My newest build for SCCA STL/HPDE's

We may earn a small commission from affiliate links and paid advertisements. Terms

Thanks!

I used glass bead and blasted the head. I cleaned it thoroughly and also removed the valve seals which is a major pita without the removal tool. I suggest if you are doing this, spend the 30 bucks for the tool. I helped some friends with their projects today so didnt really get to do much on my own. Its fun working on other projects though and gives me new ideas for my own. Plus I owe my friend for the welding he will be doing on my full cage. He has a rotary powered lotus super 7 he has fully fabbed up in his garage that we have almost complete so that was fun to work on today.

All I need to do is pull some of the plugs out of the head and blow them out with air to make sure there isnt and media left in oil galleys or something like that.

Once I do that Im installing the new valve seals, valves, valve springs, and retainers.

Then bolt the sucker on the block and start getting ready to get this thing back on the road.

headb18b.jpg
 
Last edited:
I soaked the head over night in a simple green mix with water. I then balsted with with water as much as possible to remove any debris in the passages.

I then used compressed air to dry and blast out any other debris.

Now for the installation of the valves, valve springs, and retainers.

Brian Crower Titanium retainers
99269517.jpg


Viton valve seals
94494117.jpg


Lisle valve spring remover/installer Brian Crower dual valve springs
29988339.jpg


Starting the install
77879226.jpg


Brian Crower is in the head :beer:
29058832.jpg


27252203.jpg


I will be bolting it down soon.
 
Awesome build.

A couple things you might want to consider-
1) remove that gauge/stand from the dash thats held on with sticky tape. Screw it in or remove it.
2) 800 spring rate + stupidly huge sway + empty cabin, and your car is going to be a drift machine. While rotation is always nice to have in a fwd car, I think you may have over-done it a bit here with that heavy of a spring by itself. definitely drive it before you buy that 32mm sway as you probably won't need it.
 
Thanks,

Im up late from a night drinking weeeeee.

The gauge youre talking about is the apex vafc on my dash right?
Thats going to be either removed or moundted where the cd player was depending on if I even need it.

I have actually driven with this setup when I had my gsr motor in it that blew up. The car rotates ok and had a half cage basically with nothing in the car. I loved how it felt with the 23mm rear bar and those rates. A friend of mine and my first instructor at a driving event a year or two ago took me out in his coupe with 800/1000 32mm rear bar and it was just ridiculous how that car handled. Different platform but still an example of a setup that was good. He won the saarc championship with that setup.

I went from the koni/gc setup of 425/500 to the progress 500/800 and it was night and day better but I left the rear bar at 23mm still. I have a lot of experimenting to do with spring rates and rear bars but just getting the car properly aligned and corner balanced was huge in itself. Running toe out up front 1/16th of an inch and 0 in the rear also was huge so Im going to be adjusting a lot more than just rates and bars to get an optimal setup. I know that if its too much rear rate and bar the car will have way too much over steer so I need to find a balance.

I struggled getting the car to rotate at Sebring in turn 7 but there are some techniques I could use instead of modifications to improve in that area. I will really only be running there and Roebling road in Georgia which would call for a slightly different setup.

If anyones interested this was the old setup but same suspension at Sebring:
YouTube - Redline Time attack Sebring HPDE Honda CIVIC Session 2

I got a little frustrated at times and really shouldnt have since this was just a hpde but felt some people should have let me pass.
 
Last edited:
Damn Porsche and Subaru dicks. Nice Build :wub:


Thanks; yeah those guys were a bit annoying but I should have been more patient too. The guy in the Gallardo superleggera I passed early runs at a lot of the events I go to so he is always aware and let me by him but was on my ass the whole time until the motor went.

This new build will have less horsepower probably by about 30-40 at the wheels in my estimates (I hope Im wrong). That motor was between 185-200 at the wheels and I would like to see maybe 150 or so out of this motor. I think the torque on this new motor will be a big benefit because I always felt like I was having to search for power in some turns which is very noticeable in a few turns when I drop gears when I shouldnt have seriously upsetting the car. That video was the last time that motor ran :(. I think with a full cage my handling will be slightly improved so all in all I should have a better overall vehicle to run. If I'm not having fun I can always throw my gsr head from the last motor on the ls again and just do hpde's or turbo this motor.

I'm going to try and get the head on the block today and will post pics if I do.
 
Last edited:
:pwell.... its 9:55 p.m.... and either you went out drinking again, or you're bolting the head on as i am writing this... either way, GOOD TIMES!!!!!! lol:D:D:D
now, SHHHH!!!!! my kids are sleeping!!!!!
 
Lmao no I wasn't out!

I had the garage shut down by the wife lol. I should get to it tonight possibly I just need to make sure I have copper gasket sealer which I always use on my builds. I think I still have some in the garage.

Pics to come tonight of something for sure.
 
Last edited:
First time reading this and it's epic. Lots of good stuff going on in here.

That thing sounds like it's going to be pretty good on the track. IIRC you can have 12:1 comp ratio in the ST class, you just can't add VTEC to a block that doesn't come with it stock.

If you can I'd love to see some vids when you get this running sounds like it'll be a lot of fun.
 
First time reading this and it's epic. Lots of good stuff going on in here.

That thing sounds like it's going to be pretty good on the track. IIRC you can have 12:1 comp ratio in the ST class, you just can't add VTEC to a block that doesn't come with it stock.

If you can I'd love to see some vids when you get this running sounds like it'll be a lot of fun.

Thanks!

STL is 11:0.1 unless something changed. STU and STO I think are where you can run those compression ratios unless the new fast track changed it which I doubt.

They are possibly going to change the brake allowances finally but not until next year so I will see if it gets approved. Im not running unless they allow bigger brakes or aftermarket brake setups. The class has everything allowed but wants someone in my case to use the brakes that came on the cars best model for that year so in my case civic si stockers which isnt going to work for me. I used to run smaller front brakes and even with 2 compound changes they sucked at Sebring and were ok at Roebling. The class isnt Improved Touring where you're running 100 whp civics etc.

Anyway I promsied a picture!

It has rained all day so I didnt want to spray the gasket sealant in this humidity so the head still isnt on but I did get this.

Password JDM weld in oil pan baffle kit lol

Not a big deal but another piece to the puzzle. I will be dropping this off with my friend to get welded in this weekend.

bafflei.jpg


I hope to leave work at a normal time tomorrow and hopefully it wont be pouring. ARP head studs, copper spray and Im in business.


I will get a video of when I fire it up! I make good use of my go pro and hope to be doing a may hpde at roebling!
 
Last edited:
You race at Roebling and Sebring? Are you in Ga or Fl? I want to go down to Roebling in May and take one of the driving classes they have that month.
 
Last edited:
Im in Orlando, Fl.


I run Roebling with www.darksidede.com great group of people and where I first started doing driving events. None of the bs I have dealt with at some other organizations and its only $230 for 2 days of instruction with about 4 30 min runs a day. One thing is promotion to higher groups is slow but they have safety in mind for everyone. I have made a lot of friends everytime I go and highly recommend starting with them. You can youtube darkside events and see some of the action.

The people that run this event treat it like a family and only do 2-3 events a year so they go all out. 1 year they gave us wind breakers as part of the entrance fee and ended up losing money on the event...some may say thats dumb but they do it and donate and profits to charities anyway. I cant say enough about these people.

If you decide to go let me know, I have a small group of honda guys I meet up with that are all scca guys and have full purpose built IT cars etc. [May 14-15]
 
I will let you know for sure. I didn't see that group listed on roeblings site until tonight. The one I was looking at is "Hooked On Driving". The Dark Side is the weekend after so it would probably work out better. I will have to look into it. My car is certainly not built on any real competitive level, I just want to learn.
 
Thats the great thing about high performance driving events! You can come out in any car almost and learn to drive on a track as long as its in good working order. The best way to learn is to get out there with a close enough to stock vehicle like you have and listen, learn, and mainly have some fun.

Hooked on driving is an ok organization that I have heard some good and some bad things about. I have never done hooked on driving and can only go by what a friend told me of his experiences.

All I can say is driving on a track when you start to get comfortable and going at a good speed is like crack, even if its just a driving event.

www.clubregistration.net is another site to look for driving events and organizations. This where you also sign up for events too like with darkside.
 
Last edited:
I currently do Time Trials with them. You only get 4 - 20 min sessions per day. Not sure how your other clubs out there stack up. We have smaller groups here where you get a ton of track time.
 
Back
Top