Building for the road course...again

Is that neetronics by chance? Only know a couple tuners around you and I know he slapped a turbo on his odyssey lol

 

I had my speed tuned by Neetronics in 2016. Id never look at any of their work as serious haha. But yea no. This is not Neetronics. This is a Honda specific turner in Toronto. Has the best reputation around and his load cell dyno jet setup is properly nice.

 

So many things back ordered these days.

super tech valve train with titanium everything has been on order since December. They’re having issues sourcing materials apparently. Fuck me.

pistons were out of stock forever so switching to wiseco pistons with heavy duty wrist pins.
Rods just came in stock today so we ordered a set of BC rods with arp 625 rod bolts. Not cheap but should do what I want without breaking a sweat.

all these damn delays. My tires were supposed to arrive end of March. They are apparently still on a boat in the ocean somewhere. RIP ME.

 

Did some maintenance today since the car is still on stands and I know the brakes are shot.

didn’t know how shot lol…

keep in mind calipers have maybe 3k miles and the pads/rotors have about 1.2k miles.

Total of 8 track days on the calipers. 4 on the pads and rotors. This is also not the stock civic setup but a much larger setup from the Acura TSX. Caliper pad and rotor are much larger then stock.

 

Damn, the uneven pad surface from tracking or is there another issue? Cant be good in the long.

 

If that was an inside pad I would say it's just extreme use on a floating caliper

Are the Honda brakes not that great?

 

They spend all their R&D money on making slow NA cars not as slow; why would you want to stop?

 

It's funny reading this thread and all the love for honda since right now I'm driving our 2015 Odyssey a lot and Honda is no longer the Honda of my youth. The thing is I giant piece of shit. Every engineering or design decision has the distinct flavor of fuck it they will buy it anyway.

I guess there is still a guy from the motorcycle division in charge of four cylinder engines

 

My brother had an odyssey same sentiment although he had the v6 in it and that engine just ran forever

 

My girlfriend worked at a parts department in a Honda dealer. She said she saw the quality of stuff go down on the body/interior of the vehicles over time but the engines were still fairly decent. Except for the Acura side. For some reason the early turbo engines they had in the RDX was complete junk.

 

I guess the motor is fine just totally inadequate for lugging around a 4000 lb car let alone when it's full of people and shit. Unfortunately the transmission is not great at anything and a known failure point

 

you would be correct. just jumping on the brakes too hard for what they are.

This is the first honda ive ever owned, and the first honda ive ever driven for more then like 10 minutes.

while i cant speak to their other cars i will say, the engine, gearbox, and chassis are something different. I understand its an econobox based car...but everything here is. They did something right pairing this engine and trans. Its just better. Power aside...its better.

the brake situation left me a little surprised i knew i nuked the brakes but i did not expect a leaking caliper.

really need to get my coilovers on, then my brakes, then maybe one day my tires will show up. Im excited to drive the car with a real tire, real suspension, and real brakes.

i was already out braking the mazda without much issue(lighter slower car) but that should only get better. With more tire i will hopefully be able to use less brake although i have the habit of late braking as much as humanly possible. in a ~200whp car late braking can do alot for times...if you get it right that is.

rewatching my civic vs SRT4 video makes me think this car will go properly fast this season easily besting my personal best time from the mazda. I mean that neon was a fully built car and buddy had nothing to offer me. The car is capable and the driver mod should only increase. people like to hate the civic. Thats great. i love it lol.

 

The civic has been a category leader in many aspects for decades. Its the bread and butter to Honda's reputation and is what most people think of or remember of a Honda.
Compare the Odyssey to its less than a handful of competitors and you quickly see why there is a "flavour of fuck it". The Minivan was once a saturated market, now a dead segment. Id argue the big 3 dont make good (old) pickups anymore either.

As for your brakes, those are important...Not only do good brakes make race cars faster, but the keep your shorts cleaner too!
Are you switching to the Stoptech kit now? Or refreshing the TSXs for a while?

 

Oh yeah when we bought the van it was because it was the least terrible minivan available

 

So the cars off to the body shop Monday to have the quarters done(only real rust on the whole car. Nothing underneath) so I’ll limp it there with the leaky caliper. Shops only about 10 minutes away just in town still. It’ll be there for a week. Once I get the car back it’s go time. Coilovers, brakes, wheels and hopefully tires, exhaust, cams, throttle body and retune. Also before mods and after mods Dyno. Can’t wait.

 

Had a hell of a time with the civic this weekend.

goals were:
- put the IM back on
- replace driver side caliper
- replace passenger side pads and rotor
- bleed brakes
- fill/bleed coolant
- Change oil
- make it to track day Sunday
welp…things went a little sideways

Saturday start point


got my manifold back on Friday night. Looks good to go. Went ahead and began installing it Saturday but I had to first remove the map sensor and clean it out. The MAP was left installed during porting and shit got all up in it so had to clean it up. It’s a good thing I did because there were tons of shavings up in it.


First up, broken bolt trying to remove map sensor. Great.


got lucky there was enough left for me to vice grip. Gave it some heat and luckily it came right out


Got the sensor out. Brake cleaned the hell out of it then vacuumed it out.
Got a new bolt and reinstalled. Good to go

so at this point brakes are done on both sides. Bled with my power bleeder. Manifold is installed. Engine back together.

time to fill coolant


At this point I had to start the car to begin bleeding it. And then this is where it all went…fucked up.

First start and BAM.
Bad map sensor symptoms
https://youtube.com/shorts/ysgZIioibyk?feature=share


At this point I was freaking out. Never have I ever heard an engine sound so fucked up and broken. It wouldn’t rev. It wouldn’t idle. It was shaking and struggling and just all fucked up. I honestly thought I left a rag in the intake or some shit.

after a few hours fucking around late into Saturday night I called it quits.
So basic diagnoses with a buddy over text led me to believe it was a bad map sensor. That sensor might’ve died during porting or during me cleaning and dropping it.

key on engine off, 176kpa. That’s about 10psi of boost lol. Car was running dead rich 10afr filling my garage with smoke in a matter of seconds. What a nightmare.

any way. Sourced a used map sensor locally for $40. Plugged it in and that’s it. Car is back to normal like nothing happened lol. What a weekend.

I was freaking out because I didn’t think I’d be able to make the body shop but I dropped the car off last night after vtecing the hell out of it.

it will now be at the body shop for the week and when I get it back…oh man. It’s go time to the max.

 

Parts finally showing up.

My wiseco pistons are at the machine shop for block prep. I got them with heavy duty wrist pins for alllllllll the rpms.

rods are here sitting and waiting. Kinda excited. This is definitely the nicest internal hardware I’ve ever purchased. It’s also the first “new” internal hardware I’ve ever purchased lol.



these rod bolts were an extra 240usd option. So worth it. This is necessary for high rpm reliability and operation. That said, I am lucky the k20 has such a short stroke. Low piston speeds will be nice at 9500rpm lol. Maybe we touch 10 a few times.

 

Car is finally back home. Picked it up today just as a snow storm started..woohoo



Body work looks fantastic. Paint match is pretty much perfect. The shop owner was saying they were happy with how well it turned out. Apparently red can be tough to match.
We’ll see how it holds up but it definitely looks good.

this week Coilovers will go on. The fortune auto manual is pretty damn good. I was surprised. It covers the exact amount of preload for front and rear, and how to set everything up correct. Covers some good information on how the damper adjustment works as well. These weren’t cheap but it’s good to know they include some good documentation.
my bilsteins came with nothing lol.

currently the car is back on jack stands. Front Coilovers first. I’ve pulled the wheels off and pb blasted everything. Will start on it tomorrow.

 

Had some fun last couple nights.
Fronts were drama free and straight forward which was nice. I initially measured the length of the stock strut and subtracted 1.5” for the coilover. I didn’t take into account the fact that the much higher spring rate isn’t going to compress as much as stock.

Car was sky jacked lol. It’s a good thing adjusting height takes all of 20 minutes. I got the fronts at stock height and called it good. Turned the car around, pb blasted everything in the rear and got it ready to do tonight.



the rears…were a fight lol. Everything came apart nice and easy expect for the lower shock bolt on both sides. What a nightmare.


Ended up rounding both of them. Luckily heat, and an extractor bit actually worked well…on both sides! Couldn’t believe it. I had to use a breaker bar though. Milwaukee on the highest setting wouldn’t even touch it. Damn


Found this surprise on the drivers side. How many track days you think I’ve down with this two piece spring setup??


Jobs done other then me needing to go get two new bolts. After that I’ll have to see height and probably adjust some. Then alignment ASAP