Well, time for a new project log. Since my last one, I've changed directions on the build, and I figured I would give a little back-story of my car along the way. If you just wanna see the new build, skip ahead in the post!

Where it's been:

Got this car in late 2005 from an older guy. Had a hot-air intake, ebay coils and a canister muffler welded on stock exhaust lol, but overall was a clean car.


Did my first mods, a K&N intake, high-flow cat and DC Sports header. Kinda got ricey with it soon thereafter, put some heavy 17's on it after. Car went a blazing 17.0 at the track with all that powa!


Met my now good friend Rick Reeder around that same time, and he kinda steered me away from being a ricer and helped me get things on a better path. After about 6 months I sold the wheels off the car and went back to stock and started piecing together a VTEC head swap and OBD1 conversion. Rick really walked me through the whole swap.

In late 07, I thought I had an overheating issue, changed everything cooling related, still showed to run hot, so I decided to pull the motor down and go ahead with the mild all-motor build I had been contemplating...Turns out the "overheating" was just a faulty sending unit but I got to build my first entire motor. Again, Rick helped me through the build, added a Crower Stage 2 NA cam, springs and retainers, Edlebrock IM and AEM CAI, freshened up the bottom end, add ARP rod bolts and head studs. This is the engine that's still in the car today, minus the cam. Also learned to tune over the next 3-4 months and got it somewhat dialed in.


After getting the tune somewhat decent, it ran a 15.1@93mph with a 2.2x 60' in my first pass, other 3 were worse due to error (read: me sucking) and only made one more trip to the track with that setup, and kept spinning so times were slower.


I soon began piecing together parts for an 12:1 CR all-motor build for my car. Along the way I started autocrossing, last year, and it made me start rethinking my NA build, but I still planned to finish it. Well, in July I decided to go ahead and toss on my Bisimoto header. I had an issue with the downpipe not fitting properly, they wouldn't repair/replace it so I sold it (and my Crower cam) and changed directions to a small, quick spooling turbo setup.

Here's a pic from the first event this season in my car:


Last Christmas, my wife's grandmother backed into my car

Since my car's getting kind of rough anyway, my friend Rick was selling off a couple of his CRX's, and he had a very clean 1990 Si shell I bought to put all my stuff over into.


Where it's at and what's ahead:
As the autocross season rolled on, Mr Abide turned me on to the 949Racing 6UL's, so I ordered a set in 15x7.5 and a set of Dunlop Star Specs dedicated strictly to autoX duty. I also traded out my KYB AGX with Skunk2 sleeves and springs for some Koni Yellows with Ground Control sleeves and springs with 450lb front springs, 550lb rear springs and 24mm extended top hats in the front. Not too long afterward I dropped my front sway bar and add a Suspension Techniques 22mm adjustable rear bar. More recently I picked up a set of Toyo R888's in 205/50 15 strictly for autocross, and will be putting my Star Specs over to DD duty when my current DD tires wear out. For binders, I had to ditch my DA integra big brake spindles since one was bent for stock 9.5" brake spindles, but I retained my Goodridge braided steel lines and Hawk HPS pads.

Wheels on the car


Konis and Ground Controls


New tires mounted




Now, that turbo setup I mentioned earlier. A DSM friend has been a big help in sourcing parts for it. It's being done on a strict budget of what little extra cash I had on the side and what I sold the header and cam for. Going to just run on stock internal WG, which should be 9psi IIRC. Here's the rundown on it as of right now (its awaiting a few final pieces before installation).

Fresh 14B turbo from 1g eclipse
T25 exhaust housing
Ebay cast manifold and T3 to TD05 adapter (free mani courtesy of a member on another forum)
Modified stock DSM downpipe (still hunting for a stocker)
Ebay FMIC and piping kit, 2" piping, inlet/outlet, 28"x5.5"x2.5" intercooler
-4AN feed line with appropriate restrictor
-10AN return line

The whole point of this setup is to keep spool times as minimal as possible and peak boost as low as possible to help pull the car out of corners.





Once I have the turbo setup the way I want, I'll be using the block I had been prepping for NA to build a moderate CR (10-10.5:1) block using forged rods and pistons to replace these pencil thin stock rods. With the added CR, it will also help keep spool time quick and off-boost power the same as stock. I also have a DOHC ZC transmission with an OEM LSD, which I changed the 3.88 final drive out for a 4.25 Si unit. Once I swap everything over to the yellow CRX, I'll add the transmission in whether or not the other motor is done yet.

 

Nice read, good luck to you as you move forward!

 

Digging the 6ul's and was contemplating what it would look like on a honda . Since they are mainly for Miatas .

 

great build...

looking forward to see that thing spool.

 

Thanks. The whole header deal really slowed things down, but I'll be faster for it. I literally have everything in my parts room for a 76mm D16Z6 with 12:1 CR using PG6 pistons, and once that happened, I just decided to sell the header and cam together, later I'll sell the pistons/rods for some forged guts and still use all my other bearings, gaskets, block, and head.

Since I ordered mine early this year, I've seen them on a car in almost every month of HT mag lol. I've been looking at these since mid-2010, but didn't get the money until March.

Thanks, me too! I've really been contemplating using a side mount since the cold side of the turbo exits on the passenger side, or using a top/bottom FMIC to reduce piping length. If my hood wasn't so nice on the Y49, I'd use a top mount and scoop like Dave Hardy's Snot Rocket lol.

The plan for now is to use whatever small FMIC I decide one and route it to my current AEM CAI (fill in the port to the VC) to keep it kind of sleeper. I'll paint the IC black, and maaay even make a heat shield over the turbo to hide things from the untrained eye lol.

 

Ricer.
Just kidding (we're friends and competitors in autox). Stick with this build and finish it.

 

Damn sweet setup ur getting into. I too will be boosting next month. Should u recommend going ur route in parts? If so, lmk where u sourced everything from.

 

I know right o_O. One day I'll finish it haha. Always remember the proverb Rick told me though, "As long as I work on your car, you'll never outrun me" :D

It depends on your goal and budget. I probably will have no more than $700 in parts and welding, if that, but I already had a tuning solution (Neptune RTP), OBD1 conversion (which isn't necessary), and large enough injectors. Injectors are the cheap part, you can run DSM 450's for about $50 a set, add resistor box if necessary, and you can just do chip burning (but IMO, real-time programming > all day) for tuning.

I imagine this turbo won't push me much past 200whp, maaaaybe 250 with a great tune and other parts. A 16G is bigger and can support 300whp fairly well, but will spool a bit later. If you're not going for a quick spool style build, and just a DD/drag, I'd also do 2.5" intercooler puping and IC instead of 2".

 

Scored an HF bumper support today along with a few more HF parts I probably won't use lol. That should be good for about 12-15lbs off the front haha.

 

Update, this thing's not dead! Got everything swapped over, hit a few hiccups here and there, added an Innovative replacement crossmember (only SM-legal one I could find) so I could fit the Mishimoto radiator I scored. Picked up a set of RC 370cc injectors. Cars almost done, just gotta attach the bumper and hood, reinstall the interior and wire up my gauges. On to pics.

 

Car looks great man, when is a b16 being dropped in tho

 

Haha. Never.

 

sweet build!

 

Thanks. Took it for its maiden voyage today to the gas station. Soooo sketchy without an alignment (didn't get done before the closed), lol, taking it in the AM.

 

Looking good. what did you do with the black rex? I might have just missed it.

 

Haha. Cool.

 

Just using it for parts at the moment. I had plans of putting a motor back in it to daily on, but the more stuff I rob from it, the less likely I am to ever do that. If I can find another decent body car I'll get it for a beater. Right now, I'm DD'ing my auto, but the body's pretty shot and the rad support and crossmember are jacked up from a large pothole hit by the PO.

 

Back from the dead. Still campaigning this thing in SMF, well at least for four events this year, took a few co-drives in some other rides. Also bought a new daily I'm in the process of getting the motor back together on, going to do a resto-mod type build with period-themed parts. Here it is:



The yellow car now has some true R comps on it, but that and some Ingall's front camber adjusters is about all that I've changed since the last post. They will take some time to get used to, but so far I think my best PAX finish is 4th overall, consistently in the top 10 and usually top 5.

 

Very nice! I miss wrenching on my CRX!

 

looks great man!

 

Nice build man!

 

Back from the dead again. I've still been racing this thing without too many changes. I picked up a co-driver this season, a true autox novice but he's picking it up very well. After a few events last season on old R comps, we bought a set of fresh rubber and it made a world of difference. I went from PAX'ing top 8 or 10 to top 3. We've made some mild spring, sway and alignment changes to adapt to the cars handling on these tires, but nothing major.

So far on 3 events on new tires I've taken 2nd at a four-region event (TLAC), 3rd at our next regional and 8th at the most recent after we mounted a GoPro too low and it took out the starting cone, costing me my fastest run (which was good enough for third place >_<). Car has been top RAW in two of those as well.

I've hit a wall though, I feel like the tired old SOHC I built 6 years ago is showing its age and holding me back. For once, I feel like it's somewhat the car and not solely me holding my times back. I've got a remedy for this, I picked up what turned out to be fairly low mileage B18C1 in an HF for $1000 total. I thought it had a bent valve, but turned out it was just stuck due to sitting for so long. Still, I had the head re-done with a little work, some Supertech dual springs, and had the block honed. Some PR3's were ordered, ARP rod bolts were installed and the rods honed, OEM bearings and oil pump are sitting in there as well. I just ordered some OEM rings since I over-filed the NPR's that came with the pistons. I sourced an older Blox type-r look-alike IM for cheap, and still need to order a header and clutch, then assemble everything. Right now, I've got a B16 S1 trans I'm going to try, if it's too short for my taste, I've got an LS S1 and an LS YS1. I'm bad about hoarding parts lol.

Anywho, here's what the car looks like now. A friend traded me his CF hood, it just needed a reclear so we did so and tossed it on to shave a bit of weight and give more clearance for the swap (which I hope to toss in after this next event Sunday).

Actually, this is my co-driver taking his wife for a ride lol


Here's a video of me hitting that cone that cost me 3rd place.

Now, we overheated the Hawk HPS pads this last event, so I've got a set of HP+ for the front and some HPS's for the rear coming this week, and some new ATE fluid just arrived. I'll post more pics this week.