Starting this thread a little late into my build, but I'd like some feedback on my progress and some advice from other Honda owners that have experience in this sort of thing.

First thing's first: Goals

For 2020 I'd like the car to be around 175-185whp on a stock d16y7 block/head, possibly less if there is concern about reliability. My current turbo is probably overkill for this, but I plan to run more power later. Car is currently down while I'm spraying the engine bay, repairing my core support, and doing some supporting mods for the Turbo. Transmission is having a few bearings repaired, but will otherwise be a stock y7 transmission. I'll be doing a few HPDE events, autocross events, cruises, a few car meets, etc. The car isn't going to be a track ****, so most of the creature comforts and interior are going to stay put.
During the winter of 2020, I'll work on building a separate d16 that will be able to reliablly handle ~250whp.

So far I've purchased almost everything I'll need, atleast the most major parts, besides engine management & gauges

List of Parts (both purchased and unpurchased):
Goautoworks Street Turbo Kit w/ his Garrett GT28 Journal Bearing turbo option. This kit includes the intercooler and piping, 2.5in downpipe, log manifold, blow off valve, wastegate, etc.
Goautoworks oil feed lines & coolant feed lines
Goautoworks 1/2 Radiator w/ slim fan
550CC Grams injectors
Stage 1 Exedy clutch & Competition Clutch 11lb flywheel
ARP Headstuds
Gates Racing Timing Belt/OEM Water pump and tensioner.
OEM Headgasket & OEM seals
Walbro fuel pump
Hondata S300
2.5 in exhaust
There's more, but that's the gist of it.

Anyway here's some photos













My main concerns/questions:

1. What should I expect regarding heating issues? Will coolant fed turbo, bigger rad, stronger fan and a fan shroud be enough? I've read some about this, but a lot of what I'm reading is people running way more power than I plan to. Also, will a dual core radiator be enough or should I step it up to triple?
2. How will a stock block fare against multiple 20 minutes sessions that you'd see during an HPDE event? Is it unrealistic to expect my motor to be fine for the year? I'll be getting it tuned professionally.
3. Any issues you guys see that I'm not pointing out/asking?

Thanks for all the advice! I appreciate it!

 

What are your plans for suspension?

 

I'm currently running Tein Flex Zs, rear CTR away bar, ASR subframe brace, some stock bits replaced with OEM equivalent and will be replacing my trailing arm bushings with some from Hardrace.

Edit: I should mention I've already done a handful of autocross events with the motor stock.

 

Ah, right on. Suspension is super important in AutoX. More so really than the engine, but I could be preaching to the choir there. Lol!

 

I think the dual core should be good with a good fan/shroud. The Y7 urks me a bit but, I think you'll be good for the time being with your 180whp goal.

Parts list looks good so far personally I'd do an OEM timing belt over gates, and the hatch is clean!

 

Ageed, super important! It's what I focused on first. and I'm sure after an event or two at a track I'll have more I'll want to do haha.

Here's some autocross photos from a few events

 

What brakes, pads, tires? HPDE you will carry more speed than autoX, make sure to put the money on grip and stopping IMO..

 

Regarding the Y7, it's just what I have at the moment, and it's in great shape. I didn't want to buy a mystery condition motor and have to deal with making sure it didn't smoke like a freight train. I'm fairly certain the head I currently have has been rebuilt at some time, it's suspiciously clean (in a good way) haha.
And I'm fairly certain gates makes the OEM Honda belts, so it should be good.


I guess I should have included all this info too, was trying to mainly keep the topic turbo related, but brakes at the moment are just some basic centric pads, will likely be going with some Hawks when the time comes. Rear has been swapped over to an Integra set up with all the necessary SI upgrades, fluid is DOT4. Still up in the air about tires, when I dailyed the car/my first few autocross events, it was on Dunlop Direzza z102s. For more recent autocross events, I throw a pair of RE71Rs on some spare Kosei K1s on the front for more grip and to also help with rotation. For the track, I will likely just buy 4 new RE71Rs, but I've read some discussion about them not lasting if you're mainly doing long sessions, which is a concern.

 

The Direzza StarSpec 3s are good. Ive been pretty happy with mine so far. They have been wearing well for track use (I don't drive the car on the street much at all) fwiw.

 

That's good to hear, I was eyeing those as well.

 

Dunlop Z3's are where it's at! Good track AND street use. These were a no brainer after the life I got out of my Z2's!

 

I'm also running a D-series with a water cooled turbo and similar parts, but my car has AC. Wrap everything you can - downpipe, dump tube, and run a turbo blanket. If it were me, I'd go ahead and upgrade to the SPAL 30102029 fan and have Greg make you a shroud to fit the radiator. If you haven't ordered the radiator yet, you may also consider having Greg add a bung for one of the turbo water lines. You're just going to have to play with it and do all you can to make sure you've got good airflow across the radiator and vent as much underhood heat as possible. I don't know anything about HPDE, so all my suggestions may be moot, since mine is 100% street car.

 

Alright cool, thanks for the input!

Yeah I'm planning to keep AC too, SPAL will probably be the way to go. If Greg can modify his shrounds to fit, that'd be great too. I haven't ordered any of that yet as I was still looking into all the ways people run their coolant lines.

 

Yep, he can just re-drill the shroud for the hole pattern of the SPAL. I'm running the coolant line from the front of the turbo to the bottom of the radiator and the coolant line from the back of the turbo to the water pipe on the back of the block. With the cast manifold, you will not be able to use the coolant plug location on the front of the block for the turbo coolant - not enough room, I tried. I'm not sure if my routing could be improved upon or not.

 

My plan was to purchase his little -6an plug for the rear freeze plug location. It's definitely gonna be tight. I'm worried the coolant line will rub, but I'm sure Greg would have known that by now and fixed his kits accordingly.

 

Does your block have a plug for the coolant jacket on the rear or front? I'm using a D16Z6, and the coolant plug was on the front. Even with a tight 90-degree elbow, there was no way it was going to work. This picture is looking down between the runners of the turbo manifold. You can see the fitting on the turbo is hitting the fitting on the block, and preventing the manifold from sitting flush against the head. I ended up putting the plug back in the block and sending him my water pipe to have a -6AN bung added.

 

My freeze plug location is on the back side, to the left of your oil filter. I'm surprised that's actually different haha. The tightness I was talking about is the feedline on the backside of the turbo.

 

Yep, after googling, it looks like they are in different places on the D16Z6 vs. D16Y7 blocks. I never knew that. Unless the front of the block is way different too, you should be fine to run a tight 90-degree fitting. Here's the best shot I have of mine.

 

Okay cool, I haven't test fit everything yet, but from that photo I should be fine.

 

Y series blocks have the coolant plug on the rear of the motor. A/Z (and B series) blocks have it on the front. Running it from the rear is fine on this app where as shown there just isn't room even with tight radius fittings to run it from the front of the block.

 

Alright cool! Thanks for confirmation. Are your radiators made to order as well? How long do they usually take to come out?

 

They typically leave within a few days, it just depends on what all is going on.

 

So I've been reading up cooling some more, and it seems an oil cooler is going to be a must have for my plans.

I'm thinking about just going to Mishimoto because they're name brand and decently cheap. But I've read decent reviews about the cheap G-plus brand (Basically ebay) and just swapping out the sandwhich plate for something that has more ports and is thermostatic.

Question though...would thermostatic be necessary for weekend driving and Georgia weather? Any sub $300 dollar kits I should look into? Anyone selling used stuff?

Thanks!

 

Lol I don't know if I should take the added "Mayhem" to the title by the mods in a positive or negative way.

 

Definitely positive for now... But it could bite ya later if you turn left when you should have turned right.