So today I took the day off to drive with the boyz from A&J Racing in Canada who specialize in Honda/Acura. They rented Pacific Raceways for the day and had Don Kitch and Michael Lord from Proformance Driving School on hand to run the day. Unfortunately, there were only about 10-12 cars, so the shop most likely lost quite a bit of money on the deal. If you’re fan of “JDM” hybrid Honda’s, this was apparently the place to be today.

It was nice to listen to Don speak and get input/advice from him and Michael. I’ve never been on a “track-walk” at PR before and was glad they included a slow pick-up truck ride around the track making a few stops and point out various anomalies and points of interest on the track.

I ran the first two morning sessions with the 15” (205/50-15) Toyo’s, and ran the 13” (215/50-13) Kumho’s in the afternoon. I’ve been waiting for the opportunity to test these tires/wheels side-by-side for a while, and this was the perfect day for it. The first morning session started out fine, and about mid-way through or so, missed my apex early at Turn 2 by about a foot or so, which forced me two wheels off at track-out. I knew I was going off in a place that’s really not a good place to go off, and decided to take the pylon at “track-out” straight on and not try to jerk the wheel to get back on the track. The cone ended up folding the RRG splitter under quite a bit, but a few whacks with a hammer on the pavement, and it’s good as new.

The afternoon sessions with the 13” wheels was almost a night and day difference. The gearing was about perfect for the track allowing me to use up every bit of speed the car had. I’ve never seen the speed limiter in my car before, but I was at 120 MPH just past Turn 1 and apparently that’s where it cuts out. Caught me off guard at first. The only problem with the different gearing is that it forced me to stay in 3rd gear through 3a into 3b. It’s a low speed downhill “S” turn with a very short straight between the two.

I finally had the chance to play tag with Trever and his recently built B16 powered Civic for a while. It was fun playing follow the leader and swapping positions every few laps. I think I turned my fastest laps with Trever behind me. I think I really figured out 5a, 5b, and 6 today. That breakthrough alone was worth maybe ½ second or so.

During (what turned out to be) the last session of the day for me, Trever was behind me, and we closed up on a S4 in Turn 2. At the exit of 2, heading down the hill to 3a, I was partial throttle shifting from 3rd to 4th when something caught my eye in the mirror. I blew a huge puff of smoke from the exhaust. I slowed for 3a and on the way into 3b, it did it again, but this time not so bad. I slowed and came in to the pit, but couldn’t find anything wrong. It didn’t smoke at all on the drive home and it still made good power, so I’ll dig into it this week and see how the compression looks. It’d be a shame to break such a new motor, but my fingers are crossed. Think positive thoughts J.

Look in the rear view mirror just after the up shift from 3rd to 4th. Look in the corner, just right of my head. Any ideas???
Smoke Show Right click, save as. 4 megs

This is a lap from the morning where I made the breakthrough in 5a, 5b, and 6 and pretty much nailed it.
Lap from the AM session Right click, save as. 6 megs

John – who never gets tired of the crowd of puzzled drivers after a track session, looking at his little engine, who'd swear it was a twin cam that just passed them



Modified by johng at 9:35 PM 7/1/2003

 

Hello Johng,

Here is another video of a friend in a Miata, almost perfect lap at PIR. Not real fast somewhere arount a 1:47 but very good lines.

http://www3.telus.net/7/coolstuff/1m47s07.wmv

 

Hey Hotshot...

You nailed it! Especially T8. With your gearing, I think 2nd thru 3A is alright...

The vid is still washed out thru 5A/B but the revs sounded good.

Nice improvement! Any lap times?

No input on the smoke...

 

As you know i can't see the video.
Was the smoke blue, black or white in color ?

 

James - It was white. A pretty good puff during the throttle-to-brake transition, after the hump going down the hill into 3A. Definately not brake smoke. I'm hoping the temps were alright.

 

John
did you get any "times" from the 13's to the 15's ?

 

Partial throttle upshift? What kind of engine management? Stock ECU? With chip, or Hondata? Actually sounds like fuel to me. But I know nothing

 

White smoke is usually coolant. Any overheating problems? Might need to do a quick compression and leakdown check.

Matt

 

Looks as thought it may be time to invest in some 13X7 Panasports John.... do they make those in *orange*

Nash - who thinks a leakdown test will tell the tale

 

It's a factory ECU for a '94 DX. The smoke was a whiteish-blue, but more white than anything. After turning in for 3a, I coasted to 3b and saw a more blue-black color, but not as much as the first spew. I'll do the normal stuff tonight like compression testing and general inspection, but the leak-down will have to wait until next week.

FWIW, Temp gauge was normal all day.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by johng &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">It's a factory ECU for a '94 DX. The smoke was a whiteish-blue, but more white than anything. After turning in for 3a, I coasted to 3b and saw a more blue-black color, but not as much as the first spew. I'll do the normal stuff tonight like compression testing and general inspection, but the leak-down will have to wait until next week.

FWIW, Temp gauge was normal all day.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

John, check your PCV valve. My '89 Si would occasionally billow smoke, usually in long left handers, and we figured out what was going on by the large amounts of oil on the PCV. A tube to a catch can and all was well.

Good luck!

Bowie

 

Every time you back off the throttle, or just that one time? If every time, I might guess valve guides. Otherwise Bowie's idea seems pretty good.

Neat video. Thats a really cool looking track, looks like something out of Gran Turismo with all the trees lining it. I know I wouldn't want to go off there though...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by krshultz &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Every time you back off the throttle, or just that one time?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Just the once, but I came in after I saw it. Never happened again on the drive home. Can a motor build up too much oil pressure (if you're say, 1/4 qt over full) so that the intake sucks it in through the breather on the intake pipe? This happened late in the day, and I topped off the oil in the morning.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by johng &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Just the once, but I came in after I saw it. Never happened again on the drive home. Can a motor build up too much oil pressure (if you're say, 1/4 qt over full) so that the intake sucks it in through the breather on the intake pipe? This happened late in the day, and I topped off the oil in the morning.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yes they can suck oil up the breather, but I don't know about that being from pressure, more likely from sloshing....i do remember hearing from an engine builder that some honda motors like to run 1/2 quart low on oil, otherwise they can slosh, or cause parasitic drag on the cams, or something like that (it was several years ago when I heard that one)

My engine builder (Sunbelt, miata engine) told me to run the car 1/2 quart over full, and mentioned something about Hondas hating that, and mazdas loving it.

YMMV, ask someone with more experience with your motor, if it blows up it is not my fault, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law, etc.....

 

My Dad, the eletrical engineer, had a little engineering geek joke:

"Smoke makes things work. After all, once you let the smoke "out", the item in question stops working."

 

why do all road race videos seem.........off color?