Building for the road course...again

Sounds good! DDT has got to be my favorite track around here

 

So we ended up throwing the car on the dyno to bleed coolant after a bit of a struggle on Friday. Gave the car a little load and good to go lol. Didn’t take long once we were on the dyno.

Was a pretty cool day for me. Got to setup the dynapack, mount the car on it(total pain in the ass lol) and got to operate the dyno and do all my own pulls and what not. Very cool

We completed engine break in. Did some good base tuning/idle tuning. It was an absolute pleasure to work with my tuner these past 2 days. He was remoted into my laptop doing his thing. Really expert level tuning from him.

Did a bunch of leak down tests. It’s cool to see a fresh rebuilt engine never started have 20% leakdown. After first round of break in down to 10%. Second round, 5% or less across all 4. Tuner says it’ll seal up more after some wot pulls.

the car is insanely loud but one thing everyone kept saying was how good the car sounds. It’s hard to explain but it doesn’t sound like any regular old 2L 4 cylinder. It’s something new to me and definitely special. Very exciting.

Next up I need to do the ball joints as the driver side is completely shot. After that it’s onto street tuning!


Ps.
The car already makes more torque at 3000rpm then last years setup made at peak torque. That’s impressive considering this cam doesn’t wake up till past 4500rpm really. And no, we didn’t do any full pulls. Just break in procedure and a little base map tuning. No real numbers yet.

 

I don't know how you can sleep at night being this close

 

Just gonna leave this here. This is 1500rpm idle. Target is 1100rpm. It sounds absolutely insane at 1100rpm. Like nothing else. Will get a video of that when we get there. Not sure if the plan is to leave it at 1500 or go back to 1100 but we’ll see I guess

https://youtube.com/shorts/7--KQenQpQI?si=sEleI0Rk7gdHKvWZ

 

It’s been a long time coming haha. My patience has increased

 

Youve worked hard on this. Its nice to see it coming together. I think the patience is because you get to sit back and see what your work rewards you with!
Need more of that exhaust...That is the best sounding Honda I have heard yet! I hope it screams up top too...that would be cake!

 

Definitely excited to get it out on track. It’s been a process lol.

The car sounds fantastic. We only went up to 4500rpm and the car was incredibly loud. Way louder than last season and I only changed the header. Everyone agreed it’s louder, but everyone also agreed it sounds amazing lol

 

Looking forward to seeing a full Dyno vid with the new sound

 

And track vids too!

 

Civics maiden voyage just completed!

20 mile drive home success! Car drives unbelievably well. I will thank my tuner for the solid base map!!

I was nervous of course but all was good. There’s definitely an exhaust leak but I can almost guarantee that’s from the cheap hardware rattling loose. This week I’ll get that sorted. Get some better bolts with some locking washers. Nord locks should do. The included hardware is total crap. this header being a short tube uses a test pipe which is bolted together with this crap hardware. My old header was a long tube and it went directly to the cat back so it was one less spot for potential leakage. ah well

Today/Tomorrow some more tuning/logging begins!! Time to party. Have 3 maps to log, we're going up to 6400rpm now. Yesterday i wasnt allowed past 4500 so we're getting there

New spherical control arm bushings and spoon ball joints definitely putting in work too. The front end is really incredible. As a fwd track guy, this is everything. Feels fantastic. Definitely not for beginners though as too much steering input will definitely have you swapping ends. A little extra finesse is required here.

As my buddy said it best "this car is not for beginners" yet it looks like absolutely nothing. love it.

on another note, car is WAY louder than last season. Cat back is the same all i did was swap from long tube to short tube header. Maybe something to do with these cams but the thing is insanely loud now

 

Cams, header and exhaust leaks will all contribute to the exhaust being louder, as will stiffer engine and exhaust mounting, if applicable. Also if your muffler was a glasspack style, you may have burned all the glass out.

 

Definitely need to track down the exhaust leak. Struggling with motivation to get under the car right now. Freaking cold out.

My muffler is another interesting point. I feel like I may have blown out the packing last season. It went from sounding great to picking up some weird rasp shit.

it’s a 3” straight through muffler but it’s also a China special. The entire catback is like 400usd with resonator and muffler. Maybe it’s time for a better muffler. Hmmm

 

Yeah losing the packing shit turns it into a resonator. Lol

 

lol well shit. Definitely need to look into mufflers I think. That’s not helping anything.

Motor mounts are same from last season. I have 2 upgraded mounts that did add a ton of
NVH. Rotating assembly has been balanced though so I think that’s helping. Feels like less vibes than last year but we’re also idling at 1600rpm which is probably helping some.

I still have my fluidampr crank pulley to install as well. Wonder if I’ll notice that

 

Got out to the garage and did some looking around the exhaust. Header to test pipe to cat back actually looked OK. Couldn’t find any signs of leakage.


Checked header bolts and found one that was real loose. Tightened that up. Went around and snugged them all up. Hopefully that’s all it was

 

Balancing the rotating assembly doesn't impact vibration

 

Ah ok I was pretty sure it didn’t work that way

 

The vibration from a four cylinder is mostly a harmonic vibration. What can help is a lighter rotating assembly

 

That makes sense. This rotating assembly is a good bit lighter over stock. That must be helping

 

First round of logging completed. It’s hard to explain the difference between my first map with 0vtc and my second map some vtc added in. It’s like two different cars. One is lazy, the other is pulling like hell. So cool to feel the incremental differences.

I think I’m going to need some help here for mufflers. Current exhaust is a rev9 3”(China spec) which is the full race clone. It sounded great at first but I believe I blew the muffler last season. The car is LOUD.

Within 2 minutes of start up I had the neighbor coming to give me shit. I just got outta there asap but she will definitely give me shit. Crusty old lady.

What are my good options for a better muffler? Flow being important of course.


Here’s an idle clip for you all
https://youtube.com/shorts/UgR0o7uTN2E?si=2Ih6A075mP3B3J8W