ITA DC Integra Build

Thanks Graefin10.

Installed the rear wheels on the car to check tire clearance to the LCA and fender and with the 205/50-15s, have around 12mm of clearance to the LCA. May have enough space for 225s when the time comes...

Started trimming the Acura windshield banner between my son's soccer games and applied it tonight. Will wait till tomorrow to peel the backing off but appears to have worked pretty well.

Touched up a little more paint on the cage from some spots where the dash scratched it when it was installed and removed 50 times last fall when I was trimming it.

Then was looking around on where to route the brake cooling ducts and things will be a little tight.

Next up is to drill the cage wall thickness inspection hole and then trim the drivers side door panel for fitment around the door bars.

Finished hacking up the drivers side door panel and have reinstalled it. Was hoping I could keep the window and mirror switch in the stock location but the switch interferes with the upper door bar.

With my open trailer, it is nice to be able to close the window so will look into relocating the switch to the center console area at some point but this will not get done before the first event.. The pile of old door panel bits...

Next up is to finish draining the cooling system to get all the antifreeze out and then look at some brake ducts and then look things over one last time. If there is enough time, change the compression damping from mid way to full soft for the first event...

Was playing around with brake ducts for the car over the weekend and think I found something decent until I can get an airdam built...

I have the outlet pointed at the inside of the rotor but there is not a lot of space between the shock, axle and upright. Things seem pretty good but I may have to give the back more slack for turning.

This seems like a pretty straight shot and should move with the control arm.

I want to get the inlet farther forward when I build an air dam but this should help, short term. Seems like the OEM under body panels make some nice attachment points for the duct on the drivers side.

Then went on to adjust the shock compression adjustment- I set these in the middle of the compression adjustment before I installed them but have changed my mind and wanted to set them at full soft to start. Googled the adjustment method and then spent a couple hours removing and adjusted both fronts and the drivers side rear before running out of time for the night. Went to print out the adjustment sheet to put in the toolbox and realized I had set them all at full stiff...Doh... It was probably good I removed them since a couple of the compression adjustment buttons were a little sticky.

Did a little more research and it seems like it is possible and pretty easy to adjust these on the car so spent a lot less time today setting the shocks to full soft, correctly.. Pretty easy to do this on the car also. Lesson learned!!

After looking at the duct design and how low this will be with the car at ride height and with time running out before the first event, I elected to punt and removed the duct.

On Friday I bled the cooling system and finished some other minor details (test install the GoPro...) on the car to get it ready for the debut event.

Loaded the car and some tools up for the big debut was this past Sunday at the Midwestern Council of Sports Car Clubs event at Blackhawk Farms Raceway. Took the car down on Saturday afternoon to get a logbook and the annual tech so I would not be rushed the day of the race. Unloaded the car and ran it to tech and it sailed through with absolutely no issues!! Then packed things up for the night and headed home.

Bright and early Sunday morning, my main pit crew guy and I headed back to the track. Got things unloaded from the car and did a final once over- cleaned the windows, torqued lug nuts, etc. With the 50 degree temps, took a guess at 31 psi all around for tire pressures and when my group was called, hit the track.

With a newly prepared car and used Toyos, I was taking things pretty easy for the first session giving the tires plenty of time to come up to temp. I figured 4 or so laps would be good so started pushing a little more. Then found the limits as the rear end stepped out to the right as I took the little bend to the left prior to turn 3D. Got things collected after a slow speed tank slapper and rejoined the session. Was monitoring the coolant temp and the handling and other than that event, the rest of the session went well. My son heard the call over the radio that I had an agricultural event and wanted to watch it on the GoPro. Let him watch it once but wanted to make sure I had enough battery for the other sessions so he could not share with everyone in the paddock...

Came in when the session was done and checked things over for the qualifying session. Coolant and oil levels were great so decided to lower the tire pressures a bit to see how the car reacted- set things at 28 psi all around and when the call was made, lined up in grid.

Was still taking things fairly easy getting the tires up to temp and bringing the speeds up a little and things were going well. Got past a couple cars and got down to a low 1.30.3 time which put me 13 of 14 in ITA and like 21 of 24 overall. Not setting any records but learning the car and bringing things up to speed. Car was much more settled in the rear end with the lower tire pressures and starting to push a little more in T5 and T3. Was curious how the brakes would hold up with no ducts and trying out the Hawk DTC-60 pads. The brakes felt pretty good with good modulation and excellent power for the light pedal effort.

Checked things over after the Qualifying session and fluids are all in good shape. Was not sure how a 178XXX B-series Honda engine would run on track but it sounds great and pulls pretty well for a bone stock engine with a header.

Lined up for the race when my group was called. Was not too worried about the start since I was pretty far back in the pack. Took off for the warm up lap and brought things up to temp perhaps a little too slow as the pack split up a bit but we got the green flag and took off. The car was behaving nicely and we were getting settled into a rhythum. I was picking the pace up a little more until I got into T6 a little hot and locked the brakes up and slid straight off the corner. Had things pretty well slowed so did not end up in Wisconsin but this put me dead last in the session. Gathered things up and took off (with permission, of course). Cleaned the tires up from my second agricultural run and must not have flat spotted the tires too badly although there was a slight vibration at higher speeds.

Ended up finishing at the same spot in class as one car DNF'ed. Did not end up breaking the 1.30s but did drop a little more time from my qualifying time. The suspension setup seemed pretty good but could definitely feel the inside front tire spinning in the slower corners with the open diff. The car felt pretty planted with the Konis on full soft but will experiment with the shock settings at the next event.

Downloaded the GoPro footage tonight and while reviewing this I noticed that the placement of the camera is such that I have a great view out the windshield, which I knew when I installed the mount on the cage. I was checking the video and noticed that I have a partial view of the dash and can see the tach and speedo when in a corner which may be interesting. The cool part was seeing the excellent view out the rear of the car through the rearview mirror. Definitely had not planned that but very nice to be able to see out the front and rear of the car.

Started prep for the second event- bled the brakes again and while checking things over, noticed the drivers side rear caliper is a little sticky and the pads are getting a little thin. Picked up some cheap rear pads (organics) and lubed the park brake piston to free that up and put things back together.

Still not sure if this may have contributed to the rear dartiness under braking or if it has to do with just disabling the ABS and not installing the RS prop valve..

Had wanted to check the valve adjustment before the first event but did not get the chance so started on that a couple days ago. Pulled the valve cover and found this...

and this...

Was pretty excited for how clean it is for having 178k miles on the engine and as far as I know, has never been opened up. Made a couple small adjustments to a couple valves but nothing was too far off.

Next up- find a way to install some brake ducts for the front brakes.

On my car I bought some cheap ebay bumper lights and popped the lenses off. Dremeled out the holes for the bulbs and ran heat riser hose from there to the brakes.

Unfortunately brake ducting in the turn signal opening is not legal in Improved Touring but I needed something before the last event. Will have to redesign this over the winter.

Hit the MCSCC event at Blackhawk Farms Raceway last Sunday. Started picking up speed as I get more comfortable with the car and setup. Rear brakes with the crappy organic rear pads seemed better and the rear end stayed behind the front for the most part. Front brakes were much happier with the ducting and I was pushing brake points a bit more but I am still a wimp on the brakes...

Was talking with a guy that runs a Type Rrrrr- he suggested lowering the car which I did between the Qualifying session and race. He suggested going down 3/8-1/2" but I wanted to take a more gradual approach so lowered the car a turn on the coilovers as a test. Don't want to start bottoming out or hitting fenders.

In qualifying I ended up dropping a second of my best time so that was good. This put me seventh in class for the race (I WAS SEVENTH!!!)... At the start, however, I got freightlined by like 5 cars. I did end up passing all of them in fairly short order as things got sorted out and had a decent run with a Miata.

Next up is to install the short ram air intake and check the alignment.

Nice! I'm not sure how your wiring is, but you can dremel a Gopro case and run a power line to it. No more worrying about batteries.

Attended my third event with the Midwestern Council of Sports Car Clubs on August 3rd which will be my last race for this season..

Car ran great all day and I managed to drop a couple tenth off my best time to date in the car. Starting to push the braking a little bit more and playing with shift points a little bit. Trying letting the car rev a little through T2 vs shifting into 4th and also short shifting into 4th for T5 instead of grabbing 4th for a brief time before T6 and then dropping back to 3rd for the corner. Not sure I have any definite answers on this but as the speeds pick up, maybe the short shift will not be so short....

Decided to check the tires after the qualifying session as they are all getting a little low on tread. Found the left front to have a small section in the middle that was really slim.... I had brought a spare Toyo but it was not mounted on a wheel so asked around to see if anyone had a tire mounting machine there- no one did. Debated switching to my Toyo R1R 'rain' tires but these are true street tires (not R-compounds) so did not want to slow myself too much. Finally decided to swap the right rear with the left front and take it a little easy. At Blackhawk Farms, the RR is fairly lightly worked so thought this would be my best option.

Qualified second to last in class which is fine. When the green flag flew, had a pretty big hole open up in front of my so dove for it and picked up several spots overall and at least one spot in class!!! Managed to hold that position for a good chunk of the race until the faster qualified cars were able to make their way back past me... ended up finishing one spot ahead in class and overall- pretty happy with that.

Here is a little you tube action...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9YiOZUji28

Weighed the car early in the day and I will need to add some weight to the car for next year...

So between shoveling and other fun winter activities, I have been working on a couple updates for the '15 season. Nothing crazy but slight improvements. Wanted to improve the seal between the header and the exhaust system so modelled this in Solidworks:

which a local shop then turned into this:

Thanks Steve!!

Now I just need to pull the header off the car, cut the old flange off and weld this one on...This will mate up to the BLOX ball flange that I will install onto the exhaust side to duplicate the OEM connection.

Also wanted to lower the driver's seat a bit so modelled this up:

Which that same shop turned into this:

This will allow me to get at least a 1/2" lower in the car by removing the sliders. Picked it up tonight after work on the way home. Need to adjust the front mounting holes slightly for a little more bolt clearance but over all, it seems to fit nicely. I do need to add the rear mounts to the bracket before getting too far along. Also test fit the seat to the bracket and that seemed to fit fine.

You're probably on top of it, but take care with materials and strength of fasteners when moving the seat around in the car. Having the seat stay attached in the event of a major accident is crucial to allowing restraints and roll cage do what they do.

Took some time today to finish the fab work on the new seat mount. Turned out pretty good but had to make a modification to be able to install the inside, rear bolt into the chassis. I may add a spacer to the inside, rear mount to get a little more surface area but for the most part, it is done except for some paint when the temps warm up.

and in the car...

Will do something very similar for the pass side of the car to hold the ballast that I need to add. I am not a huge fan of bolting ballast directly on the floor when I can use the OEM seat mounts that were designed by Honda to hold a 200 pound passenger.

I am using the OEM bolts to hold the mount to the OEM seat mount locations so strenght will be fine.

This change probably dropped me 1/2 - 3/4 of an inch in the car and helped helmet clearance to the cage.

I removed the header a couple days ago and started cutting the flange off the header tonight

I am committed now!!

Ended up with a small pile of parts

and a mostly flangeless header.

A little fun with the grinder will get the remnants of the old flange cleaned up and then time to break out the welder.

Debating what to paint the header with- currently leaning toward the Eastwood Header Paint.

Also attended the AIM seminar at Pegasus in March and picked up an AIM SOLO. Really looking forward to staring at some squiggly lines this summer. Fabbed up a bracket to mount it to the driver's side A post of the cage.

I may have to beef up/redesign the aluminum angle in the bracket but will see how it works.

Spent a little time in the garage last week fitting the new flange to the header- it is tacked on in the pic below with the new ball flange bolted on.

I noticed afterward that using the downstream ball flange to try to hold the header flange square wasn't the hot ticket so cut the tacks off and tried again. Used the second flange that I had cut with some spacers to get the flange located and on straight and tacked it back on.

Then had to refab the bracket to attach the rear of the header to the trans to engine brace bolt and tacked that on. Then cut the downstream exhaust flange off.

Today worked on the downstream side- trimmed the exhaust a couple times to get the ball flange to connect squarely to the header flange and tacked it into place. Everything seemed fine so started to finish weld things back together.

Here is the finished product

And the downstream exhaust system

Fit everything back on the car and it seems good. The flange on the header didn't warp much at all which I was happy with. The welds don't look great in the pics, but they should be strong enough and seal well.

Nice build. Have you been racing it?

amg_rx7 wrote: Nice build. Have you been racing it?

He posted a youtube clip a couple of posts up....

Yes, did three races last season and planning on 4 this season- first to be June 7. Cannot wait to get back on track!! Should be a second (or hopefully more) quicker with the Hoosiers this year and looking forward to playing with some data from the AIM Solo.

So a little late in updating this but ran my first race of the season on June 7 at Blackhawk Farms Raceway. Forecast was calling for severe rain all day but decided to chance it so off I went. Packed all the rain gear just in case. Arrived at the track and it was lightly raining but got unpacked as the rain started to let up. I was group 2 so was hoping that the group 1 folks would dry the line a little bit but no such luck- Group 1 was some of the larger formula cars...

First session was damp and misting a little so decided to roll the dice and go out on the Hoosiers (R6s) to see what happened. Car behaved pretty well in the damp except for the one lap where I locked the tires several times heading into T1 on the same lap- minor pucker moment but made it ok.

The weather held after that session and things started to dry through out the day so qualifying was dry and my times started to drop a little but was a little bummed on the super small turnout- I think there were like 10 cars in the entire group...

The weather for the race stayed dry and had a good start but again with the low turnout, not many folks to dice with. Ended up finishing about the same as where I started and ended up dropping about a second off my best time the previous season.

The revised exhaust held up well and the lower seating position was a good change but will take some getting used to. I used the AIM SOlO for the first time and when reviewing the data after the race, it appears that the car has an additional 2.5 seconds in it based on my actual best times so that means I need to turn some attention to 'the nut behind the wheel' for some improvements...

Not a lot of excitement but here is some youtube action... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM-8rfQVDWE&feature=youtu.be

Ran my second race of the season this past weekend at the Milwaukee Mile with Midwestern Council of Sports Car Clubs. Some prerace prep revealed the rear brake pads were getting a little thin so replaced this- the fronts are holding up very well so far.

Got back up to speed rather quickly in the practice session and car was running very well although noticed it running a little rough when entering the pit lane on the cool down lap- will need to check into that some.

Qualified 7 out of 8 in class (I WAS SEVENTH!!!) in the small field of around 12 overall and finished 6th in class.

Race was pretty uneventful and was getting fairly comfortable in Nascar 1-2 although could not stop my right foot from hitting the brakes slightly entering Nascar 2... The SOLO was showing a predictive lap in the mid 1.27s but could not quite get there.

Going to try to up the spring rates for the next race to get the car to flatten out a bit and may try the short ram air intake sitting on the shelf.

Now with a little youtube action.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk5CC_Y6wls

I have/had the same problem at Charlotte Motor Speedway … instead of hitting the brake, you might try relaxing your accelerator foot as you approach the first of the banked turns … and as you enter them you roll back onto the the throttle (as much as you're comfortable with) and maintain your pace through the banking that way … as long as you don't come completely off throttle, you shouldn't have any problem with the " lift throttle oversteer" that our Integra's (and other FWD) cars are known for … plus you'll get more comfortable with increased amounts of throttle as your laps increase .. dropping your times even more

You may want to try a bit of left-foot braking in situations like that -- where you just need to brush a bit of speed and 'settle' the car for the turn. Right foot stays down in those situations.

Took a brief look at the data recently and plenty of time left on the table...braking was pretty light into the hairpin, back onto the oval and transitioning off the oval...

After the last race, I wanted to try some changes to flatten out the car in the corners so swapped the front springs from 800 lb/in to 900 lb/in and bumped the rears from 1100 lb/in to 1200 lb/in. Reset the corner weights back to a 50/50 cross and called it good.

I tested the new setup at the October 11 Midwestern Council of Sports Car Clubs event at Blackhawk Farms Raceway and with the spring change, cooler temps, and a tire pressure adjustment, the car felt great. I wasted no time getting down to a 1.28.32 in the morning practice. The mid-50 degree temps and sunny skies really worked well with the setup changes.

Went with the same setup for Qualifying and got down to a 1.27.63 which put me in 8th of 13 in ITA. The car was making great power for a stock engine and I was hitting the rev limiter in 3rd coming into T3 and T6 where I have not done that in the past so I knew I was picking up some speed. Was also working on not hitting the brakes for T4 and instead just doing a short lift to scrub a little speed.

Kept the same setup for the race- had a decent start but got passed by a couple cars but ended up getting past at least one of them before too long. Had some decent pressure applied through the entire race by a competitor which was fun. He was also nice enough to share some of his in car video so I could see how my car was cornering- it looks a lot flatter in the video that it does from in the car..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hikPTBVXUA

While preparing the car for the last race of the season- the Midwestern Council of Sports Car Club's annual Looong Race- noticed the left front tire was showing some cords so grabbed the spare R6 and had that mounted and put on the same corner.

Had some help bleeding the brakes from my junior crew chief and checked the car over for the race..

On race day, it was a little chilly- the thermometer showed a balmy 32 degrees but it was a sunny 32. After unloading the car, I set the tire pressures a little higher than normal (up one psi all around) to try for some more rotation and headed out for practice as the first group of the day.

Took things a little easy to make sure the tires were up to temp and started upping the speeds. The car surprisingly felt pretty good in the cool temps with the slightly higher pressures and while it was a slight bit more neutral, it wasn't bad.

Qualifying was much the same although the temps were coming up slightly...was able to get back down to a mid 1.27 which I was happy with for the conditions. Qualified 10 of 12 in class and it seemed like a lot of the cars I was not having any trouble staying ahead of at the previous race found some time... The car still felt great.

A little background- the Looong Race is an annual 50 lap event with MCSCC and usually a fun event that lots of people co-drive but some, like me, will drive it solo. Started the race and made sure the warm the tires up for the start. As the green flag fell, started to figure out the traffic when all of the sudden just after the apex of turn 1, there were several cars coming together just after the apex...with my qualifying position, I was on the outside so headed for the turf to avoid the mele' and was able to avoid any damage but had to head almost all the way to the tire wall on the outside of the course. As I rejoined the fray pretty much at the end of the pack, I had to put my head down and work my way back up through the pack.

There were a couple T4 MX-5s running and a gaggle of Spec Racers running the event and they were flying...The SR's were in the low 1.20's and the MX-5s were there as well so really had to watch the mirrors.

Worked up through some of the cars I had qualified ahead of and then caught up to P9 in class and started trying to figure out how to move up from there.

to be continued...