Another member of the OHC VTEC club here...

[pranavt]

Hey all,
Finally got delivery of my own OHC today. The car's run around 45k, is an Aug 2000 model and looks and feels very very good for its age.

It all started about a month ago when I thought it was finally time to ditch my 7 year old Santro and get something fun. My first thought was an OHC 1.3 EXI, then doing a B16 engine swap immediately after buying. But my family wasn't too excited with the whole thing and the idea stayed on hold for a bit. I was then thinking of going for a Mondeo; another drivers' car; and my family liked it too.. But it wasn't my first choice and between an OHC and a Mondeo, I'd go for the former any day. So now, the engine swap idea stayed on hold and I'd have to be happy with a stock car, so I finally decided to buy an OHC VTEC.

Now my best friend also owns an OHC VTEC. So it was decided that we would have two VTECs which couldn't be distinguished by anything except the numberplate. Everything on both the cars had to be the same. Everything down to the carpets/mats. Yes, we're a little insane, our friends tell us all the time. On with the story anyways.

Suddenly out of nowhere, my uncle called me to tell me that one of his friends wanted to buy a used hatch and he told him about me. Fast forward to about 5 days ago... The Santro was sold for a price that was higher than I was expecting.

Meanwhile, I had already been looking at OHCs... The first day was quite sad I guess. TD'ed a few cars, almost all of them lemons. One of them had only one door which actually worked/opened, and when we went for a TD, all 3 of us had to get in through that one door. Must've been a sight, I'm sure. Another was probably used by an "enthusiast" and the whole car bore signs of being abused badly. And how could I forget that "Turbo 1.5 EXI VTEC" OHC.

Second day, the first car I TD'd was the best one I had found. Promised the dealer that I would give him a confirmed answer within a few hours after I had done TD'ing the rest of the OHCs. Same story as the day before, and I decided to go with that first one. Paid off the full amount within a couple of days, but wouldn't get delivery until the cheque had cleared. This wait was now killing me.

And today was to be The Day. Called up the dealer at 10.30 to find nobody picking up the phone. I was angry that this dealer might've taken a Diwali Holiday a couple of days early and started making calls to a couple of my friends who knew the dealer personally. He assured me that I'd get delivery today, but the car had to have a new silencer fitted because the old one had gone bad I guess. I drove to the place where it was being fitted and watched over the work. Finally drove the car back myself to the dealer so I could finish the paperwork. Finished off the paperwork, but the car had to be taken to one of his shops to fix a few niggling things (bad bulb, loose indicator light, blown fuse, etc).

Finally got done with everything and the car felt great. Now it was time to make our OHCs mirror images of each other. Luckily, we both had the same color, same OEM alloys, and pretty much everything else. The only differences were the headlight bulbs (his white, mine yellow), sun films, horn, fog lamps (his car was missing those), the numberplate font.

Took the car to a nearby accessories shop and got the exact same horn and headlight bulbs (Philips 5000k 100/90W) fitted today. The numberplate, sun films and fog lamps will come tomorrow.

The only things left to make the car complete for now are a FFE and ICE. Will be taking my car to Viper in the coming week hopefully to get the FFE done. After that comes ICE which will most probably be done by ramie2400 if he gets around to giving me good configurations within my budget (*wink* *wink* mr. ramie)

Will be uploading pics of our VTECs tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

[iraghava]

Congratulations on the car Pranav! But an Aug '00 VTEC? Somehow either I'm getting old or there's some mistake since I remember VTEC's being introduced during the '01 model year.

Will wait for the pics before commenting further.

[PatienceWins]

Congrats!!

Your excitement is visible. Waiting for the pictures.

[pranavt]

Originally Posted by iraghava

But an Aug '00 VTEC? Somehow either I'm getting old or there's some mistake since I remember VTEC's being introduced during the '01 model year.

Hmm that's strange, I've seen many VTECs made in '00. My friend's VTEC is made in Dec '00, and a few of the TD'd cars were also from 2000. Perhaps a VTEC historian could shed some light on this...

[ramie2400]

Congratulations pranav,thats a great writeup so what mods are you planning any "Turbo Sharbo" even i am a little confused here as i heard about the Vtec in 2002 after the success of OHC Type1,but boy the deal you got is impressive cheers

Ramie

[pranavt]

Originally Posted by ramie2400

Congratulations pranav,thats a great writeup so what mods are you planning any "Turbo Sharbo" even i am a little confused here as i heard about the Vtec in 2002 after the success of OHC Type1,but boy the deal you got is impressive cheers

Ramie

Me and my friend will be doing a B16 engine swap which should hopefully happen in the first quarter of next year. If Vitamin M is abundant by then, we might even go for a bigger/more powerful engine like a B18. That should be a good base for our future endeavours. It's still a few months into the future so I won't start thinking about it now, else I will lose sleep every night.

Also Ramie paaji, my budget for ICE has been nudged to around 26k, thanks to you and a friend for that. Would appreciate a few configs from you with my music tastes in mind. Could you also PM me your shop's address, I might drop in today with a friend to have a look at your amazing work. Cheers!

[Pankaj401]

Originally Posted by iraghava

Congratulations on the car Pranav! But an Aug '00 VTEC? Somehow either I'm getting old or there's some mistake since I remember VTEC's being introduced during the '01 model year.

Will wait for the pics before commenting further.

I think so too. All OHC VTECs, including mine, that I have seen are 2001 onwards.
And strangely all used VTECs are at sold at 45K mark! I got mine too at 45K. Though the real number was close to 1.1L.

[Shan2nu]

Me and my friend will be doing a B16 engine swap which should hopefully happen in the first quarter of next year. If Vitamin M is abundant by then, we might even go for a bigger/more powerful engine like a B18. That should be a good base for our future endeavours. It's still a few months into the future so I won't start thinking about it now, else I will lose sleep every night.

B18s are deadly engines. They not only revv as high as the B16s but produce way more power/torque, which is awesome considering the light weight chassis of the OHC.

Shan2nu

[pranavt]

Originally Posted by Shan2nu

B18s are deadly engines. They not only revv as high as the B16s but produce way more power/torque, which is awesome considering the light weight chassis of the OHC.

Shan2nu

Would I still be able to use the car as a daily-driver? Else I'll have to factor in the cost of a small hatch as part of the engine swap expenses .

Also, just checked my RC Book photocopy, it says the engine # is B15C2000041. Does that mean that my engine is one of the first 50 engines made in India for this model? The car was made in Aug '00 and registered on 6/9/00. My friend's VTEC, made in Dec '00 has engine # B15C2004xx, which would mean that in the next 3 months, only 350-400 B15C2 engines had been built and sold. Would explain why most of the members haven't seen '00 VTECs. By the time this variant got popular, it was already 2001. Still waiting for a real explanation though, this is baffling me now.

[Shan2nu]

Also, just checked my RC Book photocopy, it says the engine # is B15C2000041. Does that mean that my engine is one of the first 50 engines made in India for this model?

Yup, ive got the 1,430th engine made in March 2001. So between Dec 00 and March 01, 1000 of these engines were built.

Would I still be able to use the car as a daily-driver? Else I'll have to factor in the cost of a small hatch as part of the engine swap expenses .

Ofcourse, you wont have any probs driving it around but make sure you get a transmission that was design for that particular engine.

Shan2nu

[Dippy]

Congratulations on the Vtec Pranav. Enjoy the car and do put pictures asap. And yes welcome to the OHC club

[pranavt]

Thanks Dippy, wasn't around when you im'd me. Pics coming up in a few hours...

[pranavt]

Bump! Around 2 months with my OHC and loving it ...

The car has been bulletproof *touchwood*, with no expenses apart from fuel bills, and one accident I had (because of my own stupidity) within 2 days of buying it. Never got around to getting the FFE done until now. The mileage I'm getting seems a little low at around 7kmpl or less, but that includes frequent redlining. There seems to be a leak in the silencer/exhaust somewhere which I'm not really interested in fixing right now since I'll be going for an FFE very soon.

I'm getting the car serviced this week and would appreciate suggestions of good garages and mechanics in/around Malad area. Seems like the left-front brake-pad is seeing its last few days and both front pads will be replaced during this service, along with anything else that needs fixing/replacing. Since this is the first time I'm getting this car serviced, what are the things I should look out for? Anything which I should ask the mechanic to check apart from the usual stuff? And finally, how much should I expect to pay for everything?

[ramie2400]

Hi pranav,good to hear your enjoying the OHC to the max,obvilously if you always redline your car the FE will decrease i would suggest get the car serviced from the Honda Service itself rather than showing to the car to any local mechanic.

OHC spares are not that very expensive unlike the ford ikons/lancer..

[Dippy]

Pranav you could get the service done at the Honda Service station but for other work like brake pad replacement etc I would suggest you look for a good workshop around your place. I could help you with one if its ok for you in the Kandivali area. Call me if you need any help. I'll give you details. I get my car work done from him.