chargeR

Hi all from Australia, welcome to my build thread for my CR-X I've been working on for a while now. I used to do track events in my old DC5 Integra Type R, but decided to move back to an earlier model and modify it a bit more extensively. Here's what my Integra looks like:



The car started life as a glass top SiR, but I've since un-picked the original roof and welded in a steel roof. The car was in pretty rough condition when I bought it, so I did a couple of track events, and then decided to give up on the B16A and move to something I was a bit more familiar with that would offer a bit more power. I actually started on the project a couple of years ago, but got distracted by other things and haven't made much progress.

Here's the car as it is now heading to the paint shop:



Planned setup is pretty simple, here's a run down of the main things:

Stock K24A3 (Similar to the K24A2 you get in the US)
K20A oil pump and pan with clockwise motion baffle
RBC intake and ASP 4-1 header
50° VTC
Kpro and E85 (E85 is fairly commonly available in Melbourne where I live)
DC5R transmission (Have freshly rebuilt this with Synchrotech carbon synchros)
Koni Race shocks with GC coilover sleeves, will start with 18kg/mm front rates and 14kg/mm rear
Fresh OEM rubber bushings through, with sphericals in some locations
ASR rear anti-roll bar, OEM front bar
Custom built traction bar
EHPS using a pump from a Holden Astra
Various size 949 Racing 6ULs (8s,9s,10s)

The goal is to make a nice quick street registered car that I can do plenty of track events in without issues, and run a bit quicker times than my Integra. More updates to follow.

bbarbulo

looks like a nice starting point for a build. good luck to you!

Grifty

Subscribed, can't wait for more updates

ShinsenTuner

iTrader: (1)

Does the steering 'feel' different with an EPS setup? In for updates, loved your DC5

toyomatt84

iTrader: (1)

I miss seeing the DC5 pictures, but I like that you're not giving up on the dream.

chargeR

Thanks! Looks okay from a distance, but apart from never having had any major damage the shell and panels are a bit banged up. Minimal rust though

Thanks, hopefully will have pretty frequent updates!

Have only driven my friend's car with the EHPS setup (same as what I'm intending to run) and I couldn't tell the difference from the standard power steering pump. It drove just like stock and felt pretty good. Check out his thread here for some pics of the pump: https://honda-tech.com/acura-integra.../#post50023442

Thanks mate, looking forward to driving a quick Honda on track again. It's been a while.

A couple more parts have turned up over the last couple of days. Firstly a Burns Stainless muffler, 3" in/out, 4.5" diameter, 17" long. My track exhaust setup will use just this muffler, for the street I'll have a different rear section with the biggest oval muffler Magnaflow make with a cat converter in there somewhere too.



I also need a harness for track use, and having never been happy with how my old 3" 4 point fit me in my DC5 I went with a 6 point with 2" lap straps which will hopefully fit across the hips a bit better. I looked at a number of brands but surprisingly in terms of features against cost the Takata was a good option, it has 2 adjusters on the lap straps to position them better and proper latching mechanism for the 5/6th points unlike some other lower end harnesses that just loop over the shoulder straps.

DC-2uned

I like where this is going...

chargeR

Thanks

I'm just finishing up my design for the traction bar I'm going to fabricate. Couple of features that differentiate it from the commercially available items:

- Non-china rod ends, I'll be using Aurora high performance 5/8" parts
- Caster is adjustable on car
- Correctly locates the front lower control arm, by using the standard radius rod cut down with a 5/8" thread cut into it. Innovative does this, but at the cost of not having caster adjustable without disconnecting one end of the radius rod, most of the other designs have a rod end at the lower control arm attachment, which is incorrect and allows the control arm to freely rotate about a transverse axis if you have sphericals.
- No front mount provision since I won't need it with the K24
- Bolt to the standard 4 bolt mounting location, leaving the tow hook points free to mount my splitter brackets.



Aiming to order materials and get parts laser cut for it by the end of the week. Over the weekend I made a rough jig to help locate the pick up points of the standard crossmember, and I can use it to assemble the new bar while I weld it. Note that the EF8 CR-X front crossmember is similar to the DA Integra one, and different to the D series powered EF crossmembers.



Some other parts turned up from Summit too, will post some pictures tomorrow.

JoshTheJerk

Talk about a bare bones starting point!

rallyrcr

Is there a reason for doing an original design for the traction bar? I've found that my K-tuned bar for my K20 CRX has been very reliable after thousands of miles both on and off the track.

chargeR

Yep, lots of work ahead of me putting it back together. Once I started stripping it down I couldn't stop and had to remove every single clip and screw .

The main reasons are listed in my post above. I'm fairly certain the K tuned bar won't fit my car, because it's an EF8, and frankly it's very poorly designed for something that would cost me more than $500 once I get it here to Australia. Have the rod ends in your K tuned bar developed any noise/play? How many track events do you think you've done on it?

I should be able to build mine for less than that, and it won't have the obvious flaws that many of the aftermarket ones have. I'll see how I go though, it might be harder than I think .

DC-2uned

Not a fan of the K-tuned either, I had one(back when they were still ETD like '07-'08) in my 90 ed6 with a regular old B swap and it would rub on hard lefts. I used mine on the street, but it saw many spirited mountain runs and didn't have any real play just that damn rubbing issue. Everyone says the heim joint and jam nut on the control arm side isn't a good idea. The best aftermarket solution I've seen was someone had the Full-Race bar but used the Innovative rods. The Innovative rods are solid on the arm side but adjustable heim on the bar side. Hope yours works and fits well man.

rallyrcr

What would rub? I've haven't had any issues with mine, but I'd like to know what to look for if it did. From what I can see a properly tightened traction bar will just swing in an arc with the suspension and hold the LCA in a locked forward-aft position.

chargeR

The issue is that the rod end on the rear end of the radius rod allows the LCA to pivot if you have sphericals in the inner pivot and the lower shock mount, so under brakes and acceleration the LCA will tilt in two different directions. Maybe it's not a problem or noticeable on a car with rubber or poly bushes in those locations, but I'm sure with full sphericals it would give me movement/play that I wouldn't be happy with.

Thanks If it starts to get difficult getting my own to work, I think I'll order the Innovative DA bar and modify it to fit.

The Magnaflow muffler I ordered turned up, and some other fittings and clamps from Summit, and as expected it's pretty huge. Part number is: 12588 5x11" oval, 22" long, 3" in, 2.5" outlets. Some guy on the internet says this thing will fit under the back of a CR-X, we'll see. This is part of my hopes to get the car to pass a noise test (for road registration purposes here in Australia it will have to be less than 90dB(A) at 5,100RPM, measured 500mm from the exhaust) with a full 3" exhaust.



*Burns muffler included for scale.

Will be sending off my Kpro (taken from my DC5R) to be updated to V4 today, the flex fuel sensor feature in particular should be useful.

rallyrcr

That makes sense. I must admit that I'm not feeling the shift but then again I do have Hard Race solid rubber bushings so it might not be apparent.

But answer me this, spherical bearings are supposed to have the same deflection tolerance a non-spherical bearing has when the arm is a captured swing arm like the OEM arm is supposed to be. If one were to replace the spherical bearing at the suspension-end of the Ktuned kit wouldn't that fix any play issues?

juan3023

looks great cant wait til see more progress

DC-2uned

I don't know why but the passenger side arm would rub the tranny on hard lefts when the pass. side suspension compressed. The bars were adjusted correctly and the car was aligned with only -1* of camber up front. Might've just been a freak thing due to the fatter alu rod compared to the skinny oem steel one. The ride height was raised to permit more clearance but it still rubbed(not on a long sweeping lefts but when the steering wheel was jerked like a fast 90* turn or looping auto-x cones).

I hear ya chargeR with the decibel level, in NY, USA we have emissions testing for inspection but the cops can give you tickets for noise(the ones that are mean enough to pull out the decibel meter). I would have a stock system on for inspection, that really choked my built LSV but passed emissions and then throw on my Buddy Club Spec 2 after. You wanna talk about loud and obnoxious...I had to push the clutch in whenever I'd see a cop lol.

Wanna see more pics!

chargeR

You're right a spherical is just the same in function as a rubber cylindrical bush, except the rubber is more flexible. But the OEM radius rod doesn't have a bush at the end where it joins the lower control arm, it's rigid, so putting a spherical there doesn't capture the LCA in the same way, it introduces additional compliance and makes the LCA free to rotate.

Referring to my quick drawing below, if the radius rod to LCA connection isn't rigid (like the OEM is) the LCA can twist. In the example sketch which shows braking force there's tension in the radius rod, and a rearward (braking) force applied at the lower ball joint. Those forces will be quite high and will tend to rotate the LCA clockwise (when viewed from this side), which will try to twist the lower shock bush, and twist the sway bar as well, which isn't ideal. It's probably not a major thing, as no-one really has major issues with the double spherical type radius rod, but I'd rather do it the right way .



Video showing what I mean:
Thanks, hopefully have pics of the painted car soon.

A Buddy Club Spec 2 here in Melbourne would attract cops from miles around

A bit more progress today. Firstly I finished up pulling apart the rear trailing arms and some other parts ready to be stripped and powdercoated. I also added an extra hole to my PCI seat brackets to get the seat a bit lower, so I'll get them re-done in black. The bottom of my seat should be basically as low as it can go without cutting out the original seat mounts in the floor now (I'm 6'3" so I need all the help I can get to fit in comfortably with a helmet).

Here's the the stuff going to powdercoat:



Then I moved on to assembling my coilovers. I'm using Koni Race shocks with Ground Control coilover sleeves, with 1000lb/in springs at the front, and 900lb/in at the rear. Also fitted some Eibach helper springs and thrust bearings, and Pro Parts USA spherical upper mounts at the front with Koni upper spring seats. I fitted the helper springs at the bottom, as if I put them at the top the coupler would interfere with the upper spring mount.

Unfortunately I seem have lost the rear upper shock mounts so I'll pick up a pair at a wrecker tomorrow.







After doing that I fitted up the RBC intake manifold to the motor, with the Karcepts throttle body adapter. I'll get the rest of the accessories fitted up and bolt on the gearbox this week so it's all ready to drop in when I get the car back.



I'll hopefully get the car back from paint within the next week or two so I can start assembly.

chargeR

I headed to a local wrecker on Sunday and picked up a pair of rear shock top mounts so I can finish off assembling my suspension. Also found this power steering pump from a Holden Astra for $53. These things are really common here, so if I have any issues I can just keep getting them cheap rather than the premium people ask for MR2 pumps. It has a nice neat integral reservoir too.



Also collected some parts from the anodizer today. I'm don't like the shiny billet aluminium everywhere look, so I decided to tone it down a bit with satin black. Parts I had done are: ASR rear subframe brace, engine mounts, shifter mounting plate, boss kit and a steering spacer.



Tonight I partially stripped down the steering rack to tidy it up a bit. I'll fit some new inner rack ends and boots and then fit a set of the tie rod ends that a friend I are developing to correct the bump steer at my ride height, here's what the prototype set I fitted to my EF2 hatch look like:



180,000km worth of Australian and JDM dirt and grease:



Also started mocking up my hydraulic clutch conversion in carboard so I can roughly put it together and test fit for clearance with the dash and AC vents once I get the car back. I'll hopefully make some more progress on that on Friday.

chargeR

ade a little more progress last night, firstly I did a quick comparison of a few different front knuckles that I've collected. On the left is BA4 Prelude, middle is EF8 CR-X and right is DA9 Integra. All the calipers are the same, and I believe the hubs and wheel bearings are the same too despite some part number variances, but will press them apart to confirm and I'll be keeping the hubs as spares as they are now discontinued from Honda apparently.



I compared them to see if either knuckle might be a better alternative to the standard EF8 part for future use, as a friend had suggested he was using the prelude knuckle as it was a bit shorter and gave more bump travel, but my rough measurements suggest that the DA knuckle wouldn't do anything good for bump steer or the camber curve, and the SAI of the Prelude knuckle isn't right for an EF and would result in excess positive camber. EF8 is the best out of the available options I think.

Then I started on my hydraulic clutch conversion. Measuring the pedal in my DC5R I found that the pedal ratio is approx. 7:1 whereas the standard EF pedal ratio is nearly half that with much more travel than the roughly 25mm that a DC5/EP3 master cylinder has, so unless I modify it I'd end up with twice as much pedal effort, which will only get worse if I go to a clutch with more clamping pressure later.



So I made a template from cardboard and then welded a new end on the pedal (excuse the my poor welding skills), and drilled a new hole for the clutch master cylinder clevis to give approximately 6:1 ratio. Here it is mocked up on the pedal assembly, now I just need to make up a mounting plate for the master cylinder, and add pedal stops at both ends of the pedal travel.



Parts are still turning up. Firstly my Kpro arrived up back from Hondata with fresh V4 update, not bad service since I only posted it 9 days ago. Went direct to the source rather than deal with unreliable Australian Hondata dealers...



Also received a whole pile of OEM parts including front wheel bearings, rear hubs and bearings, ball joints, quarter window seals, door lower glass seal, heaps of clips and plugs, tail light gaskets, bumper mounts (though unfortunately the left rear is discontinued) and a windscreen moulding. Now I just need to source a correct bronze windscreen, or I may just end up putting the same one back in even though it's showing its age.



Pair of splitter brackets from SPMS arrived also, I'll be making my own front air dam rather than using the one from SPMS because it's ugly and who wants an ugly track car.

feeesh^^

great stuff!

DC4KiD

iTrader: (4)

This is going to be a good one!

tattedpun

Subscribed

chargeR

Thanks guys! I've set myself a deadline to get the car on track of the 12th of September so I'll have a busy couple of months and hopefully plenty of updates.

I made a little more progress on the car Sunday evening and last night, cut out the MC mounting plate for my clutch conversion and partially welded to it the pedal assembly. I cut it out of cardboard first then transferred it to some 3mm thick mild steel and mocked it up with the modified pedal:



To finish it off I just need to add an adjustable pedal stop (as it is the amount of travel will bottom out the master cylinder, so I'd like to limit the travel to avoid that) and give it a coat of paint or powdercoat. It should be plenty stiff enough to give good clutch pedal feel. Excuse my poor welding skills.



Also the first of a couple of exterior parts turned up, a J's Racing front lip:



Will drop it off at the paint shop this week, and take some photos of the car as it sits then.

DC-2uned

Nice to see things coming along. I love the custom hydro setup, looks like you put a good amount of planning into its functionality.

I like the look of the anodized black parts over the more commonly seen chrome too.

Best Honda chassis(CRX): check
K24: check
Custom fab: check
Koni/GC: check
6ULs: check
J's lip: check

Looks like all the ingredients of a well built track car, keep it up bro!