My Grassroots Motorsport FN2 Project

[lukits01]

yay! finally, a project section!

haven't been posting lately, my gearbox has decided to call it quits and munched itself into a 5-speed. Figured its as good as time as any to migrate my build thread into civinfo since this section is now available. Sorry for the cut-and-paste job, the order of sections might be a bit jumbled but I think I managed to keep most of the content from some of my other threads.I'd love to hear any suggestions that would help me go faster! I'm surrounded by S2000s and ITRs that I have to absolutely keep behind me

I bought the car with the intention of turning it into a street car that would be quite capable on the track. Having said that, I am not the most experienced driver out there, this is my first manual car. So anything I say here should be taken with a grain of salt. I have been competing in various event types for fun and to learn ranging from auto-x, hill climbs, sprints, open track days, etc. I try to upload any vids I take to my youtube channel,
YouTube - lukits01's Channel
but sometimes these events get so serious I just don't have time to play around with the camera. (red mist descends when chasing evo drivers ahaha)

Below is a list of laptimes of my local car club
No Limits Car Club: UNOFFICIAL Times Database

I'll be adding a full spec list here soonish

[lukits01]

Driveline
I firstly took the car to Barbagello raceway to learn to drive fast and also see how the FN2 felt at the limit. Think theres a few post at other forums with youtube links on how I did. I felt the car had a good balance, great turn in response, but lacked corner exit grip. I suspect that this is due to the lack of LSD more than anything else. Thats where this comes in:

K20A Quaife LSD



I know what some are you are thinking, "yes, but does it fit the K20Z4?"
THANKFULLY, phew... yes it does fit!
I havent had a chance to take it to the limit yet, but first impressions are great! mid-later corner grip has dramatically increased, which allows me to be more agressive with the throttle.

The reason I chose Quaife over Spoon, ATS, or Cusco is because unlike the japanese brands, the Quaife LSD is a helical diff. Similar in design with OEM type-R LSD but with slightly more agressive torque bias ratio. This means unlike plate or clutch type diffs, under normal driving conditions, the quaife behaves like an open diff. It doesnt chatter, doesnt wear out, and engages smoothly.

*update*
finally got a chance to take it down to the track, and WOW!
What a difference the LSD makes! this should have been fitted stock!
I have very little corner exit understeer. The car actually turns better with throttle!
Its a strange feeling! because the LSD (being helical) only engages under load,
so you have to keep working the throttle to put the power down!
Unfortunately this increased grip exposed the weaknesses of the OEM tyres and OEM brakes
both of which I have now rectified below! will report how it goes when I get a chance to go back to the track

I thought since Im going to pull apart the gearbox, might as well see if we could get these in:

Toda Clutch+Flywheel Kit





Yes previous K20 clutch and flywheel fit our K20Z4 motor
As my mechanic took out the OEM parts, we made quite a few interesting discoveries.
The OEM Flyhwheel is indeed Chromolly and weights about 4.8Kg
in comparison the TODA Flywheel weights about 3.8Kg

The OEM Clutch and pressure plates however is nothing special, the clutch discs themselves were allready showing signs of wear from 3 track days and about 6000km of driving and Observing the wear marks on the flywheel, it seems the pressure plate wasnt clamping the discs with even pressure through out the whole radius. In addition to this, we found that the TODA organic clutch discs (made by EXEDY) weight about half of the OEM item.

The result of reduced rotational mass, now the engine revs significantly faster and noticably smoother.

Sadly, the clutch does rattle slightly when disengaged. The pedal feel is significantly heavier, biting point is lower but the theres still plenty of feel between the clutch engaging and disengaging.

*update* now that the clutch has broken in, it has soften up considerably. The TODA clutch no longer rattles, and is not as heavy

*update*

OEM K20A LSD

Ok its not secret that I loved the Quaife LSD, the turn in response, nose tucking in affect under throttle is beautifull BUT recently I took the car to the drag strip and the diff failed!
My car is not seriously powerfull, granted I launched at 6000rpm and was using 235 R-comp tires
I expected a lot more strength from the Quaife. When I disassembled the LSD I found the 2 side gears have 2-3 missing teeth, and shrapnel everywhere. I can't explain the failure other than manufacturing defect, the gear were possibly not heat treated evenly?

For the time being I'm using the JDM LSD, and for tight 2nd gear cornering performance, it is not as aggressive as the Quaife. I believe it's more to do with the difference in Torque bias Ratio. On faster more flowing corners the difference is not very noticeable. But I use the car for Auto-X with a lot of tight 2nd and 3rd gear corners, and I can sort of notice the difference in LSD performance.

Personally though, the next diff I'll buy for my application will be a plate type, probably Cusco. It feels like I've reached the limit of what a Helical can give me on track, and I'm willing to live with a bit of diff noise for extra cornering performance.

OS Giken LSD

I pondered long and hard what to replace the Quaife with wasn't sure if I wanted to go plate type for fear of maintenance requirements and noise. My mechanic insisted I go plate type for the traction and strength. But I’ve ridden on a few FWDs with Kaaz LSD and it was clunky ass! But then I tried my Wuism's DC5R with an ATS/Carbonetics Carbon LSD and it was silent and smooth, so plate type doesn't have to be noisy at all. The thing that put me off the ATS LSD was it recommended you change the gearbox oil every 5000Km and it was very picky on what oil you can use. I wasn't up for spending $150 on gearbox oil every 5000km, so I kept looking.

Then I got this email from OS Giken USA

For our OS Super Lock LSDs we recommend
Using full synthetic fluid (GL-5 or higher)
With a grade of at least 75w140. In Japan,
we use our OS Giken 250R (80W250) oil and will
soon make it available here in the US.

Lighter oil will not hurt the differential,
but you may get some occasional noise.
As long as it is full synthetic, you will be fine.

We recommend that you change your fluid after the
first 3000 miles or first track day after installing
an OS Giken LSD to ensure any foreign particles are
flushed. From that point, however, we recommend you change
fluid as per the normal OE maintenance schedule.

We have had vehicles in Japan using the OS 250R oil go
up to 150k km without and oil change and not harm the
Differential. However, we do not recommend it.

As far as mechanical maintenance, we have not had a differential
failure nor rebuild of any production OS Giken unit in almost 9yrs!

From Website:
OS Giken now proudly introduce our OS Super Lock LSD after 3 years of research and development. This limited-slip differential is derived from our experience of automotive drive train engineering since the 1980's.

It has unique and epoch making-making technologies with adjustable lock timing adjuster. Incredibly durable and reliable, as only the best materials are used for this LSD, regardless of the production cost. Gears are all hot forged, which improves the precision of the product. It also enables us to miniturize each gear, thus providing more space for friction plates. US patent pending bevel gear-in-pressure ring mechanism also allows more friction plates. Increased number of friction plates improves the locking force of the LSD, as it generates less heat, resulting in higher durability even in the toughest racetrack environment.

The higher locking force prevents a weaver action of the vehicle at the drag strip while its bevel gear-in-pressure mechanism allows easier drive feel, close to an OEM diff, during ordinary operations such as parking the car. This mechanism brought another favourable characteristic: it reduces the impact when the power load is applied, preventing the sudden traction change during cornering, or a sudden "pop", making it easier to trace the line. It also produces less mechanical clicking noises.

I was sold on the idea, and sure enough, as promised I have a Silent LSD!
I put some 75w90 Motul Gear FF Type II in; the diff would only clunk on cold start, when its up to temperature it’s absolutely silent.

At the circuit, the traction difference is like night and day! Absolutely phenomenal, front grip, anytime, anywhere. My limit of traction is now defined by suspension and tire setup. I have absolute confidence in front end grip. Being a 1.1-Way, the LSD doesn’t hamper turn in, and the moment I apply some throttle, it would pull me towards the apex, once I’m on the exit, it’s usually a no brainer foot flat to the floor. Loving it :thumb:

ATS/Carbonetics Carbon Single Plate Clutch



Motorsport has taken its toll on my Toda Clutch Kit, so replaced it with this one
The flywheel is ridiculously light 3.6Kg or something like that. It has a single plate clutch disc and is solid centre,
which I thought would be a pain to drive, but its surprisingly smooth for daily driving.
Redline Shifts are the best I've ever experienced in an aftermarket clutch, so crisp!
Definitely a better product than Toda Organic kit. Let's just hope it lasts a lot longer, seing that its carbon.
The ultra-light flywheel does make a bit of noise on over-run, but its barely audible since the gearbox is far from the cabin.

TWM Shifter Cable Bushings



I happen to come accross this from USDM Civic Si forums. Although nothing major, I hoped it would help with my mis-shifts into 2nd and the 3rd gear double notch problem. Though the problem is probably due to my driving, TWM's bronzoil shifter cable bushings does make a difference to the shifting feel. The 'feel' when you engage a gear is much more distinct. So when Im selecting 3rd Im more confident now that the gears are engaged. The slight downside is the shifting feels slightly heavier.

Mugen Short Shifter



First off let me say I have never been a fan of short shifter. Mostly because the stock shifter has never given me a reason to complain about but partly because I've always thought the product to be a bit gimicky. Relying more on placebo affect rather than actual improvements.
Secondly, there's Mugen, a company that sells silly number plate bolts, something resembling an orange sock and a gearknob with badly written english on it. Max respek to their racing programs, but when it comes to their road car products, I was a bit skeptical.

I bought this thing mostly to score a little tour, but it was also at a decent enough price I could probably sell it to the many Mugenwhores out there without much trouble. Anyway... enough with the random ranting.

So, I was pleasantly surprised at how wrong I was. As a start, the shifter came with pages and pages of picture instructions on how to remove the center console and the stock shifter mechanism. Not that I needed any of this, but it's great customer focus. The install was straight forward enough, unclip the 2 shifter linkages at 4 points, and reinstall unto the mugen one; tighten 3 bolts.

How does it drive? remarkably different actually. I thought it was just a shortened lever, but I'm pretty damn sure they fiddled with the bushes and mechanicals. I mean obviously the shifts are shorter (would make sense with the shorter lever) but more than that, the throw ratios when switching between gears just feel more natural. On top of that, the feel of the gear engaging is more "slick", there's significantly less play during those moments you grab the gearknob. It doesn't so much as make the shifting more tight, but more precise. A bit hard to describe really

JDM DC5R 4th & 5th Gear Review

So my 4th synchro was on the way out, so I decided changing 4th and 5th to JDM DC5R gears. you can change the 6th as well, but I didn't want to make my 6th gear any shorter since we're already using a 5.1 FD, mostly for highway cruising, or so I thought.

The ratios of FN2vsDC5 are
4th 1.147 vs 1.212
5th 0.921 vs 0.972
6th 0.738 vs 0.780

From what I can tell, the 05-06 DC5R gears will fit our 8th gen gearbox
their 5th and 6th main shaft gears has a different part number compared to 02-04 DC5R. other than that all our synchros should be a straightforward swap.

parts used
1-2 Synchro set 23521-PPS-305 (unchanged)
3-4 Synchro set 23623-PNS-315
5-6 Synchro set 23626-PNS-315 (unchanged)

facelift DC5R
4th Mainshaft gear 23450-PNT-000
4th Countershaft gear 23481-PNT-000
5th Mainshaft gear 23580-PNT-000
5th Countershaft gear 23461-PNT-000



The results were quite interesting, I'm simplifying my review a little bit here and keeping it to simply accelerating out of a corner in 4th,5th, and 6th.



I've selected a graph of me exiting the same corner at roughly the same speed, actually slightly slower with the new gearing. As I accelerate through 4th and 5th, I gain about 0.2sec BUT whilst before I used to top out at 5th gear, with the new ratios I have to shift to 6th and since i didn't change my 6th gear, the ratio causes me to lose a little bit of time compared to revving out 5th with the stock ratio.

If you change the 6th gear as well I'd bet you can keep gaining time but of course you'd be cruising at higher rpm on the hwy and that can get annoying. Day to day I don't actually notice the difference that much, yea maybe shift a bit faster through 4th and 5th but its barely noticeable, ratios still feel very oem.

Over a single lap the difference is much more obvious, I'm still figuring out the shift points as this has transformed the car a bit more than I expected. It opens out a lot of options for me when going from 3rd to 4th. Some corners that I used to exit in 3rd I can now keep it in 4th and the RPM wont drop off below the powerband, and car now just slingshots out of 4th gear corners as there's a easy 5kph gain in acceleration. I'd highly recommend the upgrade if you were ever refreshing your gearbox.

[lukits01]

Suspension

Now to some suspension tuning, I havent found any coilover kit worth buying just yet. So I thought I would focus on wheel allignment settings.
I am striving to get the following settings to start
-2 Deg Camber, 2mm Toe Out, +4-5 Deg Castor
To get that much camber you will need 2 sets of camber bolts like these:


DC5/EP3 camber bolts are the same on the FN2, but make sure you get the 16mm versions. The above (which I bought from Ingalls Engineering USA) are 14mm version which were used in early model DC5 and do not fit.

To my understanding, the standard adjusters should be able to achieve my desired toe settings. This might be a tad agressive, but you have to pay to play.

The castor settings however is a little more complicated, I've emailed KMAC australia about their camber/castor tops. Hope to compare DC5 suspension tops in the near future to see if its the same.

*update*

KW Variant 3 Coilovers


Ok first off, things didn't quite go according to plan
The K-mac adjustable camber/caster tops were designed for standard shocks and springs. This is all well and good, BUT the KW coilovers top thread on the piston shaft is actually shorter than the OEM struts. So when the thick K-mac tops were mounted on top there was no more thread left for the nut to grab unto.

Also, if you look closely, the bolt holes on the KWs are not round, they are oval shaped, it allows for camber adjustment. This however makes camber adjusting bolts redundant.

Now to alignment settings.
I'm starting with the following front settings:
-1.5 Deg Camber each side
0 Toe Out
+4 Deg Castor
Once I get used to the car I will try to get more aggressive settings

The problem is, the rear alignment, being torsion beam suspension, The rear is not adjustable in any way.
My current rear alignment is
-1 Deg Camber each side
5.2mm Total Toe In

The camber is fine, but that excessive Toe in makes it impossible for the rear to come to play at corner entry in a predictable fashion.

Height wise, stock height is 355mm all round
I've lowered it to
Front 330mm
Rear 340mm
With emphasis on inducing corner entry over steer.
Although I believe this will be difficult with the current rear alignment
I hope in near future there will be aftermarket solutions to adjusting the rear settings.

As for the coilovers themselves, all indications are brilliant! I've stuck with the recommended settings that have been provided by KW as a starting point for both Bump and Rebound.
The ride is significantly smoother than standard. It doesn't bounce around over rough uneven roads. Body roll is significantly reduced, which certainly makes me more confident in the cornering abilities of the car.

After taking the suspension for a shakedown at a hill climb event, the KWs are amazing! Im not sure how to review this one.. very hard to describe. It is more comfortable than stock, but yet it feels stiffer. There is significantly less body roll, but doesn't jump arround when going over bumps. So overall, the difference in feel is subtle... but when you take it arround a bend at speed, the car turns in better, grips better, accelerates faster. i don't know what to make of it, certainly different to previous japanese coilovers that I've ever come accross where its bone jarring, pelvis crushingly rock solid.

I've made more tweaks to the suspension, the rear bump rates are maxed out, and I've tuned the front rebound rate to my tires.
I found that if I maxed out the front rebound rate, the car would axle tramp quite badly, also when cornering the inside wheel would lift up off the ground!
If I softened the front rebound rate, theres a lot of movement during cornering and the car would wheel spin a lot, so I've adjusted the rebound click by click to what I felt was the best compromise. I've also made more adjustments to the front allignment:
-2.5 Deg Camber each side
1.5mm Toe Out
+4 Deg Castor

Selby 24mm Swaybar
Finally managed to get some decent test time for this new swaybar
I ordered the extra heavy duty 24mm kit instead of the 22mm kit
the install was easy enough, I found a few niggling issues and sent Selby an email just to give them a bit of a feedback and to my surprise they sent me a few replacement bits and corrected their kit! I appreciate good customer service.

First of all, let me say the stock rear alignment setting has always been the thorn on my side. Since I haven't been able to sort it out, I've been trying different things to loosened the rear. At some stage I removed a lot of weight off the rear axles, thinking it would loosened it up. To my surprise instead of making the car more tail happy, the rear was actually more stable! It maybe have something to do with loss of inertia with the decreased mass, but theories aside, the balance of the car seems to have shifted to more understeer.

So in comes the Selby's swaybar, I've set the swaybar to softest for now, and turned down the bump forces on the rear shocks. The difference was noticeable, on tight trail braking corners the inside rear wheels would quickly lift-off the ground, I think this is a good thing, the rear is providing max roll resistance while transferring as much weight to the front. It ALMOST covers for the crappy alignment, almost...
On more long sweeping corners the bar is more obvious, I've clawed back the tail happy nature which I've previously lost and then some! Balancing the car with the throttle is awesome! lift a bit, rear steps out, throttle a bit, LSD tucks the nose in. I'll need more test time to tune the bar with the coilovers, but overall very happy with the bar. Now if only I can get ample supply of rear alignment kit...





Rear Alignment Kit

Ok, I never liked the standard alignment settings, it's always designed for excessive stability for daily driving. Considering our torsion beam rear meant no adjustment, it just meant that you are stuck with whatever came out of the factory. Also meant some people will get more lucky than others when it comes to factory rear alignment.

My rears came with a silly 5.5mm toe-in and 1 deg camber, that is a stupid amount of toe in. It meant I have to be quite violent with the steering to get the rear to slide, and when you're doing that, there's less chance of catching it. I also wanted more camber to even out the rear tire wear, but most people will probably be happy with 1 deg.

So enter these SPC camber shims supplied by ABP motorsport. I highly recommend them, they've been really helpful dealing with me from across the globe.

First of all, adjusting our rear alignment is not a very straightforward process. It took a few goes at it and you do have to take apart a lot of things from the rear hub. I first got my alignment measured then I sent it of to ABP along with what I'd like it to be. Then they sent me a set of shims to trial and see how they go.

To install them you first need to take off the following:
Wheels
Brake calliper & pads
Brake rotors
ABS Sensor

Once you have the rear discs off, you can use a socket extension to undo the 4 spindle bolts behind the hub.
With the spindle and hub off, you can now install the shims and reassemble.



My first go at this I took apart the whole hub assembly, but by the 2nd go I figured out that you can take off the spindle without taking apart the hub or handbrake cable (doh)

Anyway, after I put everything back together, I got the rear alignment measured and it was still toe-ed in! Gagh, so I sent the results back to ABP and got some more shims. The problem was, my right rear was A LOT more toe-ed in than my left, so it needed some thicker shims to get it right. After the 2nd set of shims was installed the results were much better!
My rears are now at 2Deg camber and neutral toe.

I've only tested the rear alignment on one track day so far, but first impressions are great! The overall handling is much more neutral at the limit. The rears are more responsive to steering inputs at the front, and would come around with a lot less effort. When the rears do slide, it is very very predictable and I can catch it before I get into trouble. I would've liked a bit of toe out but considering how thick the shims are already, I'd be worried about the spindles not bolting up correctly if I went any thicker.

If your car is primarily a daily driver, I'm not sure if all this is worth the hassle. TBH I think you can only feel the subtle differences when you're pushing the car to the limits of its handling (and sometimes over it). Stuff you shouldn't be doing on the streets anyway. For track work, a decent rear alignment is godsend!

[lukits01]

Brakes

Brakes, man... I hate these brakes, its so spongy! Im throwing between Carbonetics Carbon Street Pads and Ferodo DS2500.
The front brake pads are the same part as S2000 and AUSDM DC5
unfortunately the rear pads are unique to the FN2, this is because the rear pads were designed to work with EBD and they have a softer compound than the front brakes. You probably noticed the rear brakes having more dust than the fronts. Also looking into the powerslot 350mm discs that Tubby has installed in his car.

Endless EP3 Rotors


Managed to score 300mm Endless straight-6 front brake discs for a decent price. These are same size and shape as OEM discs. they are slotted, lighter and therefore resist heat better. If im not mistaken they are the same part as used in AUDM DC5/EP3
*correction AP1 rotors have different offset which I will discuss later

EP3/AP1 Brake Pads

I've decided to try out Carbonetics Street Pads for the front brakes, and maybe switch to ferodo DS2500 when they have both front and rear set.
Also changed brake fluid to MOTUL RBF600 dot 4 fluid, needed 2 bottles to completely bleed the system.
First impressions are great, cold bite is great, initial pedal bite is much more responsive. Only track time will tell if they can cop some abuse.

While we are on the subject, FN2 owners who plan to take their cars to the track be warned! The stock pads are not able to take much abuse. After 4 track days I noticed the brakes would fade very quickly, so I took a good look at them:

Sorry for the blurry photo, my camera not very good at taking closeups
if you can see the pad material have been severely worn down and on same of the pad faces you can begin to see the 'glue' that keep the pad together

*update*
Man these cars are punishing on brakes, damn Honda for only giving us single piston calipers at the front! My set of carbonetics street pads 0-500 couldn't take the abuse of one track day. They overheated, caught fire, and was grinded to metal backing in 1 session. Unfortunately this also scared my Endless rotors! gagh... As a temporary measure, I tried out Cabonetics Street/Track Pads 0-800deg and these were much much better at the track. They don't fade and they can handle the heat. The problem is they are quite noisy on the streets. So I replaced them with Ferodo DS2500. I've heard a lot of people raving on about these pads, so first impressions on the street so far is they are quiet and not very dusty.

*update*
I've changed to Ferodo DS2500 on the car and these pads have superior cold bite and response compared to stock. On track, they can take a bit of beating but you can fade them after a few hard laps. They are very predictable and give you lots of feedback but they do wear down quite quickly when abused on track. They made a slight noise in the beginning but went away as the pads wore down.

Currently I've just installed these EBC Yellows front and rear on my FN2
When I got the EBC yellows, it looked pretty good, it comes with anti squeel shims, and the rears have the low pad indicators like OEM. I've never seen an aftermarket brake pad with these things. but then again we shouldn't judge brake pads from their looks right? hahaha
On the road, the cold bite is ok, not as good as the ferodos, but nothing to worry about in my opinion after a bit of use they are fine. On the track its a different story, the Ferodos would reach optimal temp pretty much from the outset, the yellows take a few hard stabs to peak.
They are very consistent when hot, so far I have not got into a situation where the pads would fade and have been virtually silent.

My opinion is the Ferodo DS2500 is a great pad for mostly street driving and occasional track use on sticky road tires. Once you start doing track events on semi slicks you can overheat them, that's when the EBC Yellowstuff come to their own. Personally I prefer the feel of the Ferodo DS2500 but its too bad the compound is softer than I would like. Can't comment on dust as my rims are black.

JDM DC5 Type-R Brembo Calipers




If you thought JDM Brembo conversion required the whole DC5R driveline, you are sadly mistaken! It didn't make sense to me why people had to change the entire knuckle, LCA, driveshafts etc. to do this. Then I heard that the problem was simply that the Brembo calipers centre line was some 7.5mm further out than EP3/FN2/AP1 calipers. If that was all, how hard can it be? I sourced some DC5R Brembos for a decent price, and bolted it up. The standard brake lines and caliper bolts fitted with no hassle at all! and surely enough the EP3/FN2 rotors were sitting too far inside by 7.5mm. At first I fabricated some 7.5mm spacers and that fitted fine before I realised that S2000 rotors have exactly 7.5mm less offset than EP3/FN2 rotors. So out I go to source some cheap S2000 rotors. When they came I trial fitted them on EP3 knuckles and woohoo perfect fit, then I bolted it them up to my FN2, another perfect fit! The only downside to this install is you need quite an agressive offset wheel to clear the Brembo Caliper, I'm using 18*7.5 +30 and 17*8 +38 wheels to clear the caliper.

As for how they feel? to be honest they on day to day basis, they feel like OEM ahahaha. The Brake pad change made all the difference. On the track its different though, brake pads dont fade as easily and pedal feel is more responsive under braking, but it's still mostly feels like OEM calipers!

Brake Pad Testing

I'll put this section here as I figured I'll be trialling all kinds of brake pads in the future.

I've already previously written a small review of Ferodo DS2500 and found them unable to handle hard track (road course) abuse. Not the fault of the brake pads, probably more to do with the weight of the car more than anything. Those were great pads for the road with excellent pedal feel and very high mu from cold up to operating temperature. Unfortunately the maximum operating temp was slightly too low for the kind of abuse I give it. So I then switched to EBC Yellows front and rear. This presented me with another set of problems. Though the EBC yellows operating temp was much higher than the Ferodos, the compound was totally devoid of feel. It felt like every time I came up to a braking zone, I'd just stomp on the brake pedal and pray that the brakes are doing its job, there was no feedback or sensitivity on the pedal. Might be something to do with the lower mu value of the Yellows, tbh I'm not so sure. It was also my mistake to put them on the rears, even though these pads work well enough from cold, they need a lot of heat before they reach their peak mu. Putting them on the rear was equivalent of removing my rear brakes all together, the pads never came up to temperature.
under hard braking my rears just almost lifts the ground, so the front tires are doing all the braking and it's not liking it very well.
it "feels" like
1. I'm not stopping as well as before
2. after a few hard corners the front tires are over worked
3. the abs is kicking in very early (maybe because there's no weight on the rears?)
4. it's not trail braking as well as before

So I thought about alternative brake pads, two brands came to mind, Pagid and Endless.
For now I'm using offerings from Endless. Next to their road pad range, Endless have a wide range of Circuit and Rally specific pad compound.
Some more details can be found here: http://www.endlessusa.com/brakepad/racing-compound/
I had a brief chat with the Endless distributor about the problems I've been having with the car with regards to braking and how I like to drive the car, he recommended the N35S compound.


I also had to address the issue with the rear brake pads, and started looking around for a set of high mu rear brake pads.

Sadly the Euro civic brake calipers are a unique shape in the Honda world, making it hard to find pads for it. I had two options
either EBC Reds which had a lower working temperature, or Ferodo DS2500. Since I was already familiar with the Ferodo, I went with the DS2500.

So after these changes, the brake pedal felt like a totally different animal! The car slows down that much faster that I have to rethink all my braking markers. The brake pedal feels a lot more sensitive to pressure, I'm no longer stomping on it but rather squeezing and modulating it. As a result I'm not hitting the ABS as violently as before. I shed speed more effectively and transitioning weight in a more stable manner. The point is, I feel like I have a lot more control of the car under braking, it's a very big boost on driving confidence so it was all worthwhile

[lukits01]

Interior Mods

SABELT 4-point harness



Harness Bar

apparently my previous harness setup was unsafe due to extreme angles

1Kg Fire Extinguisher


Sparco REV Fiberglass Bucket Seats


Exterior Mods

Carbon bits here and there...

Seibon Bonnet & BTCC wing

[lukits01]

Power

JDM FD2R RRC Intake Manifold + Spoon 70mm Venturi TB






Yep, it all fits. Thankfully, there's enough space in the FN2 engine bay to fit the JDM manifold, unlike the EP3 where you need to cut the radiator support. Its still a very tight fit though. The Throttlebody plugs in with no modification, and runs fine with the stock ECU. If you do decide to change to RBC/RRB/RRC manifold on stock ECU, I noticed my idle did become slightly more eratic especially with the A/C on.

One close look at the FN2 manifold and it would seem Honda had to compromise for our smaller engine bay. Our RSP manifold has longer runners that curl down into the plenum chamber similar to DC5/EP3 PRB/PRC manifolds. It was probably designed to give the FN2 more low down torque for day to day use.

After the swap, I can't say I felt any loss of low down torque, the engine seems to rev smoother. Performance wise, theres definitely a noticable gain up top, this is probably due to the short runner design of the JDM manifold.

B106 Carbon Fiber Race Battery

If you're thinking why would anyone spend $300 on a battery that has lower capacity and can't run 11 subwoofers, then you're looking at this from the wrong angle. What other weightsaving measure would lose you 12-13Kg from over the front axle for $300? no Dry Carbon panel will do that, and certainly none is as easy to install. I drive the car some 60Km per day for work, and where I live it doesn't get that cold during winter, so I don't have to worry about the battery going flat. As a plus point this opens up a lot of space in the engine bay to mount other things.

P2R Power Package

Basically this is a:
Thermal Intake Manifold Gasket
Thermal Throttle body gasket
Throttle Body spacer
Throttle Body coolant bypass

The Intake Manifold gasket is a lot of work to put on for questionable gain but since I was changing it anyway decided to put it on. The spacer and TB gasket was just a bonus that came with the package.
Throttle plate freezing is never going to be a problem where I live, so I bypassed the coolant line going to the TB as well. Results is actually noticable to the touch. After a hard drive (with plenty of airflow) the intake manifold is cool enough to hold, the TB stay pretty much room temperature.

Custom 2.5" Mandrel Bend Exhaust

It may not look like much but atleast it performs, my exhaust is really just a stop gap untill a decent aftermarket one comes up.
I don't think its particularly hard to make an exhaust that makes decent power gain. Just make a straight 2.5" mandrel bends with no mufflers and resonators and I gurantee it'll make power. The challenge is to make an exhaust that does all that but sounds nice, and not too loud. Not worrying about these 2 points, I just choose a straight through muffler and got piping made for it. Loud as hell, but atleast the gain is there.

Ingalls Engineering Power Stick

Basically replaces the dog bone engine mount on the driver side with a solid mount. Helps with removing engine flex, especially wheel hop during hard launches. In the DC5/EP3 engine movement used to crack headers/exhaust and destroy engine mounts. Thought this would help a bit. It does help with wheel hop, slight downside is theres slight vibrations in steering wheel and pedals. Also engine noise is slightly louder. Still nowhere near as bad as a full solid engine mount though.

Gruppe M Custom Intake based on FD2 kit



Ok, this is complicated and took a lot of work, and yet I'm still not finish! But I must say after all hair pulling, head scratching, headaches that I went through; hearing the sound of the VTEC switchover for the first time was the S3x! Sounds incredible! Very different to the DC5/EP3 box, and fantastically loud, I can't even hear my exhaust over the intake roar!

I'll try to explain as much as I can from the top of my head the ammount of work it took to fit this. Before you even consider buying the intake, solve these first few issues:

1. Engine Bay Space
Our enginebay is a bit smaller than the FD2 enginebay.
The Gruppe M box will literally sit halfway into our ECU.
So you would need to relocate the ECU further to the side.
Unfortunately, this is easier said than done. There's absolutely no space left in the enginebay and there isnt much slack left in the engine harness.
I had to free up some space by downsizing the battery and removing all of the standard intake system. This makes it possible to reroute the harness underneath the Gruppe M box and relocate the ECU where the battery used to be. Note that the harness is secured by multiple brackets that you will have to remove. Take great care when securing the harness with cable ties.

2. AFM Adapter
The FD2 K20A does not come with AFM, but ours do. Its very important to keep the inlet track from the AFM down as stock as possible to keep safe AFR. I found some *** making adapters on 8th gen civic forum but even then its quite hard to come by, everybody wants them (understandably). Another alternative is to chop up the AFM mount on your stock box, sand it down and mount it using silicone hoses.

3. Cowl Modification
The FD2 cowl is much bigger than the FN2 cowl, so the scoop wont fit completely over the stock one. Might want to consider buying a spare cowl from Honda, that way you can take your time cutting the passage for the scoop, and fibreglassing the missing space at the end of the cowl. Also, it helps if you adjust the windscreen wipers upwards just a tad, to give more clearance to the scoop.

Now... if you have all of the above covered, go ahead and order the intake. When the kit arrives, throw the following in the bin: FD2 Cowl, Carbon Battery Cover, Alloy Heatshield, bottom mounting bracket. These things wont fit without some more cutting and shaping, you'll be doing a lot of this anyway. hahha Start with the rubber intake tubing, figure out how to connect the rubber tube to the AFM adapter then to the pod filter. Mount the pod and box following the Gruppe M instructions using the supplied bracket, mounting points are the same.

The top Funnel and the cowl scoop will depend on how much effort you are willing to put in. First you would need to cut the alluminium shield thats below the cowl, just follow the Gruppe M instructions. If you mount the box the right way, there is enough clearance between the bonnet and the funnel when bonnet is closed. You just need to pick the right spot to cut through the passage. I suggest using a drennel to make things tidy and cover up the rough edges using U-clamps.

Once you got the funnel mounted inside the cowl, you can either call it a day, as the intake will draw cold air from that space. Or you can take it a step further and attempt to mount the scoop. I am still trying to figure out the best way to do this. There's no avoiding some fibreglass and bog work, plus repainting the whole cowl.

Dual ECU setup with MOTEC M400

Im Running a Motec M400 in piggyback using boomslang harness



I've cut the following:
4*injectors
4*igntion
VTC (rewire to ground switching, while Honda OEM is power switching)
VTEC

These drive signals are now originating from the MOTEC ECU, To replace the lost drive signal for the OEM ECU, I've wired in resistors in hopes that I can avoid CEL. All sensor input signal for the MOTEC are "T" into the original wiring using the boomslang harness

The car runs and I've had it tuned it on the dyno. Dash, A/C, Radio, all the electrics remain unaffected.
Surprisingly the OEM ECU still runs the DBW fine. The slight niggle that I've found was, from cold start the DBW control would go into some sort of limp mode and makes throttle response very sluggish. BUT, if you start the car when already warm, the DBW control is fine.

The problem I haven't been able to solve is the OEM ECU is throwing Check Engine Light and VSA light.
The error code is P0010, It doesn't affect how the car runs, but it gets a bit annoying after awhile.
Ok, I thought the resistors would be enough to fool the standard ECU, turns out that it's much smarter than that.
I've managed to get rid of most of the code but it seems the CAM angle control has extra error checking which results in the P0010 code.

For testing purposes, I rewired the VTC cam angle signal back into the standard ECU while the rest of the engine is controlled by the motec. Started the car, no CEL, drove around the block still no CEL, cruise control is functioning, VSA still functioning.
So the last barrier for this setup as far as I can see is fooling the standard ECU into thinking the CAM angle control is still fine.

I'm hoping somebody else would give this a go and find a solution to the last DTC code, and I'm sure its possible.
You don't have to butcher your loom, and for those who aren't afraid of a bit of soldering, you can use any ECU you like.



Whats next?

Here's where I'm at with power:


I'm still waiting on headers, probably the last piece of the puzzle.
DC5 and FG2 headers donr, no CEL, drove around the block still no CEL, cruise control is functioning, VSA still functioning.
So the last barrier for this setup as far as I can see is fooling the standard ECU into thinking the CAM angle control is still fine.

I'm hoping somebody else would give this a go and find a solution to the last DTC code, and I'm sure its possible.
You don't have to butcher your loom, and for those who aren't afraid of a bit of soldering, you can use any ECU you like.

[lukits01]

Wheels & Tyres

While we're on the subject of reduced rotational mass:


These weight 6Kg each! very few rims come lighter than that

If you wanted to see how 17" look on an FN2:


**update**

Sold my 17*7.5 ET48 SSR Type-C recently...
replaced it with another set of SSR Type-C (RS Model)
This time 17*8 ET38 in Gun Metal + 235/45/17 Toyo R888


It didn't make sense to me that the FN2 would get the similar width tires as EP3 and DC5 knowing that it was a heavier car, so I opted for even wider rims and tires. The main incentive was because 235 width semi slicks are significantly cheaper here than other sizes.

While I'm at it, after doing some calculations, I wanted to increase the front and rear track as much as possible, with this combo the track is some 46mm wider. Wouldn't advise it to most people. The rears really do sit flush with the guard, it was rubbing the guard by some 2mm which I trimmed off. The front was helped by running -2.5 deg camber but still needed some cutting of the guard liner and trimming of the fenders.

Also changed my wheel nuts to Project Kicks R40
The RAYS Duralumin Wheel nuts were poor quality!
they chip too damn easily and turn pink after awhile.


I am a bit of a wheelwhore and have been trying out a lot of different wheels on the car
(No I didn't buy them all, most of them were borrowed of friends)



[/QUOTE]

I am settling on a final spec of

17*8 ET38 SSR Type-C gunmetal for street use

17*9 ET44 & 17*8.5 ET40 TE37 white for track use
these will be wrapped around a 255 and 235 staggered semi slicks

Tire Testing

At first I thought I would put some Yokohama Advan A048 on the car
If you are serious about track work, first point of call is always tyres.
Bang for buck, nothing gives you more speed around corners like semi slicks with treadwear between 40-60

But after considerable thought, and talks with people who have used many types of semi slicks, I've been warned to stay away from A048(MH) that they are no where near as good as Bridgestone RE55S. Hence I decided to go back to tyres that I'm familiar with


**update**

I was never happy with how the Bridgestone RE55S were working on this car, so I thought I'd give Toyo R888 a go. I went to another round of Auto-X with them and they were fantastic! Grip was available from cold! with the Bridgestone I was always worried that the rears have not heated up enough, but with the Toyos I was confident from the start, cut almost 1 sec of my time from the increased confidence alone. I suspect they probably wont perform as well on the track, but I was wrong, it took less than a lap for the tires to come up to temperature and I was flying! I have so much more confidence in these tires I'm able to throw the car into the corner balancing the longitudinal weigh transfer with the throttle to control oversteer/understeer. The only issue I found was the fronts would over heat at anything above 34psi hot pressure. So I had to keep tabs of the tire pressures.

my quick impressions from what I've tested

R888: not the fastest semi slicks by far, but the easiest to use, No need to worry too much about pressures or temperature, just go out and drive them. Compound lasts quite awhile but will overheat given constant laps. Good as a starting tire, sprints, auto-x, hill climb, cheap, can be easily had from taleb tyre or elsewhere.

RE55S: fast circuit tire, sensitive with temperature. They are horrible when cold but will handle continuous abuse at the circuit. Give it a few warm up laps and strap yourselves on and feel the Gs! These tires will carry amazing cornering speed. compound will last awhile, but grips gets worse as you wear them down.

D03G: The dunlops are a lot more tricky, they have a very narrow operating window, if you stay in it they deliver grip like no other. They are a very soft compound tire, I would not recommend them for circuit work, when you overheat them they leave chunks of compound on the tarmac. They are by far the best tire I've had for late braking right to the point where the compound delaminates itself ahaha probably the best tire for auto-x, sprints, hill climb etc but they wear down like no tomorrow!

A048/A050: I personally have not used these tires, but I've been told the A048 is rubbish because Australia only get the Medium-Hard compound and they dont grip as well as any of the above tire. The A050 however are getting a lot of good rep because for once, we get the Medium and Soft compound, these will be my next tires to test. From the people Ive spoken too, the consensus is they give the same level of grip as the Dunlops while using a harder compound, so they dont suffer overheating issues.

[lukits01]

More Engine Stuff

Toda Headers + TSX Cams

Finally got some meaningful seat time with some of these new changes
the TSX cams are absolutely fantastic!

I'll admit in circuit/road race the difference wasn't that much, few tenths here and there
but those courses I spend a lot of time high in the RPM range and from what I've measured there was barely any difference between the RSP and RBB VTEC lobes.

I did notice for day to day driving the car is a lot more responsive and revs a lot faster.
This was very obvious as I find myself staying a gear higher in situations where previously I would have to down shift to get moving.

The difference was a lot more obvious in hill climbs and auto-x type courses, the car accelerates much much better from low down that in between corners I can grab another gear where I would previously just rev-out the engine. Even better through tight twisty bits, situations where previously I'd have to down shift to 1st (or sometimes 2nd) and give it a little squirt before up-shifting, now I just stay in higher gear, the power band is so obviously wider.

The trouble is, I've been using Toyo R888 till now, and the extra grunt (and subsequently extra braking) are easily over working tyres over a single stint. I would start a course with ample grip, and by half way through, the tires would overheat and push understeer would start to creep in. It's not so bad when you are expecting it and therefore manage the grip as you run the course, but occasionally the red mist descends when I'm chasing damn EVOs and all those thoughts of tire management go out the window ahaha so next on the cards are definitely move on to some better tires.

oh and here's a vid of what I'm on about:

YouTube - FN2 Civic Type-R Jacks Hill 310110

YouTube - FN2 Civic Type-R Jacks Hill 310110

unfortunately I didn't do a before and after on the same dyno
because I decided to try a new tuner with this new setup and he uses a different hub dyno

K20Z4 i/h/e + 08 AUDM Accord Euro cams
stock ecu vs tuned


low cam vs high cam









Flashpro

Got my hands on a flashpro unit and have been playing around with it. I must say I am very impressed with the software features. For starters having the ability to tune the DBW map is neat, Ive removed the "sneeze factor" from the pedal and made the throttle feel a lot like a cable setup, ie a hell more linear.

Secondly the datalogging is awesome as a driver learning aid. I mean, if I can display throttle pedal input vs speed vs gear vs rpm, I can analyse my previous performance and optimize where i'm conservative with the throttle or where my cornering speed is low or I can compare rev-ing out a gear vs short shifting which is faster. If only it logged brake pedal usage as well it wouldve been perfect, but you can kind of tell from the speed graph where you're braking anyway.

Then of course theres the engine tuning side of it, been trying out some of the new features that wasn't in the kpro must say the live tuning feature is awesome, makes road tuning so much easier and dyno tuning is so much faster than Kpro. Considering the price this little tool has a boatload of features.

Anyway, so came the dyno session, sat down with the tuner as he went through the motions. Started with a MAF calibration, did a few power runs and adjusted the fuel map till the AFR is "about right" around 13.0:1 or less. Then went through all the different cam angles followed by ignition maps finishing off with fine tuning the AFR. VTEC crossover ended up at 4000rpm, I asked for a strong high cam powerband and sacrificed a bit of power during the VTEC transition. Tuner spent equal amount of time fine tuning the part throttle transitions. Once that was done, we switched over to MAP calibration and repeated the process. The MAP calibration took a bit more time for the part throttle tuning, but for one reason or another made a few hp more, could just be variations between runs. Once it was all done, we overlaid the results with the MOTEC tune and I was quite impressed with the results, it worked out a lot better than I thought it would:

Motec (alpha-n tune) red vs Flashpro (MAP tune) green



I would say that power-wise, this is the next best mod after a well designed exhaust manifold (provided you have it dyno tuned). Best of all, it runs and starts like OEM!

Theoretically both ECUs should produce the same amount of power when set-up PERFECTLY. Realistically though, its much easier to get near perfection with the flashpro for these sort of mods since it is designed specifically for the K-series, whilst the motec needs to cater for a whole wide range of engines.

I can't say for sure unless I analyse the CAM CMD electrical signals, but I have a feeling the MOTEC doesn't control the cam angle adjustments as finely as the flashpro.

Also, the MOTEC tune I was running was full time open loop, so it had to be setup to be quite conservative. Whilst the flashpro has very good closed loop setup, not to mention a knock retard function. This makes it a lot safer to tune the car to the limit by adding more timing.

If I really wanted the MOTEC to run the engine to its ultimate limit, I'd have to start wiring extra sensors for it and spend a lot of time setting up the sensors to work with the fuel/ignition/cam maps. I just wasn't willing to put in the effort for that last 10% of performance. At the end of the day, the MOTEC served its purpose well for me until I was satisfied that the Hondata product has matured enough on the market.

Boomba Racing Engine Mounts

I was doing some work underneath the car I decided to give these a go.
I've been curious to know if these aftermarket mounts for FG/FA civics would actually fit the FN2. I certainly can't fault Boomba Racing, they've been helpful with all the questions I've had. And from the little info we had to work with, it sorta looked like the mounts were more or less the same, so I took the plunge and bought a set of their motor mounts.
Boomba Racing, Inc. :: Honda Civic SI
It took just over a week to get here from the US and I must say the manufacturing quality is top notch



and you can get them in all sorts of colors if you wanted to



These replace the top, front and rear mounts with solid rubber within a aluminum frame.



I didn't try their passenger & driver side mounts, these would've needed a lot more work and I personally don't think they add much performance advantage for the extra NVH. Somebody else can try those and tell me if they fit

So, do they fit? well sorta, 2/3 did anyway.
The top and front mounts fit no problems. unfortunately, the bottom/rear dog bone in the FN2 is a completely different design to the FG/FA mounts. Ours looks a lot like our top dogbone while the USDM Civic Si bottom dog bone is shorter and smaller with different mounting points.

I have a feeling that I can adapt my Ingalls engineering dog bone replacement to fit the bottom mount. The Ingalls power stick as they call it has adjustable length and adjustable bracket so I think it might just fit, unfortunately this didn't occur to me until the car was already back together, so I'll have to save this for another time.
**update**
I tried using the Ingalls dog bone for the bottom mount and it was just not possible. It's just slightly too short to replace the bottom mount. So no go there.

Do you feel the engine vibration?
hell yes, you feel the good vibrations.
the extra vibration is definitely noticeable, especially through the pedals and steering wheel, the engine noise inside the cabin is also increased. But to be honest I don't think its that bad (I'm probably the last person on earth to care about increased NVH levels) BUT I've driven a DC5 with full compliment of solid engine mounts, and that was much much worse than these. That car used to vibrate so much that you can't use the rear view mirror as it would vibrating too much to see anything clearly, this doesn't seem to happen on my car. The vibration is subtle enough, as a passenger you probably wont notice it straightaway. The worse parts are at idle with A/C ON, when the mounts were new you definitely knew they were there, but as they softened up its much more livable now.

Well, do they do anything?
I certainly hope so for the extra suffering I have to put up with ahah
well obviously there's a lot less engine movement, this is definitely noticeable when the car accelerates from stand still and I suspect at launch there would be a lot less wheel hop, I don't actually launch the car very often, so will write more when I get some more seat time.

The biggest difference I found so far is the feel of gearshifts just driving normally and at full throttle. It's just so much more precise and crisp, I can get away with MUCH MUCH faster shifts. Even for daily driving to drive the car smoothly I actually have to shift gears faster, it is a very odd feeling.

all in all, evewont notice it straightaway. The worse parts are at idle with A/C ON, when the mounts were new you definitely knew they were there, but as they softened up its much more livable now.

Well, do they do anything?
I certainly hope so for the extra suffering I have to put up with ahah
well obviously there's a lot less engine movement, this is definitely noticeable when the car accelerates from stand still and I suspect at launch there would be a lot less wheel hop, I don't actually launch the car very often, so will write more when I get some more seat time.

The biggest difference I found so far is the feel of gearshifts just driving normally and at full throttle. It's just so much more precise and crisp, I can get away with MUCH MUCH faster shifts. Even for daily driving to drive the car smoothly I actually have to shift gears faster, it is a very odd feeling.

all in all, even though only 2/3 of the mounts fitted, the most important mount (the front mount) fitted fine. For those who don't do full throttle shifts every 2nd day, the alternative is to inject your OEM mounts with some sort of sealant. This will probably give you most of the benefits of a solid mount without the extra vibration. In my case, my I think my OEM mounts were well worn, and I wanted to take care of my TODA headers with all the hard driving that it was going to endure. I think the gain is definitely worth the slight increase in NVH.

**update**
you can clearly see the difference in the rear mount design between
FN2

and FG/FA/FD


luckily Boomba Racing is currently making the FN2 specific rear mount, and I will be test fitting these soon:
http://www.civinfo.com/forum/711240-post16.html

Oil Catch Can

Decided to rig up a oil catch-can to the PCV valve, got myself an oil-air separator from a local supplier




surprised by the amount of oil caught after one track day



Toda Anti-G Force Baffled Sump

I always top up oilto the second hole marker on the dip stick before any track day, sometimes a little more. Don't like to risk it being any less than that with all the talk of oil starvation on previous K20s. To take my paranoia to the next level, putting in Toda Anti-G oil pan. I know its not necessary and a bit late haha but I had the opportunity to get it

[lukits01]

When **** Hits The Fan

Since I have this extra section reserved, might as well put down things that have gone wrong with this project, maybe somebody might find these painful experiences useful haha.

Wheel Studs

If you forget to tighten your wheel nuts and you go on a hill climb, you are going to wreck your wheel studs and your wheel nuts (what kind of idiot would do that?)
haha
The rear studs aren't so hard to replace since the hub is easily removable, but the front ones are pain to do because you need to remove your knuckle assembly and press out the bearings, in which case you'll also need new front wheel bearings.

Brake Pads

OEM brake pads will not handle 15min stints on an open track day. In a moment of stupidity me and my mate in a S2000 decided to see if we can stay out and do 15-20min of hard laps in our stockish cars, and as I found out, his car outlasted mine as my brake pads burnt to crisps haha

Starter Motor

well during the time I ran the motec ECU, due to its design, it needs to double crank the engine to get it started. This (combined with my tiny battery) put extra stress on the starter motor. I killed 2 before switching to Flashpro and hopefully wont have to go through that again.

Quaife LSD

Honestly don't know what happened, but they just broke in the drag strip.
6000rpm launch + auto-x type 235 semis with some suspension tuning
at the time the car was producing less than 200whp. It's still a mystery to me why they failed considering they are used in much more serious drag cars.

Clutch Master Cylinder

One day I lost pressure clutch pedal pressure and suspected some problem with the CMC. I took it off the car (which interestingly was mounted in the footwell inside the cabin) and brought it to brake and clutch specialist. They rebuilt the CMC with fresh seals and found a hole in the old seals. Guess it was just some inherent weakness of the OEM rubber seals that got worse with the use of heavy aftermarket pressure plates. Luckily its cheap to rebuild CMCs.

4th Gear Synchro

could be other gears as well but this is a common problem with K-series gearbox it seems. I didn't actually have too much of a problem with the gearbox at the start, but with constant abuse sooner or later something was going to give, and my 4th gear synchro was first. Shifting into 4th became unbearably notchy, sometimes it wont go in at all.

Clutch Wear

a few people have asked me why I would go for such a high HP rating clutch when I'm not actually pushing that much power from the engine. Well aside from the fact that I was already won over by the clutch with a test drive in a DC5R, I found that "organic" or "heavy duty" type clutches doesn't handle abuse that much better than OEM clutch. Sure they are cheaper, but as I found with my TODA one, it wasn't long before I needed to replace them again.

TSX Cams

it's practically impossible to tell these apart from any other Honda cam. There's some debate that my cams are not the same as 06+ TSX cams since it came out of an Australian delivered CL9, tbh I don't really care, got them cheap enough and it gave me the result I was looking for.

[k20_ed]

Id seen bits & peices of this thread on different forums but never all in one go! i love the trial and error way you've gone about it, really pushing the boundires of the FN2. Im interested in that swaybar, is it from a company based on Australia or the US?

[Ths]

What can i say, impressive work! I love the detail you go in to every mod you have done. It's sort of like a massive mega review of tons of parts!

Thanks for sharing it all with us!

[FWH]

Wow. A lot of good work put into that. Impressive.

[Dave.M89]

Immense. I would love to be able to do all of this.

[fat4y]

One word- WOW!!!

[lukits01]

Originally Posted by k20_ed

Id seen bits & peices of this thread on different forums but never all in one go! i love the trial and error way you've gone about it, really pushing the boundires of the FN2. Im interested in that swaybar, is it from a company based on Australia or the US?

they are an Australian brand, I was told you can source them through these guys:
HOME - Fulcrum Suspensions

[BRM]

Hi Sena,

Glad to see your project here.

As said before, you FN2 is awsome!! Keep it up.

What happened to your 5ht gear then?? Was it the DC5 one? Anything to do with the fitting?

Regards

Paulo

[lukits01]

Originally Posted by BRM

Hi Sena,

Glad to see your project here.

As said before, you FN2 is awsome!! Keep it up.

What happened to your 5ht gear then?? Was it the DC5 one? Anything to do with the fitting?

Regards

Paulo

4th and 5th are fine, it was 3rd gear that failed
in hindsight i should've changed that as well...
oh well, such is motor sport and the cycle of race it, break it, fix it, race it again.

[pigdog]

great write up mate, so interesting and great pics too, keep going.

[R555]

Brilliant, your a pioneer, trying a these different things and its great to see someone doing if for Motorsport....

[CTR42]

good build buddy its nice to see another fn2 put on the track and built in a way thats a credit to the builder .
I race a fn2 in the uk so maybe we could share some info mind you . You have nearly done the same as me anyway if you want any info please shout