The One Lap CRX is back

Blackhalo said:

How did the swirl pot and new reservoir work?

I could run a couple of laps in warm conditions before it would start to fill up reservoir.  
 

Now that the stock internals motor is back in, zero issues. 

Loving this. 
In 1986 (or 87... I've slept since then) I helped my then significant other buy a brand new CRX Si. Very much a bad boy on the block at the time. 
We loved that car, but at exactly twice the price as my brand new E36 M3 box (one of the few new cars I ever bought) we sold both about a year and a half into ownership, to get back to no car payments. 
Fun car even stock. 

More measuring today.  

A 1.25" front ride height change equates to a camber change of 1.2" and a toe change of 3/32".  Rear is similar in camber and no toe change.

Why is that important?  Our tire plan will require us to dial back camber and toe out for transits.  Raising the ride height to do so also gives our splitter a better chance against road debris.  

How will we do that quickly?  You'll have to wait on that one...Tom has some printing to do. 

Andy, for your k24 engines, do you buy the jdm k24a that have hundreds of listings on eBay/fb marketplace, or do you go after the supposedly "better" k24a2 from the 06-08 usdm Acura TSX?

replied in the other thread.

Test tires are all here and mounted.   Taking beauty shots now.  Should be an interesting comparo. 

L->R: 205/40-17, 215/40-17, 225/50-15, 205/50-15...all on 9's

And if you'd like a behind the scenes step-by-step of how we do these tests, take a look at our live thread from earlier this year:

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/live-thread-join-us-this-frid/259103/page1/

Scrub/cycle Thursday, test Friday...that's the plan. 

Got stretch?

About 1/4" of rim flange sticking out on either side...205/40-17 on 9" wheel.

Might need a lot more camber to complete the look... 

Scrubbed tires today in advance of tomorrow's testing.  Some of these fitments are comical.

Out with the old...

Note: it looks just as bad inside.

In with the new...

Spectra Premium aftermarket replacement tank, Delphi fuel pump and hangar assembly, NOS OE Honda fuel level sender.

Oops...had to pull the tank back out and replace the strainer.  The Delphi setup comes with the wrong one.  Too short.   Luckily, I had the right one on hand from a previous project.  Runs like a top now. 
 

Excited to see the times with the different tire/wheel combos on the CRX.

Blackhalo said:

Excited to see the times with the different tire/wheel combos on the CRX.

That one will get the full-on story treatment as both a tire test and project car update.  Doing another round on that this week.

Today's major accomplishment ==> the passenger door now opens. 

Tom said that might be important for OLOA...I dunno...hasn't worked for like six months and never bothered me. 

This one was really hard to find.  Tried a number of times to figure it out.  Today, I was ready to get out the sawzall but made one more concerted effort to find the issue.

The symptom was that the door would pop to the safety ajar position, not fully open.  Just like the hood, there is a secondary mechanism on older car doors that keeps it from opening all the way should the primary break.  This is what appeared to be happening.

But...after much work with a bent coat hangar and peering into the crack with a shop light, I saw something shiny that was moving a llittle.  Turns out, one of the mounting screws for the latch mechanism had backed out and was getting caught between the striker and door ajar sensor on the door jam.  Given how flimsy those sensors are, I just brute force rocked it back and forth really hard for a bit and it finally popped open,.  Huzzah!

Chalk another random failure up to race car vibrations.

Foreshadowing this care package from Eibach.  Stay tuned for more GRM-style cleverness.  
 

Rockin' the 60's drag racing look...

So even though I pulled the spring and ran the rear tire through it's full range of motion without contact, it did this under load on track.  Oof.  That's a brand new set of tires with melted sidewalls. 

So a 2mm spacer adjustment ...

And this marked tire came back untouched.  Success!

Empirical > theory 

I remember my yellow CRX rubbing on one rear fender but not the other.

Solution? One of those Porta Powers. 

Stopped the rubbing. 

Me, every time this thread gets bumped:

CrustyRedXpress said:

Me, every time this thread gets bumped:

we'll just for that, here's a bit of foreshadowing...

Been a minute, but lots still going one.  Many things at once, but few completions.  Here's one...

We've been running a Nine Lives Racing wang for a couple of years now, which was a nice improvement over our dumpster-recovery APR GTC-200.  But the wang mounts have been abusing our rear deck lid, working the metal and crumpling it.  There's a reason Golden Era Hondas are so light...they are made from beer can gauge sheet steel.

Mounting a wing effectively on the CRX hatch deck lid is a challenge, as the sheet metal is very thin. Also, the rear vertical section is not well supported, so the whole thing will flex back and forth, working the sides of the hatch until it breaks. There are alternatives, but most render the hatch a challenge to open with the wing in place, and we needed to be able to access that area for transit storage.  Recently, we made some improvements.

Here's the as-designed setup...

The first step is to make the top mount wider so that it captures the vertical surfaces at either end.

Second, a backing plate is added to improve the capture. Note that the backing plate must be cut into two pieces to thread through the openings in the boxed sheet metal. This is all very fiddly work, so small hands and patience are key.

The next step is to add a bumper for the vertical section so it does not flex back and forth. This is simply an elevator bolt from Lowe's with a furniture leg pad stuck on.

These two mods alone should get you 90% of the way there for the forces generated by the medium downforce 9LR wang. Way better than the as-designed setup.