Well, I've been here a LONG time guys, I debated posting ANYTHING about this car, but after talking with Roger, I feel like I owe it to myself to show this thing off. A few more tweaks and it'll be ready to head back to the dyno. Those who know me well know I started out with a Rev Hard kit and a stock H23 back in 2001, we've come a long way since then. This is the 6th or 7th setup that's been in this thing. I was a H23 purist for a long time, but you just can't get the power out of them. I did make 400 to the wheels on pump gas last time around though. Pretty sure thats the pump gas limit on a H23. Might have squeezed more out of it, but my intercooler let me down and we lost yet another brand new motor.... then a deal on a sleeved h22 that was too good to pass up came along.

I won't detail everything but here's the main run down:

Engine:
-H22A4 from a 2001 SH prelude
-GE Sleeves
-Weisco pistons 88.5mm (Pretty loose P2W for obscene boost amounts)
-Pauter rods
-Stock crank
-King Bearings all over
-ProDrive Oil pump gear
-Balance shafts eleminated
-ARP Studs top n bottom
-All new gaskets/seals/etc
-Innovative Solid mounts

Head:
-Manley titanium springs and retainers
-Basic cleanup port and valve job
-Skunk Pro1's w/Pro1 gears
-Stock valves - just cleaned up and recut seats

Trans:
-LSD
-All new OEM bearings
-CC twin disk
-Braided clutch line
-Adapter plate SH to Base trans
-Stock axles
-Explicit Speed traction bar

Air/Fuel/Turbo etc:
-One off BMC race intake manifold
-Full-race divided manifold
-K-Tuned 90mm throttle body
-Full-race 4.5" thick double back door intercooler with a Freed Engineering twist
-Freed Engineered custom 2 piece downpipe
-Freed Engineered custom 3.5 Aluminum charge piping all VanJen clamps
-Dual 44mm Tial V-bands modified to fit by Freed Engineering
-Full 3" exhaust all straight to a Vibrant stealth 3" muffler
-ID 1000's
-Bosch 044 w/255 lift pump, -10feed -8 return.
-Aeromotive regulator
-6765 billet turbo journal bearing
-M&W Pro10 w/AEM EPM and CBR 1000 coils

Body:
-Completely restored body/paint everything resprayed electric blue, door jambs, under the hood, only parts left unpainted can be covered with interior pieces, car is 100% rust free and straight.
-Aerocatch latches
-JDM 1 pieces
-Body does need some work, still has some overspray from when the engine bay was done, nothing a good wet sand can't clean up.


Other notable modifications:
-Custom upper and lower rad supports
-Custom Freed Engineering front bumper supports
-Push-Lok vacuum fittings
-Boost/Oil gauges behind smoked glass/plastic
-AEM wideband
-AEM boost control
-AEM Infinity 10 system w/custom mount on kick panel w/ignition box
-Relocated PC680 battery to passenger fender well
-Relocated oil filter
-Fluidyne Rad w/T1 fan
-Tein SS coil overs
-5th gen 5lug
-DBA rotors
-Relocated alternator (d-series)
-Catch can setup w/braided lines -10

Left out a ton, probably forgot a lot of stuff thats been done to the car over the years as well. I've never had anything but bad luck with this car, blew up two brand new setups on the dyno, and the car has never really felt "right".... I think I finally got it right with this setup though. I'm 29 years old, this is it for me, if we blow this one up the car is going to sit until I have a son old enough to work on it.

Big thanks to:

Roger (md23vtec) for helping me out along the way this last time around, and some serious hook ups, and for just generally becoming a good friend of mine.

Freed Engineering - Ben is SICK!!!!, as you can see he is an AMAZING fabricator, clean and careful and a great guy to work with. I gave him some basic ideas and let him run with them and he went above and beyond. If you need any fab work, from mild to wild, Ben is your guy. Super reasonable, and has everything under one roof, even a dyno. Plus he's got a ME degree like me...

Jeff Evans - Has always tuned the car and always given me great advice and has always taken care of me when **** goes south on the dyno.

The many many MANY H-Ters that have answered my questions over the last 10 years.

Lastly - MYSELF: This car was, is, and always will be 100% funded by me! No help from my parents, and NO CREDIT CARDS. Everything has always been bought and paid for, and Jesus is it depressing thinking about all the money I've drained into this thing.

So here it is, I'll keep you guys updated as I get the final tweaks done, not much left till its time to fire it up again. Then back to the dyno, where for gods sake hopefully I have some good luck this time around. If everything goes as planned I'll upgrade other components as needed such as the injectors if they're too small or the fuel pumps etc if needed. Then I'm gonna shove Roger behind the wheel and get us kicked out of the track.... no cage, no plans to cage it as of now, no time or money to race competitively. Car will pass inspection, and that's all I ever wanted was a NASTY street car. I think I'm close.

I'm not looking for props or a pat on the back for this car, I've had it a long time and I just wanted to document it someplace else other than my computer.

PICTURES!

 

been a long long time since i have seen a picture of this car. Although last time i saw it, the car wasnt lookin this good

 

Yeah, I was pretty quiet about it for a long time.... glad you like it

 

clean!

 

Good luck on bringing the car back. GL hopefully it works out well for you. Did you do anything to anything for cage. I also like that idea of the afr gauge. I think i just figured a place to relocate my gauge to just like yours

 

****'s weak.

After the car goes 10's then it may get a cage. ( I will have to drive it I am sure :p)
But Steve isn't really pressed on making this car as fast as possible he wants to enjoy it some.

P.S. I did that in 2003 in my nitrous car and 2005 in the turbo car. It's hard to think all this time has passed since way back then.

 

Awesome build .. Looking forward to results ..

 

Man i can imagine how much fn time and effort (not to
mention cash) you have put into your lude and imo it
was well worth it. Great build, fn sweet.

 

Good to see what shape the car is in now, and how close you are to completion!

After all the years, it looks like you have come up with a good setup, and I see alot of potential in it.

Are you keeping it on pump gasoline, or any plans for E85 or race fuel? I started off thinking that you were going to run out of injector super fast, and had to remind myself that I am thinking in terms of E85 use.

With a good group of people giving you support, very excited to see what this car does on the track, not to mention the bruiser it will be on the street!

 

Yes, its very close now.

Like Roger said I want to ENJOY the car, because I haven't gotten a chance to really do that in a long long time.... if I have some good luck and the car stays somewhat reliable, maybe I'll start pushing and seeing how fast we can go, but that would be after at least 1 summer of having fun in it.

Definitely doing a pump gas tune, then probably a race gas tune if that goes well. Like I said, if it runs out of injector that's something my tuner will likely have and can be swapped out pretty easily while at the dyno. I'll see what the 1000's get me and go from there.

Hopefully I'll get some time to work on it this weekend. There's a bunch of things that need checked over and a couple minor items to be installed yet. The car has sat so long I really need to just stare at it for a while and figure out what exactly I'm forgetting.

 

Looking good man, I like it!

 

Made a little progress over the weekend. Checked my torques on the entire top end, checked/installed all my hose connections, mounted and wired the battery/grounds etc.

Just need to install the braided clutch line and rebleed, add all the fluids, drain/replace the gas and it should be ready to attempt a fire up.

 

Really digging the quality of the stuff that Freed did for you, any chance you have pictures of the front end without the bumper on, showing how the mounts tie it all together?

And are your dumps just atmospheric, or tied into the exhaust?

 

dam thats nice man great work.

 

I don't have any pictures of the front w/o the bumper, but I can take shots from the top and underside to show how he mounted the intercooler. He made some nice aluminum tabs on the bottom of the intercooler to tie into the lower support and used a center tab for the top. Dumps are atmospheric, I never liked the re-route back into the exhaust. They just point at the ground, I'll take a picture tonight.

I already had the redone upper and lower rad supports from another guy a few years ago he just used them rather than cutting them off and charging me again since they were actually done right.

I'll try to get a closeup of the welds too, very clean and straight.

 

great work buddy so clean

 

Looks really good. Hope you have better luck on the dyno and cant wait to see the numbers.

 

Here's the intercooler mount from the bottom and top.... along with the dump tubes.

Just need to rebleed the clutch and add fluids now.

 

Very nice build!

 

What are we doing for drag wheels on this thing? I have my old 15x8's weld's we can use but you have to get slicks I gave my old set to Blake. Wow this is back in 06! Talk about throw back picture ( I went 11.03 @ 137 that day )

 

What size were those slicks, like a 23x10.5?

 

what size do you need? I'm about to have some 26s on hand

 

I'm five lug..... I'd like to give myself a :facepalm: for doing this. Should stayed four lug.

I have no idea what size, I don't want to tear the trans out of the car but at the same time would like some traction.

Need to get the bitch running and making power before I even worry about racing though....

 

Since the car would probably fit into a "true street" type of class well, I would think a 24.5 x 9 would be a pretty good size, and not take much suspension adjustment to fit.

 

24.5x8x15

Dumbass!! Well I have some type R wheel I used on the nsx for drag radials. But you're right lets get this bitch running then I'll break it . I honestly don't see 10's being a problem.