster so was a bit behind schedule from where I planned to be, going to have to give some bits another coat tonight, but it won't be long still the wishbones and new shocks are on. Would be nice to get it back on it's wheels this week but will be much easier to get the motor and driveshafts in first before fitting the rear uprights so that can wait, should get the rest fitted though. Not making bad progress

I have had a think and I'm not going to use the Exige exhaust, going to get a normal 2.5in silencer and keep the exit where it's supposed to be, means no messing with the clam and to be honest I was shocked at the weight of the exige system.

Have offered the B16a2 bottom end on here and EK9 Honda forum for free but no takers, shame but it might be going to the tip as it's just in the way...

Done some bits over the weekend, given the block a clean and re honed it ready for assembly.

Built myself a good gearbox out of the S80 LSD integra type R box and S4C 1.6 civic box.

Used the best gears, synchros and hubs out of the two and swapped 4th gear so there will be less of a gap from 3rd - 4th. So I have a really sought-after box now with better ratios than any of he standard boxes and with the factory LSD and 4.78 FD Could have swapped 5th too but don't want it revving any higher than it already will be on the motorway.

Also fitted the drivers side front wishbones which were a pig to do, ran out of time after that but the passenger side should be easier with no steering rack/pedal box in the way when reaching through the monocoque.

Still plodding on, haven't bothered updating much as nothing particularly interesting to show yet, I've fitted all the wishbones etc. got my arm stuck in the car whilst doing the rear wishbone mounts. Front end is built back up new shocks etc..

Just in the process of sorting the engine bits out and hopefully next weekend it'll be going back in. I could quite easily have the thing built as a rolling car this weekend but it'll be much easier to wait until the engine is ready and jack the whole engine/box/cradle assembly up to the back of the car an bolt to the lot to the tub than trying to crane the thing in. That's how I removed it anyway and it was dead easy. So hopefully some more exciting updates in a week or so...!

Good going mate.

Look forward to seeing it completed.

Finally got my head built up on Saturday.


I decided it would be criminal to fit it without doing some mild porting first, by that I just mean basically copying what mr Honda did... The head I have is exactly the same casting but Honda blended behind the valve on the type R heads. Having seen it, it's a basic clean up not the "factory port job" some would have you believe. As I found on mine there's a fairly pronounced ridge just before the valve which can't help flow at all so I blended that out on all of them as well as removing any nasty casting marks and gave the exhaust ports a good clean up. I don't profess to be particularly good at this kinda thing but I'm happy with the job I did and theres logic behind it rather than just mindlessly attacking it with a burr! I used a flap wheel to avoid removing any more material than necessary.







Lapped the type R valves in, built back up with type r dual springs and new collets Then later on I finally finished plastigauging the rods which were all good so torqued them all up and all the main caps.



Built the motor up yesterday, note that I am a keen fan of recycling so I re used my pizza hut boxes as protection for the block ... The mrs said I should spend more time with her so I built it up in the dining room, hahahhaa

Buttoned all the bottom end up, fidanza flywheel and new clutch



Knew I kept the shaft from my old gearbox for a reason, made aligning the clutch dead easy



Flipped it over and dropped the head on and new gasket, then dropped the cams in.




At this point I had a ******* major ordeal with some JUNK 2 (or skunk2 as they're also known) low profile valve cover bolts. Two of the 4No. that replace the OEM posts on the cam caps snapped at not even 10ftlb. Now I know they probably would've been OK just nipped down but at the end of the day they bolt through the cam caps so everything IMO should be torqued to spec. These couldn't even manage half the specified torque. Utter shite. One was dead easy to get out having snapped just below the head of the bolt, the other snapped flush with the head so yep you guessed it, frigging cam had to come out, cap off and just about managed to tap the bolt round with a punch and get it out.






Put the cam back in and fitted the OEM ones.

Then finally got onto getting the belt on, new gates belt, koyo tensioner and new water pump installed. I don't like how close the GTM engine mount is to the tensioner/belt so will be grinding that down a bit, although the tensioner is all the way back in the photo, there is a gap but very close... Hopefully I'll get that done tonight and maybe get it mated up to the box. Then I'll see about getting the lump back in the car.

Couldn't resist popping this on last night, removed again now until the motor is fitted in case it gets marked. Nicest part of the whole car

New 4-2-1 exhaust manifold has arrived.

Nice, keep it up

Manifold looks tidy - who made it and how much?

It's a PLM big tube manifold, think they basically copied the Toda manifold. I bought it off a member on one of the Honda forums, not sure how much they normally cost but I got it here for 240 delivered. Will need to modify it slightly and make up my own link pipe/silencer. Binned the old one as it was only 2 inch and this is 2.5.

Got the engine back in over the weekend, few bits of plumbing left to do but mostly done. Need to fit the gear linkage back up and fit the rose joints I've sourced instead of the old rubber ball joint type ends on the gear change cables.

Going to do the valve clearances tonight and fit my valve cover I think. Then I'll get some pics of that. New shocks are on the back etc..

Rear ARB is back on was cleaning the drop links up last night. Even after 3 lots of paint stripper it just didn't want to come off fully and they seemed a little stained by the paint so out came the grit paper.

Was quite difficult until I realised I could just about fit them in my drill chuck



40 odd quid worth of the best rose joints I could get from McGill motorsports later



[Edited on 27/4/16 by Yazza54]

[Edited on 27/4/16 by Yazza54]

Progress

Valve clearances done and cover fitted, whale c*ck induction kit, MSD leads

I got the new slave cylinder fitted and bled last night, thankfully once the clutch was depressed all gears selected nicely and I was pleasantly surprised that the rose joined linkage does seem to have improved the feel quite a lot. I wasn't expecting it to make much difference, I think once the linkage is all greased up and I've replaced the springs it should feel much better. But the slop when selecting gear has pretty much gone Was a relief as I was struggling to select any gears the other day but was just because the clutch hadn't been released since fitting.

Main job for the rest of the week is sorting the exhaust out, I've got the mandrel bends, 200cpsi magnaflow cat, new oval silencer all 2.5inch stainless.. borrowed a welder off a Roger to tack it up on the car but will hopefully be getting a fella who works with my dad to tig it all up neatly to finish it off. The cat won't be removable but considering its a sports cat and the piping is 2.5inch all the way through and quite a short system I doubt it will be particularly restrictive.

Home made exhaust is done, changed my mind a few times along the way but all fits well now. Forgive the bad pic it was fairly late last night when I threw it all together.





In other news it should really be running by now but I have no spark. Checked all the wiring, earths etc. Spins over well and is injecting so the only thing I've re used that could cause this is the distributor. The old engine struggled to start and ran a bit rough so that was probably why. Have some bits on the way to rebuild the dizzy which will obviously take longer than just buying an aftermarket one but will be better ok the long run. Apparently they are renowned for giving up at least once in the engines life time and this dizzy is fairly old.

Got the dizzy opened up today and as expected the coil was absolutely knackered. So out that came, new coil, ignition module and rotor arm.





Ignition module comes with thermal paste to be applied between it and the heat sink which is removed from the old module.





New rotor arm. You may or may not notice that the dust cover behind the rotor arm is missing, I had to break it to get the old rotor off which was totally corroded on the shaft. All cleaned up and greased before fitting new one. And Allen keys instead of the shitty JIS screws.



Have a new dust cover and dizzy cap on the way but the above cured the problem and it fired up straight away. No videos or anything as I was somewhat pre occupied, got the timing light on it and set the dizzy up to 16 degrees.

Runs really nice, not too loud more induction than anything. First time out of the garage under its own steam ...



Clutch feels good and it's not too difficult pulling away with such a light flywheel on.



Just need to get the bloody coolant system bled now, it's taken 7.5 litres but Google tells me an MGF holds about 10.5... So based on that loose nugget of info with it being a similar layout, there's still a lot of air in there!! Any tips???

How about finding the highest pipe in the system, chopping and adding a bleed section in?

Changed the pcv one way valve and hose - the old one wasn't sealing when I blew down it and the hose was collapsing from the vacuum.

Also got rid of the breather filter on valve cover and took a hose to my induction like it should be, using a neat little billet hose take off. Dunno if it's just a placebo effect or what but I swear it runs steadier and is slightly more responsive now. Either way the breathing system is plumbed properly now.

Right car was driven for the first time on Saturday and passed it's MOT OK (after a long fast idle to get the new CAT working, was worried at first as it just wasn't doing anything!) Was a rubbish day for it..!














First off, the engine desperately needs additional steady bars. It doesn't half rock about under power/gearchanges, I can't believe he drove this car all that time like that, even with the old B16 motor it must have been bad! So straight off that's kinda ruining the driving experience for me, so first thing on the to do list.




Gear change - it's quite poor. The play has gone and the gearbox itself feels nice slotting into gears but the actual lever arrangement feels horrible. Again this detracts significantly to the driving enjoyment, I may have to buy a Mike satur shift kit to replace the MGF gear change.




Handling - at first it was displaying some dodgy handling and I was getting a slight knock from the passenger rear, my fault I had it set up all wrong, feels fairly planted now.




Aaaaand I broke down - luckily pulling onto my drive! It seems the slave cylinder piston was travelling too far out of the slave cylinder and it has cocked, then when releasing it the clutch fork has forced it back at an angle and cracked the slave. The Honda slave cylinder rod isn't adjustable so I'm hoping there is some adjustment at the clutch master to reduce the travel









So all in all, good that its legally on the road but plenty to work through. The engine is nice and it goes well, the potential is there.. sounds good too.

How's this for weird, I'm pretty sure my new slave cylinder was assembled wrong at the factory, at one end of the piston is a cup and the other a nipple/pin

I would have thought that the rod would sit in the cup but in this is looks like it's been the other way round, worn a groove in the nipple and eventually gone bang - wtf





He agreed to refund and I got another through japservice parts.

I got my new slave cylinder in the post, fitted and bled and it's so much nicer - unsurprisingly!!

Also got the poly inserts for the gearbox mount, which is the opposite side to the engine steady currently fitted, they are very stiff mouldings that press into the gaps in the OEM rubber mount



So out came the jack and removed all nuts and bolts and lowered that side to get the mount out, pressed them in and re fitted, quite a tight fit. Hopefully this will reduce some movement, but I'm still looking at the best way to add another steady bar.

This is how the car is at the mo, had new custom driveshafts as I managed to snap one, they were just crap mgf/Honda welded ... oops! various other bits. haven't been updating here too much as there wasn't an awful lot of interest lol but anyway, this is how it looks now and is running well.

looks great! well done. cracking cars

paul

Been following the progress on pistonheads. Have you much more to planned or is it a case of use it a bit and see what else pops up?

Yeah just need to get some miles on it and see what crops up but I am going to add some sound deadening to the door cards as the rattling is doing my head in!!

Also got a new gadget that allows me to switch between different maps, so need to fit that to the ECU and wire a switch in on the dash, one is the JDM type R map and the other slightly modified with launch control etc. Not planning anything else too major though. I'd love to tune it some more but to be honest it's a great engine as it is and can't justify the expense at the moment.

Made a decat up a few months ago







I was originally going to chop the cat out but it made no sense. Was pretty easy to make a new pipe without it, so it's a quick swap come MOT time.

It has a slightly deeper tone, bit more bass to it but not too loud, which is exactly what I wanted. Haven't actually driven it yet though so that's my only observation for now. VTEC crossover more pronounced ..and becoming addictive.

Latest update ...

Begun prep, goes for paint in a month - started with the boot, had a few chips out of the lip, tiny bit of crazing... also de badged it. Some may think that's sacrilege but I did it on my old car and it looked much better IMO. Going to go for bullseye lights too.





Also, Z cars developed a rear suspension setup some years ago that massively improved the handling. Now Z cars are back up and running with a new owner they've agreed to make a few kits, I managed to get a group buy together.. really looking forward to it.

The original twin trailing arm set up has a lot of inherent flex and tends to go out of adjustment. The z cars kit is more like a swinging arm, rose jointed and the mounts are fully braced adding strength to the bulkhead. Transforms the car from being "ok" to a genuine Elise competitor.... and considering the car has an Elise licked in many other departments (in my completely biased opinion ) it's well worth the money and effort.

I really want one of these!

Bulls eye rear lights? YAWN!

Come on Ryan, since you are painting it fit something more interesting.

Originally when the body was being designed Richard Oakes wanted Fiat Coupe lights. Or how about Elise S2? Just not 12p worth of Lorry lights!

The bullseye lights are the nicest ones available to my eye

Fiat coupe lights are completely different and I've no interest in restyling the whole back end

I know a few people have fitted LED versions but they always look tacky to me

Like this bloody awful IMO

http://www.carbuildersolutions.com/uk/bulls-eye-led-all-in-one-rear-lamp-with-built-in-reflector-red-ring-125mm

I agree, the existing lights look great.