niccer

That's got to be the hole it threads into. I'll mess around with mine this week, but there aren't that many threaded holes in that area to choose from.

v8eatrr

Good build and 350whp is a whole lot of power
The normal Honda brakes and a rear disc swap won't be able to stop your car quick enough
And you'll be burning through those brakes faster then gasoline on a track

azVTECaccord

Personally I think you over exaggerate, some actual race pads make a world of a difference, as does driving style, track conditions, etc. Fortunately the car isn't heavy, which also helps.

I would recommend at least integra/ex/si sized rotors, if not 11.1" but either should be ample for most tracks imo. pad compound, tires, & fluid would be more of a priority than crazy aftermarket brakes...

decadecivic

iTrader: (2)

Pistons shoved into the cylinders. I made myself a ring compressor from a zip-tie. Where the lock mechanism is, I cut down the side that was facing the cylinder to keep the compressor more flush. I also shaved a tapered groove on the top side of the zip-tie to allow the rings to compress on itself to the cylinder wall diameter. Took me 15min and 2 zip-ties to perfect it and another 5min to install all 4.
Forgot to take pictures, clocking set at:
Upper ring: 45° above arrow
Lower ring: 135° above arrow
Upper oil ring: ~38° below arrow
Lower oil ring: ~52° below arrow




Assembled oil pump.


Installed bearings, rods, crank, girdle, and plastigaged. Everything as desired @ >0.015" on mains and <0.020" on rods.

Disappointed had to buy a 7/16" 12-point for this.

New oil pump seal.

New seal on right side cover.


Installed valve seals with an 11mm deep socket.

Installed valve springs using clamp and zip ties.



Assembled the rocker assembly twice. Forgot to put the tiny o-ring the first time—no pictures of that.


Installed oil pan, thermostat, and some hoses.


Disappointed had to buy a 10mm 12-point for head stud/bolts. Aligned clutch with an 11mm 3/4" deep socket.


For crank ventilation, I'm getting rid of the PCV system Honda designed. I will be utilizing the black box's 1" ID outlet and JB welding a 5/8" barbed outlet. I will connect a hose from that to a 5/8" barbed inlet to a 1/2" air compressor filter. I chose to use this air compressor filter because its less expensive, flows better, and filters better than a 'decent' catch can. The smallest ID in this plumbing system is 5/8" (much bigger than the puny 1/4" most catch cans use), and I am confident that's enough to relieve pressures even with a turbo on—weakest link probably being the air filter itself compared to plumbing ID.






First time I've used JB Weld. Upon mixing the individual compounds, I noticed it was a distinctive non-newtonian fluid unlike other paints, epoxies, or putties I've come across in the past. It reacts somewhat like corn-starch and water. Noteworthy observation.

drewbie

I am probably dumb, but why not just use a breather instead of a complex filer and catch can?

known

iTrader: (1)

Cool project, and very detailed pics. Good luck with your build and your business!

90_EX_Civic

if im not mistaken, that compressor air filter is not air tight. the plastic sits loose.........

and not digging the jb weld. you did all that good work, you could have at least gotten a shop to weld on a aluminum tube to fit the hole, and then just tap a hole to fit the outlet.

other then that, not bad

decadecivic

iTrader: (2)

NPR

decadecivic

iTrader: (2)

Most air filters available as breather filter kits don't filter quite as well as the air compressor filter I have here. Another thing, once the vaporized fuel and oil condenses onto the breather filter, it'll drip back into my oil supply; My preference is not to contaminate the oil supply with fuel and tainted oil.

StatGSR

Nice work! Hope that fram oil filter is just a place holder!

decadecivic

iTrader: (2)

Installed the axles back in, but I'm not sure if they're shoved in far enough.

Driver side.



Passenger side.


Also, during one of my attempts in reinstalling the driver side axle—when I pulled the axle out because I thought it wasn't inserted in properly—this metal coil spring came along with it, wrapped around the spline portion of the shaft. It came out mangled like that. I do believe its the coil spring that goes around an oil seal. Would like to get some response from what you guys think of this. Will I absolutely need to change the seal to prevent transmission fluid from leaking?

azVTECaccord

Yes you will need to change this to prevent leaking.

& yes your axles are in all the way.

decadecivic

iTrader: (2)

Would like to confirm if its #12 seal?

teg97

iTrader: (3)

yes it is #12

decadecivic

iTrader: (2)

Intake manifold and throttle body installed.


JB Weld cured. 5/8" hose plugged in.



Engine fully assembled except distributor. Hoses and wiring harnesses plugged. Valve clearance done. Transmission installed.



Pushing the motor back in from under. For those interested in removing/installing the engine from underneath, you'll need to jack the car high enough to have a clearance of around 24". I placed an acrylic sheet on the floor to provide a slipperier surface for the engine to be pushed on, making one person installation a cinch.






Everything fully installed. Replaced driver side output axle oil seal when I screwed up axle installation. Probably won't be another 2 weeks before I start up the car. Reading on break-in procedure and tuning. I'm pretty firm on a hard break-in, but the fact my camshaft and combustion dynamics are so radically different from stock presents the problem of running a desired AFR during break-in. I have my S300 in hand, not soldered on yet. Have heard a friend telling me to stick with the P28, slap on an adjustable fuel pressure regular + wideband O2, and nail the idle AFR that way, but the hard acceleration won't be tuned and could risk being too rich or lean :uncomfortableness: Would like some input on how this initial tune + break-in should go. Still need to do a lot more research on break-in and tuning.

azVTECaccord

Personally I have always had the best results with breaking it in on the dyno. I do compression test (yes before starting the engine), start up, let idle, check for leaks, pinging, any bad noises etc, wait for tstat to open signifying at operating temperature. turn it off, change oil, then strait trailer to the dyno (or baby it on basemap & wideband). Then on the dyno, it will break in very hard. Oil change after the dyno & that's when "I" switch to synthetic & do a 2nd compression test. I also run magnetic drain plugs & a magnetic filtermag during break in, do not run a filtermag while on track...

Don't stress too much on start up idle afr's if your only idling for a few minutes & don't hear any pinging, you'll be ok.

Everyone has their own methods, but keep it simple. My attitude is I want it tuned asap so that the afr's are perfect asap.

decadecivic

iTrader: (2)

Bought some oil filters


Changed all the fluids:
Tranny Oil: Honda MTF
Motor Oil: Napa non-detergent SAE30
Coolant: Prestone Premix
Bled my coolant


I made myself det-cans with a stethoscope, T-fitting, 8ft of fuel hose, and ~5inch of copper pipe. Setting up the stethoscope with T-fitting was straight forward. On one end of the copper pipe, I hammered it flat and drilled a hole, and on the other, cut 2, 1inch slots 180° apart another. On the open end, using some pliers, I pulled the opening wide enough to fit the fuel hose in about 1.5 inch, then crimped it tight. I decided to mount the det-cans where the stock o2 sensor clip goes, so I hammered the flat end to give it an angle to clear the block casting. Connecting everything together, I noticed the det-can probe wasn't air-tight and would cause interference noise if the radiator fan went on. I remedied this by using liquid gasket and smearing it on any openings air could leak through. While applying the liquid gasket, I had my stethoscope on and blew on it, listening in to ensure it was sealed from wind noise.







After finishing the det-cans I installed my PLX SM-AFR wideband oxygen sensor. I decided to route both the wideband cable and det-can hose into the cabin, and found this hole leading to the upper area of the passenger foot rest.







Installed and wired up my PLX SM-AFR with the ECU. On the SM-AFR's analog output, I spliced the upper right wire to wire D14 and connected lower right to connector D10 (Canadian civics don't have ELD, so slot was empty for me). The power cable has a black and red wire. I spliced the red wire into wire A25 and spliced the black into wire A24. After all the soldering, I electric taped everything sealed.


Connector D






I made myself a bracket to hold my catch can and mounted it with the fuel filter.



To finish up the wideband setup, I plugged the computer to my S300, opened up SManager (vers. 2.2.7.0), went into Window/Parameters/Closed Loop, and changed "Closed loop operation" to "Closed loop - wideband input (lambda target) and checked "Disable O2 Heater", then went into Window/Parameters/Closed Loop Advanced, and changed "Wideband input source" to "D10 ELD".



My plan for the 1st startup is to idle for 15min while tuning in the idle AFR, then shutting it down and draining the oil afterwards.

To get oil circulated into the oil galleries, I first disconnected my spark plug cables and fuel injector harnesses, then cranked the engine 5 sets of 20sec with 20sec rest in between. I replugged everything back and with my stethoscope on and Smanager ready, I tried starting up the engine. Through many attempts, the engine wouldn't start. Knowing how the starter sounds like with the stethoscope from the cranking earlier, I noticed some of the start-up attempts only had the starter motor going, and not the fuel injector/sparkplug (either one or both). If they weren't on, Smanager would read the RPM ranging between 100-300. The other start-up attempts sounded like the injector/spark plugs were working as the sound was different and Smanager was reading the RPM ranging between 500-700.
After attempting many times for about 5mins, I decided to reattempt with WOT. Half the attempts made no difference. The other half attempts, the engine was able to fire up and I was able to release the starter motor, but the RPM would juggle at around 500-600RPM, while I'm at WOT, then stall shortly after. After multiple attempts, I was able to start-up the car and have it run normally. Because I was at WOT, the RPM rose really quickly, so I released the throttle, and as the RPM dropped back down, it dropped below a point where the engine stalled. Multiple attempts went into starting up and I was able to start it up a 2nd time, this time, holding the throttle at 5% (what Smanager tells me) at 1500rpm. As I slowly backed off the throttle, to below 3% and ~800rpm, the engine stalled.
Before attempting the next start up, I adjusted the throttle plate to be open at 4% constantly. Firing up the engine a 3rd time, at 4% throttle and 1100rpm, I was able to finally let it run on its own. During the idle, the AFR would jump around between 14.5 and 14.9, and based on listening in for detonation, I didn't have to change the fuel table much at all. After idling for a while, I pulled up on the throttle pedal to close the throttle plate little by little, and was able to get it to idle at 2% throttle and 800rpm, but didn't go any further in fear of stalling. After idling for 20mins, I turned off the engine and drained the oil.

Questions that are on my mind:
Why did I have to WOT in order to start it up?
Why was starting it up so difficult?
Why, in some of the attempts, did it sound like ONLY the starter motor was running, and not the fuel injectors/sparkplugs/distributor/etc?
Why would the engine stall itself if I kept the throttle plate shut?

My hypothesis for the engine stall issue might be because of my camshaft—reground to such an aggressive profile that it can't sustain the same OEM idle rpm. Next time I start it up, I'll change the idle to 1,100 on Smanager and see what happens.

Here are some screenshots of what's last read on Smanager after I turned off the engine. Normal view, Lambda Overlay, and Estimated Fuel Change

decadecivic

iTrader: (2)

After draining the oil, this is what it looks like. I was expecting it to be sparkly, but it wasn't. There is a dark green hue to the mixture—I'm guessing its from the assembly lube.

Battle Monkey

iTrader: (1)

Really digging your build! I love all of the pics. Keep it up!

eastbay92cx

This is an excellent build and write up, great job. I know you call it a budget build but this is much better than the majority of setups in terms of preparation, attention to detail, etc. Not sure about filling a gap with JB on the block fitting but overall it should be a lot of fun

decadecivic

iTrader: (2)

Refilled motor oil with Valvoline Premium Conventional 10W-30.
Spent a second day wanting to tinker with the idle and get a feel of how SManager worked, but I clearly didn't know what the hell I was doing. I set up a microphone to my computer and used a desktop recorder to record all my actions.

Cloth to support the mic and dampen some vibration


Here are the videos:

PROCESS
This time around, I adjusted the throttle plate back to 0%—later finding out its apparently between 0-1%—and started the car up in 1 attempt and without having to press down on the throttle. I'm guessing it was because some parts have worn in from the initial start-up. After starting up, the idle was at 500-600. In fear of stalling, I gave some gas to bring it up a bit to warm up.

I was suggested by someone to try adjusting the fuel trim. I was suggested to check and adjust accordingly for valve clearance, which was why I searched up for valve lash when I felt paranoid hearing what may have been improper valve clearance. As well, before starting the car, I made changes to "Rate of change" in Parameters/Closed Loop by making all 'Slow' values to 5, and all 'Fast' values to 99.


During the later parts in the video, I started revving the car up in hopes of getting a feel of tuning the fuel value for proper AFR. I honestly didn't know what I was doing =/. I read that when in closed loop, changing the short term adjustments of min and max to 0% would help prevent the car from messing up the AFR. Not knowing what to do and continuously witnessing high AFR at high RPM revving, I just gave up, and decided to report my findings and see what you all could say about it.

OBSERVATION
Changing fuel trim during the warm-up did have an effect on AFR. During that time though, my short term adjustments were at -20% +20% for min and max, respectively.
Changing the short term adjustments to 0% on min and max while the car's running didn't seem like it did anything.
Making the fuel value higher and pulling up on the 2D graph didn't seem like it richen the AFR during those mid-RPM revving.

ABSTRACT
Right now, what I want to accomplish is have a better understanding of how to tune the fuel—be it closed or open loop—and adjustment for temps in ECT and IAT, and perform my hard break-in ASAP. My break-in procedure will be as followed on MotoTuneUSA:
1. (3x) 50%-TPS pull from 3400-5100rpm
2. (3x) 75%-TPS pull from 3400-6800rpm
3. (3x) 100%-TPS pull from 2550-8500rpm
This will be done in any combination of 2nd, 3rd, and 4th gear, depending on appropriate speed, and with full engine breaking. Really want to nail down the break-in and seating the rings asap with respectable AFR levels, then proceeding to tuning the fuel in detail and ignition later on.

eastbay92cx

Xenocron's site and the PGMFI forums (need login) are great resources. The Keebler65 basemap writeup is one of the better ones I've read but I don't see it up now, you might pm them on here, someone probably has it.

http://www.xenocron.com/install/CromeGuide.htm
http://www.xenocron.com/techcenter.php
http://www.xenocron.com/links.php?page=writeups
http://wikitest.pgmfi.org/twiki/bin/view.pl

azVTECaccord

talk about detail! Love the build progress & your attention to the little things. you might need to just adjust your throttle cable a little or clean & adjust the iacv, either way I wouldn't stress about the idle only being ok under partial throttle, a good tuner will adjust a lot of little things...

& your oil is fine.

Charlie Moua

iTrader: (3)

Good build thread.
there are a few things I would of done differently.

In for the results.

chuwi_pty

This is an excellent build!!!!!!!!!!!!