'99 Accord EX
F23A1 - 2.3L
5 speed
"Drive it like you stole it!"
updated 10/19/03 |
EJ's '99 Accord Project |
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'99 Accord EX F23A1 - 2.3L 5 speed |
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"Drive it like you stole it!" |
2002 Journal - Update 12/04/02
12/04/02 - Flash! A big 'Screw You' to 1320Tuning.com as OGRacing.com comes through in spades! I've been waiting for a replacement seat back handle for my Sparco Torino seat since the end of September from 1320Tuning.com. The last email I rec'd from Chris of 1320Tuning.com said "Actually yes, Its on its way to us now" about my replacement Sparco handle. That was back at the end of October - some customer service, huh? And yet, if you try to complain to the guy, he'll explain how YOU are being unreasonable by not giving him a few months to deliver a simple part. I got fed up and called Sparco, who told me I could contact any authorized Sparco dealer and get the handle. Having had such a good experience with OG Racing for the seat brackets, I decided to try them again. Excellent choice! OG went out of their way to get me the handle - for free! They couldn't find any in their online inventory, but the guy on the phone at OG said he knew they had some around, so he went and verified they had it, and then said he'd ship it out to me as soon as he hung up the phone. Sure enough, I rec'd the correct handle about 3 days later. No invoice, no charges, just the part. Granted, this is a $3 part, but when shipping alone is usually $5 and up for small parts, I figured to pay at least $8 or so. Nice guys at OG - give them your business. Thanks again to Scott Rutt for hooking me up with OG. And avoid 1320Tuning unless you like to place orders and get jerked around a lot.
Phantom Grip - That's it? I rec'd my order of replacement headlight bulbs and the Phantom Grip from JCWhitney.com. The Phantom Grip box is about 5"x3.5"x4". I open up to look at this marvel of engineering, and got a shock. It appears to be just a hunk of (nicely) machined metal - rectangular, with a hole through the middle, and that's about it. The Phantom Grip itself is only 2.75"x1"x1.75"! I looked at the instructions that came with it, and noticed that nothing in them or on the box verifies it is applicable to the 98-02 Accord. In fact, the box lists various year Integra's, Civic's, Probe GT's, and MX-6's, but the only Accord listed is "92-96 Accord (except V6)". Concerned, I looked up the part number again on the PhantomGrip.com web site - the part number is listed on their web site as valid for the 99 Accord 4. Going back to the install instructions, it doesn't appear this is a do-it-yourself part, so be prepared to get some professional transmission expertise lined up. The Phantom Grip is made up of 2 halves that are pinned together to form the rectangular block. During the install, the installer is instructed to remove to small metal tabs from similarly small metal pins, and then the small pins themselves. The 2 halves then apparently separate within the differential. The simplicity of this unit is amazing, and that would seem to point to reliability. Major auto mod magazines have given it glowing reviews, so I can't wait to see the results. Now it's a matter of planning the install. I need to talk to my garage and see what other parts it might make sense to tackle during this install - on the wish list is a new ACT clutch, the ClutchMasters flywheel, and the switch back to the stock front anti-sway bar. I'm hoping I can save some labor costs by bundling some of those together for one big appointment. I'd also like to get the benefits of the Phantom Grip now during snow season. I'm also thinking that it would be better to get the Phantom Grip and the new clutch/flywheel combo broken in now during conservative driving weather and not in the Spring when I'll be starting SCCA competition again.
Anti-virus and its importance - My AccordClub.net email address has been getting hit pretty hard recently with virus-infected emails. I'm safe because a) AccordClub scans for viruses, and b) I run Norton Anti-virus on my own PC. However, it's just a nuisance to have to delete huge Klez-infected emails. Unfortunately, with the way AccordClub handles email, I can't tell from the email headers who is responsible for the viruses, or else I'd just contact them. Anyway, I'm a computer security professional, so this is a topic near and dear to my heart: drop the $30 on Norton Anti-virus and get your PC cleaned up! You risk a major headache if you ever need to clean a virus off your PC, so why not prevent it in the first place? You can get a FREE online anti-virus scan from Trend Micro, so check it out. These scans can also help you clean up your PC if it's already infected. Finding out what viruses are on your PC is the first step. Become a responsible Net Citizen. The data you save may be your own...
ComplainingAccordOwner.com - and finally, I rec'd an email from a visitor who felt compelled to tell me that I complain too much on the web site. I try not to complain, unless I feel it is warranted. My philosophy is that, if I was a reader, I'd want to know the good AND the bad of any mods, and that's what I try to summarize here. There's a thousand web sites (mostly the manufacturers and the vendors who sell car parts) that'll tell you everything is great and fantastic - true or not. My aim is to try to inject as much reality as possible into the experience so that you can make an informed choice BEFORE you lay out your time/money/effort on your vehicle. The more informed you are, the happier you're going to be with the results. Fortunately for me, I've gotten dozens of emails and guestbook comments telling me that they appreciate the opinions I've put on this site. Let me say "thanks" for the feedback - even the critical stuff - as it helps me in a variety of ways.
11/13/02 - STILL waiting for Sparco parts - I'm still waiting for parts to arrive from 1320Tuning.com to replace the broken handle on my Sparco seat. Not a big deal since I don't plan on installing the seat until Spring of 2003, but I'm beginning to doubt whether I'll receive it or not. Considering I ordered the seat in April of 2002, you'd think I'd have the seat complete to install at this point. I'm going to have to give Sparco a call and tell them I've been screwed by my unauthorized dealer and see if they'll have some mercy on me. Lesson learned - don't mess around on Sparco stuff from an unauthorized dealer. Heck, even some of the authorized dealers leave a lot to be desired (Mid Atlantic Trading has a disconnected phone last time I called them). Maybe the lesson here is to avoid Sparco and go with Sube Sports and their Cobra seats. I'll let you know how I make out in calling Sparco.
Phantom Grip kit - I ordered a Phantom Grip LSD kit for my Accord. The Accord has a nasty tendency to spin the (right? I believe...) drive wheel in hard launches (are there any other kind?), wet roads, snow, etc., so the LSD should help eliminate this by locking the differential under hard acceleration, sending power to both wheels. It also has the added benefit of controlling wheel slippage when cornering, so the outside wheel that has all the traction (no matter which way you turn) ends up getting the majority of torque, while the inside wheel is limited in its slippage. This will unfortunately bump me out of Street Touring Sedan class in SCCA, and into the Street Modified class. The end result of this will be that the factor they use to even out track times is greater for SM than it is for STS so I'll be even slower than I was before. I'll have to wait and see if the LSD helps make up for some of that disadvantage.
The other item that will hopefully make up for that penalty will be my decision to use a dedicated set of tires and wheels for SCCA Solo II competition next year. I'm going to use my current black Rota Slipstreams and get some decent autocross tires on them - probably Falken Azenis Sports. I'm just trying to decide on a size - either 205/55R16 or 215/45R16. I'm thinking the fatter & shorter 215's might give a bit more traction and less sidewall flex. The speedometer readings will be off because of the non-standard diameter of the tire, but since they are dedicated to track-only use, it shouldn't much matter. I've just got to make sure that there's enough clearance between the suspension parts and the current tires on my Slipstream rims to allow for a bit wider tire.
Of course, this time of year represents a bit of a hibernation period on the Accord modifications. It's just too darn cold and wet out to monkey with stuff. I was thinking of taking off my Injen CAI and switching on my old DC Sports short intake in order to avoid sucking up slush or snow into the intake filter, but instead I purchased some heavy duty tape at Home Depot, and I've taped up the openings in the splash guards on the underside of the right front fender in order to prevent stuff from getting up inside. Plus, I'm thinking it's probably better to suck in some of that warmed air from the engine compartment now that it's cold out. It's tough to get a total air tight seal on some of the holes, since some are quite large and even have a tow hook protruding through it, but this tape does a pretty good job. I thought about using duct tape, but I know that isn't the hardiest of tapes, so the stuff I got at Home Depot (not sure what it's called) appears to be better suited. It is metal on the outside, with a sticky rubberized backing. It was listed as being able to stop leaks in water pipes and such, so I'm hoping it proves to be pretty impervious to winter moisture. I'm keeping my fingers I don't end up with a seized engine while I've got a short intake and an AEM bypass valve sitting in my basement unused. We'll see....
I had one of my Diamond Blue headlamps from JCWhitney.com burn out this past week. 6 months of life from a $10 bulb isn't great, but hopefully it was an anomaly. Just in case it wasn't, I've ordered 3 more bulbs from JCWhitney. That way I'll be covered if they stop carrying them, or if I have another one blow. Those bulbs have a definite bluish tint to them, so it looks kind of odd when I've got one of the old stock bulbs in with one of the new Diamond Blue bulbs.
9/26/02 - Sparco brackets (cont) - Now that I've had my brackets for awhile, I've decided to begin planning the installation of this seat. I've removed the plastic trim that covers the bolts at the rear of the stock seat, and last night I decided to put the brackets all together in a dry run before actually installing the seat. I also need to fit the main base to the Accord to see how much the bracket got bent during shipping. Apparently, no vendor packs these brackets sufficiently to keep them from at least poking their corners out of the box they're shipped in. This heavy main base bracket actually shows a crack in the black powder coating on a thick portion of a bracket that bolts to the transmission hump at the back of the base. I may have to use my 3lb hammer and bend that portion back out a bit, since it looks like it might be off by at least 1/2". After I finished the loose assembly of the brackets (see the new pics), I was a bit excited about the look of the seat, and actually removed the plastic bag from it fully for the first time! I put a screw driver under the right rear bracket tab to balance it out, and decided to try the flip-forward levers that are located on either side of the seat - in case you install it in a coupe. As I pull up on the lever, expecting the seat back to flip forward, the lever simply SNAPS OFF IN MY HAND. This is after it has done nothing but sit down in my basement awaiting brackets since April!! I called Sparco today to see what they could do for me, and fully hoped (and expected) that they would step up to cover the seat under some sort of warranty. I was told that I would need to first contact the place I bought the seat (uh-oh), and if I had problems with them (that would be the infamous 1320Tuning.com), then to call Sparco back and see what they could do for me. I'm now waiting for a response from 1320Tuning.com. I had another web site visitor (boy, it seemed like people came out of the wood work in August to offer great tips and advice!) warn me that his Sparco seat was very fragile when it came to having his seat belt buckle, mounted on the door frame, continuously jab his Sparco seat side each time he closed the door. He said that after awhile, the buckle simply poked right thru the fabric. I'm hoping for the price of this seat that the materials and build quality will be much better than that or my handle experience.
I had a funny clicking noise start to appear from my driver's side Rota Slipstream wheels. Paying close attention to the noise when pulling into the garage indicates that the noise was coming from the rear wheel. I pulled the wheel last night and inspected it for possible cracks, a loose wheel weight, an object in the center cap, a loose center cap, or some brake issue. I found nothing, except for some corrosion between the unfinished side of the wheel hub and the Rota's hub. I cleaned both off, and mounted the wheel again. Driving on it now shows no noise as of now. I'll keep an eye on it and keep you posted.
I rec'd a nice (but brief) MPEG movie of a web site buddy who is autocrossing, uh, somewhere. As soon as I find out more about the details I'll post them.
9/18/02 - Sparco brackets - The visitors to my web site have proven that there are a lot of great people out there who are reading my journal. I've had several excellent suggestions submitted to me, and this Sparco bracket problem was one of the issues solved by some great people. Scott Rutt suggested contacting OG Racing of Manassas VA. I sent them an email detailing my problems, and they hooked me up w/ an order the next day. I rec'd my brackets 3 business days later! Amazing!! For his help, Scott gets a Razo aluminum/carbon fiber shift knob and e-brake set. Thanks, Scott! Anyway, I took an evening and began to piece together the various parts (main base, slider brackets, seat base) and after about 15 minutes of piecing individual pieces together and then loosely bolting them together, I was able to get an idea of how things would work. Don't rely on the Sparco instructions to tell you what to do - they only give you about half of what you'll need details on. I'm a big fanatic with detail: I like to know EXACTLY what I'm expected to do in order to ensure a safe and effective installation. This would be doubly true for a piece of safety equipment such as a seat. I'm surprised that Sparco hasn't put together better instructions in order to head off possible litigation from improper installation.
Gude Performance - I started to do some trolling of the Honda and Accord web boards in search of comments/opinions of Gude products. Of the dozen or so posts, I found only one that was complimentary (of their cams); the rest of the posts pretty much suggested that Gude's claims of 35+ HP from their products is pretty much snake oil. I came to agree with one of the posters, who suggested that if Gude's products really did produce that kind of power, then why not post some dyno charts to prove it? Gude question, dude! So I'm off the Gude kick as of now. If you have anything to add to this, please email me at my 'accordclub.net' email address - just click the 'Send email' link at the top of this page.
Shouts out to... as mentioned earlier, I've had a lot of people send me great suggestions, so I'd like to recognize them somehow. For now, it'll be this entry, but I'm thinking of creating a separate page to share their suggestions with others. Recent submitters include:
Philippe Marseille - for suggesting blue Loctite on the bolts when you assemble the seat base and brackets, noting that the slider handle needs to be "defolded" a bit since the base is a bit wider than the handle, and to watch for seat belt clips that are attached to doors (not the case in the Accord) since they can damage the Torino seat fabric if they get jammed into the seats during door closing. You can check out Philippe's web site at http://www.clubaccordquebec.com/english/members/pmarseille.html
Steve Chiu - for suggesting a method for keeping needles from sticking on gauge faces: "take fine sand paper and place it under the needles and then rotate the needle over the paper until you get enough of the black base of the needle sanded off that it won't stick. It just takes patience so don't put too much force on the needle that you'll break it. You should see black pieces of plastic coming off from under the needle base."
C. Stirling - for suggesting using an area to put the G-Tech performance meter to use. 'C' suggests the local road of Rt. "9H, south of Kinderhook. A straightaway that's 2.2 miles long. Flat, limited access by side roads, driveways, etc. I commute through there every day, at 68 mph. The rare time I see a smokey, I don't even slow down, and he don't pay no never-mind."
Brian Massie - for a lot of input on chassis setup for better handling.
2003 Accord V6 Coupe - If you just bought an Accord recently, especially a coupe, get ready to have a sick feeling. Honda has announced the 2003 version of the Accord coupe, and it's going to be dragon slayer! How does a 240 HP V6 and a SIX speed manual sound? You can make yourself sick by looking at these resources:
HondaBeat.com - 2003 Accord coupe review
Car Design News - 2003 Accord Pictures and Details
8/20/02 - Sparco brackets - Does anyone know if these really exist? I've emailed Sparco several times, but have rec'd nothing from them in return. Sounds like it's time to call them and see if they can explain why they a) don't have any brackets, and b) don't answer their email. Speaking of not answering their email, add Gude Performance to the list of companies who like to talk up customer service on their website, but just don't come thru. Gude parts were featured in Sport Compact Car's September 2002 issue which had a nice little section on Accord parts. While SCC counted up 69 parts, I found that only a select few were either worthwhile or had applications that included the 6th gen sedan. Gude does have some nice camshafts and throttlebodies available, but you might want to read their disclaimer on their website. It doesn't exactly make you want to rush out and throw them a wad of cash for parts to add to your daily driver. I've emailed Gude asking them if that disclaimer is boilerplate or if there are real issues w/ their parts on the street, but I haven't rec'd an answer. Not sure if they just don' want to talk or if they have lousy email response records. I've also emailed SCC to ask them to comment on their ability to be used on the street. I'll let you know if I hear anything.
Gauges conundrum - that means I'm having doubts about how to handle my after market gauges for those of you who read this site and seem to author email notes to me as if English was a second language. My NR Auto gauges seemed like a good way to avoid having to splice into electrical wiring and take a risk of messing stuff up, but those damn gauge faces simply won't lie flat enough to keep out of the way of the tach needle. The speedo and gas/temp needles are fine, but the tach needle is sticking when the RPMs get above 3400 (which is often J). I bought a set of reverse indiglo gauges based on a recommendation of a reader of this website, but the guy has since said he also has problems w/ the needles sticking (thanks for the recommendation, dude!). They do look sweet, though. The electrical connections are a bit more finished than other gauge sets I've seen, so it may not be that hard to install them. I'll have to get some wiring advice before I get brave enough to start this project.
SCCA Solo II - Next competition is 8/31 & 9/1. Not sure if I'm going to make this meet or not since I've got many family type events happening that day. Plus, we're currently down to one vehicle (the mighty Stealth Accord) after selling my wife's Subaru Legacy wagon and finding out we'll need to order her 2003 VW Passat wagon since they can't find the color (Mojave Beige & Beige leather) on the East Coast. 90 days to get an ordered vehicle. Somehow I see myself being told to use my mountain bike more and more to run my errands, while the wife takes over the Stealth Accord. By the way, I didn't like AutoTrader at all. Got one bogus call on it thru AutoTrader by some dope in Connecticut, while the vehicle was sold by posting a pic of it at work for free. Newspaper ad also generated several good leads for less money.
7/11/02 - Sparco Torino seat tale - This has been one b*tch of a purchase. The vendor I chose to purchase the parts (seat & brackets) thru, 1320Tuning.com, apparently doesn't have the best ties to Sparco or their wholesalers. It took forever for some of the brackets ordered to show up, then when they did, they were for another application. Returning the parts took weeks due to the wholesaler's screw-up on a call ticket, and then they claimed Sparco can't fulfill the order. Information was never offered by 1320Tuning - I always had to ask pointed questions to get any details. Then when I complained about the pace of the delivery and the screw ups, I was lectured on being an ingrate and not realizing that it wasn't the vendor's fault that their suppliers couldn't deliver the goods. Lesson learned - stick with bigger vendors. To date, I'm still without 2 of 3 bracket kits needed to mount the seat in the car. 1320Tuning did offer a refund for the brackets I haven't rec'd. From order placement to refund is going to be about 3 months.
Sway bar advice - Several visitors to my site have suggested replacing the Neuspeed front sway bar with the stock unit, and to try to beef up the stiffness of the rear bar. It looks like I'll take this advice and have Larry's Foreign Auto put the stock front bar back in. These suggestions are meant to address my complaints of bad understeer. Meanwhile, I'd like to get a set of Falken Azenis tires to see if they would help any. My Dunlops are just about shot from 2 seasons of Solo II racing, so I just might get them in the spring of 2003.
Head/tail lights - So far I've kept my stock tail lights since my inspection in May/June. Just haven't felt the need to put the altezzas back in. I have seen some darkened tail lights that would look better with my 'all dark' theme on the car, but I want to make sure they are SAE DOT approved so I don't need to swap them out for inspection. I've also seen some headlights that offer the 'halos' similar to BMW lights, and would love to get a set of those. Once again, I'd like to make sure they would pass inspection before I got them. They are great looking, though.
Gauge cluster changes - I finally got brave and took out my gauge cluster to install the NR white gauge faces and carbon fiber gauge trim ring that I've had for over a year. The install took several attempts over the course of 2 weeks before everything was right. The tach needle kept hanging on the gauge face. It required me to shift the gauge face over to the right a bit more than it should be. This keeps the needle cutout directly under the needle base, which keeps the needle base from contacting the gauge face. The doublesided tape just wasn't holding down enough of the gauge face to keep it out of the way. Pictures of it are here.
5/28/02 - Injen Cold Air Induction Installation - I took this past Friday off from work, and decided to tackle my Injen intake installation. It was amazingly simple. I removed the current DC Sports intake (super simple), then began work on removing the stock pipe contraption that acts as both the oil breather tube and the coolant bypass to the throttle body. The clamps are just simply squeezed together w/ a pair of pliers, but once those are off, you still need to really put some muscle into working the tubes off of their counterparts. A little coolant spilled out when I took the coolant bypass off of the throttle body, but not a lot - I don't even think it made more than a quarter sized spill on the garage floor. Next up you put the Injen 6mm tubing on for the coolant throttle body bypass, reusing the stock clamps, and then mount the Injen 10mm tubing to the top of the valve cover, using the stock clamps. WARNING - wear eye protection when working with these squeeze clamps! I had one off of the hoses, and was squeezing it open with the pliers when it decided to work its way out of the pliers' grip. The clamp shot like a bullet, away from me, luckily. If that had been at my face, I would have been in trouble. You then mount the soft mount bolt to the brace where the old stock filter box used to be mounted. Place the Injen intake into the throttle body sleeve, loosely tighten the clamps, and then position the intake tube down into the front of the right fender well. You'll attach the filter to the end of it later. Make sure the intake doesn't make contact with either side of the opening into the fender well. When you are satisfied that the intake is not going to make contact with the fender, tighten the soft mount bolt to the intake, then tighten the clamps on the throttle body sleeve. Attach the other end of the 10mm Injen hose to the intake - but you can't use the stock clamps, they're too small. The fit is so tight on the intake nipple, that I just left it like that. After seeing what a mess that breather connection leaves in the intake, I may just decide to replace that connection with a stand-alone breather element filter, and to plug the hole in the Injen intake with some sort of cap. The hardest part of the install takes place next - getting access to the fender well to attach the filter element. In order to get access, Injen recommends removing the entire front bumper cover. I attempted to do this, but ran into several issues. First, the body clips that attach the bumper cover under the nose of the bumper tended to be brittle, and to break rather than come out. I eventually had 2 break on me - each of the corner clips. Secondly, the bumper cover didn't want to come off, even with all connections removed that were shown in the Haynes manual. It was like they weren't showing you all the fasteners - seemed to be something in the area of the Honda emblem on the nose that was keeping the cover on. So I decided to make do, and I just GENTLY bent the side of the bumper cover out from the fender well (DO NOT BEND IT SO FAR THAT IT CREASES!), I kept it out using my right knee, and then proceeded to put the filter element on the end of the intake pipe, tightened the clamp, and put the bumper cover back on - actually just put the fasteners back in place. Make sure you don't put the filter element too far onto the pipe end - I found that it was easy to put the filter on much farther than it was intended to go on. If you push it too far, you could conceivably choke off the air supply to the engine.
The end result of the install - it looks nice, but I'm not sure if I feel a difference or not. Seems peppier, but not by much. The DC Sports/K&N filter is bigger, appears to have more surface area, so you would think that the smaller Injen filter is more restrictive. It certainly is noisier - you can really hear it sucking in air. Not sure if that's because it is closer to being outside of the car or if the air is forced harder thru the filter element. After 4 days, it works fine!
SCCA MoHud Solo II Competition - this is the 2nd event of the year for MoHud, but it's my first, due to me being in San Francisco earlier on business. I put the Injen intake right to work on this trip. We had a quick downpour to start the day, and as I drove over to the State Office Campus, I came upon a large standing body of water which I had to drive thru. I slowed way down, but the water still shot so far up that it totally engulfed my windshield. Amazingly, no hydrolock from the Injen! I don't know if it was luck, or if the openings into the fender well are situated so that water really doesn't enter much. I did notice when I installed the filter element there were water drop stains on the inside of the liner, so moisture does make its way in there. Later in the day, I heard a story from one of my friends at the Solo meet that a VW Scirroco guy wrecked his engine earlier this year using a CAI. I've got the AEM bypass valve, but I need to make sure I can fit it on properly. AEM recommends installing the intake first to make sure of the fit before locating a spot on the intake to cut and insert the bypass valve on. Right now, the best place looks like right where the Injen logo sits on the intake - Dang! I'll try to contact Injen and see if they can send me another logo sticker so I can still have the intake badged w/ the AEM valve on. Also, w/ the bypass valve at that point, I might be able to just remove the bypass valve and the end of the pipe for the winter, and just mount the filter on the remaining end of the pipe, to keep it out of the slush and snow.
Meanwhile, the Solo competition went pretty well for me. I was up against some stiff competition, and I stayed right in the middle of the pack. I was the only family sedan in the group of 12 ST vehicles, and I was beating some pretty tough vehicles such as a 2002 Mercedes Benz CL230 Kompressor! The driver, a very nice girl, has at least 2 seasons of autocrossing on me, so I was happy with that. I stuck around for the trophy presentation, just in case my last 2 runs took me from 6th to 4th, but no such luck. I'll have to wait for the results to be emailed to see how I did in the end. The Rota Slipstreams garnered a lot of attention, and I got a few compliments on them. They certainly seemed to hold up well. Falken Azenis tires seemed to be the weapon of choice, and after seeing how well the vehicles that were equipped with them did, I'm a believer, too. Great tire, and very cheap. A winning combination. The Solo course this time was a big figure "8", and it had people confused when they walked the course until they put down the lines. You entered from the right, wiggled right then left, then began the entry into the crossing portion, sweeping down to the left, then turning in a decreasing radius to the right. You moved back up, continuing to the right, crossing over, then wiggling back to the right, then making a hard left - shoot straight for a few feet, then another hard left, wiggle left then right, and then a hard left to enter back onto the portion where you began. You then went around the bottom of the 8 again for the second time, came back up the crossing, wiggled right again, then making the hard left again. This time, you continued straight towards the exit, needing to only make a quick right wiggle to the exit. The exit was almost too straight, since you needed to bring the car to a stop in a hurry. For me it was tough, so those guys w/ real muscle must have had to stand on the brakes big time. During the second round of heats, while I was manning a flag station, I hear this loud jet rumbling just behind me. I turn to see a B2 Stealth bomber flying low! The Schenectady Airshow was in progress a few miles away, and this was one of the attractions! We were real tempted to red flag the car that was on course so we could watch it pass directly overhead, but being loyal SCCA guys, we didn't. The starter did hold the field for a few seconds while it passed on by. Awesome display of my tax money flying around.
My Sparco seat is here, and it looks great. The problem has been with the brackets I rec'd. It looks like the seller has decided to send me some cheap knock-off brackets (for a Subaru WRX, no less), and that just isn't going to cut it. I'm a bit PO'd about this, so I've sent an email to 1320tuning.com to see if we can't work out a return or something. Last thing I want is a great seat w/ a crappy set of brackets. I'm hoping I don't need to nuke this guy on GroupBuyCenter.com or PayPal.com, but I will if it comes to that. 1320Tuning.com has not been very good at communication, and I've had to initiate almost every conversation of this transaction. Sparco always warns people about using only their approved vendors, and I'm beginning to see why.
Subaru Legacy GT wagon vs. VW Passat 1.8T wagon - The family went out car searching this evening. We were able to track down an elusive Legacy GT wagon in a 5 spd. It was silver, and looked fantastic. Unfortunately The Wife hates silver, so the color was a no-go. The car is a fine drive beyond that. We then stopped in at a VW dealership and took a look at Passat 1.8T automatic wagon. The base GLS model is nothing to look at compared to the beautiful Legacy GT, but the 170hp 1.8T engine was very smooth, and revved like a champ! The ride was excellent, a bit nicer than the Legacy, and with the amount of mods for the 1.8T engine, I bet it could be made to be even sweeter. The Passat is more expensive, but you get AWD on the Legacy. The Legacy looks better, but the Passat has more airbags. Decisions, decisions.
5/21/02 - NYS Inspection - Passed my NYS inspection on 5/16 after having switched in my stock tail lenses. That took about 20 minutes. Funny thing is, now that I have the stock lenses back in place, they look better on the car than the Altezzas - more in keeping with the 'dark' theme. We'll see.
Rota Slipstreams - These are a pretty nice wheel. However, there are some things to be noted. First, the finish on these wheels is pretty fragile. I noticed that they got a bit scratched up when the tires were mounted on them. I don't believe it was due to rough handling when getting the tires put on. Second, there are 2 stickers on the wheel, just behind the spokes, that give warnings on 2 issues that were never mentioned on either Rota's web site or by any reseller. Sticker 1 - "For Racing Only" - This seems to be a disclaimer that these wheels were not meant to take the punishment that street driving, and its inevitable potholes, will serve up. The wheels are very light, and appear to be nearly pure aluminum. Aluminum's nice, but it does bend rather easily. Sticker 2 - Gives a warning that these wheels are only meant for sub-compact cars, like "Civics, Sentras, Integras", and have a 500kg weight limit per wheel. Once again, I believe Rota is trying to cover their butts on having rims bend when trying to support heaviers cars (like an Accord...). I don't believe my Accord is too much of a burden on the Rotas, but time will tell (again). Lastly, those 2 damn stickers will not come off worth a cuss. I had to spray WD40 on them and let them soak for an hour before I was able to scrape them off with my thumbnails, about a half inch square at a time. This was by far the most time consuming part of mounting the Rotas on my vehicle. Well, that and finding out that my stock Honda lug wrench wouldn't fit the McGard SplineDrive socket. I had to run to PepBoys and pick up a Performance Tool 14" SAE 4-Way Lug Wrench ($7.99). The stickers really got me mumbling to myself. Everything else seems to be working as described, and we'll find out this Sunday when I compete in SCCA Solo II competition over at the State Office Campus with MoHud SCCA.
Sparco Torino seat - I rec'd a rather large 'L' shaped box on my front door, and was able to guess what it was before opening it. The seat looks pretty cool (it's heavy!), but I didn't get the mounting brackets today. I'm hoping they are in a separate box coming tomorrow. Not sure if I'll be able to do this install by myself or not - I figure I'll start taking the stock seat out, and if it comes out ok, then the Sparco should go in pretty easily. Probably won't attempt that before the SCCA competition. I don't want to find out that I mounted the thing wrong half way thru a run, and have my steering wheel be the only thing that's keeping me in place in the car. The Wife made some rumblings about me paying the mortgage if I can afford that, but I'm hoping she'll like the seat enough to let me buy another one for the passenger side. Otherwise, it's just going to look like I cheaped out on only 1 seat.
5/15/02 - Made an appointment with a reputable local garage to have a vehicle inspection done (mine expired in April !!), and while I was at it, to have them switch the Dunlop SP Sport 8000s from my Borbet rims (I'm still running my stock Honda alloys from the winter) to my new Rota Slipstream rims. The guy at the garage takes one look at my car and asks "Are those tail lights stock?", to which I replied "No". The guy then tells me that NYS inspection rules say that the lenses must be marked as being DOT SAE approved or it's illegal. We take a quick look at my Altezza lenses, and of course they aren't stamped with the proper approval, so he can't inspect my car. I had him do the tire switch to the new rims anyway. I had folded down the rear seat, so I had the 4 Borbet rims w/ tires stacked in 2's on top of the rear seat, with the 4 Rota rims still in their boxes back in the trunk area. All that extra weight gave my car a slightly aggressive lowered stance - but I was a bit nervous with 40 pound projectiles stacked inches behind my head. Just to show you how you never know, I noticed a blue Subaru Impreza RS 2.5 in a parking lot as I drove to the garage for my inspection. As I pulled out back onto the busy 5 lane road to head home, I waited while the local cops went screaming by w/ their lights flashing. As I got about 2/10ths of a mile back down the road, there was the blue Impreza RS sitting in the middle lane, its front end smashed up badly, and the cops directing traffic around it while they waited for a tow truck to show. No signs of the driver. If that had been me, I'd have been decapitated by my cargo. Anyway, back to the news....
Rota Slipstreams - these puppies are light, especially compared to the Borbets. The Borbet rims weighed in @ 20lbs/each. The Rota Slipstreams weigh in @ 13.2lbs/each. That's a big savings in rotational mass and unsprung weight, which translates into a noticeable uptick on the 'butt dyno'. I read somewhere that you can use a rough formula of each extra pound of unsprung weight is like adding 5 pounds of sprung weight. Therefore, I just shed 140 pounds from my Accord! (7lbs per wheel, times 4 wheels - that's 28lbs, then multiply it by a factor of 5 - 140lbs!) No wonder the Accord feels zippy when I put the Honda alloys on for the winter each time - I just ditched the equivalent of a medium build co-driver.... Of course, the Rotas have stickers on them stating "For Racing Only" - Rota's method of saying that these light rims aren't as strong as heavier rims, and thus are more prone to bending and other damage. I'm tempted to just run them for autocross and get the OZ Superleggeras for daily driving duty. All it would take is an encounter with one of upstate NY's all-too-common potholes to whack the Rotas. The Wife would have something to say about that, either way, I'm sure.....
Injen Racing Division intake and AEM Bypass Valve - Oh to live in a dry climate where I didn't have to worry about downpours, puddles, and other water hazards that could cause my cold air intake to suck up some water and kill my Honda power plant. It's called 'hydro-lock', and it's a death sentence. Here's how it works - Your engine compresses air as part of the combustion process. If your engine happens to suck up some water, there's a big physics problem about to happen. Water doesn't compress - simple as that. Want proof? When you pump up a Super Soaker, notice that they always leave some air in the gun for pumping it up. It's the air that you compress to help the water squirt out. If there was no air in the gun, you wouldn't be able to pump it. So if your engine sucks up water into a piston chamber, the piston will travel until it hits the water, and then BAM! Something gives, and usually it's a drive train component - with nasty after-effects as the parts bang around until the engine dies. So you put the AEM bypass valve in the picture. The bypass valve is designed to open when the increased air pressure within the intake, caused by water coming into the intake pipe, is detected. Thus, the water never comes up all the way thru the filter - the bypass valve opens and allows the easier flowing air to come in. I've seen a demonstration of this valve on TNN's Crank-and-Chrome show where they hooked up a Camaro w/ an LS1 engine to a special see-thru intake, equipped with an AEM bypass valve, and stick the end of the intake into a fish tank. The intake pipe is clear acrylic, so you can see the contents of it. As the guys start the Camaro and then starts romping on the gas, you see the water rise into the pipe only a few inches, but the water never travels all the way up the pipe to where it would enter the engine. The key is that the bypass valve needs to be located on the intake on the same horizontal plane as the throttle body. My problem is I need to find a stretch of the Injen intake that's straight, and on the horizontal plane, where I can hacksaw (GULP!) about a 2.5 inch section out and replace it with the bypass valve. Measure twice, cut once - especially when the object you cut runs about $200!
SCCA SOLO II - I missed my first competition of the year because I was in San Francisco on business. There goes my shot at the trophy for the season....
Sparco Torino Seat - I pulled the trigger on this wish list item, and plunked down my $700 for the seat and the brackets. My excuse? The Honda stock seat is squeaking when I get in and out. A little bit, in the seat back. Good enough reason for me. I would have ordered a pair, but I'm going to let The Wife try it out before I tackle that. If she sits in it and doesn't like the feel of it, or doesn't like the fact that it doesn't have an adjustable head rest, I'd be out an extra $700 and would have a doubly-cranky spouse on top of it - no thanks. You young guys will learn this lesson once you get married.... J Ordered from 1320Tuning.com. I contacted Sparco to see what brackets I needed for my application; here's what they told me:
Driver main base - 00500/1218
Adapter - 00500
Sliding Rail Kit - 00493
The brackets added another $100 to the $599 cost of the Torino seat itself. I had to settle for the gray sides/black center color (same as featured on Sparco's website) because the all-gray seats were out of stock. Supposedly it'll come in next week (5/22/02). Looking for a sale on Sparco seats? Don't bother - Sparco controls their products very strictly. In fact, if you do find someone offering you a discount, it is very likely that they are selling you 'grey market' product - typically older styles and without any manufacturer warranty. So pick your vendor by who treats you best, and perhaps who can ship them the cheapest, or offers to throw in the brackets at a discount.
4/19/02 - This just in - DC Sports now officially stinks.
I've been struggling with the itch to just trade in the Accord and jump on something that has more performance potential, and perhaps a better chance of success when campaigning in my local SCCA SOLO competitions. As a card-carrying member of the Honda fan club, I hate to admit it, but I'm a closet VW worshiper. I sneak off to hidden locations and look thru my copy of Eurotuner magazine, and dream of taking a stock 1.8T GTI and dumping a few grand into some ABD turbo upgrades in order to create a true pocket rocket screamer. But then the wife reminds me it's her turn to replace her 9 year old Subaru wagon, and since she's paying the mortgage, she figures I owe her a few grand or 20 towards the purchase of her new vehicle. That breaks up my little dream pretty quick...
Ordered a set of Rota Slipstream wheels to use for autocrossing this season - 16", 4x114.3, and black. I know, I know, that's a color reserved for vehicles that can lay down some serious performance, but I've been waiting patiently since the end of January for these wheels to become available, and the silvers were another few weeks wait, so I jumped on the blacks. I plan on using them just at autocross, anyway. (I'm thinking about getting another new set of every day wheels - OZ Super Leggeras, 17". Those would be to replace the heavy-as-heck Borbets. I'm looking to eke out as much as I can from this Accord. Now that everyone is coming out w/ cars that weigh 2/3s of mine and come w/ stock output of about 20-40% of mine means I'm getting left behind quickly (literally) in the arms race of engines.
I've decided to cut up my nice new Injen intake and install an AEM bypass valve on it. Had 1 monstrous downpour here this spring, and that made me nervous about running the Injen CAI system I bought this Spring. The filter will sit only about 8" off the ground, so it's conceivable that it could suck up some puddles at the level. Hydrolock would be a nasty event, and wouldn't bode well for modifying future vehicles from a moderately responsible financial position.
For not being sure I want to keep the car, I just can't stop pouring money into it. I'm convinced now that I'd like to get a Sparco Torino seat, at least for the driver's side. If my co-driver likes it, then I'd replace the passenger side as well, but I'm not sure she'd like losing a headrest. Time will tell....
1/14/02 - I'm still waiting for DC Sports (Joji Donald) to email me back. His initial email was promising, but since I haven't heard back from him I'm going to move DC Sports into the 'UNSATISFACTORY' column of manufacturers. I finally got around to taking pics of my intake so that I could send them to Mr. Donald and have him try to give me an opinion on whether my intake looked ok or not, when I discovered that my intake's 'L' bracket (attaches intake to passenger strut tower) had snapped once again (see 4/25/01 journal entry). In the meantime I've decided to up the ante here and order an Injen Race Division CAI. I was looking at getting an AEM CAI w/ a valve (one that keeps the intake from sucking up water) and had posted an opinion question about intakes on HondaSociety.com, and found out that brackets bending and breaking is a common occurrence on intakes, even AEM brand. Several guys said they just don't bother connecting their brackets and leave the filter end of the intake semi-loose, using something like a cable tie to lash it to the strut tower. My opinion is, if you pay good money for an intake, you should get the pieces to function the way they were originally engineered to function. Another guy suggested connecting the intake to the strut tower FIRST, and then making the connection to the intake manifold the last connection - a good idea in that it takes the strain off of the bracket as much as possible by letting the bracket connection dictate the positioning of the intake. Someone else suggested bending the bracket (specifically on the AEM intakes) so that the angle is optimum for the bracket/strut connection - another reasonable suggestion. One gentleman spoke highly of the Injen product line, and I decided to revisit them, as they originally didn't make an application for the Accord 4 cyl when I first went shopping. Injen makes a 1-piece CAI for the Accord, so I found a good price on it on GroupBuyCenter.com thru RaceSearch.com. It should be coming in sometime soon, but I'll wait to install it when the weather warms up a bit (Spring '02).
I had a gentleman email me and comment that he would not recommend EBC Brake pads as an upgrade when combined with AEM's Big Brake upgrade kit, based on his experience. He said he wore the EBC Red brake pads down in a day or 2 at a track competition, and experienced some shaking along the way. His advice - always use the AEM brake pads w/ the AEM rotors. Thanks Greg!
I'm looking for some lightweight wheels for this year's upcoming Solo II season. My best bet so far is some ALT LiteSpeed AT210 wheels. These are 16", 4x114.3 bolt pattern, with a 40+mm offset for the 4cyl 6th gen Accord. Would like to look into some Rota SubZeros, but I'm not sure they make them in the correct bolt pattern. I haven't seen them offered in any group buys.
1/8/02 - I rec'd an email from Joji Donald of DC Sports stating that some DC Sports intakes didn't have the proper bead rolled into the end of the intake pipe and that I may have one. Here's his email: " Eric, Can you check the bead rolled on the end of the DAC. The only time we have seen this problem is when the bead isn't rolled deep enough. Let me know." Of course, I emailed him back and asked how the bead should look, but I never did get a response back from him. I'll try again.