BrakesPros.com CRX K20-Powered Road Race Build
01-31-2012, 08:19 AM
#1
BuyBrakes.com CRX K20-Powered Road Race Build
*The former BrakesPros CRX will now have a new title sponsor, BuyBrakes.com. BuyBrakes.com is a much more developed site. We will still have the same great prices, same great customer service and we are still the same group of guys learning and trying to build a legitimate race car. With our new focus on competing in the Global Time Attack Series, we are excited for what the future may hold!
Visit Our New Store - Brake Pads | Brake Rotors | Big Brake Kits | Brake Fluid | And More!
Follow our build on our blog. BRAKES BLOG
Follow Us On Facebook. Facebook - BuyBrakes.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Special Thanks To Our Sponsors, Suppliers & Supporters!
BuyBrakes.com - http://buybrakes.com/
With the support of Buybrakes.com, we are able to enjoy the racing experience we love so much..We are excited about what the future holds for our project!
Induction Performance - https://www.facebook.com/IPTUNING
Alpha at Induction Performance is the mastermind of tuning big HP forced induction cars. However, Alpha can tune on any vehicle, even a small naturally aspirated motor such as ours! We can trust that Alpha will keep our engine running healthy and can take on any project we may throw at him in the future!
Redline Designs - http://www.redlinedesign.tv/
Justin has been great through the entire process of branding our CRX. He helped us come up with a clean design and went beyond our expectations of quality and creativity!
LHT Performance - http://lhtperformance.net/
I am sure most of you know John from LHT, as his work has been featured on several tuner magazines, including Honda Tuning. We were very excited to have John building our intake and exhaust and we cannot put into words the quality of craftsmanship he puts into his fabrication work.
Hawk Performance Brakes - Hawk Performance Brakes
We are happy to team up with Hawk Performance Brakes on our CRX. We have used their products in the past and never had an issue. Our Quiet Slot Rotors and HT-10 pads performed very well on our Sebring track day as well!
K-Tuned - http://www.k-tuned.com/
These guys are the innovators of the K-Series Conversion market. K-Tuned stood out to us as a great company and their amazing customer service put them over the top. We are happy to be partnering up with them on our project!
Real Custom Coatings - http://facebook.com/rccoatings05
These guys did a great job powder coating our K20 Valve Cover, we wanted something sleek that didnt stand out. We went with a textured black finish. Give these guys a call for any powder coating you are looking to have done, they can do some pretty amazing stuff!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Car: 1989 Honda CRX
Use: High Performance Driving Events / Time Attack
Engine: K20Z1 / Factory 6 spd / Factory 4.7 FD
Goal: To Be Competitive In Time Attack FWD
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Recent Photos:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Recent Videos:
Global Time Attack Road Atlanta - Limited FWD Fast Lap
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Why use the CRX as our platform?
This CRX actually belongs to a good friend of mine, Chris Falso, who has been slowly building the car up over the last couple years. Chris has had his eyes on this particular CRX for quite a long time, dating back to when it was a full prepped drag car raced by Mike Yonke, with huge slicks, roll cage, traction bars and the whole nine yards! Chris watched the car go through several owners, including one our best friends, Steven. Steven started prepping the car for a K series swap, but had to let the car go to pay for his college. Chris saw this as his last oppurtunity to make this car his own, and purchased the car from Steven. Once the car was in Chris's posession, he kept the car on the path for a K Series conversion. He already had a k swap and most of the parts from his Integra project. He sold the Integra shell after swapping over most of the suspension components and the engine over to the CRX.
The build was slowly completed over the course of about 1-1/2 years as Chris was in and out of the hospital most of that time, but that didnt stop him from working on the CRX when he could. Chris had some good friends helping him along the way, including Steven, who he bought the car from, Dustan, Matt and several others along the way. Chris always says he could not have done it without the help from his friends. Once the build was as far as Chris could take it, he took it over to Matts shop in Tampa, FL "Strictly MT" to be completed. Matt has a lot of experience with K Series, specifically into the EF chassis which most people shy away from, and has been a Honda tuner for quite some time now. Not long after the car was dropped off, Matt had it running on a base map and Chris was able to drive the car home!
Shortly thereafter, myself and Chris were talking about his build and what his plans were for the CRX. Chris had always joked that he brought this car home for me to race on a road course..I never believed him and took it as a joke. A few weeks later, I was in the Tampa area on a detailing trip, and decided to meet Chris and check out the car, and hopefully get to take it for a test drive! It would be the first K-Series car I had driven and in a CRX no less! When I arrived, Chris pulled the car out for me and let me take it for a spin. I made a few passes down US-19 and was grinning ear to ear, who wouldnt be?!? The car ran well, but I could tell there was something amiss with the tune or motor and that it would need to be dyno tuned before we could ever get it on a road course. A week or so passes and I was talking about the car with my boss, the owner of TruckXL, Inc, which also owns BrakesPros.com. We had been talking about building a race car for quite a while to represent our brand, but never made the push. After our conversation, he told me to put together a proposal and we decided to offer the idea to Chris to campaign his car and have it sponsored by our company with myself as the driver. I asked Chris several times if he really wanted to do it, as it was almost too good to be true, but he kept saying yes and that he only trusted me to drive his car in this fashion. Chris has been very generous and although he isnt able to drive it as much as he would like, he still enjoys getting to work on the car with us and occasionally gets to take a few laps around the road course!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Engine:
K20Z1 / Factory Transmission (6Spd 4.7FD)
* Hasport EFK1 Motor Mounts
* Skunk2 Pro Series Intake Manifold
* Skunk2 Pro Series 74mm Throttle Body
* Hondata Intake Manifold Gasket
* Battleground 4-1 Header
* LHT Custom 3" Cold Air Intake
* LHT Custom "shorty" 2.5" Exhaust
* K-Tuned AC/PS Delete
* K-Tuned Fuel Rail & Center Mount Gauge Kit
* K-Tuned Billet TPS
* K-Tuned Fuel Pressure Regulator
* Hybrid-Racing Wiring Harness
* Hondata K-Pro (Tuned on E85)
* Competiton Clutch 11lb Lightweight Flywheel
* Competition Clutch Stage 4 6 Puck Rigid Clutch/Pressure Plate
* Wrinkle Black Powder Coated Valve Cover
* Skunk2 Low-Profile Valve Cover Hardware Kit
* Skunk2 Black Series Oil Cap
* Skunk2 Radiator Cap
* Skunk2 Magnetic Drain Plugs
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chassis:
* Integra Front and Rear Disc Brakes
* Earls Stainless Steel Brake Lines
* ARP Extended Wheel Studs
* BLOX Spherical Rear Trailing Arm Bushings
* D2 Racing 32-Way Adjustable Coil-Overs
* FCS Fab Custom Fuel Cell (OEM Location Approx. 11 Gallons)
* SwitchBack Racing Custom Fabbed 4Litre Surge Tank
* Jegs Black -AN Fittings and Line - Complete Fuel System Front To Back
* Aeromotive A750 Fuel Pump (To surge tank)
* Walbro 255 Inline Fuel Pump (To Fuel Pressure Regulator)
* K-Tuned Traction Bars
* EG/DC 1/2 Size Radiator
* Fal Thin Electric Fan
* Revo Technica Front and Rear Camber Kit
* Complete Energy Suspension Bushing Set
* Hawk Performance Quiet Slot Brake Rotors
* Hawk Performance HT-10 Racing Brake Pads - Front
* Hawk Performance HP Plus Brake Pads - Rear
* Motul RBF-600 Brake Fluid
* 15x7 Drag DR-21
* 205/50/15 Falken Azenis/Hoosier R6 (Soon to be Toyo RA1 for GTA Limited FWD)
* Siebon Carbon Fiber Hood W/ Hood Pins
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Interior:
* Welded Roll Bar
* Corbeau Forza 2 Racing Bucket(x2)
* Corbeau Factory Seat Rails(x2)
* RCI 5-Point Racing Harness(x2)
* Autometer Phantom II Tachometer W/ Shift Light
* Autometer Phantom II Oil Pressure Guage
* Autometer Phantom II Water Temp Gauge
* Autometer Phantom II Volt Meter Gauge
* ProSport Wideband Gauge (With Datalogging)
* RSX-S Shifter
* K-Tuned Shifter Base Plate
Last edited by BuyBrakes.com; 05-30-2012 at 05:38 AM.
01-31-2012, 08:21 AM
#2
Re: BrakesPros.com CRX K20-Powered Road Race Build
Chris slowly built this car over the course of the last 2 years. During this time, he was in and out of the hospital most of that time due to an illness, however that still didnt stop him from pursuing his dream track build. He spent countless hours working on the car from getting the chassis ready to accept the K-swap to all the other miscellaneous details that come along with a project like this. Chris put all of his time and effort into this build, and it shows! We are extremely grateful to Chris for letting us take his most prized possession and turn the car into a full time track car representing our company BrakesPros.com!
Read more about our experience on our blog! http://blog.buybrakes.com/
K20Z1 Long Block before it went in the car.
Getting the CRX ready for the K Swap.
K swap almost complete, K-tuned traction bars installed and test fitting radiator(the fan was reversed from this picture since taken).
Hood shuts!
Chris then went on to build a custom gauge cluster using the factory center console using Autometer guages.
Corbeau Forza2 Seat waiting to be installed.
Steven installing the Integra rear brake assemblies and D2 Racing Coil-Overs.
Complete. All new brakes will be installed later, obviously!
Rear Lower Control Arms Installed.
Fuel Cell to be installed.
Installed with return line and roll-over vent.
How the car sat when we picked the car up from Chris!
Read more about our experience on our blog! http://blog.buybrakes.com/
K20Z1 Long Block before it went in the car.
Getting the CRX ready for the K Swap.
K swap almost complete, K-tuned traction bars installed and test fitting radiator(the fan was reversed from this picture since taken).
Hood shuts!
Chris then went on to build a custom gauge cluster using the factory center console using Autometer guages.
Corbeau Forza2 Seat waiting to be installed.
Steven installing the Integra rear brake assemblies and D2 Racing Coil-Overs.
Complete. All new brakes will be installed later, obviously!
Rear Lower Control Arms Installed.
Fuel Cell to be installed.
Installed with return line and roll-over vent.
How the car sat when we picked the car up from Chris!
Last edited by BuyBrakes.com; 05-22-2012 at 07:34 AM.
01-31-2012, 08:23 AM
#3
Re: BrakesPros.com CRX K20-Powered Road Race Build
The first thing we needed for our CRX was a fresh set of rubber. We needed to get the proper wheels and tires on the car before we could move any further with our build. We opted for the new Falken Azenis RT-615K's after having good experiences with the original RT-615 tire in the past. Eventually we may end up running full race slicks, but we wanted to make sure we get all of the bugs out the car before going with a full slick. I have never raced on a slick tire or driven a CRX prior to this one, so I decided to take things slow and get comfortable with the car before learning everything all at once.
Read more about our experience on our blog! http://blog.buybrakes.com/
After picking up the car from his house, Chris helped me unload the CRX from our trailer at Advance Performance.
Falken Azenis RT-615K in 205/50/15 should keep our CRX on the track.
All four wheels removed, ready for some fresh rubber to be installed.
Back on the ground, car looks great sitting on the fresh Azenis! Note: Fuel setup has since been changed from this configuration.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Read more about our experience on our blog! http://blog.buybrakes.com/
After having our Falken Azenis mounted and balanced, our next stop for our CRX was at Cars & Concepts for a race alignment. Chris had already done some work in the suspension area of this car. He already had Energy Suspension PolyUrethane Bushings installed throughout most of the car, D2 Racing 36 Way damper and rebound adjustable monotube coilover system, D2 Racing Lower Control Arms and Acura Integra brakes front and rear(we will get more into that shortly).
Once we arrived at Cars And Concepts, they put the car up on the lift to give the car a good inspection. Their attention to detail was also quite phenomenal, they quickly pointed out several possible issues with our car that needed to be looked at. A couple things to name were one of the rear trailing arm bushings showing some signs of wear, which we intend to replace with either a Energy component or a spherical type. They also pointed out that we had a sticking front brake caliper which we hadnt noticed just driving the car around the block, more on that to come later as well. Last but not least, we had very slight play in on of our tie-rods, but nothing too serious. It was a great experience bringing our car to these high level shops, we learned something new at each one to make our car safer help get our CRX ready to race.
Inspecting the CRX.
Checking Tie-Rod Ends.
And our D2 racing LCA’s and coilovers.
After they finished their initial inspection, we decided to lower the car approximately an inch on 3 of the 4 corners. Initially, we wanted to have the car corner balanced, but we were strapped on time trying to make our tuning session later that day, so we decided that we would do it next time around. Although we decided not to have the car corner balanced, we still need to lower the car and level it out. After some discussion of the direction we wanted to go with the car, we agreed to lower it to 23″ from floor to fender arch on all four corners.
Locking in the coilover adjustments with the coilover wrenches.
After we set the ride height, we moved the car over to the alignment rack.
Once the car was back on the ground for the final time, we immediately noticed that the fenders were going to need to be rolled in order for our tires to clear without interference from the fenders. We decided to call up Bobby at S&R Performance in Tampa, FL and luckily he had a fender rolling tool on hand and generously let us borrow it even though it was already after 7pm. After a quick spin in the car through the industrial park to make sure everything checked out from the alignment, we loaded the car back into the trailer and hauled it over to SR Performance where we rolled the fenders to make clearance for our new tires and stance.
Fender Rolling Tool Attached to Hub.
As your can see here, we have about 1/4″- 1/2″ of sheet metal that needed to be rolled to clear our tires.
After slowly working the metal with the roller and heat gun making sure not to crack the paint, we have a nicely rolled fender! We may end up pulling them in the future if we decide to run 225′s on the car, but we have more than enough clearance for the 205′s as it sits.
Read more about our experience on our blog! http://blog.buybrakes.com/
After picking up the car from his house, Chris helped me unload the CRX from our trailer at Advance Performance.
Falken Azenis RT-615K in 205/50/15 should keep our CRX on the track.
All four wheels removed, ready for some fresh rubber to be installed.
Back on the ground, car looks great sitting on the fresh Azenis! Note: Fuel setup has since been changed from this configuration.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Read more about our experience on our blog! http://blog.buybrakes.com/
After having our Falken Azenis mounted and balanced, our next stop for our CRX was at Cars & Concepts for a race alignment. Chris had already done some work in the suspension area of this car. He already had Energy Suspension PolyUrethane Bushings installed throughout most of the car, D2 Racing 36 Way damper and rebound adjustable monotube coilover system, D2 Racing Lower Control Arms and Acura Integra brakes front and rear(we will get more into that shortly).
Once we arrived at Cars And Concepts, they put the car up on the lift to give the car a good inspection. Their attention to detail was also quite phenomenal, they quickly pointed out several possible issues with our car that needed to be looked at. A couple things to name were one of the rear trailing arm bushings showing some signs of wear, which we intend to replace with either a Energy component or a spherical type. They also pointed out that we had a sticking front brake caliper which we hadnt noticed just driving the car around the block, more on that to come later as well. Last but not least, we had very slight play in on of our tie-rods, but nothing too serious. It was a great experience bringing our car to these high level shops, we learned something new at each one to make our car safer help get our CRX ready to race.
Inspecting the CRX.
Checking Tie-Rod Ends.
And our D2 racing LCA’s and coilovers.
After they finished their initial inspection, we decided to lower the car approximately an inch on 3 of the 4 corners. Initially, we wanted to have the car corner balanced, but we were strapped on time trying to make our tuning session later that day, so we decided that we would do it next time around. Although we decided not to have the car corner balanced, we still need to lower the car and level it out. After some discussion of the direction we wanted to go with the car, we agreed to lower it to 23″ from floor to fender arch on all four corners.
Locking in the coilover adjustments with the coilover wrenches.
After we set the ride height, we moved the car over to the alignment rack.
Once the car was back on the ground for the final time, we immediately noticed that the fenders were going to need to be rolled in order for our tires to clear without interference from the fenders. We decided to call up Bobby at S&R Performance in Tampa, FL and luckily he had a fender rolling tool on hand and generously let us borrow it even though it was already after 7pm. After a quick spin in the car through the industrial park to make sure everything checked out from the alignment, we loaded the car back into the trailer and hauled it over to SR Performance where we rolled the fenders to make clearance for our new tires and stance.
Fender Rolling Tool Attached to Hub.
As your can see here, we have about 1/4″- 1/2″ of sheet metal that needed to be rolled to clear our tires.
After slowly working the metal with the roller and heat gun making sure not to crack the paint, we have a nicely rolled fender! We may end up pulling them in the future if we decide to run 225′s on the car, but we have more than enough clearance for the 205′s as it sits.
Last edited by BuyBrakes.com; 05-22-2012 at 07:35 AM.
01-31-2012, 08:23 AM
#4
Re: BrakesPros.com CRX K20-Powered Road Race Build
Performance Brakes are one of the best and least expensive modifications you can do to increase the overall performance of your vehicle. Having good success with Hawk Performance Brakes in the past, we opted for the new Hawk Quiet Slot Rotors paired up with Hawk HP Plus Brake Pads for the rear. We chose this combination because we didnt want the initial bite to be too harsh under braking since our car is so light, yet it is still capable of handling the heat we will be putting them under. Our CRX was already equipped with DC2 Integra brakes front and rear, which will provide more than enough braking force to help bring our CRX down to safe speeds, especially once equipped with the Hawk Brakes.
It seems as if we always end up working into the late hours of the night on this car, and this night was no exception. Since we only work on the car after work hours, we normally dont get started until 6 or 7pm. We were scheduled to have the car dyno tuned the next morning by Alpha at Induction Performance, so we wanted to make sure our brakes were in good working order and that our motor had fresh oil and spark plugs for the tuning session. A simple brake job and engine tune-up is easy and shouldnt take us any time at all right? Wrong. Once we had all of the brakes installed, we found that the we had a "stuck" front passenger caliper and it was now showing its face with the new thicker brake pads. Even without the brakes being applied, the car would stop itself, almost like the e-brake was still on. Luckily, we had some spare parts, and just happened to have a set of Integra front brakes sitting at the house not being used. After we picked up the spare brake caliper, it was a fairly quick change out and the brakes felt good again, so we proceeded to flush the brake lines with Motul RBF600 Brake Fluid to keep up with the temps our brakes will see on the track. Even though we were in a private-owned industrial area, still I am sure the surrounding neighbors thought kindly of us for bedding in the brakes at 1am!
Read more about our experience on our blog! http://blog.buybrakes.com/
Tyler began with the rear brakes while I degreased and washed the wheels to make the car more presentable.
Our new Hawk Quiet Slot Rotors with Hawk HP Plus Performance Pads Installed in the rear.
Once the rears were done, Tyler removed the front wheels and cleaned them while I worked on installing the new front brakes.
Fitting the new Hawk HT-10 Racing Pads into the front caliper.
Front brake installation complete.
After we installed the brakes, we changed out the spark plugs for a fresh set of NGK Laser Iridiums and we changed the oil and oil filter with Mobil 1.
Rotors Used For 94-01 Acura Integra Brake Upgrade:
Front PN#: Hawk Quiet Slot Rotors HUS522
Rear PN#: Hawk Quiet Slot Rotors HUS308
Brake Pads Used For 94-01 Acura Integra Brake Upgrade:
Front PN#: Hawk HT-10 Racing Brake Pads HB245S.631
Rear PN#: Hawk HP Plus Brake Pads HB350N.496
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Our CRX already had a basemap on it using Hondata KPro, which when I drove the car for the first time with Chris, ran really well. By the time we were able to get the car to the dyno at Induction Performance, we had a pretty bad misfire and we were barely able to pull the car in and out of our trailer under its own power. We didnt know exactly what was wrong, we already changed the spark plugs, which would help but only for a few minutes. We knew we needed a complete tune to get the car running right. Having known Alpha for a few years, we decided to bring our CRX to his shop, Induction Performance, to have the car dyno tuned. After Alpha got the base tune down on the car, he started making some full throttle pulls and we could tell he wasnt getting the results he was looking for. Alpha explained to us that he was throwing as much fuel at the car as he possibly could through Kpro and that our injectors were almost static(100% duty) and our AF ratio was still only reading high 12's. We were all kind of scratching our heads, knowing the engine was stock, there was no way it could be running out of fuel on the stock injectors already. We tried calling some local shops to see if we could find some injectors for our K-Series, but we had no luck. We had an Auto-X coming up in just a couple days, so Alpha was able to tune the car to get by for the time being, our final Air/Fuel ratio at WOT was 12.8:1 with our injectors nearly 100% maxed out, not optimal, but still in the safe zone. After the tune, we could immediately notice the car ran much smoother, but it didnt like low rpms as it would stutter and cause you to clutch in to avoid having the car buck. To get past this, you just had to throttle it up again and it was fine under WOT. Alpha suggested we get new injectors, so we ordered a set of Injector Dynamics ID-725's for our K20. Slightly overkill for our project, however we will be running E85(which uses more fuel) once we get re-tuned and if we ever decide to go higher compression or add cams, we will still have plenty of fuel left without having to buy new injectors again.
At the end of the day we only made 193whp, which is WAY low on power for the mods we had. Besides the injectors, we had a couple other things that may have contributed to our car not making power though. For one, we had no intake on the car since we needed to have one custom built and we ran out of time before the dyno day. We were also running open header, which is not too big a deal, but from talking to some friends of ours(shout out to Matt Mansfield at StrictlyMT!), a short pipe with a dump would gain us a couple WHP along with the intake. We have some exciting updates on both of these issues that I will come back to later. We will be going back to Alpha with the new ID725cc injectors, custom cold air intake and a custom exhaust on our CRX in the near future, we are excited to see what we can get out of it with these additional modifications on top of the E85!
Once we got the car back home, we were getting the car ready for the Auto-x weekend, we decided to throw in some stock k-series injectors from our friend Tylers car. We had a strong suspicion the injectors were bad in our car, so we decided we had nothing to loose. Once we fired up the car again, I could immediately notice the difference, the car ran amazingly smooth and all the stuttering was no longer present. I decided to take the car around the block to see how it ran, to my surprise, the car now ran at a solid 10:1 Air/Fuel ratio at WOT! This was good news and we no longer had to worry about the car running lean for our auto-x event, we would just run these injectors for the weekend until we take the car back to be re-tuned.
http://youtu.be/FmfLKyXSZ_4
Read more about our experience on our blog! http://blog.buybrakes.com/
It seems as if we always end up working into the late hours of the night on this car, and this night was no exception. Since we only work on the car after work hours, we normally dont get started until 6 or 7pm. We were scheduled to have the car dyno tuned the next morning by Alpha at Induction Performance, so we wanted to make sure our brakes were in good working order and that our motor had fresh oil and spark plugs for the tuning session. A simple brake job and engine tune-up is easy and shouldnt take us any time at all right? Wrong. Once we had all of the brakes installed, we found that the we had a "stuck" front passenger caliper and it was now showing its face with the new thicker brake pads. Even without the brakes being applied, the car would stop itself, almost like the e-brake was still on. Luckily, we had some spare parts, and just happened to have a set of Integra front brakes sitting at the house not being used. After we picked up the spare brake caliper, it was a fairly quick change out and the brakes felt good again, so we proceeded to flush the brake lines with Motul RBF600 Brake Fluid to keep up with the temps our brakes will see on the track. Even though we were in a private-owned industrial area, still I am sure the surrounding neighbors thought kindly of us for bedding in the brakes at 1am!
Read more about our experience on our blog! http://blog.buybrakes.com/
Tyler began with the rear brakes while I degreased and washed the wheels to make the car more presentable.
Our new Hawk Quiet Slot Rotors with Hawk HP Plus Performance Pads Installed in the rear.
Once the rears were done, Tyler removed the front wheels and cleaned them while I worked on installing the new front brakes.
Fitting the new Hawk HT-10 Racing Pads into the front caliper.
Front brake installation complete.
After we installed the brakes, we changed out the spark plugs for a fresh set of NGK Laser Iridiums and we changed the oil and oil filter with Mobil 1.
Rotors Used For 94-01 Acura Integra Brake Upgrade:
Front PN#: Hawk Quiet Slot Rotors HUS522
Rear PN#: Hawk Quiet Slot Rotors HUS308
Brake Pads Used For 94-01 Acura Integra Brake Upgrade:
Front PN#: Hawk HT-10 Racing Brake Pads HB245S.631
Rear PN#: Hawk HP Plus Brake Pads HB350N.496
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Our CRX already had a basemap on it using Hondata KPro, which when I drove the car for the first time with Chris, ran really well. By the time we were able to get the car to the dyno at Induction Performance, we had a pretty bad misfire and we were barely able to pull the car in and out of our trailer under its own power. We didnt know exactly what was wrong, we already changed the spark plugs, which would help but only for a few minutes. We knew we needed a complete tune to get the car running right. Having known Alpha for a few years, we decided to bring our CRX to his shop, Induction Performance, to have the car dyno tuned. After Alpha got the base tune down on the car, he started making some full throttle pulls and we could tell he wasnt getting the results he was looking for. Alpha explained to us that he was throwing as much fuel at the car as he possibly could through Kpro and that our injectors were almost static(100% duty) and our AF ratio was still only reading high 12's. We were all kind of scratching our heads, knowing the engine was stock, there was no way it could be running out of fuel on the stock injectors already. We tried calling some local shops to see if we could find some injectors for our K-Series, but we had no luck. We had an Auto-X coming up in just a couple days, so Alpha was able to tune the car to get by for the time being, our final Air/Fuel ratio at WOT was 12.8:1 with our injectors nearly 100% maxed out, not optimal, but still in the safe zone. After the tune, we could immediately notice the car ran much smoother, but it didnt like low rpms as it would stutter and cause you to clutch in to avoid having the car buck. To get past this, you just had to throttle it up again and it was fine under WOT. Alpha suggested we get new injectors, so we ordered a set of Injector Dynamics ID-725's for our K20. Slightly overkill for our project, however we will be running E85(which uses more fuel) once we get re-tuned and if we ever decide to go higher compression or add cams, we will still have plenty of fuel left without having to buy new injectors again.
At the end of the day we only made 193whp, which is WAY low on power for the mods we had. Besides the injectors, we had a couple other things that may have contributed to our car not making power though. For one, we had no intake on the car since we needed to have one custom built and we ran out of time before the dyno day. We were also running open header, which is not too big a deal, but from talking to some friends of ours(shout out to Matt Mansfield at StrictlyMT!), a short pipe with a dump would gain us a couple WHP along with the intake. We have some exciting updates on both of these issues that I will come back to later. We will be going back to Alpha with the new ID725cc injectors, custom cold air intake and a custom exhaust on our CRX in the near future, we are excited to see what we can get out of it with these additional modifications on top of the E85!
Once we got the car back home, we were getting the car ready for the Auto-x weekend, we decided to throw in some stock k-series injectors from our friend Tylers car. We had a strong suspicion the injectors were bad in our car, so we decided we had nothing to loose. Once we fired up the car again, I could immediately notice the difference, the car ran amazingly smooth and all the stuttering was no longer present. I decided to take the car around the block to see how it ran, to my surprise, the car now ran at a solid 10:1 Air/Fuel ratio at WOT! This was good news and we no longer had to worry about the car running lean for our auto-x event, we would just run these injectors for the weekend until we take the car back to be re-tuned.
http://youtu.be/FmfLKyXSZ_4
Read more about our experience on our blog! http://blog.buybrakes.com/
Last edited by BuyBrakes.com; 05-22-2012 at 07:45 AM.
01-31-2012, 08:24 AM
#5
Re: BrakesPros.com CRX K20-Powered Road Race Build
The last stop before our first weekend of racing was with Justin at Redline Design Custom Graphics in Tampa, FL. We have been working with Justin on a graphic design for our CRX for a few weeks, turns out it was pretty tough to come up with a good graphic scheme that worked well with the body lines of the CRX. Our CRX is also painted in a custom orange color that really stands out, especially in photos and we wanted to take advantage of that to make the car stand out at the track and at shows. After going through several revisions, we ended up going with something really simple and we are really happy with how it turned out. When we arrived at Redline Design, Justin was still cutting the vinyl, which was pretty cool to be able to see the cutter in action! Justin was kind enough to let us watch the entire process from the time he was cutting the vinyl to installing the vinyl on our car. The graphics really pop off the car which was one of our main concerns and we were able to keep our orange paint mostly uncovered to retain a clean appearance. Every decal on our car was custom made by Justin to keep our decals in harmony with each other and we cant be happier with the outcome, it was far better than we were expecting. Let us know what you think by commenting below!
Read more about our experience on our blog! http://blog.buybrakes.com/
Waiting on the vinyl to finish cutting.
Each decal was layered by hand.
Its all coming together now.
Removing any remaining decals on the car and removing any residue.
Surface prepped for new decals to be applied.
Deciding on final placement.
Final mock up, ready to be applied.
Driver side large decal finished.
Starting on the Passenger side now.
Anywhere there was a seam on the car such as the door jam, door handle or gas tank door, Justin carefully cut the decal and used a heat gun to wrap the edges to prevent any lifting in the future.
Our sponsors logos look great on the carbon hood of our CRX, each logo was custom designed to match the rest of the decals on the car.
Read more about our experience on our blog! http://blog.buybrakes.com/
Waiting on the vinyl to finish cutting.
Each decal was layered by hand.
Its all coming together now.
Removing any remaining decals on the car and removing any residue.
Surface prepped for new decals to be applied.
Deciding on final placement.
Final mock up, ready to be applied.
Driver side large decal finished.
Starting on the Passenger side now.
Anywhere there was a seam on the car such as the door jam, door handle or gas tank door, Justin carefully cut the decal and used a heat gun to wrap the edges to prevent any lifting in the future.
Our sponsors logos look great on the carbon hood of our CRX, each logo was custom designed to match the rest of the decals on the car.
Last edited by BuyBrakes.com; 05-22-2012 at 07:48 AM.
02-01-2012, 08:42 AM
#7
Honda-Tech Member
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: wa
Posts: 970
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Re: BrakesPros.com CRX K20-Powered Road Race Build
crx is looking nice, pretty sweet you auto cross it i would love to do that with mine! any plan for the future with this car?
Trending Topics
02-01-2012, 08:45 AM
#8
Re: BrakesPros.com CRX K20-Powered Road Race Build
Thanks! We plan to do about one track day per month hitting all the SE region tracks(Sebring, Daytona, PBIR, Homestead, Roebling, Road Atlanta). We have only tracked the car twice since its been built, once at the auto-x and once at Sebring. We ran into some small issues with the fuel setup at sebring and something in our transmission let loose, so we have the whole car pulled apart right now. We are going to be upgrading a lot of stuff in hopes we can make the car more reliable and even faster at the same time. :D
02-01-2012, 03:54 PM
#13
Re: BrakesPros.com CRX K20-Powered Road Race Build
02-02-2012, 05:46 AM
#15
02-02-2012, 07:09 AM
#17
Re: BrakesPros.com CRX K20-Powered Road Race Build
I wouldnt want to move it outright, its more of a project/build thread than offering racing tips, insight, etc. We are still very new to racing, so LOTS to learn still!
02-08-2012, 05:26 AM
#21
Re: BrakesPros.com CRX K20-Powered Road Race Build
02-09-2012, 01:59 PM
#23
Re: BrakesPros.com CRX K20-Powered Road Race Build
02-09-2012, 02:51 PM
#24
Honda-Tech Member
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 8
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Re: BrakesPros.com CRX K20-Powered Road Race Build
nice car. gr8 build . How does the d2 feel in the car here in cyprus lot of ppl dont like the coz the are Chinese and some say are not track material ? give me your opinion pls
