The Civic 25XT

[ChargeR]

A month or so ago, having missed my chance to get the EF on track at Sandown (thanks to itsu-san for the co-drive!) I consoled myself by heading to the Bryant Park/Haunted Hills hillclimb run by Classic Skylines Australia. The CSA guys ran the whole day in the clockwise configuration, so it was a good chance to improve gradually without adjusting to a new course half way through the day.

It was the first time I'd been there on a completely dry day, and the handling of the Civic was great all day; on cold tyres the balance is great, it's only on track that the little front 185s are completely overheated after 2 laps. Unfortunately engine troubles continue though, on the way there a bung fell out of my exhaust manifold, which made for an angry exhaust note, but made the car run even worse than usual and as a result it would stall when I tried to launch at the start line. In the end all I could do was gently ease the car off the line. Thanks to itsu-san for the help with the ghetto attempted exhaust fixes.

My best time for the day was a 62.something, which wasn't bad, a handful of seconds quicker than the Micra on the same layout from memory and it was enough to stay ahead of the VTECs . The quicker guys were in the 57s and 58s.

Picture for proof:



I need a larger car or a lower seat.

[M@lew]

Got a spiffy new helmet now?

[AL92]

That looks sooo mean !

[ChargeR]

Got a spiffy new helmet now?

Yup! Got a bit tired of the old uncomfortable open face.

That looks sooo mean !

Cheers mate!

Bump Steer Correction

So I've been to Winton and Wakefield since my last update, and collected a few PBs, but I'll post about them later. More interesting things first; last weekend I installed a set of tie rod ends, that Grant/itsu-san and I have been developing to correct bump steer. You can see his install here: LINK



Above is the kit roughly assembled. Note that the EF/ED rack uses a different method to retain the inner rack end compared to the EK/EG/DC2 so this required an alternative rack spacer to limit the travel to avoid any possible contact between the wheel and the tie rod, these are in the left of the picture above. The travel limiter is a stepped washer that replaces an original flat washer between the rack and the inner rack end, shown assembled and then installed below:





The spacers limit the rack travel by 5mm in each direction. When installing the new rack ends I fitted new lock washers, since the old ones invariably get mangled when removing them, and new boots. Here's the completed install:



I raised the outer end of the tie rod by 4mm compared to the OEM parts, and I'll re-measure my bump steer to see if this is the correct amount. I also fitted my modified upper shock mounts, which required a bit of work with the die grinder to fit through the holes in the body since I didn't account for the fact that the holes in the body are more diamond shaped than circular. These give 30mm more damper bump travel.

With the whole thing all back together I lowered the car by about 30mm, and did a rough wheel alignment. After some short drives ride comfort doesn't seem to have suffered over typical surfaces, but over bigger bumps the front upper control arms are contacting the the body, so I'll be making some further spring and bump stop changes. Here's the end result:



New ride heights are:
FL: 280mm FR: 280mm
RL: 282mm RL: 282mm

Measured wheel centre to guard vertically.

Next up is to re-do my bump steer measurements to confirm the amount I've raised the outer end of the tie rod is correct. I also picked up a new set of wheels so I might fit those and refurbish the MK2s since the red paint job the previous JDM owner gave them isn't standing up to brake dust and heat.

[ChargeR]

The old Civic is coming out of semi-retirement for 2017. Pride is pushing me to drive it a bit faster, since a whole bunch of the Nugget Nationals entrants are now seconds ahead of me at Winton. The car hasn't been in full retirement though, as I did take a quick trip to Wakefield with the good folks from Yez Racing earlier in 2016. I can't adequately remember what happened to recap, and didn't go any faster than my last time there, so just use your imagination.


I've started accumulating a few bits. Here's a set of 15x7 +42 SSR Type C I purchased years ago for just this purpose, with some new tyres:





I've also purchased some Hyperco helper springs and spacers to stop the springs banging about when they re-seat on to the spring perches (and my roadworthy guy wasn't a fan of the springs being loose at full droop):





A few other items in the suspension and driveline will be getting a freshen up, a rear anti-roll bar added, I'll put the car on club reg, and then hit the track heaps. Just as Mr Honda surely intended for the least powerful model in the Civic range in 1989.

[ChargeR]

I put in a little more work on the Civic today. Firstly I pulled the shocks out and fitted the helper springs and couplers. Then I adjusted the spring perches to both allow for the extra total height of the spring assembly with the helpers in place, and also to give a small increase in ride height. Motivation for increase in ride height as follows:

- At previous ride height there wasn't sufficient travel before interference between the body and the upper control arms at the front, only about 40mm
- I'll be adding some camber adjustment at the front so I no longer need to lower the car excessively to achieve reasonable static camber
- The roll centre heights at the increased ride height are better, which will help handling
- I'm getting old



Then I put it all back together in reverse order of disassembly and test fitted the wheels, having had the tyres fitted yesterday. The tyres are BF Goodrich Rival S, reputed to be one of the briskest street tyres, in 225/45R15 at the front and 205/50R15 at the rear.



Unfortunately some guy parked a CR-X in the way so I couldn't maneouvre the car into a more photogenic location. I think I'll add a little bit of spacer to bring the wheels out closer to the guards.



At this ride height the car will need camber adjustment as I mentioned above. As usual though none of the control arms on the market are satisfactory, many of them I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy, so I'll be making my own. I'll make 2 sets, one for the CR-X, and if the prototypes perform well we will put them into production. Here's a rough concept of the control arm, which will use shims for camber adjustment.



More updates soon, next up I'll be modifying the header to suit the shorter D15 deck height and give some of the suspension bushes a refresh.

The Civic will also be acting as a test bed for most of our products at Honed, so if you see it out at the track and would like to see how our parts perform, come take a look and I might even let you have a drive.

[RC_dc2]

I'm interested to see your upper control arm design, pics aren't working for me though?

The hard race ones are pretty bad for clearance to the body, otherwise they seem pretty sturdy. I have seen some people complain about the skunk2 ball joints failing early too.

[felixR]

Perfect wheels for the car! How much do they weigh each in that size?

[Toddxxx]

SSR look perfect!

[ChargeR]

I'm interested to see your upper control arm design, pics aren't working for me though?

The hard race ones are pretty bad for clearance to the body, otherwise they seem pretty sturdy. I have seen some people complain about the skunk2 ball joints failing early too.

Pics working now? Imageshack is a bit temperamental. Another pic:

Perfect wheels for the car! How much do they weigh each in that size?

Thanks boss man, according to my kitchen scales they are 4.2kg each. Currently the lightest wheels I own.

SSR look perfect!

Thanks, it's a nice period correct look I guess, but the MK2s will always be my preferred look.

Knocked off a couple of other small tasks yesterday and today. Didn't feel like stuffing about cutting up my exhaust manifold so I pulled the rear lower control arms out to replace the worn and cracked bushes. After much frustration pressing out the bushes, including a session with the air chisel, I managed to get the bushes free:



A quick scuff and mask then I hit them with some paint:



While all this was going on I made a set of brackets to mount a set of our Honed air guides to the car. I'll also be attempting to recover a few of the kilowatts that have escaped from the D15 in the last 25 years, so some extra brake cooling is probably a good idea.



With the paint dry I pressed the new OEM bushes in and put them back in the car.





More updates to come. I'll work on tweaking the exhaust manifold next.

[kev89]

Looks good mate, keen to see it on the track!

[ChargeR]

Looks good mate, keen to see it on the track!

Thanks mate, looking forward to it. Track days are very relaxing in a slow car like this.

I finished up a couple more small tasks over the last couple of days. Firstly I spent a bit of time cleaning up the headlights with my bespoke $3 headlight restoration kit (3 bits of sandpaper and my arm, cost of kit does not include plastic polish I already had). A little labour intensive but I'm happy with the results, only flaws are a few light scratches where I was a bit impatient. Before:



And after:



I then liberated the bottom half of the exhaust manifold to tweak the fitment a bit. The header was obviously designed for a D16 block height and it's a little worse for wear on the bottom because of it. It was only 50mm or so off the ground at the old ride height. I made myself a special tool to hold it in the drop saw. Then cut 14mm of length out of the secondaries, a dimension I had precisely measured previously by working out which of my fingers would fit between the sump and the header..



Then after a bit more cutting and sanding tacked it back together and test fitted it on the car:



While I was under there I fitted up the prototype air guide and bracket that I made earlier. The fitment is nearly perfect, so it will just need some minor tweaks before I have a more fancy set of production brackets made.



Please excuse the state of the underbody. The car has been very neglected over the past year or so, parked in a grassy backyard, so is definitely due for a wash of the more intimate areas under the skirts.

[Setanta]

This car keeps me wanting to buy a 4G Civic again.

[ChargeR]

This car keeps me wanting to buy a 4G Civic again.

Just do it, I'm sure you won't regret it.

Another short update for the trusty Civic as the slow crawl to road-worthiness continues. I received more parts from Japan, not really overnight. Radius rod bushes, front engine mount and battery tie down and hardware:



Easiest way to the the front mount is to remove the whole front cross-member, and it needed to come out to swap the bushes anyway. Couldn't resist giving it a quick wash. Not quite like new, but it might pass for 15 years old, rather than it's full 28 years of age.



Engine mount in, also featuring extreme close up of my modified header:



Then I put the radius rod bushes in. The old ones looked alright, but I had noticed when tightening the wheel nuts there seemed to be a bit of fore-aft compliance in the front suspension, and they're dirt cheap anyway.



The very clean new battery tie down stands out a bit, motivates me to clean up the rest of the bay:



And done:



Now I just need to fix a couple of minor lighting issues and it's ready for registration. Then it will be ready for some more modifications!

[toocivic]

Loving this build, keen to see more. MKII are the dream

ps. V. interesting in the development of the front camber arms. Look the business!