Green EK4

[eskimo_firefighter]

Good work iwearmoccos, I can confirm the braided lines were bit of a pain. I had to buy a $24 short stubby adjustable wrench to get into those tight spots tighten the lines into the sandwich plate!

[iwearmoccos]

Good work iwearmoccos, I can confirm the braided lines were bit of a pain. I had to buy a $24 short stubby adjustable wrench to get into those tight spots tighten the lines into the sandwich plate!

Thanks SC Nguyen!
I also bought a similar shifter, in anodised red!

[ChargeR]

I know it’s great to have ducting and all that, but...is it really necessary? I did think about it but have been running mine without any ducting and it manages temps fine, so have just been too lazy to do much more.

That said, I did have some fancy ducting welded on the intercooler of my MX5.

Nothing is truly necessary, but if you're going to do something, why not do it well? Ducting to coolers makes a massive difference to the efficiency of the heat exchangers, to the point where an efficiently ducted core could be substantially smaller for the same cooling effect, thus saving weight. I'm always of the opinion that it's better to maximise the efficiency of a less extreme solution, rather than just throw *more* at a problem. More extreme solutions mean more cost, more weight, more points of failure.

Thank you, Thomas.
I may need to speak to your guy, his welder and sheet metal folding device.

Do you mean going as far as those fancy bolts with rubber infused into them, or just a rubber washer or two?
I was thinking I could shorten the allen headed bolt so it holds the mount to the car but doesn't have pressure on the rod that continues to the oil cooler. Would provide support but with some movement, a semi solid mount instead of solid.

Was thinking something like this:


Just to give a little isolation. Rubber has natural damping properties too, to damp vibrations. Probably not necessary though, we're not talking about a cooler that's mounted directly to a tube frame on a car with a rigidly mounted big block V8 or anything, there's a fair bit of compliance in a 90s Honda.

Just let me know and I'll put you in touch with my guy. As long as the items have good fit up, and any folds are no more than 300mm long, 1.6 or thinner steel, or 2mm or thinner aluminium it should work just fine. 100° maximum bend angle.

[iwearmoccos]

Was thinking something like this:


Just to give a little isolation. Rubber has natural damping properties too, to damp vibrations. Probably not necessary though, we're not talking about a cooler that's mounted directly to a tube frame on a car with a rigidly mounted big block V8 or anything, there's a fair bit of compliance in a 90s Honda.

Just let me know and I'll put you in touch with my guy. As long as the items have good fit up, and any folds are no more than 300mm long, 1.6 or thinner steel, or 2mm or thinner aluminium it should work just fine. 100° maximum bend angle.

The Google machine gave me the same example, I'll have a hunt around Dad's garage this weekend.

I will refine my template before annoying your guy.

Thank you again.

[Apu]

Nothing is truly necessary, but if you're going to do something, why not do it well? Ducting to coolers makes a massive difference to the efficiency of the heat exchangers, to the point where an efficiently ducted core could be substantially smaller for the same cooling effect, thus saving weight. I'm always of the opinion that it's better to maximise the efficiency of a less extreme solution, rather than just throw *more* at a problem. More extreme solutions mean more cost, more weight, more points of failure.

Great points, and absolutely true. I was thinking more along the lines of “its working fine as is...can’t be bothered” and my oil cooler isn’t that big.

[iwearmoccos]

So, the progress continues of car things I've had sitting around for a while!
I ordered an AGI half cage before xmas and it was due early January. It turned up after Australia Day weekend and then sat in the garage until this past weekend.
The reason for going with AGI instead of someone local was purely convenience. One phone call and I told them what I was after and then it arrived, slightly longer time line than expected, but it did arrive!

I just went with a basic half cage, with a diagonal through the hoop, then a harness bar between that diagonal and the hoop.

I went down to my parents on Thursday afternoon in between my meetings for work, which resulted in sitting in Yarragon for an hour. I didn't quite make it home.
20180315_160459 by I WEAR MOCCOS, on Flickr

Installing the cage was pretty straight forward.
Removed both seats in the front, with the hoop going through the passenger door and then rear bar through the rear of the car. Hot tip! It is easier to stand the hoop up with the top at the rear of the car, doesn't work the other way. Learn from my mistake!
The cage was put together in the car and I moved it into position before drilling a few holes. This is all straight forward.
Before we get to that. I did try to source some dry ice locally and the closest seller was nearly an hour away.
I will have to do the dry ice thing at my house in the future. The cage won't need to come out to do that, I trimmed the carpet for that reason and also so the cage mounts would sit better. The layer of carpet meant that the rear feet wouldn't quite go as far back as liked.
Passenger side hoop mount. You can see my previous failed attempts at removing the sound deadening.
20180316_195949 by I WEAR MOCCOS, on Flickr
Rear mounts, which don't quite sit flat on the guard. I think I could fix this with a hammer if it started to bug me. It doesn't currently.
20180316_184534 by I WEAR MOCCOS, on Flickr
From the drivers side.
20180317_153130 by I WEAR MOCCOS, on Flickr
I had seen some AGI cages that weren't well fitted to the roof, but this is quite close.
20180317_153135 by I WEAR MOCCOS, on Flickr
The harness bar is the perfect height for my seating position, which was another slight worry I had. I've only sat in the garage with the harness on, though it feels SO MUCH more secure than how I had it mounted previously to the rear seat belt mounts.
20180317_153147 by I WEAR MOCCOS, on Flickr
And finally from the rear.
A few more plastic interior pieces have been removed to make way for the cage. The roof lining is also permanently gone. A non sunroof liner may have worked, but there is no way the sunroof version one. It sat REALLY low.
20180317_155325 by I WEAR MOCCOS, on Flickr

Overall, I'm happy with the form fitting hoop, how far it sits back and also the harness bar position.
One thing i need to do is weigh it. I have a feeling it weighs around 20kg. Not exactly light weight.
Thanks!
I made no progress on my oil cooler ducting, maybe tomorrow.

[Austro]

Interested to hear if you can feel the increased rigidity of the car on track. When's the next outing?

[iwearmoccos]

Interested to hear if you can feel the increased rigidity of the car on track. When's the next outing?

There is a hill climb in the 15th, then H Nats the weekend after, followed by another hill climb the weekend after that.
So another month, basically.

[iwearmoccos]

Very small update for today.
Some rubber isolation turned up in the mail today,
20180320_165235 by I WEAR MOCCOS, on Flickr
I cut the threads down the threads, my new vice has come in handy the last couple of weeks.
Install was fiddly but straight forward, still secure but allowing some movement.
Good move, as suggested by Thomas.
The rubber is quite soft, so it has split already as I didn't realise it was twisting when tightening. I don't think it'll be an issue as that twisting isn't constant. Also have 3 spare, just in case.
20180320_173439 by I WEAR MOCCOS, on Flickr
20180320_173454 by I WEAR MOCCOS, on Flickr

[iwearmoccos]

Yesterday was Vic Time Attack at Phillip Island. I was never planning to enter this event, but a tall engineering fairy god mother gifted me an entry fee and I'm never one to turn down a track day!
Since I was running in street class, I also took a set of wheels from the previously mentioned person, so was running 205/50/15 Rival S on 15*7 rims.
It was almost a flash back to the very early days of my Civic!
20180406_061929 by I WEAR MOCCOS, on Flickr

I was actually quite happy to be attending a track day before I head to Wakefield in a couple weeks, so I get to drive the car before hand with the Honed geometry kit and also to confirm if the oil cooler was doing its job.

Laps for the day
2:28.1440 4:55.2362 2:24.1198
2:16.8567 1:59.2571 1:57.8100 1:57.7242
1:58.7949 2:06.2900 2:00.8669 1:58.3219
2:24.8091 2:06.4542 2:04.3346
2:26.4239 2:01.7815 2:00.3373 1:59.7278

The first session out was red flagged twice and was damp, so I didn't really get much of a feel for the car on skinny tyres. I did drop the front tyres a few PSI because it was pushing a bit in the damp conditions.

By the time the second, the circuit was dry and conditions were pretty much perfect. As per usual, my fastest lap of the day was in this session.
I'm not sure I drove the best in this season, but it was the least plagued with traffic, both passing and being overtaken.

The car on 205 street tyres was quite exciting to drive as it wanted to move around quite a bit. The Rival S really is a great tyre and I do believe BF Goodrich should bring it to Australia. With the RE71 kinda available, I think these other 'super' street tyres should capitalise on the market. We've had too much of a RS3/AD08R monopoly for too long!

I'm not sure I can get realistic feedback on the geometry kit as I'm not on an A050 like I usually would. I will say that I had no issues with understeer and the car rotated perfectly all day. Understeer is never really an issue at PI though.

I was pushing it hard in the 4th session and ended up turning the car around entering into Lukey Heights. A combination of a few more km up in entry speed and not getting on the accelerator early enough meant the rear was unweighted and just turned around. I did have an ABS light, so I cleaned the sensors and disconnected the battery before going back out and seeing the light vanish.
This is the fastest I've spun a car and I was pretty impressed with my ability to react so calmly.

A couple photos.

Fancy pants window banner which was on crooked, otherwise I might have left it there for a sick brag for a couple weeks.
20180406_083041 by I WEAR MOCCOS, on Flickr

The car out in pit lane for the pit walk. Not many came up to garage 33!
20180406_124659 by I WEAR MOCCOS, on Flickr
Showing off the Best16.

20180406_160642 by I WEAR MOCCOS, on Flickr

This was the first track day since installing the oil cooler and it seems like it did its job. Previously the overflow was getting filled with coolant, which I was hoping was because the car was getting too hot and not because of a head gasket issue. Each time I brought the car back in, there was no excess in the overflow, so I assume it works. The lack of real gauges means I'm just guessing, I am happy that my coolant issue has resolved itself. The sandwich plate still isn't leaking. May keep this oil filter forever though so I don't have to touch it!

Here is my fastest lap for the day, which includes my backwards entry into Lukey right at the end!

Since I span the car at about 140km, I figured I better get in for a wheel alignment check as I've got a few events over the next 3 weeks.
The rear toe had moved a couple mm, otherwise all was good.
20180407_142645 by I WEAR MOCCOS, on Flickr

Haunted Hills on the clockwise layout is next weekend, which I'm aiming for a low 57, down from my current 58.21.
Hopefully the car rotates better down the back so I don't need to lift at all, and then the extra grip of a 225 on a 9 instead of 8 should help that along!
Works in theory!

THanks.

PS, still haven't removed my sound deadening.

[eskimo_firefighter]

[iwearmoccos]

Thank you for the photo, SCPBKING!!

[Austro]

That's an interesting use of the side moulding holes, any particular reason why the timer was moved there?

[iwearmoccos]

That's an interesting use of the side moulding holes, any particular reason why the timer was moved there?

It only takes one zip tie to secure and is in a really easy spot to get to, basically it is less effort.

[mlracing]

Looked good out there