The white-mess, my EM1 Si with a d16y8.

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

She runs. She drives.

I need to get the tune working better.


The guy from BMTune banned me for asking for a refund when he closed the facebook support group. So I'm banned, blocked, and he killed my license. So, now I'm using Honda Tuning Suite, which is a legal fork of eCTune, with a lot of improvements.
 
Its fun to drive.

Hopefully I'll find time to take it to the track this year before the first snow.

It seems like (based on 0-60 and 1/8 mile times) it's somewhere around 275-300hp right now. I'm kinda excited to get it to an experienced tuner to see what they can eek out of it.

I'm going to be moving to e85 here soon, with a flex fuel sensor, so that ought to be fun. :D
 
Washed her for the first time since before I laid paint. To be fair, I haven't put that many miles on her, lol.

600_3799.JPG
 
Almost done with the oil change/rod bearing replacement.

IMG_20191004_202249.jpg


Apparently the bearing scraped the outside a little bit last time I assembled it. This left a sliver of bearing material in-between the rod and rod cap, and thus threw all the tolerances out of whack.

I can't get the ACDelco oil filter off, because when I threw my honda oil filter wrench on it, it just spun and removed all the knurling on the oil filter, lol. So, back to OEM filters only for me.

I also got a recirculating adapter for my SSQV, so I'll get this thing quieted down a bit finally.
 
Reminds me of running old snowmobiles/quads/dirtbikes back in the day.
Spend more time fixing and working on them than you do riding them.
Gotta respect the grind!!
 
Still haven't done much. I did get a bug identified with Honda Tuning Suite, and switched over completely.

I put the turbo blanket on:
IMG_20191021_195200.jpg


And installed the front suspension from the Eibach kit I picked up for next to pennies on the dollar.

Before:
Before_Drop.jpg

After:
After_Drop.jpg


Hopefully I won't scrape on everything... It's all hanging pretty low now. It's about 1.25" lower, but significantly stiffer. I suppose I can always raise it using a combination of spring perch spacers and/or top-hat plates if it's too low.

I still have to do the rear suspension, but I want to pick up some rear brake cylinders first, since I'll already have everything apart I figure it's a good time to fix those.

Tomorrow afternoon I'm gonna try to get up my driveway with it this low, and take a short little drive. Just in time for it to get too cold to actually put any power to the ground. Lol.
 
i think you missed the photo with the turbo blanket.

also, why haven't you cleaned anything lol

Turbo blanket is there... It took like 20 minutes to get on. It's in there really tight.

Why would I clean it? It could catch on fire and burn to the ground at literally any moment.
 
Last night I did a once-over on the car because I wanted to drive it today...

Glad I checked it.

Problem: Fuel leak.
Root Cause: O-Ring seal is not gasoline compatible.
Solution: Stop buying Chinese garbage.




The turbo blanket is under the manifold, you can kinda see it in that picture..
 
Last edited:
Damn it.

IMG_20191027_165501.jpg


I even soaked that bugger for a couple days in PBlaster. Snapped it with hand tools...
 
Well, that was easy. Either I'm a lot better at this stuff now, or the internet is full of liars. That took less than 30 minutes to do, and I got the new shock/spring installed in the chassis too.

Tomorrow I guess I'll get a new bushing to press in.

IMG_20191027_204957.jpg
 
i think we just know how to do it systematically instead of taking swings at it with bigger hammers.
 
I picked up the center lower control arm bushings from Napa... And naturally, it's not a direct fit. Stock bushing width is 40mm, these are 49.9mm. Part number cross-references to the Honda part backwards and forwards in literally everyone's interchange system. *sigh*

I did a search for the part number on the google machine, and found a single post from honda tech stating that you have to grind 1/8" off each side if you use that part number to avoid replacing the lower control arm.

The scribe lines in the rubber are what I just put there. Here's the original part next to the "new" part.
IMG_20191028_184514.jpg


So, yeah. Gonna be fun.
 
Took just a little more than an hour to finish up both sides. Now I just have to wait for the bolts to get here tomorrow.

IMG_20191028_210521.jpg
IMG_20191028_210540.jpg


My 20t shop press is probably one of the best purchases I've ever made, second only to that MIG machine.
 
Further stories in "This is the right part, trust me" the bolts I got are not right. They're 10mm too long, and the threaded portion is 15mm too short.

So, yeah. Good times. Not gonna make it to the track on Friday night unless something really cool happens.
 
Back
Top