Skunk2 makes some nice looking parts.

Front Camber Kit


Rear Camber Kit

 

More junk2 parts on an ITR, what a shame. Those tower studs just sticking out like a sore thumb without a real ITR bar.

 

I said this on the type r club to him only nicer. Op the strut bolts are ahem black nuts lol. Not the gold ones that are found on every other model.

 

didn't know there was some hate for skunk2, so far everything looks heavy duty and precision made, I guess I'll see how they hold up.

 

coilover install is going well, lots of work, but the milwaukee m12 makes disassembly a cinch.

one side nearly complete:

 

fedex dropped off a surprise while I was working on the car.



such beauties

 

oem spring and damper zipped right off:


need some parts from the oem assembly for KWv3s:


assembled:


the controversial skunk2/junk2/skunkpoo:


first time on the ground, just the front is installed, will do rear tomorrow then fine tune the camber and height, not a bad guess for the starting point:

 

starting to look really nice, an altitude adjustment makes a huge difference.

 

Fine-tuned the front's ride height and camber.

This looked to give me what looks like around -2 degrees of camber. We'll see when I get a custom alignment done.


Just ever so slightly tucks, a parallel finger hits the top of the tire.



It should go 10mm lower when it settles, I'm about 10mm lower than KW recommends.

KW's instructions were very vague, I ended up realizing after I read everything again and connected the dots that I should have put a metal sleeve in place of the one I had to remove from the front upper struct bearing, there is a note at the end of the page about drilling the old one out, that I missed. I did take the old sleeve out since it wouldn't fit otherwise, you don't actually need to drill, just disassemble. So I ended up taking the coils back out to correct that. After all that I felt too worn-out to finish the rear this week, so next week it is. Sucks getting old!

 

found an old picture of my 97 GS-R back in the 90s/00s



this was way before the fast and furious came out! haha. those wheels were 17s, looks too big now. full body kit and three piece mid-wing.

 

Up she goes!


Working on a car that's never seen snow and road salt is nice. Everything zipped out.




This was the metal sleeves that threw me off in the front, the zinc one is the new one that came with the coilovers, the silver one is from the OEM upper strut bushing.



Assembled:


Everything in with my first guess adjustments:



First time down, needs more negative camber and low:


short break, then some adjusting.

 

All done, ready for alignment now. Love the way the KW's ride.






The rear just needs to come up a smidge.

 

Looking good. Pity about the Honda badges, but it is a USDM Acura after all so... Now I say that as someone with a JDM 98 Spec with a USDM R centre console and EDM 15's and rear lights, so I'm probably best ignored.

That main relay switch is a great idea and cheap security. I have one myself, though in my case I had issues at first with occasionally cutting out. I checked the connections in the plug end and found a couple were slightly loose so I tightened them up. Sorted. Good idea to leave the OEM relay in place. Slow any dodgy individuals up.

 

The front of my car is now too low for my "Low Profile" jack to fit under the front lifting point, so I needed a "Long Low Profile" jack, this thing is a 100lb tank.

 

One of these is next unless my exhuast magically arrives first, probably the brakes.

 

The vendor shipped my lug nuts from my bronze CE28N wheel order, wonder if that means the wheels are closer to shipping?

Black lug nuts, also matching the valve stems and caps, forged and lightweight. The leftmost row has the locks which don't fit a standard socket, just making it slightly harder to remove, better than nothing I guess.


I'll probably sell the silver CE28N's, reusing the packaging I get for the new wheels. They have some blemishes that were badly covered up with touch up paint, but surprisingly didn't bother me, probably since its an imperfect 24 year old car, and you have to get close and look in detail to notice. Looking at the car from 6ft away, everything looks perfect! haha.

 

Race Car Parts make Race Car Noises. haha.

The rear is super squeaky, I probably should have put some grease on the places the polyethene bushings rub against metal, but I'm a rookie, there's no install instructions, and those youtube videos always leave out details, making things look way easier than they are.

Apparently this stuff is among the best and has worked when others have not:


I think it's just the rear camber kit making noise, so I'll start there and report back.

 

This energy suspension lube is super sticky!



I put it in the one place I thought was obvious which does not have a preassembled bushing to metal interface, I'm still getting squeaks from something, maybe the bushing near inner fender well, or the strut mounts.

I did torque all the bolts that affect rubber or polyurethane bushings under preload, I also double-checked the torque of all the bolts.

I'll let things break-in a little more and chase it more later, its a little annoying at crawling speeds, but everything is loud in this car anyways.

I did have a chance to try out the new setup on some mountain roads where I drove it beforehand, even without the alignment dialed in, the car feels more like a go-cart now, these KW coilovers took the car to the next level, not that the car was a slouch to begin with, the composure of the car and grip from these tires is insane.

Also this ride height is perfect for this wheel/tire combo, no rubbing, no scraping driveways or speedbumps, zero bounciness, and the ride isn't harsh.

 

Changed my mind on what's next up:



Valve Adjustment, new Oem Valve Cover and Gaskets, and some Low-profile Valve Cover Dressup Hardware.

Getting really curious if the Skunk2 Stage 1 Camshaft (305-05-0140) and Skunk2 adjustable Cam Gears the previous owner before the last installed are still there. The vtec cross-over is wicked and loud which makes me suspect the cams are still there.

Starting tonight likely.

 

disassembly, umm yeah, those are not stock cam gears.




Intake and Exhaust cam gears both set at 0.


Not sure about the cams
Exhuast:



Intake:


When I get to spinning the engine over later, I'll get a better look to see if notice any aftermarket part markings, intake cam has a 'M' though.

 

Cam Gears are definitely Skunk2.



Both the intake camshaft and exhaust camshaft have 'M' stamps, I found a '2' stamp on the intake side. If OEM cams don't have these, they are probably also Skunk2 as the previous owner said he put in along with the Cam Gears.

Below looks like TDC, though I'll spin it around a few more times to see if I can get any closer.

 

Things were going so well, but then I ran into a setback: one of the head bolt holes stripped, either the install instructions had the incorrect torque spec, the bolt hole was degraded due to age or previous installs, or my torque wrench is wildly out of spec. I think it's an incorrect torque spec, but that's a laymen's estimation.

This is a bolt that connects to an edge cam cap, the one next to the vtec solenoid, E5. Instructions said 20 ft-lbs for torquing the inner and outer bolts to the cam caps and head. You do the inner ones first, which went perfectly, then the outer, which is were disaster struck. Note this step is before the valve cover is installed and the valve cover bolts have a much lower torque spec. The Hayes Repair Manual indicates 20 ft-lbs for the 8mm camshaft holder bolts, which are the inner bolts, but I could not find a torque spec for the outer 8mm bolts in the manaul, I suspect those are 86 in-lbs like the value cover nuts.

Researching a bunch, I'm not going to attempt to fix this myself, but find a shop. Aluminum heads are way too sensitive and deserve precisely calibrated and maintained professional torque wrenches along with skilled professionals. I don't think I'll have the time to properly acquire all the needed knowledge to take off the head, send it to the machine shop, and mainly: install it correctly again first try without messing something else up. I found a spare type-r head to get parts from or use, depending on what the auto shop and/or machine shop recommends. Unfortunately you can't just replace a broken cam cap and send it, it's milled from factory to match the head.

I kept hearing and reading about how careful you need to be with aluminum heads and did my best to hand tighten first, then use the torque wrench, but I'm betting an experience tech would have not have stripped the bolt hole, already having experience and industry knowledge.

What a huge disappointing setback, but I'll get it worked out. While I'm at it, I'll ask about the condition of the cams.

 

Those specific bolts from Honda are known to be softer than what was sold 10-15 years ago. I think the safe tq spec mentioned in other posts is 16 ft lb but Ive had cam caps off multiple times and used a 3/8 drive wrench and hand tighten by feel with no issues. Theres been more than one instance Ive found those bolts stretched thin at the threads when inspected. What stripped? The threads in the head or did the bolt snap/stretch?

 

the threads in the bolt hole stripped and it also cracked the cam cap casting at the bolt hole in two places. I was able to easily pull it apart afterwards. Here's the gore:

 

I warned you and chrisfrom86 warned you junk2 is garbage. I highly doubt you were able to crack that in two spots as you described with an oem bolt and if it was already cracked that piece would have been in your valve train. That junk2 bolt probably wasn’t manufactured within the proper tolerance.

When you do the head do not use those cams. They appear scorched.