Part 1: The Exhaust

One can learn something about parenting by working on a car or atleast learn something about responsibility. What I mean is if all you do is change the oil and fill the fluids and nothing else then when it starts acting up or you want to improve it... don't all of the sudden expect it to be an easy fix/"1.5 hr. bolt on project"...

This is about exchanging the exhaust system on a 17 year old DA from Stock OEM to Aftermarket:

Briefly I said that a day after I bought the car I looked for an aftermarket exhaust. Well I found one, a premo GReddy Cat back exhaust (that's the piping that goes from the Cat converter to the muffler). I found it off of craigs for $50 from a really nice guy who was also a 'teg fan.

So that went down friday so that weekend's project of course was going to be.... Titling? Insuring? No! Of course not... it was going to be swapping off that rusty OEM piece of junk for the GReddy! So the next morning I went at it hard.. I had it up on jacks and I start cranking'n'yanking to get that rusty OEM thing off. However... back to the 17 years of untouched rust does funny things like rust-weld stuff. So for this first part.. Yes I had to use a hammer ;P

But finally it was off and all I had was the end of the cat for an exhaust.. And.. for that brief minute or two I had a fleeting thought to just leave it straight like that. Yet... I eventually went back to work. So next was wrangling on the pipes. I sorta pre-assembled it first and mocked it up with the bolts loose.. The tip stuck out pretty far and initially it looked like it was going to rub against the passenger side suspension... regardless it went on eventually.

With it set and locked down I lowered back down off the jacks and fired it up.. The DA ripped a racing low tone that instantly put a smile on my face, "This is going to be good." I rapped it up a bit to get that raspy new racing tone then I dropped the ebrake and went for a roll.

Big improvement I thought.. I was definitely on my way to making this DA mine :P

~J out

Part 2: The header debacle

Back... sorta

Hey... what's up? It's been over a month since I've posted I see.. dang..

Well I've graduated, walked, and got the big-bird diploma in the mail... And now I'm a... a.. still working.

But a month's gone by and what do I have to show for it time wise? Well something rather special has been taking up my time lately.. She's petite, nice looking, and very fast.

Take a look.....She's a DA..

DA is just the short word for a 1991 Acura Integra LS (Luxury Series). "DA" Comes from the Chassis Code "DAxxxxxxxx" in the VIN number. Anyway I digress... :P

I bought this Car about a month ago just after I was starting to wonder what to do with no reports or million page thesis' to write. It was up in Tacoma and the deal was pretty much this.. One week on a tuesday I spotted this car on Auto Trader so I emailed the owner in Tacoma what the deal was.. I got a reply wed and we chatted back and forth all day 'bout it. Then I found out the owner had 4 or 5 buyers stacked up wait'n for the weekend so I got this deal: "Show up tomorrow (thursday @ 1) and it's yours if you want it. So instead of pass'n I emailed the boss-- got the next day off and Dad & I rolled like a bandit and made it up to Tacoma in less then 2 hours (left @ 11 btw).

The rest as they say is history..

So the car showed up in the driveway Thursday bone-freak'n-stock (no mods), but it was kept real clean.. So I started cruis'n craigs and found a slick cat back exhaust, C.A.I. (cold air intake), & headers and swapped off the OEM stuff for that... or atleast that's been my project..

The Wheels came from craigs too... Overall I know I've spent more or less $1k+ just updating it from 1991 to 2008 with some kick'n tunes, alarm system, and engine upgrades and it's all been real fun.

I haven't had this much fun since my old CRX (which was fun too :] )

So I have some more plans lined up for it down the road that i'd really like to get back posting 'bout.. This car... for all it's grooviness has already had some 'issues' that I hope to talk 'bout later.. Primarily they center around the fact that the engine bay hasn't been touched since '91 :).

Ok that's all I got for now.. more to come..

~J