hondatuner020

iTrader: (1)

Such a great build!

chargeR

Cheers mate!

The big package I mentioned above turned up at work today:



Opened it up to reveal 1.5m of wing, custom made for me by the good folks at Voltex:



I took the night off working on the car, but had to take a few minutes to mock it up to see how it would sit.



Very pleased with the result. The wing is a Voltex Type I in wet carbon, 1500mm wide, with type A end plates and 195mm stands. Happy with the fitment but the way that Voltex have provided to mount the wing will probably need a little work to make sure it won't fall off. Given the short wheelbase of the CR-X and the fairly oversteer biased suspension setup I'll be using it will be good to have the wing to tune in a slight aerodynamic understeer at higher speed, so I don't end up off the track backwards in some of the higher speed corners at the local tracks.

rollinmyda

iTrader: (19)

This build is so awesome and you're working at a lightning pace! Can't wait to see it continue!

B16EJ

Everything looks so rediculously clean, the car, the shop, the motor and parts, I am very envious. I really need to live somewhere where there's no winter.

The climate over here destroys everything unfortunately.

Bently_Coop

@.Grimace GTFIH

.Grimace

Damn this is awesome!!! Makes me even happier to do paint here this winter :D awesome build.

chargeR

Thanks! Only 33 days until my first major track event, so I've got to keep the pace up .

The car was actually only imported from Japan in 2005 so probably saw some harsh winters, but you're right the worst looking part in the engine bay is the throttle body which I bought from a guy in Canada haha.

Thanks mate!

Last night wiring the car began in earnest. I've roped a mate of mine in to do this, since wiring is not something I'm good at or have the tools to do right. His methods were a bit different to my typical approach, there was a lot of cutting with only a moments consideration and we ended up with a big pile of left over wires. I'm sure everything will still work though, it's a simple 80s hatchback after all:



At this stage the ID 725cc injectors have been wired up, the engine and charge harnesses modified and re-routed awaiting re-wrapping and mounting of the battery and ECU, and most of the unnecessary B series and HVAC wiring in the dash harness has been removed. Other bits that still need to be finished off are the dash wiring and the power steering.

Today I made a bracket for my fire extinguisher out of a 50x25 aluminium RHS, with welded threaded bosses on the bottom instead of using nuts so installation and removal of the extinguisher bracket a single tool operation.



I put some oil in the car so I don't forget later in the excitement of the first start. I use Red Line in all my cars, and haven't broken a motor yet so I see no reason to change. I'll use Red Line MTL in the transmission, and probably ATE Super Blue brake fluid. The pic also shows the work my friend is doing on the engine harness.



The same friend also donated a piece of stainless steel to make an ECU and battery mounting panel and put a 45° bend in it for me. I tidied it up, drilled some holes and welded on some M6 threaded bosses to mount the ECU raised off the panel, with the whole item held down to the original 4 studs where the B series ECU was mounted. I still need to make a tie down for the Braille B129 battery (though this one is on loan, as the local distributor is out of stock) which weighs only 4.3 kg giving a nice weight reduction and hopefully will compensate for some of the extra weight up front. The passenger will have to be careful where they put their feet though.



Also put the car on the ground and rolled it around a bit which is a good milestone, though the moment was spoiled by me somehow setting the ride heights on the right side nearly 50mm higher than the left!



More updates tomorrow.

.Grimace

Will your hood close properly with the k24? I was thinking k20 but maybe there is a way to make the k24 work.

chargeR

Probably going to need a bit of a hole in the hood. I could probably lower the motor enough for the top of the valve cover to fit, but the RBC will hang out a fair way .

On Sunday I did a few more small jobs on the car, after getting a hand from a mate to push it on to the 4 post hoist. I fitted the rear bumper with new hardware, as I needed it on to route the end of the exhaust correctly as I'm starting to fabricate that now. The bumper fits poorly unfortunately, and has obviously been hit before, so I will fit a spare bumper support I have at some point to see if that improves it.

I also finally fitted up the ASR sway bar. I made up some 100x25mm plates with M10 nuts welded on and then snuck them in through the end of the chassis then bolted it up, as the JDM shell doesn't have the female threads for the tow hooks like the US cars obviously do. Here's the ASR bar all fitted up. I've left the sway bar end links loose for now until I set my ride heights and corner weight the car, so I can adjust out any pre-load on the bar.



After that I took a couple of days off and then got back in to it last night and tonight working on my track exhaust.

Here's the front section tacked together and bolted on loosely. The flex pipe was provided by Stefan at ASP with the header, the muffler is the 17x4.5" Burns that I bought a while back, so for this section all I needed to do was add a couple of straight sections of tubing and a V band flange on the end. I'll finish weld it tomorrow once I rig something up to back purge the welds. Forgive the fairly rough fabrication, this is my first attempt making an exhaust.





The muffler is tucked up quite tight against the body, as I'm trying to keep as much ground clearance as I can. From there I started turning this pile of bends into the rear section:



I'm experimenting with making the rear section out of aluminium. I'm not expecting great longevity, but the material's cheap, light and it's good welding practice. If it falls apart I can just make one identical in stainless, and it should be pretty straightforward as I'll know exactly what bends to use and the dimensions already. Here's where I got up to tonight, I need to decide where I'm going to put the next V band so it will be accessible and easy to remove:



Tomorrow night I'll finish up the exhaust, do the final fit up of my radius rods and get the car back on the ground ready to finish up the wiring and start fitting some panels.

GrantMC2

What an epic build!

Bently_Coop

Exhaust looks great.


Presidential Detail in the 88-91 CRX tech section has an aluminum exhaust my check out his thread and ask about it.

DC-2uned

This wing is great, it fits the chassis and intention of your CRX perfectly!

The B129 is a nice unit at under 10lbs, they have 7 in stock on amazon.com at $160 if you don't want to wait for the distributor(shipping is free in the US but, I'm not sure what it would be for you). Also have you considered Lithium batteries? Companies like "WPS" and "Antigravity" make different offerings that are around the same price-wise as the braille, with less CCA, but weigh 3-4lbs. They are said to be for "motorcycle/atv/tractor use" but I have seen guys running them in their race cars. "Lithium Pros" is a great brand(Summit and Jegs carry them) that can definitely take tons of abuse but, cost A LOT more($4-500+). Just throwing options out there, take this info with a grain of salt...

That sway bar looks extra stout, should make for a well-rotating rear. You did great with the custom install and good idea leaving it loose for final adjustment.

27 days and counting...

chargeR

Thanks guys! Bently, I've been following Presidential's thread and it was actually one of the main inspirations for me to go aluminium .

Thanks for the input! I did consider a cheaper ATV or lithium battery, but I'm a bit wary of saving money on a potentially safety important item, and one that can really ruin your day if it fails. My friend has kindly let me use his Braille battery for a while, as he won't be using his car at the track until next year, so I've got some time to consider the options.

The rear bar will certainly give me plenty of rear stiffness, so if it needs toning down a bit I've got some 14kg/mm or 10kg/mm springs to put in there .

Got a bit more done tonight. Added a couple more sections to the rear part of the exhaust and tacked it all together a bit more firmly. I'm low on gas though and welding shops aren't open over the weekend so will probably wait until early next week to fully weld it.



At this point I ran out of bends because I'd originally just planned to run a 90° from where it stops now toward the passenger side of the car, and then a 90° to turn it back toward the rear, but I realised with it in place that it would either foul the swaybar or hang too low, so I'm going to put another 45° in there to bring the section of pipe running across from right to left upward and rearward a bit.

Hopefully a big weekend of updates to follow.

chargeR

Yesterday I moved on to assembling the radius rods to the traction bar and fitting them to the car. I've had the parts for a couple of weeks, but had to order in a 5/8" UNF LH tap to clean up the thread in the radius rods before I could assemble them. Here's the rod ends fitted up to the fabricated radius rod, the spacers are from QA1 with a 3" long 5/8" SAE grade 8 bolt fixing it to the traction bar:



I set the rods to the same length as the standard arm and installed them in car, and installed the axles while I was there. Radius rods are just installed loosely at the moment as I need to modify the alternator slightly to gain clearance between it and the radius rod:





After that I started fabricating an intake pipe, with 3" bends and off cuts from the exhaust. It runs down through the hole where the windscreen washer bottle was located to tuck the filter down behind the bumper:



All welded together, and I hit it with some sand paper and polish to tidy it up until I can get it powdercoated. Clearance to the head light is very tight, so I may have to trim a bit of sheet metal:



Here's how the filter is positioned. It hangs fairly low but I should be well protected by the guard liner and splitter. I still need to add a bracket to support the pipe and provision for the intake air temp sensor and the breather hose to the valve cover, but as expected I ran out of gas just as I was finishing the last join.



Also the dash and steering column are now in the car to help my unlucky wiring guru finish up the harnesses. I haven't decided which steering wheel I'll use yet, either the Nardi Deep Corn that's in there now or an older style Momo Monte Carlo:



Here's how the car looked when I finished up:



More updates today.

chargeR

Finished off all the brake hard lines today to suit the new location of the proportioning valve. Mismatched tube to suit the mismatched wheels. All it needs now is a few clips and brackets for support, and the prop valve needs to be bolted to the firewall. I also ran a length of hard line from the clutch master cylinder, and I'll get a section of flexible braided hose made up this week to connect to the slave:



Prop valve looks like its been leaking, so I'll order a replacement ASAP.

The wiring guy is still doing his thing. I didn't really follow what was going on with it today, but it looks like the power steering is all wired up with connectors fitted for easy removal, and the relays/fuses for the PS pump, fuel pump and the fan will be mounted on the plate I made earlier next to the battery.

GrantMC2

Great progress! Love this build

chargeR

Thanks, appreciate the encouragement!

I've made a bit more progress over the last couple of days and nights. On Tuesday a mobile auto hose guy came to make the high pressure power steering hose, and a length of braided hose for the clutch. The clutch hose now runs to this nice bracket that the bloke supplied to support the hard line on the firewall:





Last night and the night before I had the glass fitted, with new seals for the windscreen and rear quarter windows. I've put the original windscreen back in as I ran out of time/money trying to source a new one with the correct bronze tint. That's a job for next year.



While I had the glass out I stripped off the strange clear film that Japanese people loved putting on their windows in the late 80s, my EF2 hatch has the same stuff. Heaps of ammonia and a razor blade got it all off, and the glass looks good now:



Yesterday the radiator turned up from PWR. It matches up with my original drawing, so if there's any fitment issues they're my fault.



It's a dual pass design, re-designed since the earlier pictures I posted, based on some suggestions from PWR. This layout seemed the best way to arrange it without the outlet running into the alternator or having stupid hose routing. I reduced the height slightly it so it can fit down beneath the upper radiator support, to make room on the front of the engine for future upgrades. There's provision for an OEM fan switch, and a single Spal 11" fan mounted on the passenger side to keep it cool in the pits.



I positioned the lower pins to use these existing holes in the lower radiator support, I'll just add some rubber inserts to support it, and make some brackets at the top hanging off the radiator support mounting bolts:



Test fitted:



On Tuesday night I also sketched up a revised version of the SPMS splitter bracket as their standard item interferes with my traction bar. No fault of theirs, just another difference between a D series ED CRX and my EF8. Here's what the standard bracket looks like:



Here's my slightly modified version mocked up in cardboard on the car. Will send it off to be laser cut tomorrow and then weld some nuts on the back side replicating the SPMS part.





That's about it up to now. This weekend I need to make up some radiator hoses, make a bunch of brackets, find a throttle cable and clutch MC reservoir, bleed the brakes and clutch, make sure all the bolts are tight, get it running then maybe take it for a drive around the block.

chargeR

Making good progress, but no time to take photos. Here's where I'm at:

chargeR

Before and since last post have done a couple of things:

- Doors fitted
- Hatch fitted
- Front guards, bumper, lights and J's lip fitted
- Fitted the radiator properly with some upper mounts I made up, and cut up CL9 hoses to suit
- Hooked up a bunch of other hoses
- Cleaned the IACV again to fix up a lumpy idle
- Roughly tuned the A/F enough to get it drivable and idling
- Welded up front section of exhaust with Burns muffler
- Taken it for a drive around the block
- Fitted door glass, door trims, more interior bits, started tidying the wiring
- Butchered the bonnet from my EF2 hatch to fit (a bit of cutting, some pounding with a hammer to clear intake manifold and rocker cover, and a small hole for the purge valve). Don't worry, that bonnet was already heavily hail damaged, so was never going to be straight. I have 2 spares. I'll tidy it up a bit and spray it black, and later this will form a buck for the proper bonnet I'll make which will have a slightly more raised centre section, and I'll relocate the purge valve elsewhere. I fitted the nice straight bonnet from the EF8 to my EF2.
- Took it for a much more brisk drive around the block to check that VTEC engages and nothing would fall off. Success.

Here's the metal sacrificed out of the bonnet:


How it sits now. Bonnet isn't shut in this pic, but it does indeed shut with only the purge valve poking through. Purge valve has to stay for emissions reasons:


Thanks heaps to my mates for their help over the last while. Car just needs a general tidy up, liberal application of cable ties and hose supporting clamps, attach some more body mouldings, and then it's shakedown time which may end up being the practice day before the World Time Attack event I've entered at the end of next week.

rollinmyda

iTrader: (19)

Looking good!

hondatuner020

iTrader: (1)

Very impressive, you are almost there!

CivicK20forlife

keep up the good build love it

6ixteenauto

really love it.. nice and sick build

.Grimace

Awesome car. Good luck at WTAC I hope you do well! Lots of photos needed

DC4KiD

iTrader: (4)

Awesome progress!