The Lunchbox

[Afx31]

Bit more of a lengthy post, for a good reason!

Time to return to Wakefield with one mission, to finally enter the 1.09s. Today was the first time I had to tow the car down, usually my father tows it for me however he was unable to get off of work so I decided to tow myself with my brother coming along for the ride/pit crew. I found towing kinda enjoyable for some reason. The Navara makes it really easy to tow, can't even feel the car behind me and it happily goes along with cruise control on.


20200826_070626 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr

Today was an open pit lane configuration, arriving at the track it was -2 degrees, so the plan was to let the other cars go around for the first hour and hope they get some heat into the track, also whilst I check over a few things on the car. Taking the car off the trailer in the morning it didn't want to go into any gear, so we bled & adjusted the clutch which resolved the issue.

However, upon going to take off in the marshalling area I lost the clutch pedal feel, and what happened was the cable popped out of the cable to hydro converter. I've had this setup in the car since I did the swap over 4yrs ago and I've never had any issues.. It appeared the rubber on the end of the cable had gone soft and cracked, which resulted with not holding it in the actuator.

The only option we had to resolve the issue, a pure engineering job, was go to town with the cable ties and hope for the best and I gotta say, it held up perfectly all day! I'll need to source myself a new clutch cable to replace, or maybe we leave the cable ties as I don't think their going anywhere lol (I'll replace don't worry).


20200826_134206 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr

After doing that, checking 1 or 2 other things and eating some food it was nearing 12pm already. Went out for a few laps to shake down the car, and after a few hot laps came in and there was some light smoke coming off the brakes, it appears that I overheated the new pads I had only just installed Sunday. I had correctly bedded in as per manufacturer spec however they seemed to overheat. This was my 3rd set of Intima SR's as I love the pad, but maybe they needed some more bedding in, or maybe I'm pushing past their potential, not sure. However for the rest of the day they seemed to still work near per normal.


20200826_133433 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr

Did more sessions up until 3pm however I could barely touch 1.10.5, confused to why this was. Noticed the rears were kinda warm, fronts were warm but not sticky. I have had the semis for a while and was starting to wonder if I had possibly done all the heat cycles the tyres could offer. Pulled the GoPro out of the car and looked over my few previous laps nearing the 1.10.5 mark, checking against the RaceChrono timer on my dash on the sector time to see where I was losing time.

It seems like staying in 4th through T3 then down to 3rd before T4 was slowing me down too much, so I decided I'd quickly down shift but to 3rd and yolo the flat foot through turn 3.

Coming back down the hill through the long right hand sweeper T5 I was losing time going once I came out of the sweeper as I'd quick shift 4th and drive it through. So I decided to opt once again for staying in 3rd and yolo the flat foot through and shifting to 4th whilst exiting it.
The final part was my braking, last track day on the fish hook and last corner I'd go from 4th to 2nd under late & heavy braking however today I was going to 3rd before 2nd, for some reason I was giving myself more distance for braking doing this so I decided I'd just go back to 4th to 2nd..

Also I felt when going through some of the turns the car was slightly trying to understeer so I decided to turn the front compression/rebound up 2 clicks, I believe it's now at 17/32. The rear was also turned up 1 click for compression/rebound now to be at 11/32.

With this I went back out and started trying my new tactics, bit scary at first but it felt quicker and I only saw green on the sector time on RaceChrono so I pushed through. About 3:30 I managed to finally enter the 1.09s with a back-to-back 1.09.8547 & 1.09.9009 which felt amazing, I've finally entered my PB goal! Friends messaged me saying congrats before I was even able to check Natsoft. With only 23 minutes left of the day I quickly refilled the petrol, 5 minute cooldown then went back out. Unfortunately unable to piece together another 1.09 but came close with 1.10.05, 1.10.15, 1.10.22 & 1.10.21's.

Extremely happy with the result, the 1.09 PB goal has been a while in the making, only 1 rainy Wakefield day last year with the new coilovers and half of this year cancelled from COVID, I've finally made it! I had said once I enter the 1.09s I'll put my Honed Kit in with SiR knuckles however I think I want to try once or twice more to see if I can further that PB to a 1.09.5. Until next time!

20200826_162329 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


20200826_161610 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


Timesheet2 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


Timesheet1 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr

[Afx31]

Heres a few of the professional photographers photos from the last track day. Not too shabby


118224228_2754601661442559_206839988644999384_o by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


118233880_2754610794774979_6422123357248570490_o by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


118284954_2754614318107960_8794181329532585974_o by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


118353122_2754612564774802_2175043167866525527_o by Will Mitchell, on Flickr

[Setanta]

Looks like you are having a lot of fun in this. Pretty sure I waw this at a ClubITR meet 2 years ago - I was in my CRX that year

[Afx31]

Looks like you are having a lot of fun in this. Pretty sure I waw this at a ClubITR meet 2 years ago - I was in my CRX that year

Yeah it's always fun on the track! Yes I remember us having a good chat. I'll most likely be at the ClubITR annual meet this year by with the EF9

[Afx31]

So as mentioned in my last post of the track day I overheated my pads which I had just put in for that track day. So Phil from Intima sent me out a set of the Type D's as I've always been on the SR's, maybe I've out performed the heat limit that the SR's can only give. I was going to upgrade to these once I did my Honed Development kit overhaul, but why not lets just give it a shot now.


20200908_082819 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr

I've booked in for one last Wakefield day on the 9th October with a track club called MWSCC. I have always said once I hit the 1.09s I've gonna stop and do my mini overhaul on the car, however a member from MWSCC has been suggesting I join one of their days for a while, I know my tyres are nearing the end so I thought why not lets have one last day and just "send it".

Time to get cracking, removed the wheels to install the new brake pads, upon checking the 2 front tyres they seem to be worn in all different angles, my guess is from the camber and toe out? Also noticed this blue tinge around the outside of both tyres, few friends said thats from it going through heat cycles or something.. This will definitely need replacing after this track day I think, what tyres should I move to or shall I stay with the Nankang AR1s again.


20200927_150950 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


20200927_150944 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr

With the pads removed it seems obvious they definitely overheated, the cause? No idea why, maybe I didn't bed them in properly, the previous 2 sets of SR's have been perfectly fine. The colour coating on these were originally silver yet now a golden colour. The pad material itself was all torn up all round, guessing they were just crumbling apart under heavy braking, quite strange. I still managed to be jump on the brakes hard at the last minute like normal still.. I'll include some photos below of the pads themselves.


20200927_151821 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


20200927_151835 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


20200927_151946 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


20200927_152000 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr

Onto the rotors, these DBA T3s have been very good for the past few years. Quite expensive, not 100% sure if I'll return to them or try running just blanks as I've seen some regular track goers do. The min thickness spec is 19mm, as shown in both photos they are on 20mm so after the 9th October Wakefield day I'm sure they'll be done for. Also have a decent sized lip on the edge of rotors, although no point machining with 1mm left.


20200927_151303 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr

Drivers:

20200927_153624 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr

Passenger:

20200927_153648 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr

Cleaned out all the dust and crap from the previous pads disintegrating, the light blue Type D's look quite nice! Really do look forward to trying them out at the track!


20200927_155413 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr

[Afx31]

Fast forward 2 weeks and it's now Monday the week of the track day which is on the Friday 9th October.. I originally had planned to remove the heater as I've never hooked up the control unit as mentioned in a previous post where I removed the control unit, however I've simply run out of time as I'm quite busy with work. Decided I'd put the car back together as I removed the center console to take the sound system out.

Got the chief engineer on site making sure the car is ready to go..


20201006_183026 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr

As I cut the plug to use the headunit in my EF9, I had yet to sort it out. When I do my little overhaul over xmas/early next year as I keep saying, I'll be removing the dash to hopefully install a CRX dash. When doing so I'll remove the wiring for headunit, along with the heater control unit etc.. So for now I just taped each individual wire and then taped them back so they don't short out on anything.

20201006_184546 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


Okay so now onto the juicy content.. Last night (Tuesday night) I went out to bed in my new Type D brake pads. Chatting with Phil from Intima he said I really need to follow the bedding in instructions for all pads, but especially the Type D's. It consists of 5 x 60km to 5km gradual hard braking with no dragging of the brakes, followed by 5 x 80km/100km to 5km really hard braking with no dragging of the brakes.

Decided to go to a nearby industrial area as it seemed a 'safe' environment to carry out my task, with a nearby highway for higher speeds if required.. The smaller 60km braking went well with the brakes already feeling great. Then I did 2 100km stops and on the second one I hear a knock which turned into clunking on the passenger side wheel area. I had a bad feeling in my gut it was the driveshaft however as it was on & off I decided to do the 3rd 100km brake which made it a lot worse.. I then babied the car home and investigated the car about 9pm which seemed to conclude it was the drive shaft somewhat already blown.

The photo below shows all the grease that had jizzed out everywhere.. These shafts have been in the car since I did the B swap and I've had no issues with.


20201006_212010 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr

My only option was to remove it and get it rebuilt, I knew the drivers one has always clicked on full lock so I decided I might as well do both. Quickly removed them and took to a mates house as he has a good rebuilder nearby, and he could get out and do it during the day which I couldn't due to work.

Tonight (Wednesday) I went back to his to pick up the minty fresh rebuilt drive shafts, quickly went home and installed, topped up the gearbox and everthing was sorted! Went out and finished off the brake bedding in and everything feels great. With that the car is ready for Wakefield, stay tuned for the next post on the weekend hopefully of the updates from the track day.


received_1078360115954581 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr

[Afx31]

Last Friday was the Manly Warringah Sporting Car Club (MWSCC) Wakefield track day, a friend within the club has been inviting me to attend one of their days for what feels like 2yrs, however whenever they had a track day I couldn't take leave (I was casual at the time) or the car wasn't ready. I finally was able to attend one even though I knew the tyres probably wern't up to scratch, although I just said to myself "let's just send it".

It was a open pit lane day, as of my last trackday I definitely prefer OPL as you get so much more time, and it's good for testing things as today was my first day with the Intima Type D's. MWSCC is a club that's been around for 50yrs or so. They seem to do a lot of track days, going interstate for club track days as well, however this year due to COVID that obviously slowed down things.

I really enjoyed the day, probably the best Wakefield day I've ever done. I think was due to the fact that everyone has heaps of track experience, so everyone lets others go past, they don't hold people up etc, like you'd get at a normal public track day with begineers. Another factor was I was one of the slower cars of the day which meant I couldn't catch anyone anyways haha..

Started the day off with my first fast lap braking at the kink of T1, losing the rear end of the car and flying over the ripple strip of the apex on T2. No idea why this happened, the brakes did feel very hard however after doing so they seemed to return to a 'normal feel'. Throughout the first half of the day I was more so trying to get heat into the tyres and getting a feel for the new brakes, adjusting my mental braking markers as I went. I usually try to only blame myself, however these tyres are quite old, uneven wear from toe & street driving etc etc (which can be seen in the previous post)... After doing hot laps I'd come in and they'd either not be hot, or be hot but still hard/not sticky. Only about lunchtime they started to become sticky. Maybe it's just me though, but I'll be replacing these before my next track day.

I ended up getting a 1.09.96 (RaceChrono as there was no Natsoft timing). I had hoped to maybe dive a bit deeper into the 1.09s instead of only just slipping in, but I'll take it.


received_3457916874257927 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr

Also my friend Bryan blew me away.. I'm quite the coffee love, however I've never thought of taking a pod machine to the track.. I'm clearly not living life.


20201009_121942 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr

My mate Jack's minty fresh DC2R!

20201009_152923 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


received_814011306063431 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr

After my 1.09.96 I got a few low 1.10's like 10.0, 10.2, 10.4 etc but couldn't get that 1.09 again. I seemed to sit around 1.11.0 a fair bit. I did feel a bit thrown off with the new pads, the Type D's you have to push down more for the bite, then once you reach the bite if you imagine the biting section being 100%, the first 50% felt pretty good however once I braked harder for that second 50% the car would instantly lock up on any corner. I could feel myself not pulling up like I usually would for corners, especially T2, so then when turning into the corner I'd start to understeer. I'm not sure why this is, it's something I'll need to look in to.

With that I just started to send it and have fun for the rest of the day as I was told towards the end of the day it more so turns into door-to-door racing, everyone just ghee-ing up one another which was heaps of fun.

The day was done, packed up the trailer/ute and the MWSCC had a club meeting with free beers, I stayed around and chatted with some, a nice friendly bunch of mostly older guys than me (I'm a tad young), after that we headed home. I plan to join the MWSCC club next year once I've got my car sorted, and attend all their track days which at the moment is about 4 I think. I really enjoyed the track day, and it made me want to add all the bits I have planned to the car, whilst fixing up other areas to improve some quality of life things, as well as fix others. I really need to look into a oil cooler as well!


20201009_174831 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr

Within the next 2 weeks I'll pull the car out the shed and go over it from the track day, and make a post with a list of what's going to happen with the car. Enjoy a few photos from the professional photographer on the day, along with a YouTube video of my 1.09.96 lap.

121257196_10158797124674207_5504562375837235105_o by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


121115216_10158797120114207_7263016366249966027_o by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


120974847_10158797081464207_4209723808069637347_o by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


120949477_10158797097654207_6234152478216600070_o by Will Mitchell, on Flickr

[Afx31]

Boy it's been a while since the last update, about 1 year & 2 months.. What a time 2020/2021 has been with everything around the world.. I bought a house at the start of 2021 with my partner as we need our own space and it was time to move out (*cough* wanted space to have all my cars in one location!!). The house has plenty of space for my cars, a garage and a big pergola out the back where I work on the cars usually as you'll see in photos from now on. I plan to build a nice big car shed in the future.

From the last post above on the 13/10/2020 until now 28/12/2021 I haven't done too much to the car, I've done 2 track days this year and the car is going well, I'm very happy with where it's at and where I'm at with it, but 2022 I want to 'advance my game' with the car and how I look at things, where I can improve, data I can collect and anaylse.

Sad to see the forum isn't really used anymore as people often say, however I'll continue to use to keep the log of what I do with the car. Over the next few posts I'll bring the blog up to date and put together my plans for the car from today onwards.

[Afx31]

Sometime at the start of April 2021...


My club MWSCC had a Wakefield Park open pit day booked for the 23rd April so it was time to boogy. I hadn't touched the car since the last track day in October last year. I needed some new tyres, I was happy with how the Nankang AR1s had performed so far so I decided to give them another shot.


20210411_115403 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


I've kept the Civic registered ever since I owned it 7 years ago, even though the past 5 years it hasn't been my daily and more so a weekend/mainly track car. At the start of this year the rego was up for renewal again, but as I was moving house at the time and the club I was with disappeared randomly, I decided to let it lapse. Since owning the EF9 I much prefer to drive that as it's comfier although not as powerful, it's nice to just cruise around in, and it's a EF9!

I would like to re-register the Civic within the next few years once I find another club but honestly, I'm not too fussed. I've trailered it to the track for the past few years as my dad bought a ute, it's nice to have that piece of mind. And I'm fine not adding '.. and I drove it home from the track' to posts, I'll happily sit in a comfy modern ute with cruise control

The only downside to this along with not being able to fully bed in brakes on the street (can just do on the track) is I can no longer drive the car to my mechanic for a wheel alignment, somewhat the reason I've had it registered the past few years. So I need some way to align the car at home... hmmm

I've always wanted to learn how to string align, I like the technical aspect of it and being able to do it at home. And as I have a few Honda's it'll definitely save money in the long run, even more so with the Civic as I usually get an alignment before each track day. A friend who used to track a Prelude happened to have a BG Racing string alignment kit from the UK which he was looking to get rid of, and was happy to pass it onto me as it'll go to good use.

The BG Racing string alignment kit is a good piece of kit, idea is once you setup the front and rear piece to suit the car, you can mark the different pieces/rod so you can easily setup in the future. Or in my case, I'll just leave the 2 piece assembled, remove the rod and hang them up somewhere in the garage, along with the rods. There's many ways to set it up, I've gone the route of making some mini platforms so I can get under the car to make adjustments, sponsored by Bunnings Warehouse timber!
Mechanic's with wheel alignment machines use a hoist to raise the car for adjustments, with the wheels sitting on a metal plate on the hoist to allow it to move when making the adjustments. My friend I bought the kit from told me he just used some WD40 in ziplock bags to put ontop of the platform between the wood and the tyre to allow it to move when making adjustments, as he saw this at a event at Bathurst. And it works! Although in a later post I'll discuss, that I'll be making some metal plates, 2 per side which will contain WD40 or grease between.

Anyhow, there are many video's on YouTube informing how to setup the string alignment kit and how you measure the cars alignment settings but I'll give a quick run down now.

• Setup the bars on the front and rear with the rod on it, along with the string from front to back.
• Position it so the string goes through the center of the wheel/axle front and back.
• Then you want to measure the distance from center of hub/axle to the string, and have the front right/left be equal, same for the rear, best to use a metal ruler.
• Once both front left/right & rear left/right are the same, in theory you've created a parrallel string box around the car.
• You can now take the ruler and measure the distance from the front and rear lip of each wheel, the difference between that number is your toe reading per side.
  • If the front measurement is greater than the rear on the wheel itself, then that wheel as toe in, vise versa.
• Now make adjustments, keep measuring until at the desired spec!

Took a while the first time, but I feel I'm now decent at it. I always record the before and after to compare between track days and to keep note of what happens to the alignment itself on the track day. I'll make a further post in more detail on this in another post I think, just some things I've come across when doing/thoughts.

** Find photo of first alignment specs **


20210411_115914 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


20210411_161141 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


20210411_170928 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


20210411_170947 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


20210411_171001 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


20210411_184505 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


Apart from that, I did an oil change, spanner check over the car and she was ready to roll!


20210418_165810 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr

[Afx31]

24th April 2021 - Catch up post


20210423_104357 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


20210423_104407 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr

Returning to Wakefield with MWSCC for their first club day of the year with a open pit lane day. My plan today was to focus on making some improvements with my driving after going over my footage and comparing with others. The main goals were to get on the accelerator earlier during the turns, try to accelerate through the whole turn/maybe let off to 50% throttle (for example) instead of completely letting off. I found through footage that I tend to coast through turns and kinda accelerate after the apex (very noticeable on T2 & T9). With this I'll also try to not brake arond the top section, just hover the throttle, and then try to brake later throughout the track now I have the Intima Type D pads!

First few laps I was already down to 1.10.2, things were looking good, back to pits to check over the car. The next sessions was 3 back to back mid 1.09s which was already my new PB from the initial 1.09.85. The following session I managed to crack a few more 1.09s and then the last 'fast' lap I clocked the 1.09.12 - Natsoft, 1.09.0 - RaceChrono. I was so happy to see this result (little cheer at the end of video), I had no expectations of anything below my current PB prior to the day, and to see such a low 1.09 I was thrilled. At this point in time my Intima Type-Dv2's were completely gone, I was rubbing metal on metal on the few cool down laps after this. Luckily I had some spare Intima SR's to throw in to keep me going for the rest of the day, revisiting many mid 1.09s but couldn't get any lower.

20210423_124242 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr
Wheres the meat gone!


20210423_130655 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr
Got my moneys worth out of these.

At some time during the afternoon, my passenger side parker light decided it no longer wanted to be on the car, and I came back into the bits with a missing parker! The last few sessions whilst trying to PB again I kept an eye out going around the track, as this is a EF9 front end, these components are very hard to come by, and usually quite expensive. The day ended with no luck finding it, a friend suggested to ask the staff if I could go out. Very kindly they were happy to help and one of the lads drove me around the track, then went back in reverse, driving off track to try find it. All hope was loss, then when coming back down towards T2 from T3 he noticed something off in the distance, and there it was my parker light out near the tyre wall coming off of T2.

Guessing as it fell off it's made contact with the tyre which launched it all the way out there. Thank god I found it! I'll probably continue to run it on the car as is until I find my spare thats packed away


20210423_143011 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


20210423_172059 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr

Overall an amazing day as always when going to the track with the MWSCC crew, and not to mention my new PB! So close to the 1.08s! I still have my Honed Development kit + EF9 SiR knuckles to throw in, after getting this low I am quite tempted to put those parts aside and see how much lower I can really go. I will definitely be installing a oil cooler kit, and upgrading from my DA9 262mm front brake setup to the CRV/Mini cooper 280mm setup to try manage these brake temps a bit better. We shall see what happens regarding the big upgrade parts as mentioned. Thanks as always to my father for towing the car and brother being pit crew as well. Until next time..


20210423_162024 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


20210423_162039 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


IMG_20210423_220845_422 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


IMG_20210423_220845_425 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


20210423_120025 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr

[Afx31]

Coming off of the last track day I decided it was time to purchase some 'race shoes'. I'm a chucks kinda guy, which is what I've always worn when going to the track. An issue I've come across since I started to heel toe is sometimes when lifting my heel for the accelerator, the lower harder section of the shoe/outer sole (where the fabric comes down to) would sometimes get caught on the underside of the pedal which is always great fun. So a trip down to Race Revolution on Parramatta rd and we have ourselves some RPM Racewear shoes, pretty comfy, I opted for a pair of shoes with the upper strap as when testing the ones without didn't feel as secure. Look forward to trying these out!


20210626_133348 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


Few weeks after this it was about mid June 2021 when Sydney had another outbreak of COVID which forced us into another lockdown which we were to be in until mid October. Luckily I was able to work from home. In mind I had planned to spend this time working on the car so it would 'be ready' for when we were out of lockdown,however as it will be seen in another post that did not happen at all. But for now, a nice fresh wash for the Civic which hadn't been washed since the above track day.

After shifting around some steelies on my 2 wagons I had spare my old set of Fat 5 alloys which have been rattle canned a few colours in the past from different owners/when I first bought them. The plan was to have these are 'around the house' wheels so the P1s with the semi slicks could sit up in storage in the garage so the weather won't get to them. I'd love to buy a fresh set in the factory silver to replace in the future.


20210704_120459 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


Current engine bay photo, I would like to clean this up a bit more in the future. Hopefully have a custom intake arm made specific for this car (I think this one is off a DA9), then redo the box a bit better. Maybe some improved ducting on the front as well?


20210912_174236 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


Another update that happened a month before the COVID lockdown mentioned above was I finally purchased the current ideal wheels for the Civic, some 949 Racing 6UL's. Famous for cracking, I was a little scared of taking ownership however I did a fair bit of research, along with the seller being a good friend who could confirm the crack ones occur from a specific batch. They came with some slicks already fitted, so I'll give them a shot before moving the semi slicks across.

The idea was for these to replace the BuddyClub P1s, mainly because the fitment of 15x8 +25 sits a lot better in the rear than the P1 15x8+32, and I also prefer the look of them! However I'm starting to think I should hold onto the P1s and put some other decent tyres on them which could serve as backup wheels for the track. There goes recovering the 6UL purchase money :')

In the end I only did a trail fit on the front, at a later date I'll do a full test fit with photos.


20210518_191633 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


20210530_165948 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


20210530_165956 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr

[Afx31]

Alrighty so the usual delay in posts... Since the previous post, as mentioned we had another Covid-19 lockdown in NSW, Australia which went from about 22nd June till mid October I think. My plan was to work on the car over this period of time but that really didn't happen. Coming out of lockdown the track days were constantly full as everyone was eager to get back. I managed to secure a Sydney Motorsport Park (SMSP) North Circuit track night spot on the 5th December so it was time to get the car prepped.


She was a tad dirty.. (also just uploading a ton of dirty car pics for my own reference)

20211113_120328 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr

20211113_120304 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


Some new spidey friends...

20211113_120403 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr

20211113_120427 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr

20211113_114913 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr

20211113_115119 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


Current state of the interior which I'm planning to clean up a bit over time. Definitely need to find myself a new carpet as this one is trash

20211113_120530 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr

20211113_120600 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


Gave her a wash, just like the last post at the start of the year lol..

20211114_105845 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr

20211114_111034 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr

[Afx31]

Ok so onto the brakes. The post before last regarding my last track day trying the Type Dv2 pads, they kinda over cooked and quickly.. This was the pads after pulling them out. Definitely used all the material!

Fronts:
20211004_121520 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr

Rears (these have been in the car since I did the disk conversion about 7yrs ago!):
20211121_100142 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


Solution! DC2R calipers + Mini Cooper 280mm rotors

The biggest stock calipers I can go along with some nice big rotors. Just to recap, my current setup is the DA9 caliper + 262mm rotor. These DC2R calipers were from a friend, we put them on his CRX many years ago. I've grown out of the coloured calipers a long time along, so time to strip back the gold!

Whilst I'm stripping back the paint, I'll also grease up the sliding pins for the caliper. I probably should have checked the piston, buuut they were working fine on my friends CRX.. If it comes back to bite me in the future, well... I said I should have here

20211114_125752 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr

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Shmick!

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My good mate Phil from Intima got me sorted on the pads and rotors front & rear as you can see. This will be my first time trialing the new RS pad for the front, which is to be improved from the Type Dv2 around bedding in and actual life & bite of the pad as well. I did speak with Phil on my issues with the Type Ds so these should do the trick, along with increasing my rotor size. Keen!

Also upgrading the 7yr old bendix pads in the rear I put in when I did the disc conversion many years ago with the Intima SS. Don't need too much of a bitey pad in the rear of these Honda's it seems as they are so light, else they tend to lock up the rears from what I've heard/seen at the track.

20211121_090718 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr

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The old fronts & rears

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Not gonna lie.. I was a tad lazy with cleaning the rear calipers, I applied the paint stripper with them on the car..

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Front rotor screw being stubborn.. Good thing I don't need these rotors anymore

20211126_185759 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


Fitting up the DC2R caliper brackets to the uprights, the top of the dust shield is just in the way so had to make a cut. When I come to install my SiR uprights, I am thinking of removing the dust shields all together.

Before:

20211126_190118 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr

After:

20211126_190647 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


Side note:
When taking off the passenger side I noticed there was grease coming out of the outter CV joint boot.. I was unsure if the clamp was lose or not, potentially with no grease inside so I had my mechanic friend regrease & put a new clamp on, whilst checking the joint inside. I do mostly everything myself, but I hate doing the CV clamps with the silly tool. I'll happily pay someone to do it.

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Finished product!

Fresh calipers, rotors and pads looks so good! Did a bleed all round to flush out the old fluid and replace with some new Motul 660 (or whatever it is). In case anyone spots, I did fix the CV nut hitting in clamp bit after the photo below

Front:
20211126_193200 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr

Rear:
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[Afx31]

Time to tick off a few more maintenace items on the list, around oil leaks. But firstly, whilst jacking up the car so I wasn't bending over as much, I noticed the passenger castor rod nut where it meets the traction bar had completely backed itself off. This would have been from the previous track day..


20211121_100238 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


So here is where I've noticed a few oil leaks, looks to come from the vtec solenoid and distributor. I do have a feeling the headgasket on this corner is leaking, I'm really hoping it isn't but yeah.. shall come back to this in the future, clean up these leaks, replace gaskets and check after the next track day if theres anymore leaks.


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Vtec solenoid off, a little dirty inside. Don't think I've ever pulled this apart since putting the motor in the car 5-6yrs ago after rebuild.. Cleaned it out with degreaser, then ran the air gun through it to remove any residue/dust from the cleaning process. New gaskets and back on she goes!


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Now this is where things get interesting.. Went to take the distributor off to replace the internal + external o rings and erm.. I have no idea how this happened, asked a few experienced Honda friends and they've never seen this.


20211128_152938 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


And after further investigation you can see the main prong along with some smaller chunks of metal just chilling there. Luckily to the left of the cam end there, its an enclosed section in the cylinder head where a bolt lives, so everything just sat in the head of that bolt. It took a while to remove the chunks of metal, also as I was being very careful not to drop anything into the motor. Went and bought the tiniest magnetic stick I could get from bunnings, to end up using a random flat head which worked perfectly


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Got all the metal out in the end, woo! What a time consuming task that was. gg to my back.. You can see on the left a dent in the cylinder head/rocker cover which I'm guessing was caused by the distributor prong which had fallen off.. Luckily this doesn't seem to cause any further damage.. phew. Money signs kept popping into mind during this entire ordeal.


20211202_220538 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


Got the interal and external o rings replaced. I was somewhat rushing last minute so forgot to take pics replacing the internal o ring. Whilst I had the distributor pulled apart I cleaned out everything inside as well. I got a spare prong bit for the distrubtor to replace the one missing a prong and back on it went!

20211204_094402 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr


The last bit was some new spark plugs. I pulled one prior and decided probably best to change them, had been a while and I was already doing everything else. I might invest in a spark plug sand blaster in the future to always keep them in tip top shape.

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Also took some pics of the top of the pistons, some are looking a little dirty. Might need to look into doing a upper engine cleaner. Pictures are from distrubtor > timing belt

#1

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#2

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#3

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#4

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Late night pic during the process, also painting some wiper assemblies for the EF9


20211202_203403 by Will Mitchell, on Flickr