EG Civic Si

It's been ages since I've been on HT and I were browsing on time attack/road racing topics and I found that this forum has the most complete track section from the others I've seen... anyway, back to topic

Here's my completely bone stock '97 EK that I bought with plans for a Daily/road racing build

It was really tough finding a cheap "virgin" honda and be 100% legal with all it's factory labels here in Puerto Rico but after some searching I got it!

How I got it on late 2011: pretty rough on paint, but that was no problem as I had already thought about a color change and I was going to paint it myself




Leaky rad :s


however it was surprisingly clean on the interior and seats

EG Civic Si

However, in less than a week I already started sorting stuff, changing parts and stripping the interior for the body work





and the shopping spree began!:
I got an amazing deal on a set of 6UL's 15x8 +36


UPS truck has dropped the meat!

EG Civic Si

I kept working on small free cosmetic details like the valve cover which looked like crap


wheels finally fitted in



more goodies! Buddyclub P1 F&R camber kit, and ASR 24mm RSB/subframe

EG Civic Si

I wanted to have the SiR look so I started by buying the "J-spec" fenders w/ sidemarkers





And the first time I took the EK to the street for a Cars & coffe meet:

EG Civic Si

And at last, my first ever track day! Everything went fine, except for the brakes which heated up and faded around the 3 lap of each heat , but I still had a blast and had a pretty good time considering my inexperience and the lack of power which was probably around 90whp xD

EG Civic Si

that same weekend a buddy of mine invited my to come to his Hyundai Genesis meet track-day. Always bashing on my ek and thinking that my civic was **** he probably thought he was going to ashamed me in front of all his buddies lol, funny thing was I was the fastest out of all of them. That day and their expressions was priceless. Probably the low-speed Go-kart track help a lot on my lightweight powerless EK, but still, another blast.

EG Civic Si

With the bodywork done it was ready for the paint. I was fixed on painting it Midori Green.



prepping for paint!





Wait wut!, at last moment I change my mind and went for Laguna Seca Blue instead of Midori

EG Civic Si

I finally got me some SiR bumpers and it was paint time!





OEM SiR lip to go with the new bumpers

EG Civic Si

When your GF paints your cars you definetely know she's the one xD


and finally...

EG Civic Si

and now for the 2nd "private" track day w/ my buddies at the "go-kart" track. I was nervious taking my recently painted EK to the track that next day but my urge to race didn't stop me



[img]https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xaf1/t1.0-9/576140_10150777008939483_722152996_n.jpg/img]


waaay too much body roll At this point I knew I needed either stiffer springs or front sway bar, but shitty CX hatches dont come with FSB LCA mounts :/


Either way it was an awesome day at the track and again I got the fastest time out of the bunch of my buddies. But I knew there were a few stuff to address, since the track was very much a low-speed high intensity track just like auto-X I didn't had any problems with the brake fade of the shitty 9" CX brakes but I noted the body roll and also and the stock seats were GARBAGE as I slided side to side like a rag doll.

and just for fun, a video of that day. And yes, that's a ******* "granma's" Lumina at the track lol you don't see that **** every day.

EG Civic Si

Addressing some of the issues:
white lettering on the tires because racecor!


Got me some cheap EP3 seats which would hopefully help for lateral support better than the "public flat bench" stock seats


Getting a new muffler as the previous one has a huge hole on it, loud as ****, and was burning the bumper a bit



and power folding mirrors!



rolling shot because why not?

EG Civic Si

So finally it was time for another track day! But this time it was on the Ponce racetrack which is known to be the most dangerous out of the 3 tracks we have here. I was most nervous this time because this track is known to be a "very hard on brakes" track and there is basically NO run-off in case of mistake... if you go too hard and have brake fade you'll either crash of the concrete barriers or find yourself stuck on the mangroves ir at the carribean sea xD. and Knowing I had shitty small CX brakes put me on edge, I hadn't had any alarming ussies with the brakes earlier but I mostly ran on the small go-kart track with isnt hard at all on the brakes. But this would me one of the few chances I would have to race here as I study out of the country so my schedule on class-break rarely match the track days so If I missed this track day I may hadn't get another chance at this track in about 10 months or so... so I bit the bullet and went anyway. At this time I wan't able to get any racing/performance brake pads for the small CX brakes, but I did went ahead for a full brake fluid flush on Motul RBF 660. So track day it is!

at the track day:
1st session: I went and got passenger seat on the car of a experienced driver here at the track just so I get to know the racing line better, and brake points.. so having teached me a few pointers it was time for my to do some laps for myself on my EK.

1st lap: testing the waters, heating tires, having a feel for the track and everything's fine
2nd lap: I went to do a mild-hot lap, everything feeling ok
3rd lap: I pushed it a but harder and at the and of the drag straight... there was ******* tons of **** staining my pants! lol, as I experienced the worst ******* brake-fade of my life... I was heading straight fir the Caribbean sea, I was already wondering on how the hell was I going to get my car out of the water and the mangroves.. luckily the car stopped just in time on the grass, without any damages thankfully.. only the stank of **** was in the car lol

So just so you guys have an idea this is out Ponce racetrack:


and this is where I stopped:


other than that, I went and did just one hot lap on the 2nd lap of each of the remaining heats as I already felt the brake fade on the 3rd lap so there was no point in pushing it

and here are some pics of that day:

EG Civic Si

So there's wasnt anything race related for a while.. I just visited a lot the small gokart track and kept having a lot of seat time:







just doing aesthetics I got a CF Seibon "spoon" wing

EG Civic Si

and more seat time...



and another "private" trackday with the buddies:





Still the bodyroll was noticeable




and the end of the day I also achieved the fastest lap

and this time, some videos of the run. the massive bodyroll os clearly noted :S

EG Civic Si

So being a broke student is was hard to adress the body roll issue. Thankfully I won a K-tuned facebook contest which I got a Traction bar for free!!





and this time another track day at salinas! the one where I first went when the EK was still red, this time for a second time with the Traction bar, Hawk blue pads (still on CX brakes), and new tires.
I switched from the RS3 to the BFG Rivals







bodyroll was redices significantly! but it was still there, suspension just couldn't keep up with the tires it was too soft (KYB AGX / Eibach Pro-kit springs)

Since last visit I shaved 2 whole seconds of my previous time! 2.012 sec.
not bad considering all that time was cut just on the corners alone (and this track doesn't have too many corners, is mostly straights and U turn. I still haven't touched the engine, or tuned or anything whatsoever as of power increase. however, I was having some serious brake issues this time. My front passenger caliper was getting "stuck" it felt as I was only braking from one side. Anyway I went home happy with the improvement in time.



Video this time: and a close call at 9:40!

EG Civic Si

so I went ahead and addressed the brake issue and some other stuff:

When I took the brakes of to change them I found the problem of the "sticking/braking on one side" feeling. Scary ****!




I don't know how in the hell that got passed me as I always tend to check everything before the track days, but anyway time to upgrade


►10.3" oem brake upgrade from the 9.5"
►rear disc conversion finally installed after laying in my garage for over a year
►Integra DC subframe
►Integra DC FSB, LCA, etc..
►Solid polyurethane engine mounts
►Braded brake lines
►Carbotech XP8 pads




GF as always lending me a hand




Oil press. gauge


and a new more aggressive alignment

EG Civic Si

Now, Ponce the rematch!
with the new brakes upgrade I don't expect to have any fade this time. and lets see how much I improve over the last time.








I shaved 3.5 seconds of my previous visit!!! and there's still much to imporve. Sadly, the engine died it spun a bearing and looks like the oil pump broke, and it broke the block so block is wasted. Cant explain what happened or how the block got that hole from

EG Civic Si

So now, I have my EK broken down
I have a K20z3 head here but nothing else, building a dedicated N/A D series engine can get very very expensive, so I'm a a fork but I'll probably go for a K20/K24 route.


B series VC is for my brother's turbo drag build






K16!!! now thats something!

EG Civic Si

Now this is how my EK is right now at this moment broken down...
this is what I would call "Phase 2" as I've been tempted since I don't use the EK for daily anymore, it's barely ever used on the street I've been thinking about doing a dedicated track car now.

Plans:
►painting the engine bay when I take the D series out
►go K20/K24
►upgrade to coilovers
►Buddyclub or similar race seats
►PCI front/side/rear splitters
►4 point rollcage
►15x9 front wheels
►upgrade to a 32mm RSB and bigger FSB
►upgrade to more "extreme" tires (NT01, RA1, Z214, RR...)
►extreme weight reduction


Now this are some things I have trouble with:
-I like the idea of going ITB's with the K series lean mounts as the ITB go directly on the grill opening and I could run a hood exit header (no exhaust). Or ir that would interfere too much for the radiator space. I've never seen anyone running the lean mounts for track before.
something like this for made for road racing/track.
-I don't know of that engine position would interfere with the oiling under lateral g's (although I'm plannig to have oil baffles for the pan.
-I rarely see any fwd honda running ITB's at the track. Is there a reason why?






now the hard part:
Who wants to sponsor me!!! :D

3gcvcd16

Buen trabajo con la guagua, vas a poder montar el motor para la 3ra Carrera de Circuito en salinas a mi me gusta este deporte pero no tengo ayuda para practicarlo pues solo me dedico al dragueo ya que es mas cerca la pista de arecibo para mi pero en un futuro quisiera correr circuito. De que parte de puerto rico eres?

scottdh20

idk, if you run itb's like that you need to run a half rad, otherwise your pumping super heated air into your engine. if it were me I would go standard mounts and a full rad.

I could be wrong but the tilt mounts also look like the engine needs to drop down to clear the hood giving you less ground clearance...something you want

im a noob to this type of racing but im hooked after 2 full track weekends, going from gsr seats to my buckets w/ 5-point harness were amazing! one of the best mods I have ever done. I did the first weekend on stock belts and gsr and the second in the racing seats, holy cow. I also went integra brakes and hp+ pads before my first day and and I haven't experience fad yet, glad about that. im also on pretty soft springs(k-sport coilovers) I plan to upgrade the spring rates over the winter with custom eibach springs. so I would look into suspension with good spring rates or even a koni/ground control with upgraded spring combo. im already on nt01's, I started on them and love them so far, great freakin tire for sure. and I have an autopower 4 point bolt in that stiffened up the car tremendously! looks like your list is going to transform your car into a whole new beast

looks great and looks like your having a ton f fun, which is what its all about, I really enjoyed the read and will be following this

EG Civic Si

No creo que la tenga ready para este season de salinas. Desde abril la tengo ahi en la marquesina y no he tenido el tiempo para bregar con la guagua ni para conseguir el motor ni las piezas que le faltan
Soy de Luquillo, so para mi TODAS las pistas me quedan lejos lol.


that's one of the "issues" I though I would be having with the lean mounts. I would have to go for a custom rad. However lean mounts or not, custom rad or a full one I hardly ever see someone with ITB's at the track. Still havent figured out why. Costs maybe?

Stock seats suck! lol I went from the CX stockers to the EP3 seats and that was night and day difference, hopefully when I fix the EK again I'll go with buddyclub buckets and 4 or 5 point harness. I also have super soft spring rates Eibach pro-kit springs which I also want to get that resolve when I get it back to action again

scottdh20

no 4 point, you can submarine the belts and end up paralyzed or dead. basically you slide out under the belts....stick to a 5 point at minimum. just remember they all go hand in hand

racing bucket = 5/6pt plus roll bar, roll bar = bucket and 5/6pt, 5/6pt harness= rollbar and bucket ...you need all three or none at all to be safe.

itb's are a bitch to tune right, so many variables, and I bet you would want to fiddle with the tune between a cool morning vs the hot afternoon to get the car running right. that and they are open, pebbles, rocks, rubber, sand, dirt whatever could get kicked up and sucked in, leading to engine failure. to account for that most people build a plenum around the stacks or some sort of filter setup, which I could be wrong but probably negates the use of the itb's to begin with.

they certainly look cool, but anyone I have personally know that used itb's got rid of them fairly quickly, saying they are a bitch to tune, constantly ******* around with them drivability other than wot sucks.

Omar EJ6

It's good to see more builds from the Island keep up the good work, definitely looks like you're going to the right path as its coming along pretty good. I wanted to mention that if you don’t have a front sway bar, I strongly recommend trying to get an ex coupe front sway bar since they're direct fit, I’m running one on my hatch and it does the work. Other than that I can see that you have your mind set to get the right parts. Have you decided what coil overs you’ll be running in the future?

BTW: I’ve seen your hatch on some local fb pages, it’s sad I didn’t get to see it in person before I left the island on 2011.

Thumbs Up on your build !!