Steve's DC5S

[p33r]

your car is pretty much the route i want to go man. nice blog.

[stevan]

sad but true
*glances at pile of discarded junk*

haha my pile is starting to build up too

Nice write up!! Can't wait to see your review on those coilovers, especailly a track day after-report

Thanks mate, i am very keen to test them out, 6 weeks wait from now so it should be in time for the CITR Honda Battle trackday. My only concern is if i went stiff enough in the front, the dampers should do a lot of work though considering the size of the huge pistons in them I can always go up 4kg either side should i wish to.

your car is pretty much the route i want to go man. nice blog.

thanks for the compliments, by the way what did you end up doing about your Race-Header?

[TeMp]

Incorrect

The kit, specifically the bulb, is a critical element in producing the cut-off and reducing the glare. Reflectors work on the foundation of a focal point. The focal point can simply be described as the prime location in the reflector where a parallel and direct beam of light will be formed. Glare will be produced if the bulb is positioned, not close enough to the focal point, or too further in. Hence the “kit”, has everything to do with light cut-off produced, it is just as important as the optics.

Now the quandary with low quality hid kits are, there are no stringent manufacturing processes and controls when producing these, it’s matter of quantity over quality, at the cheapest price.
The area where most low quality hid kits fail, is at securing the bulb capsule to it’s base, more often than not, cheap material is used, which sometimes has not even fully cured.

The result? A mis-secured bulb, which does not align up correctly, and is not close to that critical focal point. The same concept is applied to hid reflectors, throw a low quality kit in, with the bulb not close to that critical point, and you will be left questioning, whether they really are halogen or hid reflectors?

Having said that of course no arc bulb will ever produce the identical cut-off to a filament type, as the light produced is physically different from one to the other. But it is wrong to assume hid kits don’t play pivotal role in producing a clean cut-off. Quality manufacturers these days are constantly maximising performance further and reducing residual glare even further, coating bulbs is another example.

I also happen to know for a fact, this kit produced by Retro-Solutions, is one quality piece. The glare produced is minimal, and the results achieved are quite astounding, for stock reflectors, it’s not by coincidence, why it’s so popular.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m against all arc bulbs in stock reflectors, period. But I also happen to understand, not everyone has the luxury for hid reflectors or projectors, and there will always be people who will go down this route. The least I can do is highlight the difference of using an inferior kit to a quality piece.

Quality post. Point conceded.

[p33r]

thanks for the compliments, by the way what did you end up doing about your Race-Header?

I had to go to singapore for an internship so i decided to put it on hold since i wouldnt be using it anyway. now that i'm back, full time study and no money

Gonna be grabbing fuji PG first then save up for header/mounts. did you have any issues with install to stock header/cat?

[stevan]

I had to go to singapore for an internship so i decided to put it on hold since i wouldnt be using it anyway. now that i'm back, full time study and no money

Gonna be grabbing fuji PG first then save up for header/mounts. did you have any issues with install to stock header/cat?

Oh nice one! I'm on internship now hence the modding resurgement I actually installed my header first then the powergetter so i can't comment on that unfortunately. I can't imagine you running into any issues though many people use these with standard exhaust manifolds and i have never heard of any issues besides the b-pipe hanging a bit lower.

[stevan]

UPDATE 1/4/2011

Firstly i have received a few more little things to get installed into the car this month, thanks to Alex for picking these up for me and dropping them off to the office today

1. Hardrace Roll Centre Adjusters
2. Ferodo Front DS2500 brake pads



Secondly, my clutch in the past couple months has felt to be a bit softer than usual. The last few weeks sitting on the M2 and Lane Cove Rd has confirmed that the clutch is almost completely worn through, engagement is all the way up and i smell burning clutch pretty much all the time even though i have been very soft on it. To be honest i hate driving the DC5 at the moment, brake pads are worn, suspension is rubbish and the car barely takes off due to the clutch, also had to replace the battery last week as that died as well (to top it off my $800 Alpine head unit CD player barely plays CD's anymore so i forsee that breaking very soon as well), oh yeh and its due for a service now too

The clutch issue being the most dire has resulted in me purchasing an Exedy Sports Organic clutch kit from the USA (Stage 1), i also figured since the box will be open i may as well put in a brand new LSD to rectify the stifling open differential that is the bane of all TYPE-S owners. Talking recently to Michael from RavenTech Racing who i ordered my AST suspension from, i have decided to order in a Wavetrac LSD through him directly from the Manufacturer to be installed at the same time as the clutch.

Some might ask why not go with the Quaife/Mfactory LSD which has been discussed lately? The primary reason for this is that the Wavetrac, unlike all the other Helical LSD's has a unique mechanism which applies torque to the driven wheels even when one wheel becomes unloaded. According to Wavetrac, these LSD's require no special fluids and are lifetime maintenance free which was my initial purchasing criteria for helical VS plate type LSD.

Overall the car at this stage has never been in worse shape, the only consumable not being replaced is the tyres To say that i am eager to see the end of all this work is an understatement.....................

[Norm]

Awesomeness!....just a question, can you confirm that the Exedy Sports Organic clutch kit from the USA (Stage 1) is the same as the Exedy Sports Organic HD Clutch from Aus sellers, as they have different part numbers. Or are they different products all together?

Norm

[jj17]

im keen to see the effect of the RCA steve... im lowered to about 2 finger gaps and was thinking about getting one of those OR just raising the height of my car again...

[stevan]

Awesomeness!....just a question, can you confirm that the Exedy Sports Organic clutch kit from the USA (Stage 1) is the same as the Exedy Sports Organic HD Clutch from Aus sellers, as they have different part numbers. Or are they different products all together?

Norm

I can not confirm whether they are the same parts, they do however carry the exact same product description, i am thinking that the part number may be a regional thing?

Either way i would never get Exedy products from here when i can get them for half the price overseas....

im keen to see the effect of the RCA steve... im lowered to about 2 finger gaps and was thinking about getting one of those OR just raising the height of my car again...

Raising my car was never an option hahaha, i can feel the effects of the lower roll centre and the messed up steering arms though and i could do without the excess body roll and deadish steering feedback.

I can take a picture of the LCA angle before and after although the after shots will have new suspension so ride height changes mite occur, albeit only a fraction. I suspect the front roll stiffness SHOULD increase with them, the new front monotube dampers should provide a lot more elastic roll resistance as well so it should feel like a completely different car.

The Hardrace RCA look quite solid and have decent weight to them, only time will tell if any play occurs but id imagine this would be after giving them a hell of a beating.

[Norm]

Yeh true about the price of the item. Let me do abit of research and see whether they are the same. If they are different i'll point it out on this forum as well. If you get the RCA, would getting the modified Todd's tie rods help in anyway as well? or are they different components? and serve different purposes?

Norm

[stevan]

Yeh true about the price of the item. Let me do abit of research and see whether they are the same. If they are different i'll point it out on this forum as well. If you get the RCA, would getting the modified Todd's tie rods help in anyway as well? or are they different components? and serve different purposes?

Norm

Yeh let me know what you find out about the clutch, i doubt there will be any differences in the 2 kits.

RCA and Todd's Tie end rods serve 2 different purposes. The Tie end rods are different length to stock which allows more toe adjustment when dialing in camber on aftermarket suspension systems, helps people to get 0 toe when setting the camber they want whereas the stock rods would have run out of thread.

RCA's however simply lower the bottom mounting point of the front LCA to correct the downward inclination of the LCA caused by exccesive lowering. This in turn increases the geometric roll resistance of the front by raising the roll centre thus improving turn in and feel. Lower roll centres can contribute to uneccesary body roll even on cars with high spring rates, combining higher rates and an adjusted roll centre should in theory provide you with a much more stable and flatter cornering behaviour. The softer rates on my car really exaggerates the screwed up roll centre, soft rates and a low car only equals rubbish handling....

[Norm]

Understood!....but is RCA's always necessary for lowered cars or only in special circumstances?

[stevan]

its not essential to have, the issue a lot of people have with RCA is

1. Reliability of the part
2. How much in fact the RCA's longer body will adjust the Roll centre.

The fact that every DC5 has a different ride height will mean that installing the RCA will adjust everyones Roll centre differently. Because RCA's have a constant length, the actual achieved Roll centre is a "best guess" modification as the length is not adjustable, this was best explained by Tom in a previous thread somewhere.

Overall though on a significantly lowered car the effects should be positive, the Hardrace piece seems well built so i will be able to comment on reliability a few months from now and the impressions i have of the unit. Its a shame that i cant install them now and see the realtime difference it makes alone as they will be installed with a completely new suspension setup, any effects will be difficult to determine as the whole car should feel different.

[jj17]

^^^as you said stevan, because of the unadjustable length/height of the RCA, there is only so low your car has to be before the RCA's effects become redundant. Which gets me curious as to what the ideal ride height approximately is for these RCA's to have a positive impact on the car's handling.

anyways, looking forward to the LCA angle shots of your car.. before and after and hopefully it would be able to tell me whether it will benefit me.

[stevan]

^^ its not so much a matter of the effects being redundant, the lower a car is the more it will benefit from RCA's, if the car is at or near stock height the roll centre will be raised past the original one. I think off memory i read any DC5 lowered more than 30mm' will be benefitted by RCA's. Theres a huge thread on CRSX below if you want a interesting read,

http://forums.clubrsx.com/showthread.php?t=705705