Tech Support March 2009 - Rear End

A Michael, we hate to say this but not having a thermostat sounds like the least of your problems. As you've probably already heard, white smoke puffing out the exhaust is a pretty good indicator of a blown head gasket. The sealer you put in may help in the short run, but if you've truly got a blown the head gasket, you'll either need to repair it or replace the engine shortly. We'd recommend that you remove the spark plugs and pressurize the cooling system. In most cases, when the head gasket is blown, this procedure will cause coolant to seep into the cylinder where the gasket is damaged, giving you information about the nature of the problem-if you have one at all. Examining the spark plugs could also give you a general idea if water is leaking into the combustion chamber. To answer your question, it's pretty safe to run a car without a thermostat. The main drawback is that the engine will take much longer to get up to operating temperature. If you live in a very cold area, the engine may never get to operating temperature. This can cause poor performance and bad gas mileage. From a theoretical standpoint, if your headgasket is not blown, your car should be able to run properly with a thermostat installed. If removing it solved your problem, it may have been that the thermostat wasn't opening properly due to trapped air in the system or an improperly installed thermostat. When installing the thermostat, be sure to put it in right side up. There's a small hole with a pin through it that must be located at the top. This will allow air to pass through it to avoid an air pocket around the thermostat. Also, once you get everything back together, be sure to bleed out any air through the bleed valve located by the upper radiator hose.

Q I have a question about the S14 SR20DET wiring harness conversion. What exactly do I have to do, what plugs do I have to cut, and which do I have extend? The reason for my question is because I am doing the S14 SR20DET to S14. That is the only thing I need to do to finish. Please let me know where I can get a harness diagram or can you tell me what wires go with what. Thank you very much.
Robert Mireles
Fontana, CA

A The wiring conversion for the S14 engine into the S14 chassis is not as difficult as many think. For starters you'll need to extend the wires for the MAF sensor. To do this we recommend using a shielded wire. Most of the actual work is done on the M63/F4 connector located on the passenger's side kick panel above the ECU. This is the white connector with a black cover on the back. Unfortunately, we don't have a link to a specific website that will show you the correct order for the wires. There is a lot of information on the web, both good and bad. The correct way to do this is to use the wiring diagrams from both the KA and SR factory service manuals to make sure the conversion information that you can find on various forums is correct. The S14 SR20DET ECU is not easy to find or cheap to replace, so you don't want to risk hooking things up improperly.

Q I just got done reading the December '08 issue. I am the owner of a 1996 Civic DX. It's time to get new brakes. I am having a hard time finding kits to convert the rear drums to disk. I thought that I would take the time to install a better quality brake system. I have changed the front disks a couple of times in its life because I always seem to warp the rotors. Any suggestions would be great. I would like to fix this car up some day to hopefully be in your magazine. I appreciate your time and effort.
Rob
Monterey Park, CA