civicious

Hi y'all! I'm Wil, haven't been on here in quite some time...got out of the Honda game for a bit, but I'm back-ish for the time being.

So, long story short, I used to be into street racing and drag racing and all the cool **** the Honda kids were into back in the first part of the century...got out of cars and into racing motorcycles, won some races and a championship, and wound up racing the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in 2012 on an Aprilia...from there I decided that I wanted to do two things - one, get back into cars; and two, open a shop so that I could race cars 'for a living' (I started working on high-end, European, and exotic cars somewhere around 2009 or so, and it wasn't a huge leap to open my own place since I already had a pretty decent customer base built up). I bought an M3 off of Craigslist for a few hundred bucks and built that. I've raced it twice at Pikes Peak (here's a nifty article that was on the front page of Jalopnik not too long ago: Racing and Wrenching the Old School Way: An Interview With Pike's Peak Racer Wil Kitchens ), and last month we took it to Global Time Attack at NOLA where I managed to get 3rd place in Unlimited RWD after popping the motor on the first lap of the first session of the first day, rebuilding the motor in the parking lot, and finishing just in time to go out for the last session of the weekend. Fun stuff!








So, last year a friend of mine from Hondaswap offered me a ridiculous deal on a 1st gen CRX that he'd been building for the last several years that I couldn't pass up, so I figured it was a good opportunity to get back into the Honda game and play with some four-cylinder front-wheel-drive stuff, now that I at least *think* that I know more about what I'm doing than I did ten years ago. I drove up to CT from Texas last year and picked up the car and boxes and boxes and boxes and boxes and more boxes of parts, which sat around until here recently when I decided "heck, let's get this show on the road!"






So, here's what we've currently got in the works for the build:

I'm going to keep the drive configuration as it is - despite going through several different potential setups, I think the easiest and most reliable thing to do is going to be to keep it front-engine, front-wheel-drive, left-hand-drive, B-series. I'm going to use the suspension that's already on/with the car, although I'll be making some slight modifications to some of the components I've already got.

The bottom end is a B16A2 from a 99-00 USDM Civic Si, which Golden Eagle is currently sleeving to 85mm & o-ring'ing along with installing a main girdle and line boring the mains. I'll be filling that with an 84.5mm crank, BC625+ 5.290 rods, and 9:1 pistons - all from Brian Crower. Up top is my old GSR head that's been from me to B to Ian and now back to me, and at one point was ported by Portflow (although I'll be going back over and through all that). I'll be installing Brian Crower Stage 2 turbo cams, Brian Crower cam gears, and valves/springs/titanium retainers/valve guides - all from Brian Crower as well. I've got a set of Ferrea roller rockers that I'm going to try - not sure if they'll work with the BC cam, as I've been told "no" from a few people, "probably not" from a few others, and "possibly" from a few more - so I'll just install them alongside the OEM rockers and see how the numbers compare side-by-side and if they'll work or not; I'm interested to see either way. Intake is currently a Blox manifold with a Skunk 2 70mm throttle body although I just ordered an old Edelbrock Victor X from a guy on here that I'll probably use instead, and for fuel I'll be running Donkey Power Injection 1000cc injectors, and PowerFab Automotive set me up with an AEM Infinity 6 standalone along with an AEM coil-on-plug conversion and just about as many AEM sensors as I can run (although now that I have everything in-hand it looks like I'm going to wind up not using the AEM COP setup and just run the AEM Engine Position Module and OEM K-series coils). Pushing air into that is a Garrett GT3071R, and my pal and fellow Pikes Peak racer Cody Loveland is fabricating me a fancy manifold to mount that sucker.

On the transmission side I'm running a 4.785 S80 from a 98+ JDM ITR which I'll be rebuilding with Gearspeed carbon synchros (among other things). Connecting that to the engine is a Fidanza 7.5lb flywheel and an FX Stage 3 6-puck sprung clutch, and opposite that will be custom Gator axles going into modified Karcepts 36mm hubs into the Integra spindles that Clayton put on the car before I got it.

Brooks Motorsports Composites will again be providing me with all the aero, and the seat and safety equipment will be provided by Ultra Shield Race Products as they have been as long as I've been racing autos.

The car is currently at Apex Auto Works where we'll be stripping the car back down, widening the fenders a bit more, seam welding the chassis, and fabricating the cage and tube front end. The block is at Golden Eagle being sleeved, the head is at H Squared Race Engines awaiting the valve guides, and I'm just hanging out over here at the shop with all these tons of other parts stored under, in, and around the M3.
















Compbrake pedal/master cylinder set


Hallman remote manual boost controller








More updates coming soon!

Aqeeb

iTrader: (1)

Wow, would love to see the results, I currently run a EK9 in the Caribbean circuit series with a B20 and I've been contemplating going back to a turbo B16 to move up a class. Have the exact same turbo put down.

bigG

iTrader: (6)

Nice build but i would not go with the cams or victor x intake manifold
The manifold u have or performerx or even a ultra street would better suit your build and also a set of skunk2 stage 1 cams

spAdam

iTrader: (1)

All of that wonderful EMS and then a manual boost controller?

redzcstandardhatch

holy crap this rules.....I've been to pikes peak race a couple times...once as crew for Lovefab, once as spectator...its .....amazing. and terrifying.

civicious

Well, it's been an absolutely hectic and ridiculously crazy last few weeks, but despite the setbacks I've been able to get the bottom end put together! Everything is perfectly spec'd, the coatings from PolyDyn on the pistons / bearings / crank came out awesome, and it all went together as smoothly as could be! The piston skirts don't drop below the sleeve and there's a cunthair of clearance between the crank and botom of the cylinders/pistons...I can't wait to get this thing running!















Meanwhile, I roughly assembled a scale model of a Mugen widebodied 1st gen CRX and had it 3D scanned and formatted as a solid body so that Cody at Brooks Motorsport can get all the aero rendered up and CFD'd...







I picked up a 94 Integra for a few hundred bucks, current plan is to finish assembling the motor and put it in the Integra chassis (since we're using Integra engine mounts & axles anyways); won't have to worry about wiring and shifting because we'll be using a sequential shifter and completely standalone wiring/electronics, which will be easy enough to transfer from one chassis to the other once we get the CRX chassis finished up. After going back and forth on different ideas for the spindles/hubs/axles, I've decided that the easiest thing to do is going to be to just build custom spindles using DC Integra hubs, so that I can use the larger splined axles. It's just metal, and I've got both a sawzall AND a welder!



Meanwhile, I got the turbo mocked up and sent the flanges up to Michigan, where Cody at LoveFab has managed to do some amazing work on the turbo manifold! I can't wait to see this thing in person and get it bolted up!













Stay tuned, more updates soon!

civicious

Well, someone on here told me not to go with this manifold, but I'm doing it anyways. Fresh back from Baked Goods Powder Coating is my bright sparkly pink Edelbrock Victor X manifold, complete with freshly-installed Donkey Power 1000cc injectors and Golden Eagle fuel rail! Can't wait to get this all assembled in the next few weeks!

prjct92eh2

Cool build. I've been going to PPIHC for the past 3 years, so your bimmer looks familiar. Are you worried at all about getting to run with them capping the number of entries this year?

civicious

My entry has already been accepted, they released the entry list a while back - so I'm good to go

prjct92eh2

nice! Sucks Lovefab wasn't able to make it in.

Bently_Coop

This is pretty cool. Great work so far.

88ED8

Nice!

dylspil

very cool build, nice work

theseventhsun

Awesome! I am in love with the first gen crx, glad to see it used as a platform for likes peak. If you need info for the chassis and suspension, there is tons at redpepperracing, even though you probably know everything you want to do already.

jdblock

Sub'd.

civicious

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jryKC

This looks fantastic! Keep it up!

rollinmyda

iTrader: (19)

Wow! Very impressive!

civicious

We've been chugging along trying to get this wrapped up, as I've gotta be in Colorado for testing the first week of June. I've already dropped out of GTA Road Atlanta to focus more on getting the crx ready for Pikes Peak...we should just make it in time, I reckon!

Couldn't find an intercooler that would work how I wanted, so we made one...



I wanted Integra axles/hubs, and after spending months exploring other options, we decided **** it, we'll just make our own damn spindles. Damian did a buncha fancy **** with lasers and jigs, and here's the first one ready to get its support braces welded on!

jryKC

Everything looks fantastic! Keep the updates coming, please.

GrantMC2

Holy mother!

crxtc_vtec

iTrader: (2)

Looks good Wil! Ready to see it in action!!

Jay

odz-fab

wait..what? please share more info on the spindle setup??

88-91 civic hubs are direct press into 84-87 spindles.
what did you do in regards to lower ball joint as the lower control arm is opposite and has a lower ball joint as well....

and why is your motor now in an integra?

civicious

I wanted a larger bearing, as well as more meat on the hub itself.

Integra is a dyno/break-in chassis for the motor, as stated above.

odz-fab

Ohhh gotcha ok.. Curious what you were able to about the lower control and the lower ballpoint being on the spindle..
Yea totally didn't see anything about the integra so I was confused. Keep up the progress!!!!!! Good luck with the hill climb!