The crapcord: Bean's '97 Accord LX DD/autox beater

Need to find a way to make an extension harness to put it in the proper position for the EX ECU. I still have the spare harness from the donor engine I can use to make an extension harness. Finding time to get it done is going to be the biggest issue since I'm spending just about all my free time in the ICU at a local hospital since last Saturday for my brother.

Otherwise, going to be getting the car tidied up before winter within the next few weeks.

To do:

Make o2 extension harness for primary o2 sensor to relocate to more downstream position native to EX Accords

Replace #3's plug wire with a longer wire, probably with a second #2 wire from a junkyard

Replace passenger side LCA due to stripped out bolt hole since I bought the car

Replace driver side wheel bearing and axle nut

Correct toe out condition on passenger side

Replace clutch master cylinder since it's weeping

Drill out and replace broken exhaust manifold stud at bottom right of #1

General Altimax Arctic snow tires, either 205/55/16 to fit my current wheels or find another set of 15's and run the 195/65/15's since they're a bit cheaper

Autocross wise, the car handles pretty good. It'd do MUCH better with stiffer springs front and rear(especially the rear), WAY more camber up front(biggest issue IMO), and a tire that takes the most advantage of the class. A 225 is a great size for the street on a 7" wide wheel, but I think a 205 would actually be more beneficial. There's a lot of excess roll on the 225 with a 7" wide wheel, and I don't even think there'd be an advantage going to the class limit 7.5" width. With the F23 swap, I'm SUPPOSED to be competing in FSP... but there's even less people to race with in that class, so I'm just going to stick to STC for now and develop the car more for next season.

Plans:

205/55/16 Hankook RS3's

A real header, probably a modified H22 4-2-1 hytech replica

2.5" exhaust

3" intake with velocity stack

Probably get the car tuned on Hondata

500F/600R springs(may change)

Poly bushing kit

EF Civic adjustable upper control arms for more camber

Sort out the IACV valve interference with the TPS

Better front brake pads

1" Brake master cylinder

I may cheat a bit more and throw in an H23 trans, if I can't find a 92-93 wagon trans, with an Exedy stage 1 clutch and lightweight flywheel. Like I said, I'm not building this car 100% to the rules at this time, but it's no where near the top-dogs in this class(STC). If I can put up a good fight locally, that's all I'm worried about. Really, the biggest thing to compete in FSP would be to get a set of R-compounds, but I don't think I'll have the money/commitment to do that for another year.

Made an extension harness for the o2, installed it, discovered some frayed wires in the o2, so i had to replace it. Stumbled and hesitation at part throttle. Went to the junkyard this morning, got a new o2, purge control solenoid, center console lid, and a cold air with a nice k&n filter foooooor..... $11! Score! Holy crap this thing wails now and pulls all the way past 6000rpm. Nothing in the midrange in gains, but a lot more past 5000rpm. No more part throttle stumble too.

Replaced wheel bearing, all is good in that world, but I'm still getting a weird "grinding" or "bind" on aggressive right corners, usually under power. Axle?

Just for kicks, loosen your CV axle nut on that side and see if you can push in on the shaft any. If it's nothing or next to nothing you may have to try to loosen all your mount bolts and push the drivetrain over a bit. Just a thought. I dont know if Hondas even have this problem but my dodges sometimes do.

We'll see what happens now. Haven't gotten too many hits on the car's ad since I posted it up on craigslist. I'll keep it up for the next couple of weeks, and if it doesn't sell, I'll pull all my ads down....

... because I managed to snap up a beat pile 1996 Miata haha! 230K on it, rusty rockers and rear quarters, shot top, open diff, has a set of 15" Panasports, Tokico blue kit, borla exhaust, mechanically great and the interior is niiiiiiiice. Needs a TPS and some exhaust work, among the cosmetics. Has A/C and P/S, which I've never experienced for more than 10 minutes in a Miata. I technically haven't paid for it yet, my buddy's dad picked it up for dirt cheap and is letting me take it back to my house to sit on it over the winter until I can pay him with my tax return money. Goal? Rollbar, hardtop/no top/bikini, do some maintenance, bomb it white/black like my old one, replace the tires, refinish the wheels to bronze(like my old one), R-Package front lip/rear wing and DD/rally cross the E36 M3 out of it. Should be pretty stupid fun for my max budget of $2015, which falls in line with the Challenge budget. That's also a goal, bring it to the Challenge next November. This will allow me to get pretty hardcore with the Accord and turn it into the local FSP contender like I want. Big R-comps, a real exhaust/header, tuned, Kirkey/Ultrashield seat, and stiffer suspension without worry of killing my back.

Here's a pic of the new pile(I freaking HATE red Miata's):

And my old '95 R-Package that I ruined(same panasports as the red car, just painted bronze):

I miss that car a ton. We'll see how this ugly crap turns out. It'll be like a crappier tribute to the "R".

I hate you. I want a red one so bad.

This one is garbage. I may clean it up, but more than likely it'll just wind up being a beater and eventually the shell I use to figure out the Honda V6 swap.

E36 M3 I bought a garbage vette. Id buy a garbage miata and fix it. For some reason I cant buy a clean car, I have to buy a E36 M3ty one and pour a ton of money into it, get it all right and how I want it then sell it.

Well, haven't had any bites on it, so I figured I'd buy a new axle for the driver's side. Throwing that in on Sunday.

Moving forward, snowies will be on it in another two weeks(these Comp-2's are SCARY in anything under 40degrees with ANY kind of moisture on the ground), then it's drive it through the winter. I really want to develop the car more, but everything weighs against this current chassis. I'm thinking it'll be easiest to just buy a wagon, swap everything over to it, and DD that while I can search around for a clean coupe chassis to start my dream build. I liked being able to tote around stuff with my Grand Cherokee, but can't deal with that kind of gas mileage anymore.

The hunt for a wagon begins!

Axle swapped, driving golden again. Used an electric impact to take off the axle nut, holy crap I need one now.

Next up, snow tires!

Haven't made a ton of progress since it's fawking COLD out, but I have bought some things.

So the car throws a couple codes every now and again: P1298 and a lean code. Pretty sure it's the crappy sealing mid-header gasket.

P1298 is just a sensor in the underhood fusebox that seems to be a fairly common thing across the board on Hondas. Next time I'm tromping around the junkyard I'll toss one in my pocket.

Aside from that, the battery has been awesome, car cranks over super fast now and fires right away. Still trying to figure out my idle surging, replaced the PCV hose which I 'thought' was a vacuum leak(did the pinch test), but it's still surging, just not as bad. Must have another leak somewhere that I'll have to track down.

Here's a current(ish) engine bay pic and just before the snow hit, the last time I washed it about a month ago.

1. Bought another header off hahaha38on HondaSociety. Bought a super special upper to lower gasket that Jarrett on CB7tuner recommended to ensure a good seal. http://www.jegs.com/i/Percys/760/66017/10002/-1

2. Bought ANOTHER upper to lower header gasket to get me through; tried the Vatozone special '95 Subaru Legacy exhaust manifold gasket. Installed that this afternoon, still doesn't seal great, but probably because this current header is CRAP. Kind of a placeholder until I get Tim's old header on this pile and drill out that last broken manifold bolt. $6 at Autozone for #60992, which is an exhaust manifold gasket for a '95 Subaru Legacy lol. Should fit from the research I've done. PISSED my $20 SCE copper gasket blew out as well, but whatever. Current header will be modded to turn into my own design with optimized tube size and length. I FINALLY have access to a welder(two actually), and a couple of friends who weld have put the offer out there to assist me in making a header. Just having access to a welder really opens up the ability to get some things done I've wanted to for a long time but couldn't.

3. Buying a 94-95 Legend Coupe Lip off Jarrett on cb7tuner to see how that works. Love the look, we'll see how it turns out.

4. FINALLY going to get around to completely removing the front sway bar. I'd previously run it unattached on one side while autocrossing. The endlinks and bushings are squeaking, and one bushing tie down has a broken bolt, so I'm saying F-it and yanking the pig.

5. Spent about $150 on rockauto on new front lower control arms, lower balljoints, and tie rod ends. All Moog. I was THIS close to buying the EF upper control arms, but I'm going to wait it out until after this coming autocross season. I won't actually be doing much as my summer is pretty loaded and unless an event falls on a day off, I won't be able to race. As of right now, it doesn't look like I'll be able to race at all. I'll just be happy to get rid of all the nasty clunking, squeaking, and sloppyness of the front end. I'm not a big fan of poly bushings, so this is a nice, cheap compromise.

6. On the dirty ricer front, I bought a small trash can and some single sided sticky foam for about $10 at work to.... Make an airbox! LOL I have a couple 3" ABS 45deg street elbows that have been collecting dust in the basement to direct some air to the filter area next to the battery. With sealing the filter off from the battery/engine bay, and ducting some colder air from the hole in the fender, there should be a slight improvement at speed. For the $12 I have into materials, it's worth a shot. I'm all about making a bunch of crap work and testing my fabrication abilities, and if freaking Endyn can make a similar intake work using a wash tub meant for a baby, then dammit, I can give it a shot too. I got a piece of steel from the inside of a cardboard box that acts as a support for some plumbing strap as well hahah! It's too cold out to spend a ton of time outside, so I'm putting the airbox idea off until I can really sit out there comfortably with a chair and get the design JUST right.

Although this isn't an Accord, I made this for my Miata back in 2005. It doubled as a heatshield for the brake and clutch masters. It was about $40 in materials, so it was way fancier than what I'll be attempting. Still, with the crossover tube I made, it helped the car make an extra couple of hp over what it made without it, with repeatable runs. http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=146055 See post #11

beans on m.net said: Last one(everything painted black) is with the crossover tube I made from a piece of 2.5" exhaust piping and some random cast aluminum elbow I found sitting around at a friends shop. Drilled and tapped a hole into the elbow, then threaded in a brass nipple for proper idle air control. I had guys at autoX's asking me to make them one, then I showed them how simple it was to make. Cost me about $10 in hardware, then another $15 for the aluminum sheets, bought everything from Lowes. If I had to do everything again, I'd make it a little easier to access and maintain the air filter, I can't even remember how many times I lost those nuts and bolts holding it together. This intake+Borla exhaust netted me 119whp(corrected) on a Mustang Dyno. Cant remember if I had it advanced or not, I always ran whatever for gas in it. I was attempting to replicate something along the lines of what K&N does with some of their FIPK II systems. Here's the last/only picture I could dig up with the crossover tube/heatshield combination.

Here's a thread I've been eyeing as inspiration: http://www.f150online.com/forums/lightning/105800-3-95-diy-heat-shield-cold-air-intake.html

Upcoming side projects I can mess around with at home:

1. Going to try to make some progress on my 'cleared' 96-97 grill. Right now, I've chopped most of the plastic out of the center of it(leaving only the "H" and it's supporting structure), and painted the surround with some Krylon gloss black.

2. Spare intake manifold is back from being cleaned, just need to tear it back down and start chopping it up after doing some measuring and calculating to get the runner length right.

That's about it as far as progress goes. I'll keep this updated as much as possible, but this year will unfortunately be kind of slow.

Yay parts arrived! New front lower control arms, lower ball joints, outer tie rod ends, and (another) header gasket from Percy's.

And thanks to the "learn me: roll your own coilover thread"

cmcgregor wrote: Substitute your home-grown housing for the Bilstein in this thread and there's some good info http://www.miataturbo.net/suspension-brakes-drivetrain-49/better-bilstein-ebay-coilover-thread-78451/ I'd say go for it - how hard could it be?

Dammit. That thread just made me buy some eBay coils and isolators. Decided against the torrington bearings since my car's a DD. Now to figure out a suitable spring length. Hopefully they coilover body is pretty tight against the Bilstein's shock housing.

there's not really any need for torrington bearings on that style strut, the springs dont need to turn

Isolatora got in Thursday, Coilovers arrived today. They look pretty unimpressive. I didn't expect much. I'll buy a digital caliper at work tomorrow and take some measurements to figure out spring rates. All the springs look to be the same length, coil count, and diameter.

533lbs/in with 5 active coils, goes up considerably with 4 active coils, somewhere in the 650lbs/in range. Just where I wanted to be. Guess I don't have to buy springs! ID of the adjustable sleeve is 51.3mm. I think Bilstein's measure out to 50mm OD on the shock body.

Got a decent bit done on the car today. Replaced both front tie rods, lower control arms, lower ball joints, and front tires. Why front tires? Because excessive toe out! Went to jack the car up yesterday to remove the sway bar(Oh, did that today too, every f*cking bolt broke on the brackets), saw that the front passenger was corded. Found a guy semi-locally that had a pair of 205/55/16 Bridgestone Potenza S02's for $90, so I snagged those up. Car fought me all day, probably because I was wearing a Jeep shirt. Unsure if I'm going to run the Bridgestones in the rear and move the 225/50/16 BFG's up front, need to get an alignment first, which will have to wait until after next Friday when I get paid again. Car feels WAY softer up front now, but turn in is much, much, MUCH crisper with the smaller width tires, and it rotates way easier off throttle. I got it aligned about the best I could before I was too worn out for the day, I have this weekend off so I'll be able to double check my work and tidy everything else up. Oh! I painted my crappy looking air intake tube black, as well. Moar heatsoakz! I'll also be finally making my trash can airbox since I have the entire weekend free and can really get the design down just how I want. Didn't have the energy to install the coilovers, but will probably be doing those in a couple of weeks after I get the feel for how this car is now.

That's some good work there! I need to link this build thread to my buddy that also loves accords.

Link him to Hondasociety.com as well. I have a build thread going on over there, and usually that's where I'll stick most of my brain dumps because I can bounce it off other people familiar with the platform. CB7tuner.com is great, too.

You should be able to do a good alignment with a cell phone level app for camber and two tape measures and a couple of sticks for toe. It'll take you longer, but it will be as good as a lazy technician on a machine ever does.

Where did you find the spring calculator?

Losing that front sway was a wise decision, it does a lot more for a fwd than most people realize.

Feels pretty good without it. I think its more sensitive to bumps on one side, but I like the benefit. I'm eyeing the RE71R's in a 195/55/16 size for the fronts now and putting the S02's out back. Gonna move the 225's to the front for now until I save up enough for RE71R's. It'll be pretty tail happy once all said and done.

Anyone have a link to a DIY alignment page? I'm feeling pretty lazy on the google-fu.

1. Drive to the hardware store and buy two cheap matching tape measures. This will make it easier.
2. Park somewhere level. Straight wheel.
3. Adjust camber. Measure with a smartphone level.
4. Grab a friend have them hold one end of the tape in the same groove on the tire, front and back of the fare side tire. You read a corresponding groove on your tire. To make this easier you can bungee a board or level or flat piece of metal to the wheel. Read your end of both tapes. Do math. That is your toe. Bigger number in front is toe out. Smaller is in.
5. Adjust toe. Both sides equally so the steering stays in the middle. Roll the car back and forth to eliminate bind. Measure again. Adjust and measure as necessary.
6. If you suspect that things aren't square on the car, then look up the GRM article about string alignments. Lots of careful measuring, good results.
   If you can change all of the parts you have, you can do a basic alignment. It's a good useful skill. Like anything, it takes longer the first time, and less as you get better. Measure carefully. You should easily be able to get camber within 1/2 degree and toe within 1/16 inch. That's almost certainly better than your alignment shop is going to do.

no.6 … you must really have some E36 M3ty alignment shops

wbjones wrote: no.6 … you must really have some E36 M3ty alignment shops

Difference between can do, and are willing to do. And yes, I've dealt with some pretty terrible shops. As soon as the monitor reads green, they're done. They don't particularly care what the numbers are as long as they are within spec for the car. This is a big part of why I do my own.