Picked up a new car... because race car

civexspeedy

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Yeah man I cannot wait for the season to start! This winter has been way too f'ing long and they're calling for more snow Monday:evil: The first event for the season is this Saturday and there's another on Sunday. I don't even know yet if I'll bring this car out this weekend because it'll probably be so cold that doing any real testing will be useless(too cold for tires)..
 

civexspeedy

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Just did the regular maintenance stuff today. Changed the oil and trans fluid and cleaned/re-oiled the intake filter.

Being on the committee for my scca region has its perks. I'm borrowing the scales from the club to corner balance the Moogen but since I have them I went ahead and did the '95 too..Got it dead on 50% cross weight. With my weight in the driver seat, with the Sparco seat installed, a full size battery(not my baby race battery), the heavy street wheel setup and 1/8th take of gas the car is right around 2,391lbs. 2,241lbs without my weight. If I were to put on the race wheels and the baby battery, the car would be right around 2,200lbs Didn't want to take too much time so this was good enough. Definitely better than where it was before.


 


Hecz

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Awesome about the top mounts :thumbup:

That header tho... I feel the same way you do by just ready your post and seeing the pictures. For that price, yea that header looks s***ty. they should of cleaned up the inside of the tubes, finished the outside, the logo plate is falling off, and you had to smash it make it fit? was it not designed for that car? (Not asking you man, just asking myself.) I would contact that company and let them know my concerns. Thanks for sharing!

:edit: went back to the pictures.. the welding looks bad. Also what's the intent of that design?
 

civexspeedy

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Awesome about the top mounts :thumbup:

That header tho... I feel the same way you do by just ready your post and seeing the pictures. For that price, yea that header looks s***ty. they should of cleaned up the inside of the tubes, finished the outside, the logo plate is falling off, and you had to smash it make it fit? was it not designed for that car? (Not asking you man, just asking myself.) I would contact that company and let them know my concerns. Thanks for sharing!

:edit: went back to the pictures.. the welding looks bad. Also what's the intent of that design?
I knew that it wouldn't fit. I have a couple friends who have the previous versions of this header on their CRX's and have talked to them about clearance and what they did to make it fit. Bisimoto even states on their website that you need to modify the front cross member for clearance with the EF chassis. BUT, after getting my hands on this header and seeing the quality and doing the install, it all just seems like Bisimoto was just too lazy. The header is designed to fit all d-series motors from '88-'00. But the '92-'00 don't have a front cross member so clearance is fine. Rather than Bisimoto making the header fit without modification to the cross member for the EF chassis, they just tell you to cut out a part of the cross member. Which for many people who use this product like myself, we CAN'T because of class rules. And honestly I'm not a fan of cutting a part of the chassis to make something so simple fit, that just isn't right.. To me they were just too lazy to make a slight change in their jig or a slight change in a couple pipe bends to make it fit.

I did call and express all of my concerns that I mentioned here for the header to Bisimoto. They just said to take pictures and send them so their manufacture team can look at it. Which I'm not going to bother because I know it'll be a huge waste of my time and get absolutely no where.

The intent of this header design is to have the tubes all about equal length which should result in a little more power. Usually with these headers on this motor, I might either have about the same or a slight loss of power at low RPM compared to my DC header, but I should see a bigger increase in power at high RPM over the DC header.

I just hope this header can make the power it claims and the welds can hold up for a while..
 


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civexspeedy

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Finally getting around with some time to update. A LOT has happened the past 10 days, really mostly in the week days of last week.

Last Tuesday I went to drop the car off at a shop to get the exhaust work done and also have them install the header because it needed to be welded in. I just called up some random shop I found online that could do exhaust work/bends. Mistake... I don't think they really knew what they were doing.. They had the car for 3 days and they kept having issues. Long story short, they got the header in, they welded in a new Magnaflow high flow cat and the clamped(not welded) in the aluminum mufflers and used a bit of steel piping for the side exit. It's a little ghetto but it works and it's a lot lighter than what I had. Surprisingly it actually sounds pretty good, loud but good, no rasp at all..

I had to make the slant cut on the pipe for the side.. The shop left the pipe sticking out a little too far for my liking. The pictures make it look like it's sticking far out but it's pretty flush with the body line.



The header installed


The ASR 32mm rear hollow bar came in while the car was at the shop. I put it on when I got the car back on Thursday.


You can see a little bit of the exhaust in the background


Friday I took the car to my sponsors shop to do the corner balance and alignment. Since I'm running a staggered spring rate, I decided to try out a different corner balance setup. I was able to just about even out the front L and front R sides of the cars rather than the typical cross balance 50%. Since I evened out the front L-R, the cross weight ended up being about 52% which isn't horrible. My alignment is also not the typical one, mainly with the front. I went for -2.7* front left and -2.4* front right and -3* for both rear corners. .25" toe-out on the front and basically 0 toe(1/32) toe-in for the rear.


Everything was a scramble to get done by Friday night and it all happened! All because the very first AND second events for the 2014 season were last Saturday and Sunday. The car performed PHENOMENALLY!!! It really exceeded my expectations. Power felt great from the whole new exhaust setup. Cornering was insane! Sooo much grip and control and with the new alignment I'm able to put power down earlier and harder when exiting. I was putting down some awesome times compared to some friends who are usually closer or faster than I am in their respective cars/classes.

No action shots since I'm the only one behind the camera at these events now lol..




Videos. You can get an idea of the exhaust...
[YOUTUBE="http://youtu.be/3VPPDAhPctY"]3VPPDAhPctY[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE="http://youtu.be/h01TR3gX0Fk"]h01TR3gX0Fk[/YOUTUBE]
 
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CHILD

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Glad to hear the car is performing great. That header makes me sad.
 

civexspeedy

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Thanks guys! Haven't been doing much since those last events, next event I'll run this car at will be in a couple weeks... But, I ordered a few other goodies earlier this week and a couple came in today.

Ordered a cheap aluminum velocity stack off ebay. For w/e reason the cheapest color was green, they had black and red and some other colors but they were a few bucks more. I don't care about the color since it won't be seen under the fender.. I'll be swapping this in during events in replacement of my AEM filter. It's old and a bit worn so it'll just be used on the street to and from events.



Got a new OEM radio block off plate. I had made a block off plate out of aluminum a while back which was fine and I liked it but I'm trying to prevent anyone from protesting me for some stupid BS rules just in case. I'm sure the aluminum one was fine but just in case I got this one. Just don't want sore losers to bother me or my car if I win any National events lol


The seller of the plate also included a nice little "no smoking" plug for the cigarette lighter. Apparently rare? I have no idea but hey it was free and kinda cool I guess lol


Threw these on real quick



This was the old plate



Still to come in is an OEM A/C control button delete plate. This is stupid but the rules for my class require that if you remove the A/C in the car, EVERY component to the A/C has to come out, including the stupid little button on the control unit. Technically if I won a National event I could be protested and have my runs disqualified over that stupid little button being in there. So again, to avoid any potential BS from a sore loser, I'll be putting in that A/C button replacement plate lol.
 

ImportFan1

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Like the look of the new block off plate and plug :thumbup:
 

ReedMann

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Just curious, why would they give you trouble over the aluminum block off. What rule/s would you potentially be breaking?
 

civexspeedy

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The aluminum radio plate SHOULD be fine, the hole just needs to be covered when the radio is removed. So I'm sure it would be fine. The only reason I got the OEM one was because it just looks more legit. If I win an event, I don't want people coming over and sticking their nose all over my car trying to find a reason to protest. Whatever I can do to make things obvious and legit, I'll do it.

The A/C button delete is a must because the rules say A/C removal is allowed but everything needs to be removed as if there was no A/C from the factory.. It's really stupid because obviously a little button adds zero performance gain. But rules are rules so there goes $15 for a little piece of plastic that really serves no purpose lol
 

ReedMann

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Lol. Those are some interesting rules. From one side they sound crazy, but then if they weren't that specific I can see how there would be issues.
 

civexspeedy

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Tiny update, really.. lol got the little A/C plate in the other day. Been busy with work this week so finally got around to putting it in today.

Before

After
 

civexspeedy

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Had a fun time at our first local SCCA event yesterday. It was just a practice event, no points. First time getting my car on a longer, faster course. The car felt great, very balanced but my driving SUCKED. I way over drove the course my first 3 runs on a course that really punished you if you went off your line. I calmed my driving down on my last run and got faster but still not where I know I should have been. Oh well, it was just a practice event.

My 4th and best run.
[YOUTUBE="Practice Event 4/6/14"]UQLsyNSU268[/YOUTUBE]

Took a screen shot from my run. At least I know I'm doing a decent job at looking ahead!:D


My friend got video of my last run. You can get a much better idea of how my exhaust sounds like. Skip to 4:33 for my run.
[YOUTUBE="4th run"]_1dyLYnO7FY[/YOUTUBE]

I was able to take a good, close look at a couple friends CRX's that have the Bisimoto header. They have the previous versions so they are a little different. One of them said they had their header crack at the welds only 3 events in! They had everything to say that I did about quality and fitment, absolute garbage. We were talking about the power gain and I mentioned that I noticed a slight loss in low-end response but a good bump in high end power, almost like v-tec engaging when the revs go high. The one guy, a former national champion and numerous nationals trophy winner, said that I should go with a 3" intake tube rather than my 2.5" intake tube. He said that it'll help flatten out the lower tq power band so I can get a little bit better lower end power and smooth out the power delivery at the high end, rather than have a bump of power like that v-tec feeling. They run a 3" plastic CAI tube, they use plastic to help reduce heat soaking from the engine bay to help keep the intake air cooler. So I'll be making my own intake out of 3" plastic piping soon.
 

Wreckless Hype

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Sick run, that thing is just planted to the asphalt 100% of the time, like it's on rails. Love it!
 

civexspeedy

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Thanks man!

I ordered 2 new sets of lug nuts and the parts to custom make my own plastic 3" cold air intake earlier this week. The intake stuff came in today but Summit Racing sent 3.5" tubing not 3". Called them up, mailed the tubing back to them and they will be sending me the 3" tubing hopefully soon.

Today I just messed with the exhaust. The 2 race muffler hang really low right under the center of the car. I tucked them up as much as I could today. The result, 2" of ground clearance. The mufflers are the lowest part of the car.


Plenty of room right? :lol:
 

civexspeedy

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I feel like it's been ages since I've updated but it's only been a couple weeks.. So much has happened the past couple weeks it all seems like a blur.

I got the new sets of NRG lut nuts

The old ones were jacked up. A couple years of swapping wheels and removing to work on the car REALLY took its toll. But they also got jacked up partially because I used a 12pt slightly deep end socket instead of a deeper 6pt.. But regardless of the socket, the tapered end of the lug nuts where they make contact with the wheel were pretty worn to the point where it was a safety concern.


A friend of mine gave me a new Shorai 2.5lb Lithium battery for free(I love my friends). My old Braille(which I also got for free) was 9.5lbs. So 7lbs easily removed from the front of the car =)

Zip tied down to the battery tray for now. I'm going to mount it down lower on the front cross member to remove the 1lb battery tray and move the weight lower on the car.


My 3" plastic intake tubing came in on Thursday, just before my first big National event this season. So I got to work, cut it up and made a better flowing intake than the AEM intake. Not only are there less bends, they are less dramatic as well.



My sponsor hooked me up with a new velocity stack for the 3" piping.


All done and ready for the first big National event for me of the season. The Washington D.C. SCCA ProSolo came to town this past weekend. ProSolo is a mix of drag racing and autox. Competitors line up side by side facing into mirrored autox courses. They launch on a .500 drag tree into the autox courses and it's a race to the finish to have the best time. They then switch sides immediately and run again. The best left side and right side runs, out of 12 runs total, add up for your total time. The fastest time combined wins.

I had 8 competitors in my class which for me is the most I've ran against competitively. I held a very strong lead against all my competitors, who were all in '89-'91 Civic Si's and all prepped. I ran against guys who have trophied and even won at a National Championship. I held a very strong lead all weekend to ultimately take the win by .916seconds. This may not sound like a large margin but in the world of autox this is quite large. Just for reference, the difference between 2nd and 3rd place was just .038 seconds and remember we are all in basically the same car lol.

Needless to say I'm very happy with how I did and even more happy that all my hard work and determination of rebuilding the car over the winter has paid off. I'm looking forward to more National events this year and pushing hard to go to Naionals Finale this year to run against the best in the country.

Here's my video from the weekend.
[YOUTUBE="http://youtu.be/OaQSnW52_l4"]OaQSnW52_l4[/YOUTUBE]

Some pics from this weekend
NO my exhaust is not dragging LOL. The side exit is still a good bit off from the ground. What looks like a muffler to the right of the side exit is the inside rear wheel.


 


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