Traveler III
Hello all,
Figured I'd start a build thread even though not a ton of progress has been made on this rig of mine. I figure it's as much a "to do" list for me as it is sharing my journey building up the CR-V with you guys.
My rig is, as mentioned, a '99 CR-V. The CR-V debuted in 1997 and almost wasn't released into the North American Market, being intially envisioned only for the Japanese Domestic Market. It was strong lobbying from NA dealers to Honda in Japan that convinced them to bring it over. The rig is powered by the workhorse B20z 4 banger gasoline engine putting out 150hp. This was an upgrade made in 1998 from the original B20, which was a bit under-powered. It's not the most powerful engine, but it's one of the torquiest that Honda put out, and it's reliable as anything. I've personally seen 1st gen CR-V's with over 500k on the original motor, and still going strong.
The drivetrain uses an interesting, and as far as I know, unique system that Honda dubbed "Realtime 4wd." In a nutshell, the car is a trans axle front wheel drive with a transfer gear from the tranny that continually drives a prop shaft to the rear diff. The rear axles are disengaged from the shaft under ordinary driving. Inside the rear diff is a pair of oil pumps, one driven by the prop shaft, one by the rear axles. If the pressure generated by these dual pumps varies by more than 3% (ie, front wheels slipping) a valve opens inside the mechanism which engages a hydraulically driven clutch pack and transfers power to the rear, up to 70% of the torque available, if my research is correct. Once the pressure equalizes between the pumps, the valve closes and the vehicle returns to front wheel drive. The system is completely hydraulic/mechanical and has no electronics involved at all. The vehicle, unfortunately, lacks a low range gearbox, but it manages off road amazingly well for what it is.
I paid $1800 on craigslist and it had 270k when I bought it. A steal of a deal in my opinion, as I've seen guys asking 4-5k for these in good condition.
As for the name "Ganbaru," it's a word that like the V, is Japanese in origin:
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Ganbaru ( lit., stand firm), also romanized as gambaru, is a widely-used Japanese cultural concept.[1] It roughly means to slog on or stick to it through tough times.[2] Ganbaru implies a kind of hard work which is defined by Japanese culture.
The word Ganbaru is often translated to mean "doing one’s best". In practice, it means doing more than one's best.[3] The word emphasizes working with continued effort despite difficulties, failure, or distraction.[4] The term means "toughing it out".[5]
Ganbaru means to commit fully to a task and to bring that task to an end.[6]
I felt this name was perfectly fitting for the oft-underestimated "lifted civic" that despite it's never having been designed as a dedicated off-roader, having no locking diffs, low range or even manually selectable 4wd, nevertheless manages to conquer mountains time and time again.
So far, I haven't done a ton of mods to it, but here's what we've got so far:
4x General Grabber AT2 in 205/75/15 and a junkyard spare on the back of the same size (I should have shelled out the bucks for 5 grabbers, but oh well.
2x 10k lb recovery points bolted to the rear "frame rails" of the unibody. The front "tie downs" are actually extremely stout steel plates tied into the frame rails, so they're already basically as strong as anything on a unibody is ever going to get, so I bought a pair of 4 tonne shackles to place there and use a bridle for any recovery needs
CB radio install:
And fibreglass antenna:
Painted the wheels and trim, as well as fixing some rust on the metal "step" under the rear bumper skin. I'm continually amazed by how well thought out every aspect of this vehicle is.
Other than adding a couple of decals, that's pretty much it.
Mods I plan to do:
OME 1.75" Spring lift kit front and rear, as well as Bilstein shocks all around
DIY roof rack built from extruded alumium channel rails
Winch mount and 5000LB winch, probably inverted and mounted behind the stock bumper
Rear jerry can holder
LED light bar across the front of the roof rack
Limb Lifters running from the roof rack to the corners of the engine bay (some factory bolts already positioned perfectly for them)
X-bull recovery boards, probably mounted on the roof rack
Pajero Snorkel kit
Diff breather extensions
2008-11 Honda Element Differential - bolts right in and has improved engagement vs the older version on the V.
Some sweet decals, and of course an Overland Bound emblem.
Some crazy ideas I have that I probably won't do, but actually might:
Patching an intercooler and electrically driven oil pump into the fill and drain holes on the diff to permit me to manually engage 4wd by forcing one of the pumps to have a higher pressure than the other, while at the same time adding extra cooling to the diff fluid to prevent overheating and disengaging the system via built in failsafe.
Stuffing a Suzuki Samurai E-Locker into the rear diff housing - they have the same number of bolts on the gear. By engaging both the pump and locker, I would have manually selected 4wd on a locked rear axle.
EDIT: Actually, an idea I had kicking around which seems far more promising - Swap in the J series V6 engine and VTM-4 4wd system from a Honda Pilot into the V. The J swap has actually been done into an RD1 CR-V in the Dominican Republic, apparently, and another guy is currently working on a J swap into a Civic Wagon, the predecessor to the CR-V built on the same platform, so it's definitely possible.
These ideas are kinda bonkers and might destroy my rear diff, but how awesome would it be if I got them to work, right? lol
Figured I'd start a build thread even though not a ton of progress has been made on this rig of mine. I figure it's as much a "to do" list for me as it is sharing my journey building up the CR-V with you guys.
My rig is, as mentioned, a '99 CR-V. The CR-V debuted in 1997 and almost wasn't released into the North American Market, being intially envisioned only for the Japanese Domestic Market. It was strong lobbying from NA dealers to Honda in Japan that convinced them to bring it over. The rig is powered by the workhorse B20z 4 banger gasoline engine putting out 150hp. This was an upgrade made in 1998 from the original B20, which was a bit under-powered. It's not the most powerful engine, but it's one of the torquiest that Honda put out, and it's reliable as anything. I've personally seen 1st gen CR-V's with over 500k on the original motor, and still going strong.
The drivetrain uses an interesting, and as far as I know, unique system that Honda dubbed "Realtime 4wd." In a nutshell, the car is a trans axle front wheel drive with a transfer gear from the tranny that continually drives a prop shaft to the rear diff. The rear axles are disengaged from the shaft under ordinary driving. Inside the rear diff is a pair of oil pumps, one driven by the prop shaft, one by the rear axles. If the pressure generated by these dual pumps varies by more than 3% (ie, front wheels slipping) a valve opens inside the mechanism which engages a hydraulically driven clutch pack and transfers power to the rear, up to 70% of the torque available, if my research is correct. Once the pressure equalizes between the pumps, the valve closes and the vehicle returns to front wheel drive. The system is completely hydraulic/mechanical and has no electronics involved at all. The vehicle, unfortunately, lacks a low range gearbox, but it manages off road amazingly well for what it is.
I paid $1800 on craigslist and it had 270k when I bought it. A steal of a deal in my opinion, as I've seen guys asking 4-5k for these in good condition.
As for the name "Ganbaru," it's a word that like the V, is Japanese in origin:
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Ganbaru ( lit., stand firm), also romanized as gambaru, is a widely-used Japanese cultural concept.[1] It roughly means to slog on or stick to it through tough times.[2] Ganbaru implies a kind of hard work which is defined by Japanese culture.
The word Ganbaru is often translated to mean "doing one’s best". In practice, it means doing more than one's best.[3] The word emphasizes working with continued effort despite difficulties, failure, or distraction.[4] The term means "toughing it out".[5]
Ganbaru means to commit fully to a task and to bring that task to an end.[6]
I felt this name was perfectly fitting for the oft-underestimated "lifted civic" that despite it's never having been designed as a dedicated off-roader, having no locking diffs, low range or even manually selectable 4wd, nevertheless manages to conquer mountains time and time again.
So far, I haven't done a ton of mods to it, but here's what we've got so far:
4x General Grabber AT2 in 205/75/15 and a junkyard spare on the back of the same size (I should have shelled out the bucks for 5 grabbers, but oh well.
2x 10k lb recovery points bolted to the rear "frame rails" of the unibody. The front "tie downs" are actually extremely stout steel plates tied into the frame rails, so they're already basically as strong as anything on a unibody is ever going to get, so I bought a pair of 4 tonne shackles to place there and use a bridle for any recovery needs
CB radio install:
And fibreglass antenna:
Painted the wheels and trim, as well as fixing some rust on the metal "step" under the rear bumper skin. I'm continually amazed by how well thought out every aspect of this vehicle is.
Other than adding a couple of decals, that's pretty much it.
Mods I plan to do:
OME 1.75" Spring lift kit front and rear, as well as Bilstein shocks all around
DIY roof rack built from extruded alumium channel rails
Winch mount and 5000LB winch, probably inverted and mounted behind the stock bumper
Rear jerry can holder
LED light bar across the front of the roof rack
Limb Lifters running from the roof rack to the corners of the engine bay (some factory bolts already positioned perfectly for them)
X-bull recovery boards, probably mounted on the roof rack
Pajero Snorkel kit
Diff breather extensions
2008-11 Honda Element Differential - bolts right in and has improved engagement vs the older version on the V.
Some sweet decals, and of course an Overland Bound emblem.
Some crazy ideas I have that I probably won't do, but actually might:
Patching an intercooler and electrically driven oil pump into the fill and drain holes on the diff to permit me to manually engage 4wd by forcing one of the pumps to have a higher pressure than the other, while at the same time adding extra cooling to the diff fluid to prevent overheating and disengaging the system via built in failsafe.
Stuffing a Suzuki Samurai E-Locker into the rear diff housing - they have the same number of bolts on the gear. By engaging both the pump and locker, I would have manually selected 4wd on a locked rear axle.
EDIT: Actually, an idea I had kicking around which seems far more promising - Swap in the J series V6 engine and VTM-4 4wd system from a Honda Pilot into the V. The J swap has actually been done into an RD1 CR-V in the Dominican Republic, apparently, and another guy is currently working on a J swap into a Civic Wagon, the predecessor to the CR-V built on the same platform, so it's definitely possible.
These ideas are kinda bonkers and might destroy my rear diff, but how awesome would it be if I got them to work, right? lol
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