Idle time
I was watching my buddy working for a day and a half making this bracket. When he asked me what I thought, I told him “you have too much time on your hands.” He laughed. Must be nice to not have to build a new car in the off season.
That old feeling
Its no secret that I have been pretty jaded when it comes to cars in the last couple of years. Dumbass customers, whack margins, shitty trends have all but killed my love for something that I used to be so passionate about. If it wasn’t for finding new things to learn about and friends dragging me back in, I would probably not do anything with cars and be a bit happier. But every once in a while you find something to rev your engine back up. (no pun intended) Seeing this thing on the dyno and riding around in them has done that. You turn up the boost and it makes more power. Amazing! Lets see how long this lasts for…
In and out of Japan
A couple of weeks ago I got called to come back to the shop. The funny thing was that I left for Japan when all my friends were coming back, literally. This time around it was a super short trip. I basically went there to work on a project and come straight home. I would have stayed longer, but I had to make it back to go to school.
I basically went there to prep 87 laptops for software install. I would have had more time, except that the customer didn’t pull the trigger for the contract until the last minute. Needless to say, the project was done ahead of schedule and I had one free day at the shop. Its getting tougher and tougher for the tuning industry in Japan, so we are expanding our services to things that don’t go fast. At this point, we got to do what ever it takes to stay afloat.
Thanks to Albert, Tosh and Chie for showing me a good time in TYO! Hopefully I can chill a little longer next time.
Cranky
So what started as supposed to be a head gasket swap and cam install turned into a complete tear down when I inspected my bearings. From looking at it, besides having a bit of oil starvation, something had come out of the crank and marred my bearings up. The only conclusion that I could really come to was that there must have been debris lodged inside the crank galley and decided to come out to say hello to my bearings once it filled with oil. I never really took the time to have the plugs removed on the crank. I guess I’ll never make that mistake again.
This time around, I decided to take the crank to dudes that only do cranks. Right next to Triumvir’s office, there is a shop called Marine Crank. I have always heard about them in engine building circles, but never really took the time to look into them. But I figured, hell if all they do is cranks, they got to be pretty damn good at it. So I asked them that the best route was. They sent me away to a place called Jerry’s broken drill and tap removal. I had been to this place before about 10 years ago, but just to have time serts installed in a head. Apparently the steel balls that seal up the crank is super hard to get out and they have a special machine that burns them out. The machine is pretty cool looking and they do a super good job to not damage the crank, so don’t be surprised when you get the bill. (honestly, I was a bit shook when I got the bill, but its kind of worth it)
I took the crank back over to Marine and they worked their magic on it. I had the oil holes chamfered, the journals micro polished and the galleys tapped. Total bill, around $200. But after I give it a good cleaning, I can at least be relieved that I won’t have shit spitting out of the crank onto my bearings. I recommend this for anyone that has had their crank out and polished.
Beauty in the details
I have been cooped up in my make shift studio for the last couple of day shooting product shots for our site update. We just got in our new Evo X manifold and the boss asked me to take new photos of it before we installed it in our demo car. This might not mean much to majority of people, but it seems to put a smile on my face. I don’t think I will ever have the steady hand to pull this off.
After all this time
We just starting using Hondata at the shop and I have been helping them get acquainted with the S300. This Integra is a customer that bought the complete Toda engine setup, complete with ITB. More so than the engine, working on this car reminded me of how much I still like the DC2 platform. Especially with the C-West kit on it. Still looks super nice to me till this day. I can just do without how loud and stiff it is to make it fun for the canyon/track.
Rack updates
Our alignment machine is still running on Windows 98. Yeah, I said 9-8. Although it generally is trouble free, every once in a while it has issues. We had to call our dealer for some tech support. After fixing a driver issue, they informed us that we should update the newer released cars. If we were on XP, all we would have to do it plug in a jump drive or tap into the net. That is if we were on XP.
Summer in the mountains
Seems like I am back on the neglecting my blog phase. Been super busy lately with finishing up my summer classes and doing events. I am back in Japan right now working at the office for the summer. I managed to take a couple of days off in Tokyo to hangout with the guys from Fatlace and Tokyo friends. I will put a post up as soon as I get all the pics.
More recently, the solar eclipse has been all over J-TV for the last couple of days. I guess a bunch of people travelled to southern Japan just to check it out. On the way to work today, I jokingly told the boss that we should put on welding masks and take a look ourselves.
Apparently I wasn’t the only one who though of this. Everyone at the shop was outside with welding masks checking out the eclipse. We got lucky as the clouds cleared long enough to get a glance at the eclipse. I tried to snap a pick using the welding glass as a filter, but it didn’t come out so hot. The bummer was all the people who travelled and got rained on. Sourness.
Separation Anxiety
I woke up pretty damn late today and it was really nice weather, so I decided to get some work done on my hoopty. Ever since I put my car together, I have had an issue with my air separator tank. When I first thought about my layout, I made sure the top of the air separator tank was the highest point of my cooling system. But no matter, how many times I would bleed the system, a air bubble would form right at my radiator. After some thinking, I realize that the way I routed the hoses (from the radiator to down under the filter, to back up into the tank, made any air get trapped up into the top of the radiator.
Since the new route was shorter than the original, all I had to do was cut all the cable ties, reroute the hoses and cut to fit. After getting everything sorted out, I filled the system back up with some distilled water and definitely noticed it was circulating much better than before. I didn’t have to pump it as many times to really bleed out the system. Good stuff. Now if I can only figure where this damned oil leak is coming from.
For some show points, I routed it through the strut tower bar. It actually fits better this way.
Tokyo and more
Its been a long 2 weeks as we had a regular work week leading up to TAS. I basically haven’t had a day off for the last 2 weeks and am ready to just sleep a lot. I was a cheapass and didn’t want to pay for internet at the hotel so I am doing a week long recap. Oh no pics either because I was too busy working. I will post some up once I get some from the other guys who shot a shit load of pics.
TAS was a reflection of the global economy as many shops either downsized their booths or cancelled all together. I was surprised to see the introduction of sitting gardens as there weren’t enough booths to fill all 3 halls. I spent the first day mostly in doors talking to different companies and doing English explanations at the Bridgestone booth. I felt bad cause the rest of the staff was stuck outside in the rain and cold… well I felt bad for them and good for me. The next 2 days were spent all outside as we had to do D1GP demos. It was DAMN cold. Everytime the wind would blow, it felt like you stuck your head in a subzero freezer.
Once the show was over, I hooked up with the Honda Tuning crew to go shoot photos. We made our way first to Spoon/ Type-One. Since its easily accessable by train in the greater Tokyo area, some foreign customers ended up showing up while we were there. Its strange to me because in all the time that I have been in Japan, we have never once had a foreign customer show up at the shop. I guess thats how it is when you live in the Fresno of Japan. The shop lay out is really modern and they make really good use of their little space.
The second day we went out to M-Tec in Saitama. It was pretty cool to see a parking lot full of cars with everything Mugen, but they barred us from looking in the factory. I literally begged them to just take a peep and they said(in the most polite way) It ain’t happenin’ captain. Bummers.
My final day in Tokyo I went with Henry out to Bridgestone’s headquaters to shoot the Prodrive-Japan GRB. We ended up going out to Odaiba, only to get barred at every parking lot we entered. I was bummed because we wanted to shoot in the lot that they have the Tokyo D1GP event. The backdrop is Fuji Terebi and would have looked dope. We ended up going back and shooting in the Bridgestone private underground garage.
The last 2 days have been spent in Nagano shooting our demo cars and one from ARMS. It didn’t help that the day before we shot, it dumped a foot of snow. I had to dig out the parking lot and wash the snow off the cars. The best part is that I had a bucket of warm water. By the afternoon this bucket turned into ice and water. Radical. In the end the shots came out good, so it was worth it. (you magazine dudes should come in the fall when its warm)
Next week is just basically finalizing some paper work and packing up to go back to the states. By this time next week, I will be officially a student. So there will less car related posts. Thank goodness.
Head Crack
We are putting together a new engine for a GDB customer right now. I saw that a brand new set of heads were being fitted to the engine and I inquired how come the customer went with new factory heads. Our mechanic putting the motor together, Nakazawa-san, told me to take a look at the combustion chamber.
Personally, I rarely work on Subaru engines and engine overhaul customers in Japan are not as common as they used to be. So, I have never seen a crack like this before. Apparently its not uncommon amoung EJ20 engines from what Nakazawa-san says. You can see that the crack on the rear runs pretty deep into the spark plug hole. Cylinder 1,2, and 4 are all cracked in this general area.
Sick of being sick
Being sick sucks. It sucks even harder when you are away from home. I don’t have an apartment in Japan anymore, so I stay at my boss’ house when I come. Its a little better than my apartment. Well… its alot better with the central heating and stocked fridge. But its still his house. You take for granted the comfort of your own place, especially when you are sick and just want to veg out. I have to isolate myself in my room so that I don’t get his family sick. What sucks even harder is that its the first few days we have had off and I am stuck in my room feeling like shit. Thank goodness for ipod and Gameboy Advance.
Oh, just when I thought the events were over, we are off to Tsukuba on Friday for Hot Version shoot. Yay for me.
Last Event
We headed out to Tsukuba for the D1 Street Legal event. D1 asked the top teams to participate in a 5 lap battle during the final event of the year. What they didn’t tell us is that we wouldn’t have a paddock and woudl have to pit outside. That is fine, except it was 35degreesF all day and raining. Rad!
I was over being outdoors, let alone take any photos. The rain continued to pour until right before the race. Luckily we had our van and hid out for the good portion of the day. In the end the race was more of a demo than a race. Its good to be back in the shop knowing that there are no more events to run until Auto Salon next year.
Mega Mac
Went to Tsukuba the other day for Super Lap. Even though I have been going back and forth to Japan for a while, I always miss the Super Lap. I am usually at home from Thanksgiving until Xmas so I miss out. There was honestly not as many cars as I thought would be there. Seems like there are more cars at Hypermeeting in the spring than there is at Super Lap. The A group was all super fast: Cyber, Varis, ASM, ATTKD. We were in the B group, but blew out a brake hose so we had to retire. We were all pretty bummed out, so I didn’t really take any photos. I am sure you can find a bunch on Speedhunters.
What I did take a photo of is this:
I have wanted to try this thing since it came out last year. Don’t get me wrong, I know Mcdonalds is pretty shitty when it comes to nutrition, but damn it tastes good. One of my guilty pleasures, I used to eat Big Macs on a weekly basis when I was living in Japan. And yes they tastes just as delicious as the ones in the US. Back to the Mega Mac, I was stoked when the boss said we are having Mickey D’s for lunch. What you see here is a Mega Mac combo, Large size.(regular sized for the US, super sized for Japan).
Final verdict. I was a little bummed out. They doubled the meat, but didn’t double the cheese. Maybe its a mistake, but there was only one slice of cheese for 4 slices of meat. Still you can taste that the meat was seasoned. Can’t really taste that in the US. Is it worth $8USD? I will probably stick to the regular Big Mac.
Potenza Exciting Stage Pt2
It stayed pretty clear all day at Fuji Speedway. The weather in Fuji is pretty unpredictable. One hour its sunny, the next its raining. The only that sucked was how cold it was. It stayed a pretty consitent 37F throughout the day. It only got windy for short bursts.
The event is pretty uneventful for us. We bring the cars out to give customers at the event rides. There are basically 3 20min sessions so we have to do tire changes and fuel up. There are probably 2 hours in between each session where we just sit around. The common theme… business sucks ass. So be thankful if you are still selling parts.
Potenza Exciting Stage pt 1
We packed up the T-Car and Potenza S15 to head out to Fuji Speedway for the final Potenza Exciting Stage Event. Its basically a time attack style event for Bridgestone customers. I didn’t think I would have the opportunity to see Fuji Speedway again for a long time. So I was pretty stoked to hear that we would be going.
After unloading we found the Team Impul GTR in the pit next to us. So we took the opportunity to see what it feel likes to be a GT500 driver. C’mon, you would do the same if you had the chance.
This thing is badass. As you can see the excitement in our faces. I would love to drive this thing, but I probably wouldn’t ever get out of second gear. Its a combination of lack of skill and lack of balls. Sitting in it is good enough for me. Rad.
Thanksgiving
While everyone else is watching football and stuffing their faces, I in the garage catching up on work. I got a Racepak IQ3 for my Civic, but kind of half ass made a backing plate for it. I wanted to go back and make a proper one, but was limited by what tools we have access to at the shop. Since we have a plethora of fab tools at my house, I figured it was the perfect opportunity to do it right.
I started with a 1/8th” thick piece of Lexan that was cut to the general size I needed. Taking apart a stock DX cluster, I used the gauge cover as a template. I then cut the Lexan to fit the hood from the same cluster. Next I used a template from Racepak to drill the mounting holes and cut the access hole for the couplers on the drill press using an arbor from the mill. I then made provisions for the buttons to be used with the IQ3, turn signals and warning lights.
The new piece fits a lot better and now I can fully utilize all the functions of the meter. With this out of the way, I can relax a bit and go stuff my face with some Turkey. Oh wait, I still have to do my laundry… doohhh.
Dyno sore
Its been about 2 weeks now since the Super Lap Battle final and I have been chasing down all the little gremlins. Seems like every day I find something new to put install or some leak to chase down. I found that the cam seal and the oil feed line both have slow leaks. I also figured out that the motor didn’t like venting the catch can into atmosphere.
The thing that was bothering me the most was that there was an inconsistency with the torque. The engine was making decent power after the initial tuning session and the graph looked pretty normal; or I thought it did. We were so tired and in such a rush, I didn’t realize that the Dynojet force scaled the torque graph. This means that it displays the torque scaled to read on the same scale as the horsepower. This flattens out the torque reading; reducing the resolution on torque fluctuation. So what I thought was a super flat torque curve was really far from the truth.
As I drove the car, it felt like it was really lagging until VTEC. Jon(driver) told me the same thing while we were at the track. I asked Gabe and he confirmed it too. It was boggling my mind up until last week when we went back and looked at the graphs again. Looking at the actual torque graphs, you can easily see why it was lagging before and after the VTEC changeover. First talking to Naoto about it, then Aries and Gabe, everyone agreed that we needed tune the cam timing.(well that and then test out some new cams)
Strapping it back down on the dyno, Aries suggested that we move the VTEC around. Dropping it down to 5200rpm made a huge difference in the mid range. We moved on to setting the cam timing. Unfortunately, I never clayed my motor, so I don’t really know the maximum amount of cam timing until interference. But we just tried to keep it to a conservative amount considering the amount of compression and cam lift I am running. Setting the cam timing ended evening out the torque I was missing the whole time and got it to where I wanted it.
I don’t really have any time to work on the car anymore until I get back from Japan. Hopefully by then, we can put the car on a diet and try to figure out how to squeeze another 10 hp out of it(yeah right)… Look for the full feature in an up coming issue of Honda Tuning.
Super Lap
I have been definitely neglecting my blog, but not without good reason. It has been one of the roughest 2 weeks of my racing life ever. I have been working on my own Time Attack project. Even though it should be a no brainer, I was pressed for time waiting on parts. 2 weeks ago this time, I had a car with an engine in it. Basically nothing else. Since we had SEMA last week, no on was able to get me any parts out. So we still had no suspension, header, or wheels. Well it wasn’t until we got back from SEMA that everything showed up. This left me and the JDMC crew only 2 full days to get a racecar ready.
Fast forward to Tuesday, we were pushing to get the car started. At initial startup, the car showed 80psi of base fuel pressure. Not sure if the gauge was broken, we put another one in. Sure enough there was 80psi. Turns out the the fuel return line was clogged. Figuring that out, we fired the car up for break-in. Well nothing is ever perfect. The VTEC oil feed line decided to leak on me as well. Note to self, do not use aluminum fittings on oil feed lines.
11:00pm Fixing all the minor leaks, we finally get the car on the dyno to tune. Starting off with a stock ECU, the engine idled great. When we switched to the PowerFC, the gremlins came back to plague us. Apparently no one sent me the memo, but the unit we had(brand new out of the box) had a bad injector driver. Talking it over with a friend that used to work at Apexi, it is a rare occurance, but it happens. Not until it hydro locked my motor with fuel did we know that indeed it was the box. Luckily JDMC had a spare box in stock. Swapping it out proved for sure it was the first FC that was bad.(Thanks Gabe)
3:30AM After about 2 hours on the dyno and an oil change, we were off to J’s Graphics to get stickered. We were going from Oceanside to HB so it gave me a little more break-in mileage on the motor. While we are stickering, the distinct smell of something burning is in the air. We don’t really pay that much attention until the fire trucks show up. Well a truck decided to catch on fire across the street from Jon’s place. WTF else can happen.
6:30AM I get the call to go to the alignment shop. I rush over there and get the car on the rack. I try to hammer out the alignment as fast as I can. At this point, I am starting to think to myself, how the hell did I think that building this car was a good idea.
8:00am We are off to the track. Mind you the event starts at 6:30…. I do a little part throttle and idle tuning on the way up. I knew Button Willow was far, but its daaaamn far. Like 3 hours far. All the while my driver, Jon Frost is wating for me at the track.(Sorry dude)
10:45am We make it to track. We get our tech card and I send the car to tech. Mistake on my part is that I didn’t take the time to read the rules. If you run racing harness, you need a 5th point. After trying to convince Elliot to let me run, we come to the agreement that he is the man and I have to put a stock seat in the car.(That one is for you Elliot)
1:45pm The car runs. I am relieved that it doesn’t fall apart. Even better is that Jon is pretty happy with our initial suspension settings.
Considering that it is still running all stock panels,(no carbon anything) we did alright with a 2’05.99″ Next up is going to be sending the car on a diet with much needed carbon parts and possibly changing out the final drive to a 4.9. I think this will take us from 5th place up to podium.
Huge thanks to JDMC – Gabe, Aries and Mike. J’s Graphics – Jon, my driver – Jonathan Frost, our sponsors Bridgestone, Buddy Club, Racepak, Blox Racing, Password JDM, Dynamic Autoports, Honda Tuning, WPC Treatment, ACT, Spal, Tovi’s paint, Kevin(Wicked), Naoto(NPD), Elliot for letting us run in the end and Super Street for the EK Seat.
Saturdays
Seems, as of lately, that all my days start to seem the same. Whether it be weekday or weekend, I seem to be working on something. I guess it can’t be that bad because I don’t really work that hard and I just spread it out over a bunch of days. The crappy part of it is that I start to forget what day it is.
I woke up to go shoot some photos with Naoto at Blast. We have since moved the build over there since they have a lot more equipment than what Kevin has. Having access to a band saw, lathe, TIG, sanders and pipes of all sizes makes life a lot easier when most of your parts are fabricated.
I headed over to the shop to work a bit on my own motor. I am getting closer and closer to finishing up my car, but it still seems so damn far away. I finally sealed the motor up and got it ready for clutch and tranny. The motor is a LS/VTEC, 82mm piston, WPC bottom end, JDMC ported head, BC Cams and valve train, Blox Intake manifold, Blox 70mm throttle body, Vortech Fuel rail and Blox Header. My target power is about 205whp.
I finished off the day by heading out to the Formula D finals at Irwindale. It was great to see people I haven’t seen in a while. The common question was, “where have you been”? My answer….”I have been hiding.” Maybe one day I will come out of hiding, but I don’t think anytime soon. Its probably only going to get worse once I start school.
Mission
I put off putting my tranny back together for a couple months now. My excuse was that I couldn’t figure out where 1 washer went. Therefore, I didn’t want to seal the case up. Well I now figured out where the that single washer goes(only exists on B18C transmission by the way) but I have yet to figure out how to get it to shift. The shift changing mechanism has been kicking my ass. Going to take a break from working on it and figure it out once I get back from San Jose.
Championship Dreams
I called back to the home office last night to check in. After grilling me for not sending him his Handi Snacks, The Boss talked about where we sit on points for the season. Since getting second place this past weekend at Ebisu, we are now only 5 points away from Daigo Saito. Another championship is within our grasps for this year. Next stop… Fuji Speedway.
Lapped
Before I put my head together, it dawned upon me that I still didn’t lap my valves. I did have my valves cut on a Serdi by Gabe’s cousin, Noe. Serdi claims that lapping valves destroys the face of the valve where it contacts the valve seat. But I figured, if I gave it a once over on the fine compound, it wouldn’t take all that much material away and I would have the comfort on knowing that the valve is matched to the seat. I mean as long as you don’t go to town for hours, it should only take off a couple thousandths of a millimeter.
The technique that I used was to rotate and tap the valve against the seat. The traditional method is to spin the valve back and forth. But Boss’ theory is that the valve doesn’t rotate against the seat, it taps its as it moves in and out. Like I mentioned, I only used the fine grit compound as each valve was numbered and turned on the Serdi. I gave each valve about three rotations, using the labeling on the suction cup as a guide. Each valve is cleaned off and reinstalled. Hey, maybe Serdi is right, but I can sleep knowing the gray ring is there.
Here you can see the valve as it came from the machine shop.
Here is the valve after it has been lapped. You can see the gray ring where the valve contacts the seat.
Built Block
I decided to build another Honda last year after Rob asked me to take a 99′ Civic Si chassis off his hands. I already had a motor but it needed rebuilding. Since tearing my motor down this same time last year, it has gone through its fair share of issues. First it was the honing of the block, then the main caps being out of round, then finding out that my rings didn’t fit because the over-sized pistons were more over-sized then expected and finally figuring that it had to be re-decked again. As my hope was starting to waver, I finally got to a point where I see my own light at the end of the tunnel.
Since all of the issues have been dealt with, I took the pistons over to my buddy Yo at Contemporary Auto Machine to have the pistons installed onto the rods. Looking at the service manual, it tells you to press the pins on with a fixture. I didn’t know that he had an actual machine to heat the rods.
Once brought up to temperature, the pins slide in super easy. Just the pressure from your hand will slide them right through. Once installed, he does a final check to see if the rod is straight and I am on my way.
B18A block, P73A 82mm WPC Treated Piston, WPC treated factory bearings
Back at the shop, I installed all the rings and installed the pistons. If you build lots of engines, buy the ARP ring compressor tool. Seriously makes installing pistons a breeze. I am not by any means a Pro at building engines, but that ARP tool makes life that much easier.
Yeah that is a Nike SB box that I used to hold my valves.
Now onto the head…
