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    #31
    On Sunday was another round of hill climb at Haunted Hills, running the clockwise circuit as they have for most of this year, in anticipation for the Australian titles at the end of October.
    I was unable to run the practice on the Saturday due to being down at Phillip Island, which was a bit disappointing as I wanted to try a 4th gear change under brakes into turn three, so I wasn’t banging limiter over oh sh*t.
    Not related, but this is the house I stayed at in Phillip Island. A lake in the back yard!?

    A quick stop by the track, though no events were running.

    I woke at my parents to overnight rain and a heap of cloud looming. The night before I had got my NT01s ready to swap over if the weather was nice, or stay on RS3s if it was terrible. I took the safe option and stayed on RS3s, as my NT01s are currently very low on any tread for water dispersion.

    I was able to do two practice runs before timed runs started at 10am. The circuit was SUPER slippery and cold. I was barely able to get any heat in the rear, so it wanted to walk all over the place even running a good 5 seconds off pace.

    My runs for the day are as follows.

    61.32 00.00 62.68 60.62 60.67 60.79 61.79

    After the first timed run, I softened there by one click to try and reduce some of the over steer/lack of grip characteristics I was experiencing, which as my can see by my 2nd run with no time, didn’t work out too well.
    As I had not been able to try my 4th gear change at turn three option the day before, I wanted to lay down a really solid time and then work on some improvements. The aiming was to do a high 59.xx, which would be a pretty good time on street tyres, though still 1 second off my class lap record.

    On the second run, I took off from the start with a heap of wheel spin and a missed 2nd gear, carried a heap of speed as I went into 3rd gear and into turn three, only for the rear to step out as soon as I turned in. At this stage I was basically a passenger, my only goal was to keep the car pointed as straight as I could, as I didn’t want to end up backwards or in a position that I may roll.

    I ended up in the grass with the wheels pointed where I wanted them and the front left of the bumper took most of the impact, ripping off my lip as I bounced out into the long grass. At this stage I thought I was bogged, and watching the video, I felt like I was stuck out there for longer than the 10-15 seconds it was.
    I limped back to the pits, surprised that the car felt good and alignment was straight.
    Video for reference.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDKmkm8n0rA (You will have to click the link, only 1 video per post it seems)
    I cleaned up the mess and extra grass I was carrying, made sure there was nothing falling off and answered the usual smart alec questions from other competitors you get when you come off the track!
    Not my lip!

    The 3rd run was obviously the slowest for the day, a bit more timid to get back into the swing of things.

    I then had a run of consecutive 60.xx runs, which was pretty reasonable considering how slick the track still was. All other competitors were at least a second off their usual pace, so I wasn’t an outlier with my slower than usual runs.

    I did get to try going into 4th down the hill at turn three, though it didn’t seem to be any quick and was quite awkward to be honest.
    My idea was to brake and slip the car into 4th on braking, while still keeping the car above 5500rpm as I turned left into turn four and then over oh sh*t. This gear change under braking felt very unnatural and I think any time saved by being able to accelerate all the way down oh sh*t was wasted on extra time under braking. I think it could work when the track is running as fast as it can and I’m able to then fly down the hill without having to worry about grip. Will keep it in mind for the future. Not a failed experiment just yet.

    I wasn’t as focused on my hands this time, and did get crossed up a little. The 9 and 3 hand position worked well at the last hill climb, so will continue to get comfortable with it. Haunted Hills has too many direction changes for my usual shuffle style, which works on circuits quite well though.

    Quickest run from the day.


    And a nice view looking down the hill, I'm pretty sure this guy won the Australian championship in the last few years. There were 3 of the 5 most recent Australian hill climb champions there yesterday. So very quick.

    I’m off to Wakefield with EXE in a few weeks. Before then I’ll get in for another alignment, increase the camber in the front slightly, fit a second hand set of NT01s to my RPF1s which I pick up this week. Supposedly they’ve done a few laps, but they look much better than my fronts did after one day at Winton.
    As my car isn’t log booked and I’ve kind of left that a bit late, I’ll go down and volunteer for the Australian hill climb championships at Haunted Hills. I hope my class lap record isn’t beaten, but also on the other hand if the car that wins the class is slower than me, it puts me in the ‘could/woulda/shoulda’ category.

    That’s about it for the next month. Definitely looking forward to Wakefield
    1997 Honda Civic EK4
    Winton - 1:34.94
    Bryant Park clockwise - 55.58
    Bryant Park figure 8 - 61.30
    Wakefield - 1:10.16
    Phillip Island - 1:55.43

    Comment


      #32
      Nice driving!

      Haunted Hills looks fun and scary at the same time.
      ClubITR | Like

      Comment


        #33
        Originally posted by felixR View Post
        Nice driving!

        Haunted Hills looks fun and scary at the same time.
        Thanks Felix.
        It is a great track, two members of this forum have rolled cars there actually!!
        I really enjoy going there, both for the driving and the cars that attend. Lots of variety.
        1997 Honda Civic EK4
        Winton - 1:34.94
        Bryant Park clockwise - 55.58
        Bryant Park figure 8 - 61.30
        Wakefield - 1:10.16
        Phillip Island - 1:55.43

        Comment


          #34
          As mentioned previously, I was planning to go to EXE x Nug Nats round at Wakefield Park.
          The changes made to the car since HH.
          - Fresh alignment. Increased front camber to -3.5 instead of -2.5 and left the rear at my standard -2 each side. Toe set at 0 each end.
          - I also swapped out my well worn NT01s for a second hand set of the same tyre.

          I had mentioned that I thought I had noisy valves after Winton, but the time in traffic and on the freeway had me thinking it was gearbox related as any noise was only when I was moving and the car was in gear. I weighed up the pros and cons at Wallan and as per usual, went with the best/riskiest option and drove the car to Wakefield!

          The drive up was standard Wakefield affair. Long and loud, headphones worn the whole way to drown out my 5000rpm due to current gearset and final drive.

          I had a few things I wanted to work out on track compared to when I was last up.
          - Going slower to go faster through and out of turn 2.
          - Not sliding and losing speed in turn 5.
          -Less understeer out of turn 11.

          I was hoping that my now noisy gearbox was going to help with a bit more acceleration and drive out of corners, resulting in the reduced lap times I have seen at HH and Winton.

          First few laps out on the new second hand tyres were very slippery, requiring a few laps to get them to drive as my last ones did. I think they may have been sitting for a little bit.

          Vijay live feed photo.


          These were my laps for the day.

          1:32.6220 1:13.6110 1:13.0810 1:26.1830 1:13.8980 1:28.0000 1:14.6680 1:36.1830 1:32.5140 1:17.4190 1:12.4850
          1:31.0770 1:12.3760 1:12.4500 1:13.2660 1:28.9490 1:28.8050 1:22.2120 1:14.1870
          1:33.2510 1:12.9250 1:12.2070 1:13.0330 1:32.7160 1:29.8660 1:12.9330 1:13.0520 1:37.2650
          1:20.2760 1:12.3900 1:26.9230 1:12.1810 1:25.1790 1:12.5370

          As you can see, following my Racechrono PB of 1:12.9 previously, I was straight back on pace, which was nice to see.

          Turn 2 is so damn hard to get right regularly. There is either around the corner, or understeer off over the roughest ripple strip and into the dirt!
          This is all dependent on how fast I try and go into turn 2, going slow seems to be fastest.
          Turn 5 was another that caused issues, and while on my quicker laps I didn't get as crossed up as I have, I felt that it still can be done better.
          The fish hook felt great all day. This LSD really helps in turns like that. Coming down over the ripple, then into the fish hook and back up to the short straight is such a great part of the track. It's basically half of it!!
          Coming onto the straight, I felt like I was going slower into the corner and staying wider for longer and then turning in later, which helped my run onto the straight.



          Here is my 2nd quickest lap for reference, I didn't film my PB for some reason.
          A shade under a second quicker than previous. I was hoping for a 1:11, but that didn't eventuate.



          Overall, the car ran all day despite a couple of issues.
          My noise from my gearbox got louder, to the point that by the time I got home it sounded like I had a really whiney supercharger and someone knocking at the door at the same time. It probably wasn't smart to go all this way on what I thought/knew was a dodgy gearbox.
          at this stage it is only guessing it's purely gearbox, I haven't pulled anything a part yet to confirm. 15 hour round trip gives you time to diagnose things though!

          I also had a few cooling issues, with the car getting hotter than it usually does. I had dealt with coolant not returning from the overflow at Winton, which I put down to smashing so many damn laps trying to do a 1:39.xx, so was surprised to notice the same again. A friend suggested I bleed the cooling system to see if there was any air, which didn't seem to improve anything.
          The car was also idle hunting on each return from the sessions. I have cleaned the IACV multiple times previous, so I doubt it is that.
          This engine has nearly 300km on it and I've absolutely hammered it the past 2 years!! I'm surprised it has lasted this long, actually!

          I've had the most ridiculous run of reliability with this car, so these first 'major' issues aren't that big of a deal. It's all for fun and lap times!

          So now I'm back, and won't be doing any events for the rest of the year.
          I'm a bit disappointed to not be heading to Phillip Island in a few weeks, but I am pretty tired from the year. I've achieved a few things I'm proud of in the car and will continue chasing some goals next year.

          Getting a class lap record at Haunted Hills still gets me hyped. I can't wait to get even more in the future. Still regret not entering Australian Titles next week! ah well!

          Plans from now.
          - Compression test my 300km B16 and confirm how healthy it is.
          - Pull gearbox off the car and crack it open to see what is wrong with it.
          - Depending on the health of the above, will depend on what will happen next.
          - There are multiple options, from B16 life forever through to k swap that I need to take into consideration. I've got plenty of time to think about it.
          - I'm also going to buy another car. Just something cheap to run about in over summer. If I can put it on club reg, that'd be perfect.

          Maybe WTAC spec in the future?!
          1997 Honda Civic EK4
          Winton - 1:34.94
          Bryant Park clockwise - 55.58
          Bryant Park figure 8 - 61.30
          Wakefield - 1:10.16
          Phillip Island - 1:55.43

          Comment


            #35
            Well done Rhys, excellent dedication to push through despite potential issues. I hope the gearbox issue is nothing serious.

            Comment


              #36
              Well done at Wakefield. Great time.
              ClubITR | Like

              Comment


                #37
                Nice Rhys. I also hope the noises with the gearbox aren't related to something serious.

                If it comes down to it then I'm sure that ChargeR fellow would convince you to k-swap
                Shak's S2000

                Comment


                  #38
                  Wow, what a reliable motor!
                  Skibeemo.com

                  Comment


                    #39
                    Originally posted by ChargeR View Post
                    Well done Rhys, excellent dedication to push through despite potential issues. I hope the gearbox issue is nothing serious.
                    Thanks Tom. I'll pull it out in a few weeks and get someone to look at it.
                    And finally pick up my stock gearbox from Grant's house! It's almost a permanent fixture in his garage these days.

                    Originally posted by felixR View Post
                    Well done at Wakefield. Great time.
                    Thanks Felix. Not quite as fast as I would have liked, but the consistency is a nice feeling.

                    Originally posted by Shakeel View Post
                    Nice Rhys. I also hope the noises with the gearbox aren't related to something serious.

                    If it comes down to it then I'm sure that ChargeR fellow would convince you to k-swap
                    Shak, k swap will be the last option!

                    Originally posted by chaumeh View Post
                    Wow, what a reliable motor!
                    I'm just as surprised, considering the beating I've given it and also its fairly unknown history. The oil that came out of it when I bought it was disgusting.
                    I have focused on making sure it always has fresh fluids in it, usually change oils every 2-3 months.


                    Going to look at another Civic on the weekend in the interim. Cheap and cheerful, also eligible for club reg.
                    1997 Honda Civic EK4
                    Winton - 1:34.94
                    Bryant Park clockwise - 55.58
                    Bryant Park figure 8 - 61.30
                    Wakefield - 1:10.16
                    Phillip Island - 1:55.43

                    Comment


                      #40
                      Originally posted by iwearmoccos View Post
                      Thanks Tom. I'll pull it out in a few weeks and get someone to look at it.
                      And finally pick up my stock gearbox from Grant's house! It's almost a permanent fixture in his garage these days.



                      Thanks Felix. Not quite as fast as I would have liked, but the consistency is a nice feeling.



                      Shak, k swap will be the last option!



                      I'm just as surprised, considering the beating I've given it and also its fairly unknown history. The oil that came out of it when I bought it was disgusting.
                      I have focused on making sure it always has fresh fluids in it, usually change oils every 2-3 months.


                      Going to look at another Civic on the weekend in the interim. Cheap and cheerful, also eligible for club reg.

                      I can't wait for mine to be club reg eligible!

                      Good luck with the engine/gearbox, hopefully it is not too bad.

                      What spec is your GB besides lsd? Was that hwy 5k rpm mentioned earlier in the thread exaggeration or actual??

                      Comment


                        #41
                        I had tossed up the idea of getting a more 'daily' spec car, both so I reduce the chances of ever getting defected and also can get to places that aren't tracks in a bit more comfort.
                        As mentioned above, my issues after Wakefield kinda reignited that thought, as did the trip to my parents on Friday night on the VLine train!
                        There was an ED sedan for sale in Leongatha, so on Saturday my Mum and I went to look at it.
                        It was a bit dirty, but drove well except for a bit of idle hunting. I didn't buy it, and when I got back to my parents, spoke to our resident ED/EF expert about my thoughts. He ran through the black magic of carbys, so on Sunday Mum and I headed back to Leongatha to buy it.
                        I took it back to my parents to clean it up, as it has been owned by an old man who I think thought it was a ute.
                        Dog hair in the rear, hay in the boot and a filthy engine bay.
                        Plans are purely to get it on club plates and then start on my EK4 fault finding.
                        Maybe a hill climb or two.
                        Photo after I had just bought it. This is on Haunted Hills Road, which is where Bryant Park hill climb gets the Haunted Hills name from.

                        The interior is almost perfect, except a stain on the rear seat and dog hair on the rear parcel shelf. Worst stuff ever to vacuum up.

                        The engine bay after a quick degrease and clean.

                        And with my RPF1s on it for laughs.


                        And as of yesterday, my class lap record has been beaten at the Australian hill climb championships by a whole 0.04seconds. Will have to get the car back up the hill and take back my record!
                        1997 Honda Civic EK4
                        Winton - 1:34.94
                        Bryant Park clockwise - 55.58
                        Bryant Park figure 8 - 61.30
                        Wakefield - 1:10.16
                        Phillip Island - 1:55.43

                        Comment


                          #42
                          Sedan is sick!
                          Still bummed I missed exe day at wakey

                          Comment


                            #43
                            Originally posted by Toddxxx View Post
                            Sedan is sick!
                            Still bummed I missed exe day at wakey
                            You're looking at Mt Fuji right now, I know what I'd rather be doing!

                            LB was so depressed when she couldn't see it because of cloud.
                            She saw the faintest glimpse of it through the clouds and took so many photos of nothing.
                            1997 Honda Civic EK4
                            Winton - 1:34.94
                            Bryant Park clockwise - 55.58
                            Bryant Park figure 8 - 61.30
                            Wakefield - 1:10.16
                            Phillip Island - 1:55.43

                            Comment


                              #44
                              Today I tested the compression on my engine to ensure its health before I go about sorting out the alleged gearbox issues.
                              After a bit of a hassle with 3/8 and 1/2 incompatibilities, I pulled the spark plugs out and took a look.

                              They've seen better days, but their condition is standard across the four which is always a good sign. I've had them in for at least a year, I was living at my old house when I last changed them.


                              I didn't take fancy photos of the compression tester to show the results, just wrote them on a piece of paper with a texta.
                              By the time I had sorted myself out, the engine was a little cold, so numbers may have been higher if I didn't have my 3/8,1/2 inch issue and require two trips to Autobarn for the correct length extension and spark plug socket.

                              No huge drops on any cylinder, so overall it is as healthy as you could expect for a 300km B16a2.


                              It was nice to have a play with the EK4 this week, after I had put it in the garage in disgust after Wakefield.
                              The next step is to get the gearbox out, which I should be able to do over a weekend between now and christmas. The results of that will determine my next move.

                              And some bonus ED photos, which goes in for a rwc on Monday.
                              Photos by #1 Nguyen and JB.


                              1997 Honda Civic EK4
                              Winton - 1:34.94
                              Bryant Park clockwise - 55.58
                              Bryant Park figure 8 - 61.30
                              Wakefield - 1:10.16
                              Phillip Island - 1:55.43

                              Comment


                                #45
                                Originally posted by iwearmoccos View Post
                                You're looking at Mt Fuji right now, I know what I'd rather be doing!

                                LB was so depressed when she couldn't see it because of cloud.
                                She saw the faintest glimpse of it through the clouds and took so many photos of nothing.
                                Haha I can see why you were tagging her in pics now :P
                                Perfect weather for 2/3 days!

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