I finally did a post-install cleanup (6 months later) before driving down to see the parents (1100 miles round-trip). I got a free digital camera while I was down there, so I thought I'd share.

I got 44mg on the highway with 87 octane, and pulled off 412 miles on a tank of gas (including 2 hours of stop and start brake-happy holiday traffic). But my alternator started to get hosed on the way back. It threw a bunch of engine codes 50 miles from home and started misfiring. This morning it was squealing, and it finally seized up today as I pulled into the garage. I was lucky enought to have a spare one sitting around from the swap, and it's fixed already. I snapped this picture at the garage today when I pulled in.

Does anyone know what a stock CX is supposed to get for highway mileage? I'm damn impressed. 44hwy with a failing distributor is pretty damn good. I'm really proud of this thing despite everything it lacks comfort-wise because I only paid $26 in gas to do the whole trip.

 

what did you use to clean it with?

 

i got atleast 40mpg crusing at 80mph with the old stocker with 126000 very tired miles on it. i still get 30+mpg on the hwy with b16

 

Foamy engine brite. A pretty generic degreaser from Auto Zone. I did it at a coin-op car wash.

The trick with degreasers is to use a rag and wipe down every wire, hose, nook and cranny in the engine bay before you rinse it, then dry it by hand the same way you wiped it down. Spraying that stuff on and then hosing it off doesn't really do anything.

If you have access to an air compressor, you should unplug your electrical connectors afterwards, blow them out, and re-apply dielectric grease to them. As long as you're not leaking oil and don't have any exhaust leaks, it will stay clean for months.

If you're swapping a car and have the engine out, Easy-off oven cleaner works wonders on deeply crusted funk.

The valve cover was polished. That requires sandpaper, air tools, polishing compound, and more patience than anyone should ever have for a 105hp 1.5L. Never use that spray-on clearcoat engine shine crap when you're done cleaning, or if you have any polished parts. That stuff makes a gummy, dirty stuck-on mess soon after using it.

Hit the rubber with armor-all, and you're done.

 

So I got what a fresh CX is supposed to get, but with my DX motor? I'm still using the CX gears. So that's great! 40 more hp with bolt-ons and keeping the same fuel economy... totally worth the swap.

 

I get like 21 hwy with mine. haha.

 

Nice job! That's one blingin' engine bay!

 

 

hot damn, that's one clean engine bay.

 

I allways said to myself what the F**K do these people do to keep there bay so dahm clean ! Now I know just take about 2-3 hours every 3 months to clean every little detail and hey Im gonna take some shits of my mean swap ! A cx motor and an ex tranny in a dx coupe . LOL sounds funny . But its the truth