I have been working on this for awhile now and decided it was time to throw it up on here.

I have had this car first as a DD for about 7 years before I took it off the streets for good the last 2.

I hope this may be a help for people looking at building an actual race car and some of the costs and mods associated with it.

Comments good or bad welcome.

The class is Super Touring Light and allows motor swaps so its similar to NASA's H classes. This is more of a rebuild/makeover of my GSR build so I used a few of those photos too. I blew that motor up at the Redline time attack at Sebring which was a real bummer. I luckily saved my old b18b block from my old ls/vtec so that was the cheapest rebuild scenario for me. The plan is to build an n/a b18b within the specs of the class.


Motul brake and gear fluids, Hawk ht-10 pads, brake ducts from honda-tech user jbs , skunk2 rear camber, blox rear toe, brake duct hose, b&m race shifter with spherical bearing which is one of the nicest additions I have ever made, and Progress Coilovers with 500lb progress/800lb hyperco springs which has been an amazing setup for the price Progress Technology: Anti-roll bars, sport springs, coil-overs, camber kits and more since 1995!. I showed my koni/gc for comparison between the 2 coilover setups.





Fast Brakes ITR front brakes.



Brake duct hose routed to the shock fork.


http://circuit-racer.com/forums/f12/...atch-build-34/


Hyperco are sweet and very high quality, skunk2 rear camber kit as well.





Sad face waiting for a new heart. That motor is now out of the car and I just need to get this finished.

Racetech 1000, the crow harnesses are gone and Im replacing them with Schroth Profi 2 6 point



Some of the new DOM roll cage next to the seat. That slider wont be used and is against the rules.

Schroth window net and side roll bar harness.



Engine work begins



Adding some permatex lube to the new main oem honda bearings.





ARP rod bolts.





81mm RS machines USDM PR3 B16 pistons. The SCCA STL class so far allows 11.0.1 compression so this should put me right at or just under the compression using an OEM head gasket.



Main caps on just waiting for ARP main studs now....main caps are on backwards in this photo...oops I should know better.




ACL race bearings main and rod end but Im only using the rod end because of clearance issues. The rods I have all have Green oem bearings which equate to about the same as a std acl rod race bearing. I went with oem main bearings because my block had a few different colors so I didnt want to go to a machine shop. All in all the crank looks perfect and the bearings showed minimal wear so I think this should be a good setup.



Oem honda gaskets, nuts and bolts. I also bought a brand new ob2 ls/gsr oil pump



Crappy iphone pics.
Schroth profi 2 6 point



Sparco tide gloves



Trip back from Honda, I also picked up some plasti gauge because I dont know if its the permatex pre lube or what but I can barely turn the motor over without a lot of force. I had to get new rings because I frigging broke a ring during the install.




I gave the cylinders a light honing because they looked pretty good already.




Measuring ring end gap which is right in between Hondas new ring limits of .20 -.35 these are .25


I will be adding more shortly since most of its already complete.

 

ARP main studs and rod bolts. Interesting thing with the torque specs from ARP...oem is 56 ft lbs and they said 80 ft lbs for the studs. This ended up having the clearances way too tight to the point of binding. So I plasti gauged it and 56 ft lbs was perfect and just slightly loose on the tolerance. This is a race motor after all and not meant to last 100k miles.



I used Hondas OEM clocking specs for the most part. I moved one of the ring gaps to the other side of each piston to have a little less oil creep.



I spray the cylinder bores with wd-40 to help the install go smooth.



Tapping pistons into the bore. Be carefull and hold the ring compressor steady so you dont break any rings like I did!

 

I soaked the head over night in a simple green mix with water. I then blasted with with water as much as possible to remove any debris in the passages.



I then used compressed air to dry and blast out any other debris.



Now for the installation of the valves, valve springs, and retainers.



Brian Crower Titanium retainers



Viton valve seals






Lisle valve spring remover/installer Brian Crower dual valve springs



Starting the install







Brian Crower is in the head

 

Oil cooler, cheap ebay kit that I ended up having to replace certain pieces of.



I dont want to have another spun bearing or any issues on the track so I decided to add an oil cooler. If I see any issues with this setup I will remove it and buy higher quality components for some of it but I think for now this will be fine. The items look just as good as any I have seen. $150 total is a deal for a setup like this.

I will be running my aluminum radiator as well so I dont think I will have any heat issues.


A good point to add the build specs:

OEM ITR transmission I have had for years that I bought brand new from Acura
B18B
Hytech replica header
Blox velocity stack on an intake I made out of ss
PR3 B16 RS Machines pistons
Stock Valves
Brian Crower dual valve springs
Brian Crower Titanium retainers
Brian Crower Stage 2 cams....this is where I think I will surprise people in the class. The cam lift is limited to.425 which means basically for a GSR or B16 motor you are capped out with stock camshafts unless you want to get a set of cams and have them ground down to .425 to pick up like .003 lift or something like that.

The type r motor/s2000 motor is banned from running in the class along with the Celica GTS motor.

The breathing of the motor will be my weak spot, stock intake manifold and throttle bodies. The head can be match ported an inch but Im not spending the money or doing that myself right now. Im not trying to win nationals or anything but would like to be competitive.

Suspension:

Progress coilovers 500/800 and 800/1100
Skunk2 front and rear camber kits
blox rear toe kit
es bushings already installed
beaks kit with jdm 23 mm itr rear sway bar....when or if I have some extra funds this will be changed to an ASR frame support with at least a 26mm or maybe the 32mm hollow rear bar they offer.
21 mm front sway bar from suspension techniques
newer style oem rear trailing arm bushing....likely switch to a spherical if allowed (havent checked rules yet)

Interior:

Racetech 1000 seat
schroth profi 2 6 point
aem wideband
oil, water temp, oil psi
JDM white rpm in my USDM cluster...I like it
10 point DOM cage for SCCA rules
Traqmate and Traqdash



Trying to get the interior cleaned out a bit more



Oil pan baffle kit - pwjdm



Welded in, be careful doing this so you dont warp the pan by getting too much heat on it. Take your time.

 

More engine work.







Rear main seal













This was the last time the car was running before I completed this new build. Time attack at Sebring in 09.

 

New thermostat



I bead blasted the coolant neck



I always use copper spray gasket for all of my builds.



Head dropped on




Bolted down using arp studs.



I just picked these up to go with my AEM wideband. My wife took these with her nice camera for me instead of using my iphone.






Nice fittings from AEM for the oil psi and oil temp gauges mounted in my remote oil filter thingy.



SCCA Club racing stuff and a few race car parts like the power cutoff, nomex thread to alter my suit, and other required items.

 

Brian Crower stage 2 na cams



Permatex pre lube before putting in the rockers




Rocker arms in...the b18b is new to me so these are interesting in comparison to the vtec system.





Cams in




Cam cap bolts...tricky lol shortys go on the outer most sides while deeper are in the center.



Cam caps installed and honda bond around cam areas

 

bead blasted the stock intake manifold





Starting the valve adjustment .008 intake and .010 exhaust for these cams. Timing belt is on and the motor is pretty much perfect for timing. Im going with NGK platinum cheapo plugs with a heat range of 1 cooler at 6 for this motor due to the higher compression. I hope that works out. I basically will be going with a gsr/itr plug and stock gapping which is just a little ****** than the b18b normally.

So my nice valve adjustment tool is for a 10mm nut and the B18B has a 12mm nut so fail boat there. I went with the typical slave labor adjusting.







All buttoned up. I left the valve cover the same way I got it used so it doesnt look great but at this point I dont care, I can paint it later.









So I just need to get it off the stand now, if I cant get some help I might just lift it myself.

I need to get a smaller alternator belt, I want it as short as possible for less work albeit little for the motor. I currently have a 30.5 inch so Im going to go with a 29.5 and see if that has it almost as short as possible.

I was looking on Brian Crower today and it looks like the dyno for these cams with stock compression made a little over 150whp and 125 trq so if all goes well maybe I will be a little above that.

Their dyno chart they showed with mods aem cai intake, msd ignition, zero'd out cam gears, 4-2-1 header.



Firing it up for the first time.




Slowly I acquired everything needed.

AMB transponder



Cool suit for when its hot.



Sparco cup suit, used.



I needed a new Helmet so I got an HJC - AR10 II sn2010

 

One little snag I had is finally corrected. I was trying to find an exact replacement for my oil block off adapter for my ebay oil cooler setup after I had a friend tap it and destroy it for me.



I got this setup from pegasus racing with fittings for $30 because I couldnt find just that piece. I could have run it like this but it is a critical thing to not have properly hooked up and have potential oil leaks causing me to crash or have someone behind me crash.

I wasnt going to risk it over $30.


You can see how jacked the adapter on the right is from a shitty tapping job. I didnt have a drill press and he did and apparently didnt give a ****. I can now finally hook up the oil cooler and check oil psi and oil temp to check and see what weight oil im going to run to try and maintain about 10 psi per 1000 rpms.




I bought a bunch of wire and other cool parts from skycraft which has everything you could ever want....wiring, switches, hoses etc. I also got my pegasus order in




ignition switch, push start, low oil psi sensor with red dummy light, fittings 1/8bsp to 1/8npt for the block, 1/8 tee, braided line, additional oil psi gauge. I also bought about 16 feet of 4g wire as well as 8g wire.


I will try to get some more pics, I drove the car today with it running right and it really rips hard.

Oil psi was at around 50 at 1500 rpms with a temp of about 190. Seemed better from what I was getting the other day.

 

Roll cage! I paid to have this done. Sorry some pics are crappy.

I had a petty bar that is removable setup as well.

 

This was the first time out with the new setup. Sebring NASA event in OCT.

Me, getting ready.




The almost finished interior...I know it looks awful lol





Session 1 coming down the straight





How the day ended with a blown water pump because the radiator cap went bad.





So I got to taking it apart to put in the new water pump and timing belt.

Pretty lucky, barely hanging on.





Ahh wtf thats not supposed to happen. I have never seen this type of failure.




I checked the valvetrain and everything looks intact and really clean so thats good. Im going to see if I can get it all back together today. I hate doing the timing belt, major pita to get tension right etc at least to my liking.

 

good stuff.

 

Nice build

 

Thanks, I should have more up later tonight.

 

SWEET BUILD..POST SOME VIDS..

 

sweet build very informative and reppin it for Florida! btw how much if i may ask did u spend for the rebuild of the engine?

 

Thanks guys.

Oh man, the motor build... I would say probably around $1500 total with me doing all the labor. I have a crank scraper still I need to install as well as the ignition, traqmate and other random items. Im looking for about 165+ to the wheels I hope at a minimum. The motor I used to have was around 200whp but that was a more heavily modded gsr. I need to get this motor somewhere near 165 to 170 without port matching and an over bore of the cylinders. Class whp target is close to 190whp but I dont think anyone will get there without spending ungodly amounts of money within the allowed rules.



Videos I have uploaded so far in 1080p or you can run them in 720 but below that starts to look crappy.



First time really pushing the car hard since I have made all the changes and the first time on a true race tire. I have a lot to work on at this track and in general, I didn't even attempt heel/toe out there because there was just too much for me to deal with for the first time lol.



I'm slow but that can improve, I just need to get more seat time now. The motor was smoking at idle and when I blipped the throttle but on the track it didn't smoke at all. I think the culprit was too much oil because by the end of the weekend it wasn't as bad. Oil cooler holds a quart I think which allows you to easily over fill.





Roebling Road Darkside event November 2011 - YouTube



I think I ran my faster times in this group



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf9sSXe4JZw



This run I was trying to wait for my friends that caught up with me in the end and then the camera shut off. The delsol that pulls out in front of me at the end in primer was my friend and ex SCCA F Production champion in the SAARC so needless to say he walks me with 50 less hp at the wheels lol.





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRBvB..._order&list=UL

 

ah cool thanks and nice driving what steering wheel is that?

 

thanks, slowly getting there.

momo tuner, I have had it for about 6 years. Its a pretty nice wheel.

 

Wow. Very detailed run-down on your build. I like it!

Keep up the good work, and keep hitting those apex's.

 

Thanks, I appreciate it. This build has been very expensive but Im sure it will be every bit rewarding as I think it will be once Im actually w2w in 2012.


I was running rpf1s which barely cleared the brakes so that had to change.

I traded them straight up with some used continental hoosier take offs I had for these.

11 in wilwoods which fit under the 290mm limit for the class, and some konig heliums which will be used as backups and for rain. I have 2 sets of brand new r888s for my kosei k1s which are now my main wheels.




Traqmate still needs to go in with the Traqdash that will replace my cluster for the most part. I need to see about getting a fuel gauge.




The last piece I just finished actually was the race exhaust. 2.5 in ss for the most part with an aluminized flexpipe to a magnaflow muffler. This drops down right before the fuel tank with a turn down. Im going to be coating it with some temp paint and then exhaust header wrap to keep the heat out of the cabin area hopefully. sorry for the big pic.




Im assuming I should free up a few extra ponies with this exhaust.

 

do you run the special vtec juice?

 

No vtec juice in this little torque baby, cant really call it a monster.

It pulls on the track very similar to my built gsr I had until I get to the straights. The limitations on the vtec motors in the class though shouldnt have them too far away from me outside of a 10/10th build out which would be custom dyno tuning headers until you find a perfect match not just a hytech copy like I have. Filing down the piston rings and on and on to get every little extra bit of power.

 

Very nice little budget racer. Your car is exactly what Honda tuning/racing is all about. It's a lot of fun to watch a build where all the little details are legit details. Awesome car, man.

 

Thanks man.

I posted these in the RR area but forgot to update this thread.

I finished the car for the most part. I attended the SCCA Buccaneer region Double Drivers school at Roebling road in Savannah, GA. I highly recc. this school if you are wanting to get your license so you can club race with SCCA.

I posted the fastest time in my group and placed 2nd in the first race and 1st in the second race.





Qualifying wasn't fantastic but it didn't matter.

Race 1 qualified 2nd


Race 2 qualified 3rd


It wasnt all glory lol this was a bit scary at almost 100 mph. Damp track, a little bit too much steering input and lifted a little too much. Edit: I actually found out this was a loose rear camber adjuster that caused this spin.



The build will never be finished but I pretty much have accomplished what I set out to. Its gratifying but also makes me feel like Im missing something since now I just need to tweak things for now.