Dino92

i see you set the rear camber to negative 1 degree but you didn't mention what you put the fronts to? Just wondering what you're running so i could use that as a possible starting point...maybe i should just start my own thread and get on this build thread train

Dilbones

I'm probably going overkill, but it's set at negative three up front.

If I had a tire pyrometer, I'd be interested in finding out how the temp distribution across the tire looks, but I haven't even tracked it yet. My first event SHOULD be with NASA NE in mid April.

4" to jack tab up front from ground, and 5" to jack tab in rear from ground.

joel n

-3 up front will most likely be very close. I think we are at -3.4 with a little difference side to side for our Del Sol racecar and -2.45 rear. Tires wear nice and even, and temp is within 10 degree side to side. (0 toe). My autocross EG hatch is at -3 front and -2 rear. Has much softer springs then the Del Sol and is 200LBS lighter. 2400 for the del sol, 2200 for the civic. That includes my 190LBS butt. and both cars at 1/2 tank of fuel.

Just a word of caution when checking tire temps. Warn the people running the track day if your in a small group. We did it and picked up some attention coming in hot from the track. Flat-out right up pit lain. There is a line were we need to be at 60KMH starting into the pits, and we were right there lol. (safely mind you). Always enter by youself. Had a buddy in the first pit stall to check temps, he also made sure no one was heading onto pit lain as well. Did this on 3 different tire setups. Different size rims, different types of tires all netted different temps. We focused on our hoosiers as there our dry tire setup. Picked up some very good info from this as well.

Dilbones

It kind of sucks how quickly you have to get those tire pyrometer temps.

The only easier indication is wear, but unfortunately that doesn't tell much whn you are driving the tires to and from the track.

That's a good tip though. I'm sure more experienced organizations like SCCA PDX or NASA HPDE will be able to figure out a way to let me safely check tire temps.

I appreciate the input, sir.

Dilbones

It's here! The care package is here!




I still have some stuff to do before my first event which will be on the weekend of April 2nd at NJMP Lightning. Come and see me if you live near New Jersey bros!!

Here's the list...:

• Wheel balancing
• Coolant leak / oil mixing
• pads
• fluid
• alignment
• speed bleeders

I'm actually pretty pissed about my coolant. It doesn't seem to be getting any better or any worse to any reasonable extent...

I'll try to blow it up at the track to see if I can determine the failure.

93allmotorcoupe

This is always the best approach

rossyrossb18a

Wouldn't oil and coolant mixing be an obvious head gasket issue?

Dilbones

#yoloswag

Probs

Dino92

This made me actually lol and I see you doing it, but do you have plans if you do blow it up? Also...how do you adjust tire pressures at the event? I don't have an air compressor at home so i'm looking for some sort of solution for this since i can't just fill a tank and take it with me. Any advice is appreciated!!

Dilbones

Why can't you take a tank with you? People do it all of the time. They can be had for ~30 bucks at Harbor Freight:

5 Gallon Portable Air Tank

For tire pressures, start by setting all of your tires to the recommended pressure by the tire manufacturer.

When you autocross or track your car, your sidewalls will flex, or "roll over" so that they make contact with the ground, instead of just the tread area making contact with the ground.

This is good to an extent-- as some tires are meant to flex to a certain extent.

You adjust tire pressures so that your tires are "rolling over" the proper amount.

To test this, take a piece of chalk and rub it on the sidewall of the tire at the point where you see a little arrow like this:




You will notice that the chalk will have worn off to some extent after you finish your first heat/run. This is because that chalk was rubbed off when that section of your tire came in contact with the ground.

The goal is for your tire to "roll over" just enough so that you never pass the tip of that arrow that I showed you above.

If your tire has too much air, it will be too stiff, and your sidewall will not flex enough-- meaning you will never "touch" this arrow.

If your tire has too little air, it will be too soft, and your sidewall will be flexing too much-- meaning your arrow will have been fully in contact with the ground, or even a large portion of the sidewall will have been in contact with the ground.

You adjust the tire pressures so that you will be right on the arrow.

If you're confused, go ask the people at your event. Tell them you're a novice and that you'd like to learn about setting tire pressures.

I think my description was pretty simple and broken down so that you could understand it, but not everything is as intuitive to someone who is seeing it for the first time versus someone like myself who has been doing it for a couple of years.

As for my POS D Series engine:

I think my Dad has AAA coverage. He said to just tell the tow truck driver that my name is "Tony" and that I'd be good. I believe they will tow up to 100 miles, but I have to iron out those details.

Honestly though, I'm not relying on that. I'm going to be bringing my tire sprayer with me to spray down the radiator if I REALLY HAVE TO limp the car home.

But I ordered a timing belt kit with water pump and i have a head gasket waiting to be swapped as well. I'll measure warpage on the engine deck and the cylinder head as well. If I need to take the cyl head to a machine shop, I will.

Hopefully it's not all that complex. The coolant hasn't gotten any worse since I retorqued my head bolts, but I'll do this stuff as an added measure of certainty.

Dilbones

Getting started on the engine maintenance. I'm gonna try to keep this short, since maintenance is not considered "building" a car.

Brake parts and engine parts:




After pulling the cylinder head:







Here's the condition of the pistons. Aside from carbon buildup-- there is no evidence of coolant leaking into the combustion chamber. In addition, I could not see any trace or smell any trace of hydrocarbons in the coolant jacket around the pistons.

I'm very happy about this.













Then I cleaned up the deck with a razor blade and some brakleen:













Measured warpage in only one direction, since I didn't have the space in the engine bay-- it was less than 0.003 inches:







Then I cleaned up the cylinder head and measured warpage. It was less than 0.002 inches:










More to come today. Friend is coming over and will help me with the water pump and timing belt and also the brake bleeding and hawk pads.

...esteban

Don't forget the copper spray. On a **** box (like mine), I like the piece of mind I won't have to redo the gasket anytime soon. I've even reused a HG with copper spray (I was in a bind, don't judge). Never missed a beat.


I've learned long ago that driving the car is more fun than fixing it.

Dilbones

Yeah, I took your advice and picked up a can for about 7 dollars. Got some decent spark plugs and I used a coupon from Advance to do so. Decided I didn't want to cheap out again...(I'm getting better at this).

Oil and coolant is picked up as well and the timing cover and honda-bond to fix my oil pan leak are all ordered as well.

Gonna fix my roommates Chrysler tonight and maybe get some wrench time in on the Civic.

Dilbones

Okay. So, the motor is back together and the car is ready to get inspected for my first PDX with the South Jersey SCCA.

After copper-coating the gasket and putting the head back on the block, I torqued it down and got to business:




The timing belt needed to be put on, the timing cover needed to be reordered and installed because the old one was destroyed from removing the crank pulley, the oil pan needed to be re-sealed with HondaBond because it was leaking, the water pump needed replacing (along with all of the pulleys), the spark plugs needed replacing, I needed to replace my valve cover gasket, and then I needed to reinstall the pulley and the accessory belts.

While removing my header, I also destroyed the stud TWICE that bolted it to the downpipe, so I had to drill that out and retap it...and in the process I broke my drill.

I love it when people say stuff like, "oh yeah, it's so easy" to do stuff like this to cars.

Here are some pics from the work:










When I started the car, she was much more responsive. Revs were happy and quick and the oil and coolant didn't show mixing at all. Belts were a little tight, but I may leave them that way since I can't see them breaking in the short run.

Maybe after inspection I'll fix them.

Anyway, after putting the motor back together and getting it running, I bled the brakes with my DOT 4 fluid, and I put my wheels back on.

Then I got it on the ground and I started re-aligning her and adjusting ride height.

If you all recall, before, I was using a bunch of random crap to simulate my weight in the driver seat while adjusting ride height. Well, today, I got 200 pounds of gravel and put it in the driver seat and got to business!







Then I taped the wheel weights to the wheels to be sure I wouldn't lose any at high speed (some advice I got from a friend who used to race S2 Prototypes with the SCCA and Formula Atlantic):




And finally, I took care of some cosmetic stuff-- like adding that little piece of tape at the center of the wheel because racek0r:




And I also taped the PRNDL on my EX Gauge Cluster to make it look more sleek! Here are some progression photos:

...esteban

I did the same gauge cluster trick, until one day I found a unicorn 95 ex spd coupe at my local pick-your-own-**** junkyard that was, until then, unmolested. Got me the real deal (with mad 7200 rpm redline) for a mere $30. #notmad

Dilbones

Nice dude! On ebay, the cheapest you can get a manual cluster for is 80 bucks with shipping and they're usually EDM, So they're in km/h.

I kind of literally refuse to pay 80 or more dollars for a cluster that probably doesn't work for an early 90s civic lol.

Dilbones

So on Saturday I took the car to the shop to have my inspection done. Where I live, you have to get an emissions test if you have either owned the car for less than a year or have driven it over 5,000 miles within a year, regardless of how long you have owned it for.




It's definitely sketchy when people are eyeing up your Civic while it's sitting outside. Luckily I was sitting right by the window watching them with my alarm engaged

After the inspection was done, the tech said everything looked new under the car and he commented on how "good" the car was. I was very happy with the results, and it passed emissions with flying colors:




After passing inspection, I took the car to see my friend Phil who owns a GT3. We talked for a while and had some food then grabbed coffee.

On Sunday I took the car for a little drive in the back roads of PA and then I went for a run.

The car has so much grip. I can't stress enough how fun this thing is to drive. It's smooth, fast, and stiff. Maybe it's a little bit too stiff for the street, but I'm really excited to see how fast this thing is at the track.




I also forfeited the South Jersey Region SCCA PDX Event at New Jersey Motorsports Park. Their customer service is awful and they treated me like a second-rate individual. We had a misunderstanding, and I'm currently awaiting a refund which will reimburse my most recent expenditure-- a NASA HPDE and Membership!

This is my first step to a competition license.

MITeggy17

iTrader: (1)

I heart Chelsea.

Dilbones

Thank u man! I too am a fan of your type-s. Always loved the way you did that thing when I was first getting into autocross a couple of years ago in my type s

Dilbones

Hey guys,

So from here on out, it's pretty much all driving events and no car modding.

The "build" will reassume when the winter comes around again or if I crash the thing (PLEASE GOD NO), but as I mentioned when I started this build, this car was designed to help me learn how to be a good track driver-- smooth cornering, using the whole track, knowing the line, slow in/fast out, and car control.

For now, the goal is to get as much seat time as possible at as many different tracks all while progressing from HPDE 1 to HPDE 2 with NASA so that I can eventually get my competition license and race wheel-to-wheel with NASA and maybe AER at some point.

Anyway, without further a due, I'm going to tell you about the past two weeks' worth of driving.

************

First Event of the Season

On the 10th, I did my first event of the season with this little Civic, a rust-off autocross event with my local SCCA Region.

I had a coupon code for 25 dollars off of my entry from last season, and this event is notorious for getting tons of runs and minimal entries, so I figured it would be a good opportunity to shake off the cob webs and to see what would break so I could fix it before I got onto the track.

The Friday before the event I got all of my emergency supplies packed into a small tupperwear container. I had some oil in a whiskey bottle, a BFH, some sockets, coolant, brake fluid, tire chalk, a tire patch kit, a tire pressure gauge and some other stuff.




With everything packed up, I woke up in the early morning (as usual) and filled up with gas.




It was cold. Very cold. And on the day before the event, it was snowing.




In the morning, it was very cold as well. it was around 32 degrees F, but luckily none of the snow had stuck and it was supposed to warm up to 50 degrees by the middle of the day. I definitely got really chapped lips. It sucked.




The Competition

The car ran amazingly. She was five tenths of a second off of my friend's ASP WRX before he swapped to R comps. The car was also nine tenths of a second off of my friend's STS-prepped Miata (well setup) on new Direzza Zii*s. I was on NT-05s.

I did annihilate some higher horsepower cars and I also did really well compared to my other friends in DC4 Integras who were on better tires.

The Tires

Having ran on max performance summer tires instead of extreme performance summer tires for over two seasons of autocross and track days, I can say that extreme performance 200TW tires make a huge difference. They ASK to be turned on earlier, launched on harder (from starts), and overall driven harder.

For example, I can be going through a sweeper sideways, and a hard corner in the opposite direction will be coming up, but I just have to trust that the tires will stick, and turn the other way before the hard corner comes up.

And you know what? The tires do stick! They ask to be abused in autocross, and you HAVE to abuse them to get them to stick. That's how these NT-05s work. I wonder how I would fare with the more popular autocross tires like the RE-71Rs or something...

The Issues

There weren't any issues except for when smoke started spewing out from under my hood and my friend had to stop me and make me look at what it was.

After shortly inspecting the engine bay, I noticed that the upper rad hose needed tightening. I topped off the coolant, tightened the hose, and it was good as new! Ran without a hiccup for the rest of the day.

************

My First NASA NE Track Day

After running in my RSX Type-S with Track Night in America (SCCA) and with AZP Installs, all at New Jersey Motorsports Park Thunderbolt (four events), I decided I would start out the season with NASA.

I had been contemplating dropping the coin on such an expensive track day with NASA for a long time for several reasons...

For the entire off-season I was conversing with a friend who is a NASA Instructor about the organization and how great it was. In addition, I had been speaking with tons of Honda Challenge Racers who said that NASA has some of the best instruction and runs some of the best events.

I took all of their words with a grain of salt until eventually I had a terrible customer service experience with a local SCCA Region (South Jersey) who treated me like I wasn't a customer at all. The experience was so bad that SCCA's Corporate HQ actually called me to apologize since the local region wouldn't.

After that, I decided I would spend the money for a quality service...thus:




Although I had been to multiple track days before and I am very good with car control on an oversteery FWD car on crap, heat-cycled out Direzza DZ102s on Pep Boy wheels, I decided to register for HPDE 1.

The added instruction and feedback on my driving style was invaluable, I decided, and in addition, progressing through the ranks from HPDE 1 to HPDE 4 would look really good to the officials when I eventually decide to go for my competition license.

My instructor contacted me a week before the event through email and told me he'd help me get around the track in a Honda very quickly. It turned out that he had gotten his practice driving a first generation CRX with 70 WHP in wheel-to-wheel racing and eventually moved to Honda Challenge in the Series' earlier days.

After racing in HC for a while, he moved to time trials and he now drives this, a PTC K24A2 EG Hatch:



When I got to the track, there were so many race cars. It was incredibly different from any of the four other events I have been to in my life (although that's not much) and it was very exciting.





















My instructor took me around to talk to all of the HC guys who were super friendly and told me about all of the mods I should do if I plan to get into Honda Challenge with my Civic. Some of them were even supportive of my choice to run a single cam Civic at the track! Stuff like that only happens with driving enthusiasts who care more about technique than they do power.

The track day was at NJMP Lightning. This circuit was supposedly built after Thunderbolt (I may be wrong) and is about two miles long with ten corners.




The driving line is as such:

• For Corner One, brake late and hit the curbing at the apex. Track out wide and get prepared for Corner Two.
• For Corner Two, leave a car width between yourself and the apex cone to set up for Corner Three which requires that you enter from far left.
• For Corner Three, brake late before the corner, in a straight line along the left side of the track.
• Turn in smoothly to the right, and keep turning in until you get to the outside of the track, which should occur right in between Corner Three and Four.
• Once you get there, transition the weight from the left side of the car to the right side. You should feel the springs unload from the left and the weight should smoothly load up the springs on the right.
• If you've done it right, Corner Four will be apexed and you can easily track out all the way to the curbing before Corner Five.
• Track out wide as mentioned before Corner Five and drive straight for the turn-in cone for Turn Five.
• Brake so that you will end up right at the turn-in cone (you use the whole track), then you turn, switch onto the gas, and floor it to the apex of Turn Five over the crest.
• If you did all of this right, you will be in-control and leaving Corner Five fast. Head toward the curbing, tracking out from Corner five to prepare for Corner Six which really isn't even a corner.
• After Corner Six, stay far to the right to prepare for Corner Seven which comes after a long straight.
• For Corner Seven, brake on the long straight, and clip the apex, tracking alllll the way out to the curb on the exit of Turn Seven.
• Corner Eight also really isn't a corner in my eyes. Get around it, over a crest, and head STRAIGHT for the turn-in cone for Turn Nine.
• Brake before the turn-in cone so that you're set up to be right in the middle of "the light bulb" or "the bowl" as they call it (Turn Nine).
• The apex for that turn is late. So stay in the middle of the turn and look ahead until you finally see the apex cone.
• When you finally see that apex cone (BE PATIENT) you turn in, and get onto the curbing for the apex.
• To leave the corner, track out wide, straightening the wheel SLOWLY to get to the curbing on the exit of Nine.
• From there you will be at the last corner. Turn Ten has an apex cone right at the crest that you should completely ignore (per my instructor).
• From the exit of Turn Nine, drive STRAIGHT to the middle of the track at Turn Ten. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line.
• If you did this correctly, once you come over the crest, you should be right at the outside edge of the track, set up for Turn One all over again.

My fastest lap at the end of the day was a 1:28.48 per Track Addict.

My instructor was very pleased with my progress and noted that I was driving much less like a jerky autocrosser by the end of the day and more like a road racer.

Here's my lap:


I didn't get signed off to HPDE 2 by the end of the day, but I did have an awesome time and look forward to my next two events which are on April 27th and 30th at NJMP Lightning and Pitt International Raceway, respectively.

Thanks for reading guys and gals!

Dilbones

Hello all, I'm back. And I've done three other track days since you've last read this.

On the 17th, I did my track day with NASA. Ten days later, I had an event with Track Night in America and three days after that I was supposed to be in Pitt. Oh boy, what fun.

Heat 1, I came in hot into the apex of the light bulb in cold weather and got really sideways at about 5:30. I tried to save it, and when I knew I couldn't I went both feet in to send it into a slide:


I was told that I was going too slow on the warmup lap in the first heat, so I stayed in the back on my last heat and moved my Go Pro to the front of my helmet for an in-car view. Someone went off on the warmup lap because they didn't know how tires work I guess. Skip to 45 seconds:


The car ran well. I was about two seconds slower due to the thirty degree F difference in temps. All of the higher horsepower cars weren't giving me point-by's and they were riding me too closely in the intermediate group. Kind of drove me nuts, but I still had fun since I knew the line.

For Pitt Race, I was supposed to leave on Friday, but after going over the car with a fine comb and packing up, I pulled out of the garage and heard a scraping sound under my hood. It turned out that my timing belt had walked off the gears and worn through the timing belt cover.

I guess it's good I caught it before I left for an approximately 350 mile-long drive to Pittsburgh. I was still bummed I couldn't make it though.

On Tuesday, May 3, I had a track day scheduled at Pocono next. This course was a double-infield, 2.5 mile configuration utilizing the upper part of the triangle and the main straight. Needless to say, the higher horsepower cars were killing me in the straights, but if you watch my third heat, you'll see me playing cat and mouse with some really fast cars.





At about 11:30 you'll see me and a Charger playing together. It was a blast!


After the event, my buddy Matt and I took the back roads to the PA turnpike where we tested the new 80 MPH speed limit and I had to try my damnest to keep up in my little Civic with the stock D hahah.










And lastly, I had one more event to attend-- again with TNiA at NJMP-- but this time, in the pouring rain and at Thunderbolt.

This was my first time driving in the rain. I was much faster than all of the higher horsepower cars during the first heat and was getting point-bys everywhere. However when the second heat came along, it was raining much harder and I was getting frustrated by people who didn't want to give me the point-by.




As a result, I came in hot to turn three and tried to correct with some oversteer. But given the angle that the car was heading, I went right onto the painted curbing in the wet and got REALLY sideways. I saved it by steering it away from the wall and onto the curbing-- never even going off.

Later on I apologized to the drivers behind me and told them what I did to mess up like that.

Here's the video..it's on Instagram, but it's worth the watch:


After my little excursion, the car was okay. I jacked her up and looked at everything to make sure I didn't injure little ChelseaTheCivic.




My next event is Summit Main with NASA MA on June 11 and 12. I will be running in HPDE 1 and hope to be bumped up to HPDE 2! Let's see how it goes!!

KoRn_vIRuZ

Awesome updates!

93allmotorcoupe

Agreed!! Very fun to track yours and the car's progress

navin

iTrader: (1)

Myself and some other HC h2 cars will be there... come by for a beer or two.

Dilbones

Hey thanks buddy. I always appreciate positive feedback and respect from other driving enthusiasts.

Criticism is welcomed as well as long as it's well-meant.

What are you going to be driving? How can I identify you?

My buddy Alex and I will be going together from Delaware. He drives this 95 OBD1 BMW M3:




I will probs also be hanging with my Facebook friend Shane who drives this:




We will be camping.