Dumb, Stubborn, and bound to end up penniless…….

[aklackner]

I went through and checked torque on all the suspension and brake fasteners.

I found rear upper arms to body fasteners hadn’t been tightened down correctly yet and rear dampers to top hats were loose too. Both were likely contributing to some suspension noise in the rear. After getting all the fasteners to correct specs I adjusted the Konis to 1/4 turn from full stiff in front and 1/2 turn from full stiff in the rear before taking a spin around the block.

So much fun! Suspension is firm but manages the roughest neighborhood roads with ease. On fresh pavement 01386 glides unbelievably smooth. With the JRSC and JDM 4.7 trans midrange has plenty of acceleration to run me out of road quick. My experience with the ORC clutch continues to improve, and has grown on me considerably. At this point it’s really about me giving it enough juice to keep engagement nice and smooth. Overall experience is night and day from the first test laps!

I’m still waiting for some longer exhaust insulators to get the muffler off the rear bumper. Additionally due to the open hood choice at least at this point as things go though initial heat cycles, I’m finding that keeping the cabin on recirc. Is mandatory to keep engine bay fumes out. The carbon cowl should redirect cabin air intake some but its likely the majority is still pulling directly from the engine bay. Not really an issue with AC on the streets and windows down on the track though. I’m still hopeful that as painted surfaces and everything else continue to heat cycle the effect of this will diminish.

[Dave7CDMTYPER]

AFAIK, using locktite (blue medium) is a good idea for many bolts on brakes and suspension. I definitely use it for brake caliper bolts.

[aklackner]

Trying to take fire safety very seriously given my own fallibility and level of customization of the car.



It’s an unconventional/less than ideal mounting but keeps passenger seat fully adjustable for an instructor/coach and is reachable (though blind) from both front seats.

Of course the first strategy would be to stop quickly and get out of the vehicle at least I have an option should escape become an issue for an occupant.

[coolhandluke]

You are wise to both invest in fire safety and think about fast exits. It's important to practice exiting. Seconds count in the event of a fire. The small extinguisher could help buy one a few extra seconds. All of this is rare, but it happens.

PSA: Don't expect track workers making $15/hr to go all in on putting out your car's fire. That's what insurance is for. They have a life/family too.

[coolhandluke]

I went through and checked torque on all the suspension and brake fasteners.

I found rear upper arms to body fasteners hadn’t been tightened down correctly yet and rear dampers to top hats were loose too. Both were likely contributing to some suspension noise in the rear. After getting all the fasteners to correct specs I adjusted the Konis to 1/4 turn from full stiff in front and 1/2 turn from full stiff in the rear before taking a spin around the block....

Paint marking can help determine if they slipped loose. You made the right call IMO. I'm a fan of checking torque after a new suspension "settles in", etc, for extra peace of mind.

[aklackner]

Received some of the polyurethane extended exhaust hangers that I had ordered. Man what a pain but the Apexi exhaust is hanging much better now finally off the bumper, meaning I can take it out for a longer drive without melting the rear bumper skin.



Took it out for a slightly longer loop this evening, got on to a stretch of road long, clear, and fast enough to let it loose holy cow I’m a fan! The power and is shifted quite a bit lower, I’m interested to see what dyno chart would show. FI it’s inevitably less true to the high strung NA origin but likely better suited to my driving style/comfort. Beyond accessibility of power band the suspension continues to impress, basically my perfect street suspension, just eats up anything that’s thrown at it while still feeling firmly planted, always ready, and all without feeling harsh!

[aklackner]

So headed off to get the safety inspection today and made it about a mile before I got a check engine light.

Turned around and headed home and finally got my old OBDLink cable out and setup again on a laptop.

Connected up and found I had 2 pending and 2 confirmed codes:
Confirmed:
P1297 - ELD sensor issue
P0172 - fuel system rich
Pending:
P1456 - Evap control systems leak
P0170 - fuel trim - long term trim reads over -15

In addition to the codes I noticed the map sensor was reading 15psi without the engine started and at idle it came down to 9psi which sounds like a bad sensor.

Overall not the worst set of news but not really welcome either.

New map sensor is on order so fingers crossed that takes care of at least some of this.

Since the evap code is pending it’s possible this was triggered before I tightened down the fuel level sending unit which most certainly would have constituted an evap leak. For safety and since the gas cap oring looked pretty old I’ve order a new oem gas cap.

I’m guessing rich and fuel trim are either related to map readings or something is still off with the JRSC FMU. I’ll connect up a fuel pressure sensor and verify pressure at idle is correct.

Eld is potentially my biggest concern. It seems odd that this would have tripped at the same time as the rich code. I see the Civic & CRV had a replaceable eld unit but IIRC the Integra unit was part of the fusebox which I believe is discontinued. At the very least I’ll try to verify correct 1.1-5v at the ecu pin at idle (which should be spec). If I don’t get voltage on the pin it could be an open circuit, otherwise I may need to find a 98+ main fusebox with a good eld sensor. I’m suspecting I’m not going to get lucky on this one since some symptoms seem to mirror those reported of a bad eld, specifically that I noticed a high idle after ~5mins of driving during the last test drive and turning on the AC seemed to bring idle down to about spec. Starting the car cold, idle seems is stable at spec. How this relates to eld I have no idea but aligns with reports I see related to eld failure.

Another interesting find was that everything but the Evap test read as ready for ecu emissions test which I didn’t expect given limited mileage and the fact that I have code for rich and fuel trim, but I’l take these as a good sign.

[aklackner]

So some good news....

A new OEM gas cap came so I pulled the old seal off the old cap

There were multiple significant cracks.

Also confirmed that the Integra ELD sensor is removable similar to Civics. So pulled, reseated the connector and ordered one i case the code recurs.

Cleared codes and got out for a thrilling if shortish (~2mi) test drive. 01386 just continues to impress! Idle was stable, in spec, through the whole drive and in the driveway after. The phantom gas smell is also gone, making me realize the evap issue was considerably worse than I realized. I assume that rich/trim issues will remain until MAP is replaced at least and I’ve not read any pending codes but no CEL yet.

[aklackner]

I received the Stilo I ordered today.
It’s was bit challenging to get on and situated so my ears weren’t pinched initially, most probably due to the earcup speakers I optioned, but once accomplished seems like it’s probably perfect as it’s very closely molded to my head without being painful. As I squeeze the helmet on and off it seems to be getting easier or at least I’m getting more practiced at the process.



I need to adjust the retaining straps on the Hybrid S device but looks like my kit is starting to take shape.

After testing out positioning, entry, and exit I’m pretty happy with how I have the Hybrid device adjusted now and feel secure in the car without feeling like range of motion is totally eliminated. I’m at least confident enough that I’ll go ahead and pull the tags off.

I’m super impressed with airflow and the anti fog visor. By which I mean I fog the windshield just sitting in my wife’s Volt and when I was diving no anti fog solution could keep my googles clear for long but the Stilo visor shows zero vapor collection, breathing from my mouth and/or nose while pushing, pulling, huffing, and puffing to figure out how to get and keep everything in place. Even with the visor down air feels fresh, just not something I’m used to in a closed face helmet, though my experience is very limited.

The optioned drink kit tube seems pretty useless as it barely reaches the center front of the helmet and offers no way to get the bite valve through the intended hole in my balaclava? The side disconnect valve is slick though and I’m sure I can change the tube and bite valve to something that would suit me if I ever use. For now I’ve removed the inner tube to declutter the helmet interior.

Without a Stilo specific connector I can’t test the mic and ear speaker kit yet. Though getting something sorted here could help with the sense of isolation. I’ll sort something out for experimentation soon.

Not having worn a helmet in a car, the top of the helmet is pretty close to the roof and the more present structure of the JDM seats add to a slight sense of claustrophobia, or more accurately anxieties about how I’d behave in an emergency maneuver. Inability to see clear over my left shoulder makes me uncomfortable. The Broadview mirror is a relief here and I look forward to installing the Spoon wide side mirrors that I’d held off on to avoid complicating the safety inspection.

It looks like the new MAP sensor may have shipped today so hopefully I’ll have in my hands Wednesday or Thursday and can get inspections all completed shortly after that.

[aklackner]

Well I had to learn a bit about vacuum and inches of mercury to realize I was chasing my own tail. It turns out values I was reading were absolute which makes sense since it says this. 28 inHg is about 14.3 psi this is atmospheric pressure near sea level so is exactly what I should read with the motor off. 9 inHg is about 4 psi which is 10 psi less than atmospheric or stated another way 10 psi of vacuum, not 4 psi relative pressure or “dial” pressure you’d read from a boost gauge. The Map sensor was reading was exactly correct and appears to be a good sensor.

I believe the rich and fuel trim issues were related to the JRSC FMU. I had adjusted in the direction I thought was leaning it out but was actually moving in the reverse. So the fuel system was seeing near 100 psi once I got a fuel pressure gauge in to see what I was actually doing.

If that wasn’t bad enough I caused all sorts of issues when I connected a Holley electronic pressure sensor and powered that from my external power supply. This it turns out will feed back (over ground?) into the ecu and was getting picked up as an internal ecu short causing stalling and codes until I realized what was going on and connected the sensor to the battery before realizing this was >12v. That was the end of the Holley sensor, fortunately I had a good old VMS dial gauge from the LS sitting around. I screwed that in and the JRSC FMU was correctly adjusted to 50 psi at 0 psi relative (to atmospheric pressure) manifold pressure within a couple minutes.

The car seems to be running well. No codes so far. Made it back to AAA and completed the safety inspection. In the next 2 weeks I need to make sure I get smog check passed. I’m still not sure if I’ll pass as is. While I’m not showing any codes obdwiz now appears to read mode06 (onboard emissions monitoring) I can see a number of tests which are passed (on min values at this point) but I see an Evap test reading failed. Again there are no codes so this doesn’t appear to be final and having opened the fuel lines several times playing with gauges I could see this might create odd values for the evap system. If I’m lucky more miles will help continue to clear the monitoring and I’ll be able to go get read without additional drama.
Incredibly boring video driving to AAA

https://vimeo.com/500976714/0f81267037



I had noticed the other day that the coating on one of my lug nuts had started flaking and had wanted a set that had the floating washer. I made the plunge and bought a set of Kics Iconix Classic (black/gun metal chrome).



On the positive side they are light (2lbs for the whole set) while still steel for durability. The lugs have an attached aluminum washer that allows for more consistent torque and avoids damage to the wheel at the seats. The lugs are also longer which keeps the sockets off the wheel a bit more. Aesthetically though they aren’t a great fit for the car. They protrude from the wheel some since they are tuner style, with internal caps, this with the slightly darker color gives a much more aggressive look and to me seems to distract from the wheels. IDK they are sorta growing on me a bit. What do others think?