Type R Club of America

No fun pics from this year, just maintenance (but hey, car was in good shape, so can't complain!):

Great thread. Awesome documentation. Beautiful car.

Much appreciated! Although I definitely enjoy keeping the car in tip-top shape, I fully appreciate I'm feeding my OCD tendencies, which is totally counter-productive to actually having fun with the car

2016 was great. I got the car out to three track weekends on the new pads and tires and the car was even awesomer than I remembered. I had a bit of an itch for some fun car stuff this year as well, so I had a few things picked up and plans as you’ll see below.


Maintenance:

• After the suspension work late last year, early in 2016 I got 2 rounds of alignments, so the car was nice and OEM tight.

• My last set of RE71Rs were looking a bit ragged, so I picked up a new set for the track wheels.

• Oil change at 1/2016 w/ Amsoil 0W30 (w/ UOA)

• Another oil change at 5/2016 (after 2 track weekends)

• The Primary O2 sensor failed, so got that replaced with a Denso/OEM replacement

Miscellaneous stuff:

• Got a new valet key cut at the dealership -- the car never came with one

• Installed SPA Designs oil temperature & pressure gauges, as well as got a custom baffles & bung installed in the OEM oil pan by Devon M

• Picked up a nice set of used Volk TE37’s in bronze (16”x7”) for use as “all season” wheels (the OEM 15”s are the track wheels)

• Found a new set of amber OEM turn signals, so got some protective clear film installed and plopped those on the car.

• Got new OEM front and rear bumpers, and got them painted (along with the OEM lip on the car)

After a May event at Carolina Motorsports Park, the ol RE71Rs were basically sandpaper'd away:


Sweet new gauge setup:


Engine UOA from 1/2016:


Engine UOA from 5/2016:

2017 was a bit of a fun one. In late February, I was at VIR and on the second day of the event, I burnt a valve, (pics of the head below), so that really prompted a large overhaul of the engine lasting from the end of February up through April to get the engine running again. Unfortunately, I can’t speak to the cause of why the valve failed — might have been a combination of various things maybe the valve was adjusted on the tight side, maybe the buildup on the valve created a hotspot and coupled with the harder driving during the track event caused the failure. In any event, after getting the engine back together, I spent the rest of the year “getting it sorted”, running a break-in period for a few hundred miles, and overall getting confidence that the rebuild was solid. In addition to the cylinder head rebuild, I also had a bunch of other cosmetic items I just had on the backlog that I also performed this year.

Maintenance:

• Transmission fluid change at 1/2017 using Honda MTF (w/UOA)

Replaced battery with lightweight Deka battery[/list]

• Oil changes:

• * Got the cylinder head reworked and put it back on by April/May, so had a short interval oil change using conventional oil Mobil 5000.

• * After a few hundred miles as a break-in, I replaced with Amsoil 0w30 in Sept

Cylinder Head Repair Details:

• Troff in Raleigh, NC did the headwork — The head needed 8 new OEM exhaust valve guides, and 6 new OEM exhaust valves, and machined and seated all 16 valves, and machined head to ensure flatness (I had measured using a straight edge and the head actually was within service spec, so perhaps this wasn’t needed, however, I decided to opt for the extra machining just to go for 100%. The cylinder block was also within flatness service spec as well, though it wasn’t 100% flat within 0.002").

• I performed the head reassembly myself (this was a lot of fun — I really enjoyed this part). In reassembling the engine, I used ARP headstuds, all new OEM gaskets (headgasket, exhaust gaskets, intake manifold gasket, throttle body gasket), except for a Myhondahabit oil pan gasket, new o-rings in the cylinder head and distributor, and a new cam plug.

• While I was in there, I also swapped in new OEM spec NGK spark plugs, OEM timing belt, tensioner, tensioner spring, cam seals and crank seal. I also replaced the water pump and refilled with fresh Honda coolant.

• I purchased a new oem oil pan with DevonM-welded baffles. As a side note, I noted a small oil drip after the reassembly, and I thought it was my original oil pan (thought that maybe I tweaked it on installation), but turned out I had cracked a cam seal and that was ever so slowly dripping oil. So, in sum, I didn’t need a new oil pan, but I purchased one anyway, so this one is a lesson for “diagnose first, then replace the faulty part”.

• Replaced the power steering hoses and refilled with fresh PS fluid.

• Lots of new bolts/nuts,clips, clamps and other miscellaneous parts while I had the engine all apart.

• After the engine was back in one piece, I performed a valve adjustment and refilled with conventional oil

• I then re-checked valve clearance after running the car a few hundred miles

Miscellaneous other cosmetic work this year:

• Replaced valve cover (the original valve cover’s paint was starting to flake)

• Replaced armrest (swapped badge) as original’s suede was rough and red stitching was fading

• Installed freshly painted OEM bumpers and repainted OEM lip that I had got prepped up back in 2016 (including new front A badge!)

• Installed new rear tail light gaskets (higher density foam than OEM from Detroit Muscle Technologies on eBay)

• Installed new Type R stickers on driver’s side and rear tailgate (original ones were faded and had some flake on the red R)

Car goes under the knife:


Bit of coolant (probably head gasket failed too)



Head removed from engine:


Better view of top of pistons:


My work area littered with parts:



Cylinder head top-down view with cams removed (and a toe):


Underside look at the cylinder head



Better view of the failed valve:


Carbon buildup on other exhaust valves:




The grossness in the failed port and valves:


The car starting back up!!!!! (Note that this is just a video of a running motor with no check engine lights -- this isn't super exciting unless the engine has been disassembled for months, so this was pretty huge for me )
https://youtu.be/3lKFqS06lg0

Compression test results actually put down better numbers than when I bought the car:


And the boring transmission UOA:

Bummer about the engine but glad it's all back in working order.

y shi - who thinks '18 is gonna be great

Oh that data! Love it! Thanks for sharing your R's Journey!

Nothing too wild and crazy this year. A buddy of mine and I picked up a project car last year to be a track rat (a 91 EF hatch with an H22 swap), so spend a lot more time wrenching on that one than on the ol' ITR this year. Still, went to a few track days and the car was holding up well post head rebuild. I did have an "incident" with my bike rack (was in a parking garage and the clearance was *almost* enough) where I attempted to drive under a support beam on the ceiling of the garage and the seat of the bike hit the beam and popped off the car and put a few small dents in the roof and pillar area. Can't fix stupid... Luckily PDR fixed those really well, so I don't have to relive that mistake every time I see the dents .


Maintenance:

• Replaced the battery with an OEM Acura unit (was running a small Deka battery for about 2 years, and it finally gave up the ghost)

• Oil change in June w/ Amsoil 0W30 (w/ UOA)

Miscellaneous stuff:

• Some PDR work to remove the dents from the bike rack.

• Bit of detailing (minor corrections for a few blemishes and light micromarring).