212 replies to this topic

[NWClassicHonda]

Sorry but that bumper doesnt fit that well at all. Im not feeling it.

[anjin]

I agree it doesn't fit well. But its a pretty much dedicated track car and I'm trying to improve the aero. With more bulk in the bottom of the front I should get better air flow than with the original. I'm now thinking of replacing the gen 1 indicator/park lights with the prelude ones in the bumper, making a piece to fill the gap, and putting perspex in front of the headlights and improve the aero in that part as well. Form definitely follows function on this one.

[anjin]

So I've had issues with the motor overheating and loosing water. Been up over 110 and 120 centigrade a couple of times on the track.  Replaced the radiator, checked the hoses, checked the thermostat, checked the water pump.  All ok, Last tuning day had a continuation of the problems, and found that the overflow bottle was full and overflowing, and the water wasn't being sucked back in.  Changed the radiator cap, still the same effect.  Which lead to a diagnosis of a head gasket allowing air into the water jacket.  No obvious air bubbles, no oil in the water, no water in the oil, But a compression check gives me 145, 170 115 165; with the normal being 200 and the service limit 140.

 

Been building an lsvtec frankenstein, which is just about there. Over 12,5 cr, so should be interesting. Easter looks like an engine swap.

[anjin]

So the lsvtec using a B18A block and a B18C head is in and running.  Initial fire up and run was done using normal cams, then after adjusting the af ratio to run on the rich side I swapped in the toda spec B.  Took several weeks to get it tuned - a number of tuning shops have gone under or stopped doing tuning - but worth it when it was done.

 

Did a tuning day last Friday, just short shifting and seeing how the extra power affected things, and heard a pop.  The brakes went hard, so just as well I wasn't trying, and in the pits I find the brake booster vacuum pipe into the im had popped out. Also found a leak in the new radiator, so that was the end of the day.  Got home, and found the front bar plastic had rubbed against the fins of the radiator and caused a hole. Epoxied that since.

 

Dyno plot - 173 hp, less than I wanted but still noticeable together with the torque.  Yet to look at the injector cycling after the tune, but I had 100% while running around so higher capacity injectors and fuel pump are both waiting on the shelf.

 

[anjin]

Another tuning day.  Had a lot of fun and got the car up to the speeds I was getting before without having to brake really very hard, and with oversize tyres. Was going into the corners hard and putting the power down, and found that the engine revs were going up for a second or so on exit.  The lsd was not coping with the increased power.  I had known the lsd was not coping properly in one corner before the engine change, but its now worse with the inside tyre definitely slipping and it's now three corners.  Nice problem to have.

The lsd is a helical OBX unit, and I need a plate type to solve the problem.  Have a line on a surplus to requirements new cucso lsd locally, otherwise will be looking at mfactory.

 

Time attack type event coming up in two weeks, so unlikely to have that in before the event.

[Old School REX]

Did the new motor have the same overheating issues as the last one? 

[anjin]

No - never got over 83 centigrade.  Have a half size eg radiator with three rows rather than two, and blanked out the other half of the front to force air either through the radiator or over the bonnet. I'm really glad to have that sorted.

 

I have been told to watch the oil temperature closely, as the high compression motors can generate a lot more oil heaing.  Still to refit that set of sensors and gauges.

[anjin]

I have started the complete rebuild of my old track B18C.
It started several weeks ago with a strip of the block and delivery to the local engine shop.
The block came back rebored and honed 0.25mm bigger, and with a blockguard installed. The blockguard was fitted as a consequence of the last rebuild I did.  The shop rebored the block, then we fitted a torque plate to replicate the head being fitted for the hone.  The shop found that the torque plate distorted the bore sufficiently that they could not hone; and we fitted a blockguard before reboring it to the next size.  Needed new pistons then - so this rebuild gets the 'old'set of Arias

Picture of the Golden Eagle blockguard - it has very nice flow holes for the coolant.


Note the light rust in the bore.  I had just finished cleaning the block after machining.  Kerosene to remove the machining oil, rinse with cold water, bath in hot soapy water, rinse with cold, dry.  The freshly honed surface generates rust instantly.
Part of cleaning requires opening the water and oil galleries in the block so you can clear any metal shavings and remove old oil.
galleries open



Pistons old and new.  12.8:1 Arias.



How the dome and valve reliefs look on the pistons.



A necessary addition - arp rod bolts.  As the rod bolts have different characteristics, you need to have them fitted and rebored to the correct size.




Before putting the block on the bench, you need to clean the bore of any fine metal still in the bore, and the rust.  Three sets of rags getting progressively less rust.  Oilled and wd40 keep it clean and rust free until I fit the pistons and head.

 

[anjin]

So September 1983 was when the Kakaburra was first registered.  Time for a 30 year birthday present and a bit of bling.

 

 

 

 

Pity the engine is giving me trouble - did a long 35 minute stint last weekend and came in because of a suspicious noise at revs.  Packed up and started to drive home, and the noise cut in at progressively lower revs until we stalled at lights.  Tow home, again.  Not sure what it is yet, but the engine is binding somewhere and #4 cylinder is at 75% compression. My suspicion is a damaged piston. Long sigh.

[anjin]

Forgot to update.  Spun the bearings on the middle two pistons.  I had thought you get a characteristic knocking sound, but not this time.  The bearing spun to double up on the side away from the piston, and no knocking sound.

 

So the rebuilt B18C has gone back in, with 12.8 compression pistons, arp rod and head bolts, skunk2 pro2 cams and a mildly worked head.And a hydraulic S80 gearbox with a new input bearing, replaced 3rd and 4th synchros, a mugen plate lsd from a CG browntop gearbox, and a 5.1 final drive.

 

An interesting problem was getting a cable to hydro conversion kit to work. On RHD shells the clutch cable comes out of the firewall straight to the clutch lever over the gearbox.  It is about 150mm/6 inches too short to meet up with the conversion kits which mount on the hydraulic slave cylinder mount point, which is on the gearbox/block join and lower.  One solution is to have a custom clutch cable made up. I decided instead to reposition the kit on the gearbox side mount point.  This involved making a plate to sit between the mount point and the kit, with an angle of about 30 degrees to accommodate the angle of the clutch cable which only just makes it too that point. The kit then pulls the clutch lever rather than push it.  I bent the rod doing this connection to increase clearance to the clutch cable.

 

Should be starting this one up soon.

 

 

 

 

[anjin]

Update.  It's been stinking hot with over 40 centigrade at times and work has been interesting following a restructure where I gained another team etc to manage and several new staff to train, so it's been 10 hour days all Janaury.  So the car has stagnated.

 

I am having problems getting the engine to fire.  With the proper tuned Power FC ecu, I get no signal to the distributor.  With a B18C type R ecu the engine fires and runs - poorly - and I have a crankshaft fluctuation CEL.  When building the engine there was a bind at one point on the crankshaft rotation, but I was advised it wouldn't be a problem and to go ahead.  Looks like that might have been wrong advice.  I am thinking of going back to stack cams for the break-in using the Type R ecu, and then move to the skunk2 pro 2 cams afterwards.Maybe during break-in the crankshaft will settle down/wear away the bind.

 

I have fitted an extra oil filter donut on top of the normal oil cooler donut, with three taps.  One is being used for an oil temperature sensor, and the oterhs are available for an external oil cooler if I find I need it.

 

Also dropped of two B18C crankshafts for regrinds following spun bearings - the lsvtec one and another block I picked up.  Some more rebuilds to do. Could have a full B squadron by the end of the year.

[anjin]

Work has been killing my car time.  Finally borrowed a Power FC today and the engine runs - so the old one is confirmed as faulty.  Replacement coming from malaysia via Ebay.  Now have to extract the maps from the old one, which could be fun as the tuner installed the maps as a new base map and I can't access that without the tuning software.  I'm hoping the tuner stored it.

[anjin]

Replacement power fc arrived today, and fired up the engine. Only problem is the control unit won't access the menus. But as I will be trying to transfer the maps from the old ecu to the new one it probably won't matter as that will be done via a pc.

 

The ecu came with some notes on the casing - EK9, B16B, 5000 and 9500. That last number will be the rev limit. Also an enigmatic 1800 - which might be the price in ringit.  Strongly suspect the ecu came from a little removed from stock engine.

 

Should be able to hit the track soon.

[mesa]

I love the build!

[SHOGUNOVDDRK]

Good stuff Ian keep it up

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