Civic Sedan Build - JTCC Inspired

[Grant@Honed]

Here's some clear images of the powder coated RTA

[ChargeR]

Trailing arms look great mate, and I'm pleased to see that your toe calculations look pretty similar to my measurements. More abrupt 'knee' in the toe change on my car, as you'd expect given the EF has a bit steeper camber curve, and therefore must have a shorter theoretical swing arm in front view.

[Grant@Honed]

Trailing arms look great mate, and I'm pleased to see that your toe calculations look pretty similar to my measurements. More abrupt 'knee' in the toe change on my car, as you'd expect given the EF has a bit steeper camber curve, and therefore must have a shorter theoretical swing arm in front view.

Thanks! Can't wait to test out the new set up. It's always a good sign when independent methods come up with similar results, now we've just got to do something with that information.

[Grant@Honed]

I did a bit of wheeling and dealing and got myself a set of dc2 uprights to rebuild. It wasn't until I got home from the seller's place that I noticed the uprights were from a non-abs GSI model dc2. Dam!

I did a bit of research and found the ABS system in the early Dc2's is basic enough that I won't compromise the braking performance of the car by removing it.

Removing the ABS will give me part of the weight reduction over the front axle i'm looking for.

I called the seller up and sure enough he still had the complete set of hardlines from the GSI including the 40/40 bias valve. I convinced him to throw in the hardlines as otherwise the uprights were no good to me.



So i've stripped the uprights and had them sand blasted



I took the opportunity to weld in a 63mm tube section into the rotor shield. In the future i will duct cold air to from the air dam to the rotors

Something like what this guy is running on his S2000



Cut hole in rotor shield



Weld 63mm tube into the hole as shown.



I've made up five sets of RTA gussets

[felixR]

Keep doing what you're doing! This is interesting.

[stalis]

how much would you sell a pair of the RTA gussets for? this thread is extremely interesting

[Grant@Honed]

how much would you sell a pair of the RTA gussets for? this thread is extremely interesting

Pm'd

[Grant@Honed]

Short midweek update:

I spent Sunday converting the car to non Abs. It was difficult to access all the lines with the engine in place and I was very grateful to be working with the car on a hoist.

I removed the original front hardlines, abs pump etc in a couple of hours, then once I had most of the new lines in place I discovered the GSI hard line that connects to the brake master cylinder had a different size fitting on it. I did read a few ABS removal guides that mentioned this but for some reason I thought it might have been a USDM issue only.

I gave ChargeR a call and he came around with an old tube flaring tool. The flaring tool was well past it's prime and we ended up needing an assortment of extras to get it to work. These included washers, welding wire, cable ties and a big crescent.

Once that mini drama was sorted out it was plain sailing. I checked all the fittings and paint marked them for quick reference in the future.

We bled the brakes through with ATE Super Blue racing brake fluid that I sourced a few weeks ago from Autosphere (thanks Mugsee)

If you recall I reported my brakes feeling soft and lacking in bite power after the Winton track day. I have another set of front brake pads of unkown origin but visually good condition and decided to swap them in, to replace the ones that were on the car when I did the track day.

I was quite surprised at just how bad the pads that came out were. All the pads were cracked in the middle and most had large chunks missing. I guess this is what happens when you ask a pad to operate out of its design temperature range.



The leading edge of the pads had just disintegrated



I have decided to go to a 2 pad/rotor set up. I will get a set of race pads and rotors before the next event.

In other news the knuckles and rotor shields are at the power coaters, i should be picking those up tomorrow.

The extended studs arrived today. I also have a complete set of stainless clamps for the axle shaft CV boots, I plan to rebuild the cv's with redline CV2 grease.

[tinkerbell]

whoah, those pads are bad - were they OEM? look semi-metallic?

[Grant@Honed]

whoah, those pads are bad - were they OEM? look semi-metallic?

I got them from Repco before I decided to start modifying the car for track work. I think they were Bendix general CTs

[Grant@Honed]

Everyone likes pictures of OEM Honda parts,

1) Front wheel bearings
2) Type R Bumpstops
3) Shifter plastic bush



On Saturday we test fit one of ChargeR's 15" x 9" +36 949Racing rims on the front.



Looks proper in the wheel arch and i'm pretty keen to get a set shot with Semis for track work.

[Grant@Honed]

The uprights are back from powder coating, like the RTAs, they look a million bucks. If you're rebuilding your suspension it's well worth the time to get parts powdercoated vs bombing them with a rattle can.

I pressed ARP extended wheel studs into the hubs as I plan to run small wheel spacers on the front in the future.

There's been a hold up with the Mfactory parts and it's looking like another 2 week delay until I get the new suspension set up installed. Bummer.



Today I stripped the sound deadening out of the car. I didn't take any great pictures but I'm sure you all know what went down. The box of sound deadening weighed 18kgs once I was finished, so a decent weight saving!

Here's a recent shot of the engine bay, you can see the air box in place with it's heat reflective tape.



Here's a close up of the 40/40 bias valve. I'm loving the feel of the brakes with the ABS system removed. The pedal feel is better and the car brakes nice and straight.

[Grant@Honed]

Today I swapped out my fuel pump for a Walbro unit.

When i first got the car it had fuel surge issues, I replace the fuel pump with a cheap no brand replacement from Repco.

Recently I have been having issues with the pump cutting out and preventing the car from starting. This gets really old really quick!



I was glad to see the Walbro came with an insulating sleeve to prevent vibrations and cut down on some of the noise transmitted to the cabin.



Cheap fuel pumps have plastic fins


Good fuel pumps have steel gears

[felixR]

Sweet updates.

How much was that gold reflective tape?

[Vvvtec]

Wow this build is awesome!