[gotovato]

Lap from Sunday. I’m gaining the confidence. I’ll be working on braking later, harder, and trailing into the apex while releasing the brake. I know I have minimum 1 second of time to find doing so.

good lap here, not a record but it did match my personal best from my mazdaspeed so that’s something

 

[gotovato]

Little update here for all, i know its been a while. Been busy getting seat time and just learning the car/learning to drive better.

At this point the car has seen 11 track days this season. 8 last season.

Tire life: The falken RT660's have been pretty good for life. The fronts finally corded after 6 track days, and the rears are still like new. I am too aggressive on throttle at corner exit and i need to work on that. This should help me get a ton more life out of my tires. I have been happy with the falkens. They provide great grip for the cost and they come up to temp super quickly. They also last long enough for 4-5 hot laps without falling off. After that they are done however and do require a cool down. Being easier on the throttle should help me here.

My brakes went through 9 track days before i cracked a rotor. Pads are still good to go.
Stoptech is heavily back ordered, no one on earth has these rotors or any of the rotors that work for my setup. This has sucked

This was a slotted rotor lol...

that wear though lol..

TSX brake setup has gone back on for the rest of the season. TSX calipers/rotors with hawk dtc60s. I immediately noticed the added weight and the reduction in stopping power. Its ok for now though lol, whatever gets me back on track.

i also recently installed my sparco bucket seat and let me tell ya...what a difference. Can really feel whats going on with the car now, front grip vs rear grip. Plus no more work outs while lapping!! woooo lol
no sliders. Seat is mounted solid to the base. The siders raise the seat too high and my head ends up in the roof. No good lol. Sliders can also be a little sketchy on track..i had a buddy tell me his failed on him on track while the car was fully loaded...and hes like 100lbs smaller then me. yea...im ok with no sliders lol. took some messing around to get the seating position correct though.

Airbag light i have deleted with a resistor. that worked great

Honda super meet was at our local track this past weekend, had a great time! Many hondas on track and i was far from the slowest so that was great!

Me and my buddy talking lines

I did the honda super meet on my hankook RS4 tires, 235/45/17. SIGNIFICANTLY less grip vs the RT660 setup but i was almost matching my RT660 times...which i also had the bbk installed for. Im definitely learning, and getting faster. Love it.

Couple of videos from recent track days,
learning to carry a ton more speed through the corners. Its a ton of fun and a little scary. part of the learning i guess!!

Fun video i made taking some friends and family for a few laps. People hear honda civic race car and laugh in my face. after 2 laps...theyre either shitting in their pants or absolutely silent as their whole mind is blown.

i had 2 more experienced buddies ride along with me as well, both with track built cars on suspensions and tires. Both of them were blown away at the amount of grip this car makes. Its hard to know if its good or not without someone else who knows jumping in with you. Apparently these fortune auto 510's really are every bit as good as they cost, if not more. Both buddies were saying the same thing. The ability for the car to absorb bumps while loaded up...and NOT get upset? yea thats good suspension doing its job. One buddy couldnt believe the 10k/16k spring rates. So smooth, feels soft but isnt. its a good setup. Im happy i spent the money here. Good to know it works lol. 0 body roll still. Ive been playing with damper settings and man..even 2 clicks makes such a difference. Its nice for sure. alot of play with though lol and i am very much still learning

For now the car remains as is. TSX brakes, no other changes.

 

[gotovato]

So. this all took place the weekend of September 2-5.
Starting on September 3rd,

I was out for session number 1. Was showing my mazdaspeed 6 buddy around the track. Turning the speed up.

All of a sudden the car developed a serious shake. Oh man. Wtf.

Pulled into the pits and my buddy instantly points out one broken stud. So I waited for the car to cool and decided to check torque. 4 lugs is still good enough right!

first lug I touch, falls right off in my hand. Well damn. Pulled the wheel off. Took the brake apart and off we went to the local parts store to get some studs and lug nuts.

About to replace studs and notice this…

Hub was cracked right through to the back. Well ****. I was suggested to not even try driving on it. Well **** I wasn’t gonna give up.

Called around and found a hub 20 minutes away at a carquest.

Track side repair was a success. I then proceeded to run the quickest lap time of the day lol.

Apparently the hub cracking is common on heavily tracked civics 8th and 9th gens? The car has 21 track days on it since I bought it last august.

Also almost got into a fight with some idiot in a Subaru. F**k people suck lol. That footage will be good.

 

[gotovato]

September 5th, monday. A Holiday track day here in Canada.

I went real fast at the track today.

Till this…

Oooof.

How my car got home after that tire shredded

Very lucky buddy had his double stacker there lol

Civics sitting above his corvette zr1. That thing is mental fast. I was 2 seconds off his time in my civic. My civic hits 164kph down the back straight. The zr1 hits 215 effortlessly with me braking early. Holy **** is it fast.

I managed to go 1 second faster then my buddy in his zr1. He threw me the keys and I tried to say no buttttttt everyone wanted to see this happen.

keep in mind I have basically 0 rwd experience.




One flier directly before my tire opened up. I know there is maybe 1 second left in the car. Just maybe.

the final right hand corner leading onto the straight, under braking for that corner I felt the front end load up so heavy I thought something broke or I lost power steering.

the sweeper at the end of the straight away punishes tires. You’re just modulating the throttle to carry maximum speed without understeer and I do believe I was at the absolute limit. 5% more throttle and it would’ve been terminal understeer. I could feel the car squirming around as I made it do what I wanted.

this lap time is real. This track is a lot of flow and a lot of speed carry. Power goes a very long way here.

 

[gotovato]

Recently Dyno’d my car. Big time down on power. Can’t believe it.

Ktuned 3.5” cai
Skunk2 alpha header
Stock mid pipe
2.5” borla muffler
Rdx injectors
Custom tune via etunez

Civic SI on the dyno - this is what I’ve had to work with

 

[tbone95]

Awesome build thread, really enjoyed reading your progress and looking forward to seeing that spare engine put to use sometime in the future! Also in the Niagara region and hoping to get into track days soon.

 

[gotovato]

Awesome build thread, really enjoyed reading your progress and looking forward to seeing that spare engine put to use sometime in the future! Also in the Niagara region and hoping to get into track days soon.

Thanks man! Motor build is coming soon…sooner then expected lol

 

[gotovato]

Did a recent compression test and leak down test. I guess we see where my missing power went.

Time to pull the motor out.

 

[FD7683]

Really nice build! I've been on the lookout for an 8th gen Si Sedan for a while and plan to transfer all suspension mods to the Si minus sway bars and put the stock EX components back on it to make it a comfortable cruiser again lol. The K series engine seems to be a blessing to have on the Civic chassis along with a 6-speed LSD transmission. Sad because these cars are quite expensive now. Planning to snag one that might need work as long as the engine/transmission and paint is in good shape.

 

[gotovato]

Still need to drain the transmission fluid, engine oil, pull the axles and unbolt the header but otherwise it’s just about there.

it was 21 f today. Not too cold here yet!

 

[gotovato]

Got the head off. It’s at the machine shop now. Getting hot tanked/cleaned up, valve job, minimal decking, and valve guides sleeved.

cylinders/cams look to be in great shape which is nice. 165k mile engine. I’ve taken it to the track 30 times.

I’ve dried up all the cylinders and soaked the **** out of everything in wd40. Rotated the engine a few times. More wd40. Should be safe from rusting. I can reapply if I feel like i need to. Oil and coolant is definitely going to need to be flushed out lol.

 

[gotovato]

Supertech titanium valve train paid for and ordered.

Oem valve stem seals from Honda ordered and paid for.

Oem head bolts from Honda, ordered and paid for.

I’ll need a head gasket still, some rtv, and I broke the connector on the vtc solenoid by accident so I’ll need one of those.

Hoping to have the car back together within the next 2-3 weeks at most.


Since the timings all apart now would be the time…

I’m debating dropping my oil pan to upgrade oil pump. I’ve got an RRC pump that’s for my built motor but I can use it here if I want to for now.

 

[gotovato]

Ive researched around and i was unable to find ANY how-to or forum post or youtube video or ANYTHING showing that you can remove the oil pan without dropping the subframe completely.

i debated for about a week BUT since i will have BC stage 2 cams going in, with the supertech titanium valve train i figured i wanted to take advantage and rev to 9krpm.

Well...it definitely looks like its possible. It wasnt easy but it wasnt too bad. this was done in my small single garage, while it was like 19f outside lol...
I have a small write up here on how I did it. I hope it helps someone in the future as I was unable to find ANYTHING on doing this job yourself without dropping the subframe completely.


1) undo sway bar endlink on passenger side

2) undo ball joint from control arm on passenger side

3) support engine with support bar

4) remove front and rear motor mount

5) loosen all subframe bolts both sides

6) fully remove subframe bolts on passenger side

7) let subframe hang down

8) engine support bar should be installed and have full load at this point

9) use engine support bar to raise passenger side of engine

10) remove oil pan. It’ll go if subframe is low enough and engine is high enough