Chris R's churbo shuttle

[chris r]

Engine support precariously on wood and one finger tight engine mount. Gearbag held up with a strap secured by hopes and dreams. Lots of wiggling and turning the transfer case and wondering if why it wasn't turning the input shaft. Once it was in gear not in neutral it slid in a lot closer. I cheated a bit with a couple of extra long bolts as guides 

I did the bad thing and pulled it the last few mm in with the bolts as the dowel pins were being annoying. 

And it's back in the hole. 20 year old me is stoked that his silly dream is closer to being realised. 34 year old me is wondering why everything hurts and why my leg hurts in particular 

[chris r]

Was on a roll so quickly put the radiator in along with slam panel and installed the turbo. Might splash out for the steel cable ties for final assembly 

Log ftw. Turbo sits heaps higher than before and there's more wiggle room 

In the spirit of turd polishing (this whole E̶n̶g̶i̶n̶e̶ build is a perfect example of this) I need to figure out a turbo flange 

Something like that would be nice but due to me wanting aircon the turbo needs to be slightly clocked so an off the shelf option won't work. Also all the off the shelf stuff I could find is for 40nb tubing so would need a decent amount of welding and grinding to fit the gaps 

There is also the tee option (thanks @Raizer@Raizer for the artwork 

I like the idea of a nice radius but it's a log so flow/scavenging is kinda out the window anyway and it'll be 40mm hole (roughly one exhaust port size) 

I did a quick sketch of the options I can think of 

From top to bottom

Log with tee (or reducer) into turbo flange (12.5 cm2 ish hole area) 

Mid open up the log to a rectangle ish to match the turbo flange (18.6 cm2 ish hole area) 

Bottom same as mid but assuming I can scooch the turbo across more towards the midpoint chop up some bends and weld them inside as a sort of guide

At the end of the day it's a log so won't flow amazing, I'm thinking the bigger hole is probably the better option just because it's bigger 

I do have the sinco merge collector which is wider again so could butcher that to the log as well as a variation of the oval hole options. 

[chris r]

Honda sohc nerding time and a bit of history on the build now I've found some archived photos. (long post/summery of my ownership) 

My engine is a original shuttle block, sohc vtec head out of a eg civic (91-95) and valve cover/coil on plug stuff off a D17 (2001-2007 ish) D16Y8 intake manifold from a EK civic (95-2001)so I've just about got a component from each generation of the engine in my setup. 

It was meant to be a semi budget build when the sohc blocks were cheap. The stock rods are toothpicks and not good for much power so the plan was a fairly cheap build. The plan was a fairly 'mild' responsive build. I didn't want the all the power delivered in the last 1500 rpm before redline 

At the time someone had figured out the Suzuki G16b (escudo /vitara) pistons are the same bore as the zc/honda D16 but have have a 2mm lower compression height and larger dish. 

I found set of rods cheap ish 

Ordered a set of pistons and things sat for a while. Had a bunch of shuttles I parted out and kept a block. Sent it to get assembled and it needed a overbore, the big end of the rods were bigger than the bore so they needed trimming, so did the block and girdle 

Compression ratio is fairly low with this combo (about 8.4:1) but more boost will fix it right? 

Og camera photos sorry 

Can see the dish there, in hindsight I should have asked the builder to deck the block a bit 

The non vtec blocks have a restrictor in the block to head oil feed (center hole In front, pulled that out as vtec heads have it built in. 

ARP studs and attached the head. Had a cunt of a time getting the head on as one of the head bolt holes was helicoiled crooked 

Engine then sat while other projects distracted me. 

Life happened, went on holiday to be a scumbag living in a van in the states for a while and decided fuckit and got a cam 

Here's a old Article (was current when I started the build) engine is pretty much the same spec as mine.

The intake I've got (stock D16Y8) is also meant to be worth 6hp in a na build Info here if you want to read

Ordered valve springs to suit when I got back home to nz. Pulled the head and installed the new springs and retainers/cam. Went to re torque it all and the helicoil pulled out. Too it to a different engine shop and they managed to save it by re drilling and installing a imperial thread and it's now got one imperial thread bolt /stud 

 

At some point early on I swapped in a sohc vtec engine as the original was burning more oil than fuel. 

Young me decided he didn't want aircon as it was weight and used what little power the normally aspirated 1.6 had. It also made the bay look ugly 

Threw it all in the bin and did a wire tuck and ran the body wiring through the guards 

Deleted the abs that didn't work and did a brake upgrade, da integra uprights with prelude/odyssey calipers and at the time mini 280mm rotors. Accord booster and master cylinder 

I did keep the ugly power steering at the time though 

Was my daily thrasher on and off for years. 

Managed to blow a front cv or strip a cv shaft spline so it was rwd for a while until I could be bothered to fix it (oh god that was 15 years ago) 

It is the super rare intrac trim which means It came with anti lock brakes and a factory viscous lsd in the rear. No vicious coupler in the middle like the other awd shuttle's so it's basically permanent 50/50 split front to rear 

The rear diff has a clutch pack that gets electronically disengaged if abs is operating 

At some point I swapped on a Facelift front bumper 

Found a ebay midwing for a ef hatch 

Careful cad template for drilling boot holes in the boot 

Got a crv spoiler for the top, mounted it to the garnish and had them all painted 

Mounted them up 

Truck clipped it at some point and it got 'written off'. Luckily no structural damage 

As I'm a hoarder I had another guard in stock so painted it and it was fixed 

[chris r]

Been on ten thousand side quests today instead of tidying up and organising all the shit. 

Installed a new o ring into the distributor base. 

New tube seals and rocker cover gasket

Idle air control valve o ring 

And a bonnet rod clip that's been broken and has been annoying me the while time I've had the car 

Got distracted with the injectors and sealing them to the manifold 

Same length as the factory honda injectors but fatter body. Got a few options mulling around but will revisit them later 

And another tangent when trying to tidy the floor re installed the front axle shafts and sat the intake back on the engine to try and keep some of the schmutz out 

[chris r]

Figured out the air intake sensor. Some accord and crv have a screw in sensor. Quick trip to pick a part and sorted. 

Very carefully drilled and tapped a crooked off center hole 

Attempted to file the flange a little bit closer to square with the thread but thr thread sealant will (hopefully) keep the boost in

[chris r]

Quickly installed the starter and made up some temporary battery cables.

Cranked it over to make sure it had oil flow. Which it did 

 

 

Set all the tappets to spec and held my hand over and it made compression noises so gapped the plugs and installed them 

Happy enough with this week's progress, now to tidy the mess and go back to work for a break 

 

[fletch]

On 18/09/2025 at 19:59, chris r said:

Swapped the oil pressure switch over. 

Could you remove some fittings from your tee?

Spin the tee 90deg and screw it straight to the block with a male male nipple, then the hose out the side of the tee and the switch in the end.

Once you get all the rpm, there will be a fair bit of vibration here and might snap off that fitting

[chris r]

7 hours ago, fletch said:

Could you remove some fittings from your tee?

Spin the tee 90deg and screw it straight to the block with a male male nipple, then the hose out the side of the tee and the switch in the end.

Once you get all the rpm, there will be a fair bit of vibration here and might snap off that fitting

Thanks, I've been wondering about the 11ty things hanging off the tee. I'll see what I can dig up that's not 15+ year old cobbled together stuff

Edit:

Found a couple of options

This is appealing as its shorter so less waggle with revs and vibrations but is chinesium 

Looks a but stronger /better and is 5x the cost (locally) but would need a adaptor on the top for the turbo oil feed 

Or three is this aeroflow tee which is similar to what I've got but heaps Lower profile 

 

[fletch]

Option 2 looks good. In my experience 1/8bsp and npt are cross-threadable. Just chuck a rubber bonded washer under the oil pressure switch.

I have had success locally at the hydraulic fitting shop for those kind of fittings. Some like @Vintage Grumble or some other supplier of consumables could probably help

[chris r]

Found a stainless fitting on aliexpress the same as number two but with bspt top and bottom and a npt in the side for the oil feed. Will see how it looks once it arrives 

Had a play around with the fuel line routing, yes an lines etc are totally unnecessary but they were free. The fittings weren't but shhh. The factory hose won't work as it has a 90 deg fitting which clashes with the new rail, or if I try the other way it hits the fuel filter. I'll just use the gauge to set the pressure on the regulator then it can go back in the box as it'll be rather close to the charge piping

The throttle cable bracket will need some butchery. At least it lines up with one of the bolt holes, it's a bit rough but I'll just trim the end off one side and weld it to the other 

 

[chris r]

Collected the bent valve head from the beagle I sold in my travels. 

Collected a fancy new (to me) tig off Datsun Dave in the same travels to bring my butchery to new levels. Sadly I don't have any gas for it so grabbed the MIG out. 

Since I get free power from 9 till midnight with our plan I figured 9pm was a good time do do some welding.

Chucked the manifold onto the head and everything onto the welding table 

Carefully back purged it with a mix of plywood smoke and burning oil 

 

Needs lots of grinding and finish work but it's one piece now 

Funnily enough when stuffs pepped with angles/bevels and clean it welds much nicer. 

Once it's cooled down I'll take it off the head and will see what it looks like inside. 

I'll tig the sections close to the studs/nuts as I wasnt brave enough to mig them and the nuts in place 

I was keen to make a turbo flange to suit the steam pipe but stumbled across this in aus. Shipping was fairly reasonable too so I've ordered it

[chris r]

I've already gone over this but now it's welded I can see how stuff sits together I've got a few ideas for the 'collector' 

As @Raizerand @fletch? Suggested a tee 

I'd hoped it'd have a nicer transition inside than it has but it's better than a hole 

I could always go for a 1.5" (40mm bore) tee and that'll match nicely to the flange I've ordered 

Or could trim this reducer to where it needs to go and weld it to the flange 

Covers the rectangle port so a bit of a tickle with a die grinder and it'd be okay

I'm liking the tee option more as it offers a bit more of a transition over a hole in the manifold, but at the end of the day it's a fuckin log so flow and scavenging aren't in its dictionary 

Or there is the nice sinco merge collector I could potentially butcher similar to the reducer but that feels a step too far with the butchery. 

Looks okay inside, probably could have out a bit more heat into it. 

Also looking at that I'm over thinking the merge tee and flow shit when the no 2&3  exhaust ports are facing a wall of tube 

Probably should have given the inside a good spritzing of anti spatter so the turbo doesn't get a snack of MIG pellets but I'll just have to clean the fuck out of it. There's a slight step on the ports so I'll get some tig gas (or borrow the tig at work) and do a quick bead on the inside to smooth it out and hopefully give it a better chance of sealing as the reducers on the flange weren't as well pepped as everything else 

[fletch]

Have you got access to an oxy torch? Heat half of that piece up red and bash it (or squash in vice) oval to fit your log. 

[chris r]

Nah no oxy torch, could try get it toasty with just the tig. 

I've ordered a 1.5" tee so I've got a couple of options to play with. 

Might end up being easier with the tee section as I can cut a section out with the grinder VS trying to drill a hole in the steam pipe with a aliexpress holesaw as I'm too cheap to buy a carbide holesaw locally. Will have a play around once it arrives 

[chris r]

The tee arrived today so will have a play around with it tomorrow. 

Had a quick jam with the work tig but it was about out of gas so I'll probably have to grind it all out and start again as it looks rather porous 

 

[chris r]

Chopped up the tee and had a play with turbo placement 

Decided higher is better and the turbo cleared the air con compressor better with the flange stuck right on the manifold. (And I didn't have to wait for the other flange to arrive) 

That left a bit of a gap to try and make something nice to fill 

Had some ideas about chopping bits of tube to suit but nothing worked. 

Since all the cool kids are 3d printing stuff I got my metal 3d printer and made up a adapter 

Yes it's ugly (no I'm not showing the inside as it's worse) 

It's less bad after much grinding 

 

[chris r]

Bolted the turbo to the manifold and its surprisingly easy to fit turbo and manifold back in 

Gave it a good wiggle to check clearance and its got enough 

 

 

[chris r]

Don't we love a good turd polish

 

That's the butchery I started with 

And after a couple of hours on the end of the die grinder it's significantly less bad 

After a couple more hours it's good enough 

Gave the ports a tickle as well 

[chris r]

Atleast now I have a hole the size of the turbo inlet and its got some sort of radius on the edges. It's good from far but far from good 

The weld mountain turned out okay after a date with a flappy disc. Looks better than what I could imagine with bits of pipe and bends 

To noones surprise the turbo flange is warped from all the welding so I'll have to get it milled flat 

[chris r]

Ordered a ricer timing cover as I've lost the original one, gotta show off the fancy blue timing bent and rusty adjustable cam gear bolts. Also sat the fancy shiny vtec solenoid cover on too for extra honda style points 

New alix oil adaptor thing arrived so I installed that last night. Only had a alloy adapter fitting so have ordered a steel one to suit, the cheapskate in me wants to keep the - 3 line I had made up locally a while ago but I'll need a few adapters on the turbo side as all the fittings are - 4. Will see what clearance I end up with once I've made the downpipe 

Figuring out all the bends for the downpipe is going to be a whole lot of fun. On both my crx I needed to cut out a notch for the headers so I'm happy I don't need to do that here. Stoked that it looks like I can fit a 3" dump. 

Heat management will be fun/hopefully it doesn't cook the radiator fan. Got a turbo blanket and am debating if I wrap the downpipe or just make a heat shield for the rad fan 

I found some aluminium tube that's the right Id and od for the injector adapters, will just need to turn down a small section enough so I can press them into the manifold. 

Lots of little bits and pieces but slowly chipping away at it all. 

Also have a plan for the injector resistors that I didn't account for on the loom, I've ordered some resistors and will just put them between the injectors and the ecu and tuck them away somewhere