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Not a build thread, but cool stuff nonetheless

5K views 23 replies 9 participants last post by  h23bb2 
#1 ·
So, I originally bought this car bone stock from the 3rd owner and while it wasn't in terrible shape, it was nowhere near perfect. I bough it to be mild mannered daily but, well.... The only thing that remained true is that its a daily. I run a small shop tuning and building cars. I would say 98% of what we do is Subaru or Subaru related (Tuning, building, maintenance, e-tuning, etc...), but we do some Mazda stuff (rotary and Miata related), 2jz stuff and some Honda/Acura stuff here and there.

In July of last year the car got a new heart: a 1st gen B16A from an XSI with a usdm YS1 gsr transmission. Basic bolt-ons and a simple street tune did the car well as it did numerous HPDE trackdays at various locations. The car has had a complete suspension makeover (list below) and does reasonably well against Caymans, Miatas, Camaros, etc... Fast forward to the middle of January and a friendship between myself and Derek Dunbar of DDTech camshafts (http://www.ddtechcams.com/) and its spurred me to start hitting the local drag strip some more. So 2016 will be devoted to the going faster/making more power rather than generating more grip.

I finally dyno tuned the setup a few weeks ago and made 167hp/110tq which is reasonable for the setup considering the recorded compression (see below). The car went 14.1@97/98mph shortly thereafter with a recorded wet weight of 2100lbs. Not bad seeing as how the 60' times were 2.3ish :rolleyes1:

MOTOR:
B16A (10.2:1)
ARP headstuds
Type R cams
Skunk2 intake manifold
H22A PnP throttlebody
IACV delete
CAI k&n filter
Toda Replica header
2.5" header back with a vibrant steet series muffler
CTR N1 crank pulley
Hasport 95A mount kit
RDX injectors
Walbro 255 fuel pump
Hondata S300
NGK BKR8EIX (yes, there's a reason I went that cold)

DRIVETRAIN:
92 GSR YS1
Fidanza flywheel
exedy stg1 clutch
B&M Shifter
Energy suspension bushings

SUSPENSION:
KYB AGX struts
H&R race springs
Hardrace Upper control arms
Hardrace lower control arm bushings
K Tuned traction bar
Hardrace rear trailing arm bushings
SPC adjustable toe arms
SPC rear camber arms
SPC rear lower control arms
Prothane F&R swaybar mount bushings
Beck Arnley oe replacement sway bar endlinks
Moog lower balljoints
Moog inner/outter tie rods

WHEELS/TIRES and BRAKES:
DA front brakes
Hawk HP+ pads (Front)
Hawk HPS pads (Rear)
Centric premium rotors
Goodridge stainless lines
15x7 Enkei RPF1
205/50/15 Falken 615K



















 
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#4 ·
In an effort to crack 170whp, I've decided to give up compromise and get serious. I did a K Teller 3" mandrel bent aluminized steel piping kit, a 2.5" donut flange, and Vibrant race muffler. While we don't do much fabrication at my shop, we do have a few resources for such a thing. I spent the afternoon with my buddy Chris and we completed the exhaust with a few minor modifications.



Yes, that's technically a muffler. :rofl:





It is obnoxiously loud, but I'm getting used to it. I have also removed the H22A throttle body and have installed a Skunk2 70mm Alpha series unit. Sorry, no pictures...
I plan to hit the dyno and dial it in with the new additions next week hopefully. I'm curious to see the gains associated with components most swear are overkill/lose power on a small, simple B16A setup like mine.

As for plans for more power, I have a single fogger, dry nitrous setup on board. I'm waiting on a few miscellaneous tidbits before wiring it up going live with it. I will be doing a 50 shot and then progressing my way up to a 100 shot. Along the way, I will ditch the RDX injectors for a set of ID725's I have on hand. I will also be doing a valvetrain upgrade and some DD Tech nitrous spec cams to replace my current ITR units.







 
#6 ·
I originally intended to use it with one of my D series builds, but never got around to it. I'm constantly working on, building, tuning turbo cars, so the nitrous will be a change of pace. But really, the icing on the cake is it will allow me to not change the fun nature of the car on track but still make respectable power on demand (so long as I remember to open the bottle...) :bounce:

I'm pretty sure the car will end up on E85 in the next couple weeks as well.
 
#9 ·
At best, I'm between dailys, so its actually daily driven. No radio, PS, CC, AC, ABS, windshield washers, etc... The 3" exhaust and 95A hasport mounts do make things a little rough, and Georgia summers are not kind. I've gotten used to it though and don't really mind most of the time.

Yes, stock sway bars. I was planning on getting a set of 15x8 rpf1's and running 225 width Hankook RS3's for track duty then implementing sway bars, but with a more dedicated focus on drag racing this year, I doubt either will take place.
 
#12 ·
Thanx guys! The car is a lot of fun- and that's saying something since I tune 400+whp STI's regularly. :lol:

I finally made it back to the dyno with the new 70mm throttle body and 3" catback. Unfortunately, I could not find my previous run in the shops database so I can't overlay the two graphs. If you look closely though, the car made more power everywhere! VTEC crossover is a little spotty (just ran out of time and left it alone for now), but down low the car picked up torque and gains of 8whp were realized in VTEC which tells more of a story than the 3 whp gained at peak power. More area under the curve can certainly be felt on the street! The new mods certainly changed the VE of the motor. Previously, VTEC crossover was 4800rpm. I now have it set at 5300rpm and could probably afford to set it a couple hundred rpm higher than that.

OLD dyno:



NEW dyno:



I will be making another thread on this in the performance section of this forum, hoping to facilitate easy searching for guys wanting to make power with a B16.

Moving on with the car as a whole, I got some goodies in yesterday:



And I promptly filled them up:



There's a station 10 minutes from my house, But I wanted to keep some on hand at my house and at the shop for convenience sake. I will be dumping in the first 5 gallons tonight, hopefully. I'm waiting on a Go-Autoworks 3" cold air intake to arrive and then back to the dyno.
 
#13 ·
So I got a few fuel upgrades in. The RDX injectors are going away and being replaced with some ID725's. I plan to run them at 60psi rail pressure, so I got an AEM Honda specific FPR. While I was at it, I also got an AEM rail and Marshall pressure gauge.







My Go-autoworks intake finally arrived a few days ago. I plan on implementing a thermal barrier via Reflect- A- Gold heat reflective tape before installing it. I don't expect that alone to work wonders for IAT's, but coupled with no IACV and throttle body coolant bypass, plus a few other things I'll be doing in the near future (including a custom phenolic intake manifold spacer), IAT's should be substantially lower than your typical setup.



 
#16 ·
hey mate, just be careful storing that E85 fuel... it likes to turn itself into varnish very quickly if you don't add a stabilizer to it when storing it.

I'm talking like within 2 months it'll be like a gluey mess in the bottom and nail varnish smelling liquid on top, not something you want going through your fuel system
 
#17 ·
ZeusTwo said:
Never mind i found it LOL either way nice work bro. I love this build!
Thanx. It's coming along nicely. I just ordered a Whitfield Manufacturing air filter. Its a 3" open top element with built in velocity stack. I also ordered a Injen hydroshield to place over the filter as well. I will use trhe K&N filter that came with the Go-Autoworks intake for some other project. I spent about 3-4 hours wrapping the intake with DEI's Reflect-A-Gold tape. WHile that may sound like alot, if you haven't used this stuff before, you have no idea how hard it is to keep it wrinkle free as you apply it. :? I'll update with some pictures tomorrow, or maybe later today.

NikZak said:
hey mate, just be careful storing that E85 fuel... it likes to turn itself into varnish very quickly if you don't add a stabilizer to it when storing it.

I'm talking like within 2 months it'll be like a gluey mess in the bottom and nail varnish smelling liquid on top, not something you want going through your fuel system
Yea, I'm familiar with its short shelf life. My original 20 gallons lasted about 2 weeks with some fill ups from the pump as well. I have some ethanol fuel stabilizer that I might start adding to my containers just in case.

I filled up the other night, drove home and parked the car for a day or two. I got in it last night and did a brief pull while watching the wideband. Seeing AFR's quite lean, I suspect I finally got summer blend E85. The car took between 8-14% more fuel to AFR's spot on again. Doing E85 the right way requires an ethanol content analyzer, either a gauge only, or, preferably, used in conjunction with a suitable engine management as well. Being a tuner, I'm quite aware of what's going on and am constantly watching the wideband. Had I not been, things could have ended badly especially if spraying/boosting.

We are a dealer for a company called KS Technologies. They make a variety of different products for Subarus from intakes, to scoop deletes, to air pump delete kits. They also make phenolic spacers in varying thickness. I spoke with them and they have agreed to make me a custom, one-off phenolic spacer for the B series if I paid for the design time and materials. I know Hondata makes an off the shelf solution (as do several other companies), but I believe the material used by KS Tech is superior, plus it will be a little thicker. I have ordered some longer studs for the intake manifold, but being Blox, I think I'll only use two of them to line up the gaskets/spacer/manifold then use some bolts to secure it to the head (ARP studs were $100+ my hardware store bolts were $15).
 
#18 ·
Found this thread of interest (particularly post #9):

http://honda-tech.com/all-motor-natural ... t-3160814/

I am curious as to what cylinder head he used in post 9 and with what intake manifold? The P72 intake ports are more angled than the Pr3 ports that are more level and I'm wondering if I might be able to get away with a 1/8" spacer. Or have the spacer made at an angle so that injector ports are re-adjusted for a better spray pattern. Maybe have the flange on the manifold milled down a little. Just kind of ball parking some ideas and seeing if somebody can offer some more insight based on experience. I may end up trying a few different things and if it doesn't work out, scrap it. I don't mind spending the money/time/effort to gain the knowledge and experience.
 
#19 ·
So I have a few "intake" related updates. My Injen Hydroshield arrived today. It fits my K&N filter great and should work with my Whitfield Manufacturing filter just fine.

*counter top picture*


And finally a few pictures of my Go-Autoworks 3" cold air wrapped in DEI Reflect-A-Gold

*dirty workbench picture*






I think I plan on doing the fuel upgrades and intake then hitting the dyno. I will then see about installing my phenolic spacer and see how my results compare to the information shared above. After that, I suspect I will do some dyno testing comparing my Go-Autoworks intake with a custom "tuned" intake. I will use a typical 3" short ram, use a BPI velocity stack, and vary the length of the unit and see what is best for the torque/torque curve. While on the dyno and post dyno, I will also compare IAT's between the two designs and see if I can go faster at the drag strip with one intake or the other (will probably do dyno pulls with the hood closed for these tests).

I'm also contemplating revving the motor higher as well. I'm shifting out at 8400rpm which just after peak power. By spinning 8600-8700 rpm, I suspect I can lower my ET by staying closer to peak power longer. I am, however, concerned about my first gen B16A valve springs and LMA's holding up with the ITR cams at that rpm/abuse level. Again, open to insight/experience.
 
#20 ·
I finally threw my ID725's, AEM rail and AEM FPR in the car the other day. I set base fuel pressure to 60psi and got it all dialed in on E85 Summer blend. The transient response is nice/smooth. Took a couple cold starts to get cranking fueling right. It may need some minor tweaks in the winter.





I also received my Whitfiield Manufacturing air filter (no pics). For now, I'm still using my ebay EM1 cold air intake. When I swap nitrous jets from 50 shot to 75, I will probably do the install of the new intake and head to the dyno.

I installed my Ortiz gauge pod and am less than impressed. It could work really well if they would've put the gauges at maybe 10 &2 instead of 11:30 & 12:30. As you can see, half the tack/speedometer are blocked from view. They offered to remake it, but I decided to replace it with a different cluster they offer, placing the gauges in the middle AC vents.



 
#21 ·
Can you provide more info about that gauge pod? I'd love to have a setup like that but with the 10 & 2 positions like you mentioned.

Build is looking solid 8)
 
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