The day went pretty well. Rough road that tested the cars and crews. Will do a better write up later but the result was decent:
The day went pretty well. Rough road that tested the cars and crews. Will do a better write up later but the result was decent:
Hey, I am a bit late to the party, but I know a ton about these 88-00 era hondas so feel free to ping me if you get stuck.
Tips that might help, you likely already know all of this:
Balljoints: put something steel (i find the old square handle craftsman 1/2 ratchet handle perfect) between the knuckle and lca when jacked up. Then just lower the jack, and pop! May not work with some aftermarket lcas. Easier than a bfh on the side of the rd.
Engine: the b18c b16 are all alike. Timing belts, blue gates, every few years as insurance, namebrand tensioner, and also aftermarket tensioner if going above 8k. Keep the gearbox oil fresh, be aware it uses honda mtf which is about 30wt, not gear oil. If you have torsen style lsd, most fluids work, clutch style need specific stuff. Front cam seal weeps with oem part, order a chinese billet plug with orings. Most common engine issues are usually timing and igition related. Use OEM distributors, aftermarket are terrible. Oem/YEC cap and rotors are good, avoid the msd cap. NGK plugs and wires make these happy. Use huge gator cv axles for bulletproof ($$$), or get autozone lifetime axles like all the civic drag racers do. Suspension bits swap easy, many bolt-on upgrades from other hondas of the era. Figure out what transmission you have and buy a spare for syncros and gears. Most b-series transmissions can swap gears for custom gearsets. Try swapping left and right front upper control arms for more agressive caster, as the later hondas dont adjust below...
Thats all i can think of. Pardon the phone typos. Great car! I have always wanted to rally a civic.
Nice work! Looking forward to the event recap. Some of the canadian events are closer for me than certain US events, so I may need to consider crossing the border for some events.
Ok - now the event.
This was Event #1 on a 3-event Rallysprint Series - these events are heavily restricted but occur on fully closed roads and thus permit unlicensed and uninsured cars to enter. Restrictions include Average speeds below 80 km/h and less 45 km (25-30 miles) of stages. They are meant for beginners to the sport or people getting back in. They do require fully-caged cars, however the cage requirements are slightly relaxed from full rally. They also permit use of helmets (SA2000 and up), seats (FIA) and belts, that are expired. The series is restricted to 15 cars, however since some of these are new builds there were a few teams that didn't make the 1st event. 12 Cars were actually on the entry list.
This event was Loom Lake which is the name of the road we were using. It is a road that was approximately 10 km, split into 2 - 4 km stages, with short, closed transits. The road was run twice southbound and twice northbound with a total of about 33km of stage. We were warned well in advance that the road is rough in spots and that strategic choice of speeds would be essential.
I haven't run the Honda in over 2 years. I pulled it into the yard and started prepping it 3 days before the rally. I had done some work on it before my vacation, but I found once again that the PS low pressure line was collapsing due to the screen in the bottom of the reservoir being clogged. I pulled it and flushed it repeatedly and got it cleared up. I did finally get this resolved.
I also found that I had a bad LR suspension link from the last time it ran. Fortunately I had a spare. Unfortunately one of the bolts was seized and I snapped it off. 7 sawsall blades, much cursing and driving all over trying to mind a M10, fine thread, 70 mm long, I had the spare installed!!! The next issue was that the car was clearly misfiring and I only realized this the day before. I pulled the plugs and went and picked up new ones. Installed those and the misfire cleared up.
I only live 40 minutes from the HQ, so Saturday morning, I got the boys out of bed and headed out. They were volunteering at the Rallysprint, as we were short on workers. Missed a turn and got lost trying to find the HQ (it was just a clearing in the bush). Finally made it there and the parking was really tough. Got the car off the trailer, drove it to service, wedged the trailer into a small clearing and got the truck up to service.
Headed out on Recce and discovered that I still had a misfire under load. It idled fine but once under load it wasn't happy. I had dumped about 30L of fresh 93 Octane in it, but it was still misfiring. This was really getting into my head and I didn't do a great job on the notes. Plus I decided to skip the 2nd pass of Recce to try to diagnose it.
We were put as the 11th car out on the road. Headed out to the start and the car was really flat. I figured out that if I kept it in 2nd gear and revved it up around 7500-8000 rpm the misfire would go away, but through the mid-range the car was running on the 3 cylinders and sounded awful. Ran the 1st 2 stages and my codriver got lost due to my bad notes a couple of times, but for the first time in over 2 years, we are running flat-out on a forest road!! Made the turn-around, got out and checked around the car and everything seemed fine. I had smacked the nose and broke part of the lower facia, but nothing some tie-wraps won't fix. 2 cars in the 2wd class were already out. I broke a ball joint 500m into stage 1 and the other had destroyed its cast aluminum oil pan (I'm looking at you VW).
Continued to do the north bound run and into service. Not much I could do there, so just checked over the car. Ran the southbound runs again. On the northbound runs the car started cutting out, especially after large bumps or jumps. Made it to the finish, however a couple of guys in service said that it may have been fuel starvation. Car was below 1/2 tank and he said that his SiR would do that while autocrossing. Had one corner in particular, that I struggled with. Just about understeered off 3 times at the same corner.
Anyway we finished - 6th overall and 3rd 2wd. - HAPPY FACE. Guy who won overall and 1st 2wd is a very experience 2wd competitor. 2nd 2wd was also a pretty experienced guy, so I am okay finishing my 1st event in over 2 years in 3rd.
I have some work to do - PS pump has a definite wobble - I fortunately have a spare. I may have hurt the LF. When i loaded on the trailer a couple of people said the LF wheel was moving back and forth - front-to-back.
Next event is about 1 1/2 hour tow for me and the 3rd event is like 20 minutes!!! 2nd event is much smoother. I'm fortunate that due to my volunteering I have previous knowledge of almost all the roads being used. Next even is coming up on Saturday Sep. 21. So Ineed to get going on repairs. I have ordered a fullset of Dist Cap, rotor, plugs and plug wires to start. Then on to PS pump and LF. Plus I'm going to pull the coilovers and check them all out.
After giving the car a more thorough inspection I found the following:
Back to fixin E36 M3!!!
Over the weekend I worked on the car:
Last night I strapped the car down on the trailer and headed out to a nice quiet dirt road with very few houses on it. (Thanks Google Earth!) Unloaded the car and drove a couple of miles each way. I'm pretty sure the misfire was caused by the engine moving so far that it was pulling all the wiring around. Based on the damage to the PS line the alternator pully was able to move at least 3-4 inches. The top of the engine was likely moving even more than that!
I also noted the need for a slight adjustment to the skidplate, so I took out the appropriate adjuster!!
2nd Event - Baptiste Lake Rallysprint
Sept. 21 - This event was about 2 hours s from my house - just north of Bancroft, ON
On the Thursday before the event, I was informed that I was no longer employed. This is the 2nd time in less than 2 years!!! Wow that sucks! However, the Entry Fee was already paid and I might as well find something to distract myself.
Up early Saturday morning and headed out with my boys in-tow (they are volunteering at a Start/Finish). Arrive, unload the car and get the service location set-up.
Tracked down my co-driver Brandon and head out in the car for 2 pass recce. Clearly the mis-fire has been fixed and I am very pleased with the notes we have prepped.
A1 -1st stage - absolute crap! I am rusty and on a tight left hand turn, I lock up the brakes, almost slide off and I can't find 1st gear. This caused us to lose quite a bit of time. A2 goes better. At the turn-around, we are comparing times and we are well back in 4th in 2WD. The guys that are leading are a young team and we think they are driving over their heads. Brandon and I agree that we need to run our Rally and see if it comes to us.
A3 goes well and I am feeling better. A4 was pure magic!!! - A4 is A1 but running south instead of north. We take 24s off our A1 time - that's over about 2.5 miles, almost 10s per mile faster!
Head into service - not much to do - filled gas and checked other fluids.
Head out for B1-B4 and everything is going well until about 1 km from the end of B2. There is a new, big rattle in the back of the car. Make the turn around and pop the trunk to find this:
Punched the shock right through the mount - damn.
We found out that the young team in the Fiesta went off about 700m from the finish of B2 and are done. Doing the math, we are pretty sure we are in 2nd and the 3rd place team is well behind us.
I knew that the spring would stay in place and we should be able to finish but I will have to back off. The back of the car is bouncing around like a pogo stick. We go through B3-B4 with a wounded car, but we finish!
As the results come out:
We finish 2nd - we found out later that at the finish of B2 we were basically tied for 1st, but we lost 25s on B3 and B4 due to backing off.
We are the only 2wd team to podium both events, so I think we have a decent chance for the championship , depending on how we do at the 3rd (last) event of the series.
The last event is Nov 2 and it's located about 15 kms from my house. It is being held on the roads around a moto-X park. I have a 3rd and now a 2nd, so that leaves a pretty obvious goal for the last event!!!
In the interim, I need to fix the rear suspension and Find a JOB!!!
Updated series standings are out. We are leading the 2wd championship!!
Way to go!!!
I used to participate in the MLRC Rally Cross series with a BMW E30. I had a little accident (roll over) and have ever since been working my way back into the series. I'm in the process of building another E30 with a cage this time and several other re-enforcements to hopefully keep it running for a long time.
I would absolutely love to get in on this series, maybe next year if my ducks are in a row.
Congrats on your efforts and good luck at the final event.
Cheers,
Ian
smrtpunk said:Way to go!!!
I used to participate in the MLRC Rally Cross series with a BMW E30. I had a little accident (roll over) and have ever since been working my way back into the series. I'm in the process of building another E30 with a cage this time and several other re-enforcements to hopefully keep it running for a long time.
I would absolutely love to get in on this series, maybe next year if my ducks are in a row.
Congrats on your efforts and good luck at the final event.
Cheers,
Ian
Thanks!
They are definitely planning to continue the series next year. They are considering adding a 4th event and spacing the events out further. If you haven't already , join the Ontario Rallysprint Championship group on FB.
3rd and last event of the season is Saturday.
Fingers crossed!
Congrats on the finishes. I've been wanting to spectate some RallySprit races as I'd like to dip my foot into it eventually after a few years of rallycross.
Today's event was at Burnt River Off-Road park north of Fenelon Falls . My travel was literally 17 km!!! It was a thoroughly awful day weather wise, with temperatures hovering just above freezing, a combination of rain, snow and ice pellets, and wind.
This Rallysprint was using a combination of the park's access roads for 10 stages and about 45 km in total. Stages 1-4 were the same, then 5 was different. Then we went to Service. Stages 6-9 were the same but reversed about 70% of Stages 1-4, then Stage 10 wrapped it up.
We had only 3 entries in 2WD, as the previous 2 events had caused some attrition. We were leading the 2WD overall by 1 point, however the team that was directly behind us went out fast and slapped us with a 16 sec deficit on the 1st stage and added another 10 sec on the second. We decided we needed to focus on our own pace, as the replacement rear Bilstein's were simply not getting the job done and the rear of the car was like a pogo stick.
At the end of the 2nd stage, one of the 2WD competitors in a Mitsubishi Starion came in and they had a conference with a tree. The tree definitely got the best of the interaction. The hammered it out but couldn't get the car to re-fire. And then there were 2.
As we waited for the start of the 4th stage, our main competition came into the finish, did a u-turn and headed for service. They collapsed the LF strut on their Golf and had no spares. They loaded up and headed home at the Service break. And then there was 1!
We were focusing on finishing at that point however that wasn't easy. There was a big water splash and puddles everywhere. I was struggling with a water-induced misfire on several stages, however the Orange beastie brought us home!!
We added a 1st place plaque, to the 3rd and 2nd that we earned at the earlier events for a full set!! The overall 2WD championship will be ours once it is made official, since we are the only 2WD team to podium at all 3 events.
That's a wrap for 2019!!
In reply to NGTD :
Awesome job, and congratulations!
That's awesome! Something to be said about keeping the car alive!
And such a quick write-up. Fantastic job!
You and the car both did good. Championships are hard to win.
Thanks for the compliments folks. It felt good.
I am not going to receive the championship plaque until the Rallysport Ontario AGM and there is some sort of Rally equipment from the seies sponsor. I was hoping for the new belts, but they are apparently going to the 1st AWD team. Will have to wait and see what we get.
Photos courtesy of Crawford New.
In reply to NGTD :
Congratulations on a successful season! How fast does the series fill up? I'm hoping to get a cage in my car in the spring, and this series is only about a 6 hour drive from my place!
artur1808 said:In reply to NGTD :
Congratulations on a successful season! How fast does the series fill up? I'm hoping to get a cage in my car in the spring, and this series is only about a 6 hour drive from my place!
Last year it was full by about Feb. 1 (registration started Jan. 1), however a number of people either dropped out or were building and never made it. All 3 events ran with less than 15 starters. They are considering going to 20 cars in 2020.
In reply to NGTD :
That's great news! At the current exchange rate, its $566 USD for the 3-event series, which is barely more than a single one-day rally stateside.
great job! its been awesome to follow your build on this.
artur1808 said:In reply to NGTD :
That's great news! At the current exchange rate, its $566 USD for the 3-event series, which is barely more than a single one-day rally stateside.
You should join this group on FB, if you use it.
Have you been able to get out since?
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