Norm - Perth DC5R

[Oz Striker]

That's a good in depth analysis of your corner speed, will be interesting to compare once you've been out again. Also cool boots!

[eskimo_firefighter]

That's a cool analysis of your driving. And nice boots, how does it feel to heel toe with them in comparison to your standard shoes?

Keep up the good work Norm.

[Norm]

That's a good in depth analysis of your corner speed, will be interesting to compare once you've been out again. Also cool boots!

Thanks Ryan. That's just the baseline. The true analysis is yet to come.

That's a cool analysis of your driving. And nice boots, how does it feel to heel toe with them in comparison to your standard shoes?

Keep up the good work Norm.

Thanks dude. The shoes are really light. Like ultra light and heel and toe feels good. I really need to test them out whilst on the track to give you an accurate review.

[Norm]

After months of waiting my rims are here. So, all that is left is track time, track time and more track time!

[Shakeel]

Oh man those tyres.... and those wheels

[Lonewolf]

you'll love the tires!

[Norm]

So an update. Since March till now, I have attended 1 track day. No new PB's were set. Wishing I could attend more but it may need to be put on the back burner till the wedding is over. Nonetheless it was good to get back on the track and use the new rims/tyres. The amount of rotational mass reduction is night and day difference. The car felt more responsive through accelerating out of corners.

Though the most exciting part of my build is the pleasure of acquiring Matt's (M@lew) Mugen N1 exhaust. Coupled with a pair of spoon headers I recently obtained, I got the chance to mount the system up today. First impressions were the sheer responsiveness of the car. I couldn't believe the difference. At first I thought it was a psychological thing with all new mods, but the difference was clear. The sound and roar is stunning. At idle and cruising RPM's its fine, however once you decide to accelerate this thing surely does draw attention. At particular RPM's the drone was quite bad. The main thing was its fitting for the car and its track uses. Who would of thought though, mMgen headers not being able to match up a Mugen exhaust?



Along with all the excitement of the new exhaust system, I had to opportunity to examine and compare 3 x JDM headers. Though I wish I could have ASP and Toda along side, it was still interesting to see the difference in quality of the top brands. One thing i'll draw everyone's attention to when deciding headers is the importance of quality welds and one piece mandrel bends. Whether headers are branded or not branded or budgeted, not all headers are given the same care and TLC as they should, and sometimes what you pay for, isn't what you always should get. The welds and design speak for themselves. I'll reserve my opinion of the headers. However here are some pictures of the three. Bottom left you have J's Racing. Middle you have Spoon and the top right which is ceramic coated in black is the Mugen.



Whether you are buying new headers or old, here are my tips along with my welders advice when picking the right one,

• Check the amount of sectioning in a mendrel bend. The more, the higher chance of fractures occurring at weak spots. If the tubes are whole, the better the strength
  
• The welds. It isn't all about pretty welds. Check for spot welds. These are commonly signs of the welder starting and stopping. You can spot tiny pin gaps between stop
  starts. This is where trouble begins
  
• The type of metal they use. Always ask. Low grade metals hold up poorly to high heat stresses and corrode quicker.
  
• Don't be shy to look inside. Take a torch a light or something to check inside. Check the V-neck where they join. You'll notice quality when you see it.
  
• The rest you know, the lesser the bends the better the flow. The ticker the mounting plate the better the resistance.

[MYDC5R]

Impressive write up Norm, so my question is, of the 3 headers you list above, which was the best quality and what was the lowest?
Feel free to PM me mate.

Also, congrats on the new wheels, looks great!

[Nathannnnn]

the spoon headers look quite small in diameter compared to the other two.

[Norm]

Will PM you mate.

Impressive write up Norm, so my question is, of the 3 headers you list above, which was the best quality and what was the lowest?
Feel free to PM me mate.

Also, congrats on the new wheels, looks great!

the spoon headers look quite small in diameter compared to the other two.

Believe it or not Nathan, we measured it and the spoon and mugen have the same diameter. Not sure about the J's Racing though.

[Norm]

It has been awhile since I updated my build thread. I recently had the pleasure of purchasing a set of AST 5200 coilovers. The specs of the coilovers are below with springs of 10kg front and 16 kg rear. I have also ordered 2 pairs of swift springs (F12 and R18) to play with.

5200 Series; RIV-H1502S; Honda Integra DC5
o High end, race ready suspension that is totally streetable
o Fully upgradeable to Competition Race (5300 Series) spec
o Rebound and Compression Adjustable ("Doubles"), with a remote reservoir
o Remote reservoirs allow additional travel, heat dissipation and oil/nitrogen gas capacity
o 44.5mm diameter shaft struts are inverted and offer exceptional strength, which in turn reduces geometry change under corner and braking manoeuvres
o Steel cylinder, threaded body shocks, factory mounting style
o New low friction seal on all AST dampers
o Spherical lower "eye" shock mounts
o Reservoir with hose
o Spherical upper shock mount assemblies
o Synthetic hydraulic fluid
o DDP piston (double digressive)

AST make great coilovers and have been heavily involved in Motorsport RND and it is a brand that has been proven on numerous race occasions. A friend of mine (Michael Copley) was the Australian distributor from Raventech Racing and the coilovers were ordered through his company. Let me say, it has certainly worked in my favor ordering through a local distributor as I encountered several teething issues. Despite AST being so reputable, they have not sold many DC5 or RSX coilovers and from the last person who experienced them (Stevan), he too experience alot of teething issues. Mine certainly did not shy from it. Here are some pictures to start off but before even mounting to the vehicle, they had shipped out the incorrect hose lengths. The hose lengths you see here are meant to be reversed, the longer hose to the front and short at the rear.






The first problem we encountered was that the provided rear dampers were the wrong length. Here you can see a major difference in length. They attempted to use a Moton top mount for my rear dampers. You can see that I had no chance of mounting th





AST immediately shipped out new top mounts. I was re-assured that travel distance was not compromised as a result of different top mount lengths.


The 2nd problem I encountered after AST had rectified the top mount issue, was that the spherical eye bushings were short by approximately 5mm. As an interim measure I had to use 2 x 2.5mm spacers to fill the gaps. AST will be definitely need to sort this out. I measured my Tein Flex coilovers against the AST to see what the difference was.











Once the coilovers were installed, I proceeded to get the car corner balanced with me in it. That surprisingly went smoothly (Well something has to go right).



I'm not going to dive into the importance of corner balancing the car. I'm still trying to understand the concepts of adjusting the heights on each corner to achieve the optimum cross weight. Will post up more info once I have grasped a good understanding of it.

Starting readings



Final readings



Since installing the coilovers on the car I have gotten an alignment and driven them on the street. These coilovers are surprisingly comfortable. The instant rebound from bumps on the road are amazing. I will provide a detailed review of them once I hit the track.

[felixR]

That is pretty cool doing the corner weighting yourself.

[PG_DC5]

is that total weight including yourself and fuel in the car? ( I think stock type S is around 1230 kerb weight?) If so well done for shaving almost 100kg off the car!

[Timmy_B]

is that total weight including yourself and fuel in the car? ( I think stock type S is around 1230 kerb weight?) If so well done for shaving almost 100kg off the car!

Preface lift is around 1190kgs stock. (from what i have read)
But with a widebody and half cage (if Norm still has the half cage in) 1180kg is good.

[dnapol]

Sounds like it has EP3 eye lets on the rear, it's usually about 3-5mm thinner than the DC5.

Great update Norm!