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Been a bit busy and have only had a couple hours a week to work on the car. Really not much time at all when it comes to paint, but I'm more or less done with that now. Needs a couple spots touched up which should only take one more day, then the interior starts going back in.
End of last month. Either Honda seam sealer is really hard, or 25 years of sitting in the sun has hardened it into the consistency of epoxy. Twisted wire wheel on an angle grinder made quick work of it. One helluva mess though.
This was primarily done for preparation of stitching the chassis if I decide to do that. Removing seam sealer afterwards then would require a pretty extensive disassembly of the interior all over again so doing it first with painting the roll bar seemed like the logical choice. All of the sealer between the two axles are gone, save for the very top of the firewall where it meets the cowl and spare tire well as those don't seem too crucial to chassis rigidity. Rear half of car done.
Edit: Not going to bother stitching between the floor and the rockers either. The floor is flimsy as **** in this car. Would probably need to bond carbon sheet to it like in the new Spoon/Built by Legends car to stiffen it up any sort.
Onto the front half of the car. Pulled the entire harness from the firewall. I really want to clean it up but it'll be a job for future me. Present-day me just wants to drive the car.
Column also came out. The pinch bolt also serves as a keyway of sorts to align the splines with the universal joint. There's a flat machined into the column that'll only allow you to insert the pinch bolt on the u-joint if it's straight. Neat design.
Last week. Finished the front. It's a long process. Sanding, vacuuming, wiping down, vacuuming again, then priming the bits that need primer, and finally laying down multiple coats of paint just to find out there were patches that needed more coverage.
Floor plugs also came out since they were loose from previously getting rid of the sound deadening. I'll probably just seal those up with aluminum tape or something.
Something I ordered a little while back also finally came in from England. A Willans 6 point 2x2 harness. Have seen these in many classics and they seem to be the very popular at events like RMR along with many red Sabelt harnesses in the endless sea of vintage racecars. They're also the OEM for the Nismo 6 point. Got to work with one a little while back and do understand why people like them. The adjusters are very easy to use and made of a very nice anodized aluminum. The sub straps are also on a bracket that offsets them from the very center of the buckle which is quite a bit more comfortable than the Scroth version which passes them through a single eyelet.
Adjuster detail
Was also with SCCA this weekend working grid at Laguna Seca and saw a couple Hondas of this era in the endless sea of BMWs participating in NASA touring car (I think that's what it was). Certainly saw a couple things that I quite liked and might integrate into this build. I'll write on them as they get implemented.
Aside from all this, the steering column is going to get regreased and painted over since it's mild steel and is a bit of an eyesore as it's got quite a bit of surface rust on it. Once that's done and put back in, everything should be ready to go.
Paint is done and the interior is back in. Harness is installed with eyebolts going through the seat base which is less than optimal. Better than mounting it through the floor though. I'll probably be fabricating a wrap-around mount similar to the PCI one that'll accommodate the seat being offset to the right.
I'll get some better shots soon. Haven't had the chance to yet, but the interior paint job came out just kinda alright. Painting outside in a dirty environment isn't great. A lot of the flat surfaces have a lot of dust on them.
Drove it around for a bit and got a feel for the car with the roll bar in it. There's a decent bit more weight in the back and the thing understeers pretty bad on throttle. Decided to install the ITR sway and ASR brace that I had lying around. Haven't driven it too hard yet, but the understeer on throttle is gone. I suppose I'll be learning how to catch oversteer soon lol.
Another thing is that there's a ton of preload on the sway bar. I'll need to sort out some adjustable endlinks for this thing soon. The only thing that concerns me is that there's no way to fit collars around the sway bar since there's no room. Worried about deflection and that snapping feeling I have on my other car.
Got a decent bit of seat time down with the larger sway bar and I'm feeling pretty confident in my driving with it. It's stiffens up the entire handling characteristic of the car. Butt dyno tells me that peak grip is improved. It's certainly a less safe feeling setup in that it no longer just slips at the front if you push it too hard, but instead starts to rotate. That said, the amount of initial rotation with oversteer is very easy to catch even without any throttle input. More balanced than it was before would be the best way to put it. The car, as a whole is also heavier; now with more rear weight bias, but it's not an absolute night and day difference compared to not having a roll bar and larger rear sway. The next step for handling is probably going to be somehow adding caster upfront or a set of rear LCAs with adjustable sway bar stiffness.
Finally found some time in the week to go photograph the car. Was certainly a bit later than I had hoped and with the sun setting, there wasn't much light to work with. As always though, this spot just always seems to work with how it diffuses some light off the rock wall across the road in front of the car.
Slight adjustments in ergonomics have been pretty helpful. I think I need the steering wheel an inch or two closer.
Harness is going to get wrapped around the harness bar at some point. Set it up like this initially cause the rear seatbelt mounting locations made sense. They're a bit spread out and the angle from the shaft collar to the mounting point isn't ideal.
I might make a new center support for the dash that runs to both sides. I feel like it still sags a bit in the center. Also want to figure out a new center vent cover that's non vented. The reflection off of the windshield is a bit bothersome.
A very British(?) safety package. Cobra seat paired to a Willans harness. These belts are very nice. F&F of everything is top notch. The 2" shoulders fit over my hans a lot better than the 3" I tried out on a friend's car. Found it a bit bothersome on the street (not to mention a bit unsafe) with buckling in taking a couple minutes. I also chose to anchor the shoulder belts to the back due to being able to take it out of snaps, but with how the rest of everything is installed, going between a 3pt and a 6pt isn't feasible. Maybe I should've gotten a Schroth ASM 4pt...
Found time to install some temp stickers to get readings from the brakes. North of 290 at the outside edge of the caliper and 450 at the rotor hat. Ball joint is experiencing something higher than 250. Not real good for longevity. The worn wheel bearing is also giving me brake knockback and pulsating pedal feel when hot. At these power levels, I think a bbk is a bit overkill, but two pot Legend GS brakes and mini cooper rotors might be sometime soon.
Then fast forward to yesterday and I cook the motor driving home cause I hadn't realized there wasn't any coolant left in the motor. Didn't really pay attention to the CEL either since it's usually on from low idle, but had this real burnt smell that was coming into the cabin and looked at the temp gauge which was probably as high as it can go. Pulled over at the closest exit looking for a gas station but didn't quite make it to one before smoke started billowing out of the hood. Let the motor cool for a couple hours and added an entire gallon of water. (I think the coolant capacity with the stock single row rad is exactly 1 gallon). Managed to nurse it 50 miles back home and now I need, at the very minimum, a new head. I'm still surprised that the damn thing didn't just seize or stop on me. These motors are bulletproof it seems.
I'm able to purchase a complete d16z6 head, intake, and ECU for cheap, or can just start pulling it all apart for the swap. If the deck is still in or near its service limits, I'll toss the new head on. If not, I'll most likely be tearing it apart for the new motor, but it's a bit of a shame I only got three days of seat time with this new setup.
Very nice documentation of your build so far. I happened to stumble across a 171k mile 95 DX hatch myself a while back, although this one is an automatic. Will be making several of the same updates to mine as you have. My first purchase was a junker 500k mile 95 EX coupe to pull the larger front and rear discs from along with the gauge cluster, power side mirrors (one of mine is broken), and some other components here and there). Look forward to seeing what you decide to do on your engine dilemma. My parts car also has a Z6 head that I will likely check out and throw on if I'm going to have to wait a lot longer on finding a k-series.
Friend dropped off the z6 head, intake and p28 ECU today. It looks okay save for a small ding at the edge of cylinder 1 and onto the mating surface. From what I've gathered, it's a bit hit or miss if it'll seal up well or not.
Z6 head, p28 ECU. Will need to wire up vtec.
I've put all the gaskets and belts needed together and it'll be about 130 for all of them. Will also need a new distributor from the junkyard so it'll be another 30 or 40 bucks. I'll pull the existing head before pressing the buy button, but if the block is still straight, I should have a working engine, now with vtec for about 200 dollars.
Also cleaned up the RSX shifter I bought for a couple dollars the other day. All the spilled coffee and drinks had settled into the plastic cavities and was a pain to chip away at and clean up. Had to be wary not to let any of the cleaning solutions touch the factory greased joints and springs. It does look brand new now though.
Gathered the parts to throw the d16 head on. It's all totaled to around 200 bucks or so at this point. Might have to also pick up a d16y8 header to go with this.
Also picked up a 6sp LSD transmission out of an FG4 (K24Z7) from a local dismantler today for dirt cheap. Just happened to show up on car-part.com and I gave them a call. Was told that the case had some damage and needed "a bit of welding". They were on the way back from school so thought I'd swing by and look at it.
Right, a bit of welding...
The car had rolled and the wheel pushed the frame rail in towards the transmission mount. Alu casting gave way before the mount did and snapped it clean off. They offered it to me for a steal. Less than a quarter of market price. Looked into a new case, which surprisingly, is only 350. Regardless of which transmission I got, I was planning on opening it up and checking synchros, so this was a no-brainer.
Now, I'd looked into these before and there's quite a bit less documentation of these cause they're newer. Hasport makes the EGK5 which makes this a bolt-in affair. Shifter might be a bit different with what I have on hand. Not sure if I can get the RSX cables and box to work with just a new cable stop bracket on the transmission side. Gotta do a bit more digging.
That said, I was looking through the Acuity website and it seems like they make cable stops and a shifter box base plate adapter that allows the use of an FK8 shifter and cables for the K24Z7 transmission. In the back of my mind, I'd always wanted a CAE shift box. They seem popular among the BMW crowd and they've just released one for the FK8 not too long ago. Might start with the stuff I already have on hand, but knowing all the parts are out there, it's real tempting.
Installed the new head. Wetsanded the remains of the old HG off with 800 grit taped to an aluminum flat bar. Got rid of most of the old stuff.
Some people seem to like using those 3m scotch brite rocloc pads, but the idea of scotch brite bits floating around in the oil doesn't sit too well with me. The 800 grit got rid of most of the stuff. Should be fine I think. Pulled the middle oil jet per all those mini-me instructions floating around online.
The cylinder sleeves certainly sit a bit proud of the block deck. Maybe this was due to the original graphite HG not having the embossments on them? Hope this isn't from overheating the block.
Softened the edges of the gouge in the head. It's not horribly deep where it matters, next to the cylinder wall.
Amazon still has the fel-pro gaskets with the blue rubberized coating. Apparently the new black coated HGs aren't as good.
Completed my first HG replacement. Held together by the power of thoughts and prayers. Hopefully this doesn't come apart at the track.
Brake pads seem to be sold out left and right. PMU club racers are on 4-6 mo preorders from evasive and everywhere else. Ended up going with some DTC-60's after I couldn't get hold of Porterfield to get a set of ST-42's. They were on sale, so I'll go with these for now. Shouldn't be a problem with a light car that has very little power.
Now to tackle the wiring for vtec and the 4-wire oxygen sensor that I need for the p28 ECU. Corsa technic order hopefully comes in early next week which leaves me a day or two to sort all the electronics out.
Did you receive the broken off piece of the case as well?
I don't have the broken off pieces. Didn't really bother with them. The dismantler had one the rear bit that was broken off (pictured) but didn't have the front one. It's a bit visible in the picture but the third, intact mounting location next to the broken off corner is missing the first 4 or 5 threads. A new case half from honda is only $350 (or $250 through amayama). Would rather just get a new one than patch the only three locations that hold the motor/trans up from this side.
Planned to complete the car on Wednesday, then take it to the muffler shop on Thursday to get a center hanger welded on. Of course that didn't happen. After extending the intake air temp sensor wire, which was one of the most difficult wiring things I'd ever done due to the space constraints, I got it to start on the first try. there was still the vtec wiring to tackle. It also spat out an additional CEL code that I hadn't expected for the fueling system. Was a bit surprised as I had reused the fuel rail as well as all the injectors and had only detached it from the car at the fuel filter. Swapped the P06 ECU that came with the car back in which gave me the CEL for a bad o2 sensor.
Extending this wire was a pain. It was between the driver's shock tower, intake manifold and the alternator. This might be related to the CEL that came up.
The inline PCV valve also came in that night. The old hose connecting the PCV to the breather box just crumbled when I attempted to remove it from the d15 head. The only place left to get them was Honda Parts Now, which wasn't an option as the shipping was 25 bucks and it'd take more than a week. Did some digging and found that this would work with the OEM hose size. Luckily, the reducer between the breather box and the lower PCV hose was the same diameter as the one on the intake manifold.
Thursday night, I decided to build a mini harness section for vtec that ran straight to the ECU. Tefzel wire with a section of DR25 where it would maybe matter. Then sleeved the rest with techflex and ran it through the firewall. Then realized that I didn't have the correct pins for the ECU connectors so I'd have to track those down too. What a mess.
Adhesive lined heatshrink is game changing. I've gotta order more of this stuff.
Ran to the junkyard Friday morning to grab ECU pigtails to depin. Also came across an untouched 6sp manual TSX. Was tempted to drop everything and pull the whole MT conversion from it as I quite want a TSX, but also wanted to go to the track at the same time. Finding a manual k swap chassis all intact in the yard is a rare sight around here.
Had to also completely depin and repin the D plug as I'd accidently stuck the wrong pin in there and couldn't free it from the housing.
Replaced the o2 sensor I'd ordered the night before and got it to start. Was still giving me CEL 43. Reset the ECU and it went away. Threw the new pads and rotors on the front and left the rears as I was dead tired. Tossed all my gear in the trunk and packed the car for the track.
Left for Laguna a bit late and still managed to arrive a bit early. I no longer have any kind of heater in the car so I was wiping the windshield with a towel as I was driving along. Not recommended.
The day went smoothly as the first two sessions of the day were a 'follow the instructor' session at 50-60% effort. Hadn't driven the car hard at all after getting it to start, but after these first two sessions, I was pretty confident it'd all hold together. Really started hammering down on the second to last session. Engine lived between 4 and 7000 rpms for 20 minutes at a time with no problems. I'd forgotten my transponder, but managed a 2:10 on my first point-by session out there according to the gopro. Pretty sure I was able to pull a 2:00-2:05 in my last session with a lot less traffic.
Got this damn thing to run 12 hours before I hit the track. Unbelievable.
That whole thing with RS4s wearing like iron is no lie. These things looked fine after 3 sessions of sliding around and spinning the inside front wheel coming out of corners. Heh, an LSD would be nice about now.
And now to start all over again. Headed to buttonwillow in four days.
Edit: bonus video! Second point-by passing session. Lots of fun. Lots of learning.
Car was consuming a lot of oil at Laguna two weeks ago which I didn't think much about. Thought it was just something with the new head. Then, at the muffler shop, saw oil dripping onto the shop floor while it was on the lift. Came back home and saw oil pooled on the horizontal surface of the block where it meets the transmission case. First thought went to the HG, but then saw the vtec solenoid leaking.
Replaced these the morning I was supposed to drive down. Last minute fixes are always the most fun...
Made it out to Buttonwillow for vtec club that morning and set up for the day. Fun little tidbit from the tech sheet lol.
Some last minute torque checks of everything and headed out for the first session.
Dropped a couple seconds each session as I got a bit more familiar with the track. It's a very technical, fairly fast track. 2:23, 2:19, and 2:18 on my 2nd, 3rd, and 4th sessions.
Got gapped by the EM1 in front of me. I definitely had at least 3-4 easy seconds between bus stop, sweeper, and sunset. Lots of fast guys in the beginner group, not to mention the rest of the run groups. Still trying to figure out where to find the 10 seconds I'm missing to compete with the guys on the N2 podium.
There were also tons of cool cars out there. All very well built. Even more so when you consider that they're taken to the track.
Drove it back up the cost on PCH that saturday. Three days of sitting in a bucket seat sucks. I now understand why I saw people with their stock seats out of the car at the track. Might have to do that next time I head down there...
That wraps up my three weeks of wrenching and racing. I need a break. Next on the to-do are new knuckles and a new toe link. Pretty sure that rotted toe link was giving me some wacky rear end wandering at the track... or maybe I'll spend that money on an aim solo instead of fixing it lol.
Grabbed a new set of spindles from the yard and just noticed that one of them had a hub replaced with a no name assembly. Was thinking about returning them and looking for a new set, but it's a fairly clean set. Pulled out the Dorman hubs that I didn't think I was going to use and popped a stud out of it to measure things up. Between reusing a hub (and having to remove the race) and buying a new, non OE aftermarket hub, I definitely prefer the former. Original hubs are a little pricy in comparison (~150 ea), but might be worth, since the alternative might be sending the car into a wall mid-corner.
The hub that came with the used spindles has no signs of forging which is probably my biggest concern. There seems to be a couple grades of these things and the ones at the bottom don't seem to have that rougher surface at the edge of the backside and the center near where the spindle nut affixes, usually indicative of forging. They could be forged. They could be just a spun billet. The latter would be a bit worrying.
The dorman part for the integra seems to be identical to the one for the civic now. The P/N on the outside of the box and the images on amazon and other places shows a hub that's pretty much identical in shape to the OEM honda one. Recessed lip on the backside, recessed stud seats on the backside. Taiwan origin. Like this.
The one that was packed into both boxes are this one.
I'm seeing the same characteristics from Honda parts now website. They indicate 13" vs 14" front hub. What those measurements are, I have no clue. The 13" is compatible with the non-disc models with the 9.5" front rotor. The 14" with all integras and rear-disc equipped civics through '00
They either consolidated P/Ns or this was put into the wrong box.
Dorman vs ARP stud
Note how the knurling on the OEM Dorman stud is more aggressive. The non-knurled section that sits in the hub is identical in diameter. Below is knurl diameter comparison
Hub diameter, measured at the furthest distance apart. The measured distance has the caliper jaws sitting in the knurl impressions from the dorman stud. I'm assuming without, it'd be maybe .25mm smaller in diameter.
https://tech.arp-bolts.com/wheel-stud-fit.php
ARP calls for 10 to 16 thou smaller diameter for the knurls to bite into the hub. With this setup, its about 1.5 to 2 thou as measured. if the knurls don't line up with the existing ones and can create fresh impressions, I'd say the ARP studs are perfectly fine to be pressed into dorman aftermarket hubs.
Edit - An additional afterthought. Not certain, but Loctite green retaining compound might help if they're a tad out of spec? Main concern would be heat. Rotor hat sees about 4-450 Fahrenheit at the track. The datasheet shows degradation at ~350F
Going to order the integra p/n from another place and see if a different hub shows up. Either that, or I'll go look for some untouched spindles at the junkyard again.
My main concern with all of this is just hub failure. All the ones I'm seeing use the small diameter 44600-S04-980 hub. I wonder if there's more or less material at failure point since they all failed at the same location.
Received the new hubs this past week and they seem to be the correct ones. The first ones were mispackaged I suppose.
Attempted to hammer the studs out with no success. Decided to then take the ball joint tool and remove them that way instead. Completely forgot to thread a nut onto the end and shot the stud out the back into my finger. Broken pinky. Fun times. Also dinged the surface pretty good. Doubt it's structural, but if it cracks, I'll know why
Different studs from the ones pulled out of the smaller hub, but they're made to the same specs. Going to order the other side and press the ARP studs into these hubs.
On another note, the threads for the rear inner driver side seat mount gave out on me. Most likely from me overtightening it. Also maybe because the bolt that I'd been using from the last owner doesn't seem to be the correct thread size. Something I only realized when I went to measure and compare it with the original honda bolt that has a 12mm head. That feeling when you're tightening it and it just starts freeing up. What a horrible feeling.
This is one that I grabbed from the yard when I picked up a new passenger seat. M10x1.25 with a lead-in section to prevent cross threading. I think the bolt in the picture above might've been a plain m10x1.5 bolt.
The nut that sits inside of the frame rail seems to be a weld nut of some sort. I've seen proper weld nuts around the chassis, as well as plain hex nuts welded onto sheet metal. I might go to the junkyard with a hole saw and see whats inside before I go about trying to fix it.
I'll most likely just opt for a time sert since from what it seems, very little material is removed. They use an 13/32nd drill bit which is about 10.4mm according to google. Measuring from the floor to the bottom of the nut is about 10mm in depth, so a 9mm time sert insert is what should be needed. I've never fixed a thread before so this'll be another learning experience for me. Quite an expensive one to say the least. 100 bucks for the damn time sert kit...
No doubt - Time-Sert kits are expensive, but damn they're nice to have around. I spread out buying M6, M8, M10, and M12 kits over a year (a few years back), and I also picked up the M11x1.5 head stud kit last year. It was painful to spend that money, but on several occasions it's been nice to go to the drawer and pull it out right when I need it.
Just follow the directions, drill straight, and use a lubricant (I prefer Tap Magic).
Alright, so turns out the dorman hubs are are no-go. Stud presses into the hub with your hand, then spins around in the hub with very little force. On the bright side, the measurement of the hubs fall into the range of the studs that ARP makes for NA and NB Miatas. I'll be ordering a set once they come back into stock and maybe will put a second set of spindles together.
Was still trying to figure out how I was going to knock the hub out of the bearing without anything to hold it in place with then came across this how-to. The square steel stock is a bit more difficult to find since OSH is no longer around, but they're available on McMaster for relatively cheap. P/N 98830A542. https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-...nsive-1567042/
Started disassembling the spindles and realized that none of the drifts or cups from the oreilly rental tool kit fit into the bearing. Remembered that people would use the 32mm spindle nut socket to hammer it out, but mine was slightly too big in OD. (Harbor freight 32mm impact socket). Went to home depot and found a regular 32mm 12pt non-impact socket that fit the bill perfectly. Set it up like this and was able to easily hammer the hub out.
Ideally, remove the Philips screws holding the dust shield to the spindle and place the two steel pieces where the screws once were. This transmits the force into the spindle far better than if you brace the steel pieces against the sections of dust shield that are unsupported.
To remove the inner races, I used a bearing splitter and the same two steel pieces braced on the wood. I didn't want to use the method of slotting the race and splitting it with a chisel, but quickly realized that either way, removing the inner race will mar the hub in some way shape or form.
Ended up taking a file to these. Not much material needs to be removed.
Shifted the focus onto the stripped bolt. Pulled the seat out and went to drilling the old threads out. Just as I'd expected, it was pretty difficult to drill out as there was only a small section of the drill that was working on the edge of the metal. Due to this, it would snag and attempt to lean over if you tried to get it to cut properly. Gave up and just used the same approach I did when drilling the shift linkage out for the bronze bearing. Lots of speed, very little force, and gobs of chatter. Did end up being alright in the end, but a bridge reamer would've made a lot more sense in this application. The tapping of the material above can certainly be started and done by hand since the tap has a decent taper on it. Also note that this seat mount doesn't go straight up and down.
Cutting oil for the forming tap. Red loctite for the insert.
Reinstalled the seat and noticed that it was still prone to cross threading even after beating the tunnel in more and using the OEM Honda bolt. You can see the already big indent in the trans/exhaust tunnel. Realized that it was the bend in the seat bracket itself getting hung up on the body of the car. You can see the paint that this takes off at the 90 degree bend. Will notch and expand the rear slot in the PCI mount a tiny bit when I have the seat out next.
Also replaced the pull tab on the rear hatch. Found this really nice one at a junkyard from a CRV. It still had the chromate yellow plating on it! Refinished the plastics a bit with trizact sheets and threw it onto the car.
New one is new.
Next track day is coming up soon. Should probably start on the prep a bit earlier than I did last time...
Put it on some scales yesterday to get a rough idea of what corner weights were like. With about 8 gallons of gas, it sits at 1979lb. Quite light, considering that both crash beams are still in. There's also some easy weight reduction to be had all over the place.
- AGM or Lithium battery should shed about 20-30lb.
- N1 style muffler or straight pipe should shed another 5-10lb
- both bumper supports should be about 10-20lb
- Door glass is easily 40-50lb for both sides, though I quite being able to roll the windows down.
With me in the car, cross weight is at 51.5%. Relatively easily fixed with raising the opposite corners evenly, but if I'm able to take that 20-30lb off the front left corner where the battery is, it should give me something very close to 51%.
Started putting things together in preparation for next weekend's track day. New spindles are waiting on bearings that have been shipped from the next city over to a place that's 50 miles away and are now slowly being shipped back. Decided to schedule an alignment and start pulling the car apart today.
First thing I notice. Not too comforting. Is this a leaky radiator?
Then I notice that the front right rotor is completely demolished and the inside pad is down to a couple mm. This caliper had a bad dust seal from the beginning and both the fronts were centric remans with pretty iffy slide pins. The heat probably got to these or the slide pins didn't like how they sat when I replaced the pads last and probably contributed to the pads not returning correctly.
Lasted me 6 weeks. Kinda sucks, but on the bright side, they're only 30 or 40 bucks each.
Also makes sense now. Crazy amount of brake dust on this side of the car after a quick spirited drive; no more than 30 miles or so.
Luckily had this spare caliper that I bought when I tore the dust boot. Probably should've replaced it before it destroyed the rotor and pads.
Did some more trimming and cutting. Pictures soon...
"Adding power makes you faster in the straights. Removing weight makes you faster everywhere"
As usual, the car was still on stands a couple days before it headed to the track.
Swapped out the toe link with rotted bushings. New PCI unit looks quite a bit nicer and is lighter than the ones that are made of two heim joints and a turnbuckle.
Had to take a pry bar and put pressure underneath the toe bolt while backing it out. Last thing I wanted to do was to drill a hole in the body to fish out the floating toe adjustment nut. Looks a helluva lot newer than everything around it.
Just front LCAs for now. Do want the rear, but they're not really needed. Was primarily looking for an increase in caster and these fit the bill.
Now onto the rear hub. Upon taking the rear hubs off to press new studs in, I realized that they too had tons of play. Ran to the junkyard and grabbed two relatively fresh trailing arms of an integra with only 90k miles. Rear race didn't quite want to come off with the hub so had to rig this up since I was running out of time.
ARP studs pressed in. New rear rotors, temp stickers, and DTC60's to balance out the ST43s installed up front.
Put everything back together and before throwing the bumper on decided to get rid of the washer bottle. I never really worked when I bought the car and I didn't really find it useful. Maybe 10lb or so with all that washer fluid in there.
Found a drag cartel strut tower bar the day before and grabbed it for pretty cheap. Didn't think it would do much, but threw it on anyways since this car is a flimsy tin can. It's bad enough that I can't close the door if it's jacked up on one corner. It eventually did shift around about 1mm or so on one of the towers so I'm not sure if it does much. I can feel things like running up onto curbs a bit more though, so maybe it does help a bit. Or maybe it's the new LCA.
Back to Laguna Seca for a shakedown day of sorts. Basically brought the entire toolbox. With some ride height adjustments and alignment changes, the car feels pretty solid for a faster track like Laguna.
Car didn't want to start on the third session for some unknown reason. Battery was good, and we checked the alternator later on which was also good. Relay was clicking, but no sign of it attempting to crank. Until it decided it wanted to give me two weak cranks which started the car fine. Started fine three times more after that, then decided that it didn't want to start again at the end of the day. Luckily, was able to push start the car with the help of a couple guys in the paddock and made it home. Going to have to dig into this a bit more later to find out what it is. Really bizarre how it just didn't want to crank at all...
09-16-2021, 10:28 PM
Re: Reviving a rice rocket - '95 CX hatch build thread
