Out with the old....

Alright the bolts have been soaking for 2 days...4 series of spraying each and every bolt that we will be taking off tonight...cross your fingers...

First thing to go was the springs bolts that attach the header to the CAT.
No problem..."I Love Air Tools"



quick look at the CAT pipes for uniformity



Next is the header and downpipe and it all went well with out a hitch except for one broken bolt but we will have to take a look and see if there is anything we can do about it.

Here is a look at the current gaskets that are on order for friday delivery.


Last thing is a photo of our new CALIFORNIA plates, We are all registered and have insurance and all LEGIT can u believe it?

Interesting Gains from DC header on Honda Motor

Some interesting finding on the headers we are installing this week...Cant wait to see what our "butt dyno" tells us at the next race..









The Lab: B16 Headers Parts 1 & 2Staff ReportText by B. Glass Jr. and A. EugenioPhotos by B. Glass Jr.Testing by Brian Dawson, Justin Lim, and A. Eugenio





...DC Sports : 4-2-1 - TEST SET 01The first of the DC headers - the tri-y configuration - also showed a large increase in power in the 3000-4700 range, again with peak gains of about 12-14hp. Like the 5Zigen header, the DC Sports unit smoothed the powerband and removed the dip in the "street driving" range below VTEC. For a daily driven car, this is where the power is most evident, and most useful. ...

although considering that the motor is different im hoping to see some low end improvments which this design is known for..























Red is baseline and Blue is with the DC Sports Header

http://www.tprmag.com/issue/10/images/003-DC-Sports-TriY.gif

Waiting to Exhale...

Well this morning I opened all our packages that we recieved over the last week and man does everything look pretty. We finally got the custom made stainless steel (with added BLING BLING factor) from redshift and man does it look good. I'll have to get the scale out to see the weight of the new vs old system.





Also I unpacked the headers we got form DC Sports. We will need to get all the gaskets for the system since none of the manufacturs thought that it would be helpful to include in the packaging.




So final gasket count is going to be
-header gasket
-ring gasket between header and STOCK Replacement and STOCK location CAT
-ring gasket between STOCK Replacement and STOCK location CAT and BLING BLING exhaust

I went ahead and started spraying all the bolts with PB blaster to help breakdown all the rust. Hopefully 2 days of soaking will allow us to get them off easily

Turning in a new direction

Well just got back from a sucessful day at the smog referree's and now its time to address the steering wheel. At the last event we noticed it took quite a bit of effort (more then we are used to) to turn and manuver the steering wheel, we thought that if we brought the steering wheel closer it could help us get a better handle and have better control of the wheel. We decided to try and use the NRG quick release that I currently have in my Subaru.

Smog Check Part II

Ok so with the new CAT in and the small tune up over the weekend, I had no doubt that the car would do well at the second run of the smog check.

When when got there luckily there was no wait and the engine and the CAT were super hot.



We rolled the car into the garage and got ready for the retest. As the test ended we got a big smile and thumbs up from the tech and we knew that things were on the up and up.

We also got word that my timing job actually put us at exactly 18 BTDC, the tech said that we pretty good with the old school timing light that we used.

So our numbers went from somthing like 2400 units of bad fumes to 140 units which was well under the readings needed to pass.

Small Tune Up

So I got a call mid week that some of the parts from South Coast Performance had come in and we needed to schedule a pickup this weekend. Daniel was nice enough to stop by and pick them up since he was in the same area picking up some parts for his own car.

Man did we get a fun box of goodies, here is what we got:

NGK Copper spark plugs
Oil pan gasket
Distributor Cap with rotor
Radiator hose (lower)
Radiator hoses (upper)
Ignition wires
Oil filter
Distributor O Ring
Water Pump
Timing Belt

Saturday night I got right to it starting with a removal of the distributor to see why we it seemed that we were loosing oil near here.

Answer: the seal had completely worn away so we definitely needed to install the new one right away.




Next I planned to tackle the removal and replacement of our valve cover and valve cover seal.

The old one was worn and much of the paint was missing


Here are some photos of the magic under the valve cover


Here is a comparison of the old and the new valve cover


and Viola!!! the final product.


Last of the list is changing the distributor cap, the distributor rotor, the wires and the spark plugs:

Here is the new rotor


Here is the new cap and wires


Here are what seems to be 230,XXX mile old spark plugs


And here is the whole thing all back together. The last thing to do is adjust timing to 18 BTDC according to to the Honda Service manual so I did my best to get close. Ill be able to see how good it was when the computer checks it at the smog check place on Monday.


Next on the schedule is a smog check on Monday to see how all the improvements had made a difference.

See u then....

MORE photos from MAKOFOTO

More great photos....visit this link to see more pics

MAKOFOTO AUTOX PHOTOGRAPHY

From the Co-Driver Seat

Its Tuesday and I'm just recooporating from the weekend. What an exciting weekend it was.

Our inaugural weekend ended up being an eventful one. The car just made tech and had temporary fresh stickers put on just for the event delivered the night before and applied hours before the race.

We arrived at California Speedway a bit before the lunch break to be able to tech/reg/and walk the course.

There were quite a few people quite eager to see the finished product. I received quite a few calls in the morning asking where we where and what time we were going to arrive.

After getting all the logistics taken care of we continued to do out last minute checks ad got the car race ready.

I got to be first on the track with Stephen to follow. I pulled up to the line with the camera aimed and my eyes on the prize. "Drive like stink!!!" Stephen says I think of the critical points I need to think about and get into the deep rhythm of the "calls" in my head. The rumble beneath me consumes me and I pull the hand brake, load the motor and prepare myself for what ended up being the time of my life.



After the first run, I felt great, and the car was feeling equally well. Lots of rotation, grip, stopping power and what seemed to be throttle lift oversteer. Also felt like there were lots more areas that on the next run I would be able to stomp the throttle.

Overall felt very good and I was getting increasingly faster and faster times which was very exciting.

In between runs and I starred at amazement as every bolt and nut that I torqued to spec went around the track with Stephen in it.

A very exciting and encouraging weekend and we look forward to getting another chance to test and tune the car.

Here are a few pics from the weekend from a Locally Renowned Photographer. You can purchase photos directly from his site.

MakoFoto AutoX Photography

Gross Polluter

Well today we brought the car to get a smog check and it passed all test except for the most important emmisions test. Our mechanic said that the catayltic converter must be completely empty to have the numbers we were getting so off to the muffler shop I go to get it taken care of, of course stopping by at home to get my SCCA Rule book to make sure we did it right.

Pics from the Smog Test Place




Here is what the 2006 Rule book had to say:

13.10 ENGINE AND DRIVE TRAIN

E. Any part of the exhaust system beyond (downstream from) the
header/manifold or catalytic converter, if so equipped, may be
substituted provided the system meets the requirements of 3.5.
Stainless steel heat exchangers are permitted only if the physical
dimensions and configuration remain unchanged. Modifications
of any type, including additions to or removal of, the catalytic
converters, thermal reactors, or any other pollution control
devices in the exhaust system are not allowed and the system
must be operable. Replacement catalytic converters must be OE
if the vehicle has not exceeded the five-year/50,000 mile war-ranty
period as mandated by the EPA. Converters must be of the
same type and size and used in the same location as the original
equipment converter(s). This does not allow for a high perfor-mance
unit. If the vehicle has exceeded the five-year/50,000 mile
warranty period, replacement catalytic converters must be OE-type
as per Section 13.

So with that in mind I proliferatively reminded our Muffler shop to give us the exact size as stock and put it in the exact position as stock. They did quite a good job and the car smells so much better. So we are back off to the Smog check place next week to get tested again.

(sorry for the low resolution pics, I was using my sidekick phone)

The car on the lift at ADVANCE MUFFLER


The old CAT and it NEW replacement


Cutting away the old CAT


The Old Oil FILLED CAT



Welding in the new CAT