Ain’t Fuelin’ Update: Slambo Takes a Ride

Things are rolling along, but this first Honda Civic HX build is taking me way longer than I expected. Needless to say, I’m immensely grateful to be able to chase this story.

Valvoline sent a crew to shoot a day-in-the-life with me a few weeks back. They did an awesome job of capturing what drives me every day. We took a nice long ride in Slambo, heading out from Rancho Indebto all the way down through the Pinelands to Tuckerton, one of the towns on the Jersey Shore that was hit hard by Hurricane Sandy.

Progress Update: The first phase of work on Slambo continues. In the coming weeks, we will be bolting on a Magnaflow header/pre-cat, fitted with an extra O2 bung to accommodate an additional wideband sensor and AutoMeter Air/Fuel gauge. The A/F gauge will provide instant feedback to make it easier to keep the Civic’s D16Y5 engine in Lean Burn mode. Having the gauge placed line-of-sight is crucial to avoid distraction.

The suspension is an issue. While Slambo handles quite well with the cheap eBay springs and strut brace, we need to address rear camber. Any lowering springs will induce negative camber (making the rear tires look tilted in at the top), but it’s an easy fix. Once we’ve fitted the camber adjustment doodad, we’ll put it on the alignment rig and shoot for a 50 MPG tank. I would love to bolt on a better suspension setup down the road, but there’s no budget for it at the moment.

Slambo is currently fitted with: Michelin Defender low-rolling-resistance tires, Valvoline SynPower full synthetic oil and Bosch Iridium spark plugs. I just swapped the rusted Bosal muffler for a Walker Quiet Flow … it’s wonderfully quiet. Slambo’s dipped with Eastwood’s Elastiwrap, in a custom color concoction (that may change before winter).

There’s still a good bit of noise in the cabin, coming from worn bearings in the five-speed manual transmission. I’d like to swap the original transmission for a rebuilt unit from an early Honda VX at some point.

Many thanks to all for helping to make this happen and a huge tip of the hat to Valvoline for producing this video. I’m immensely grateful to chase this story. It would not have happened without your support.

Please feel free to share the video with your friends to help get the word out …

Stay Tuned!

Track Slambo’s Progress tank-by-tank on Fuelly!