The crapcord: Bean's '97 Accord LX DD/autox beater

Finally got the P28 installed with the tune, threw the velocity stack back on, changed the oil(Rotella T6), which reminded me why I hate changing oil, put in a new Honda axle seal on the passenger side so it doesn't leak anymore, and snagged a little lip spoiler off an IS300 at the junkyard for $5. Plastidipped it and will install tomorrow.

Tune feels great, idles better, smoother, and has a nice smooth power delivery. VTEC engages at 3800rpm now(factory set at 2400rpm), which will take some getting used to, and might have a little less between 3000-3800, but feels GREAT once VTEC is engaged and pulls hard straight to redline. I'll try to take it down the track one more time before the end of the season to see if there's an improvement, but I may end up going slower since the tires are wider. If I can nail a 14.9, I'll be estatic. More than likely, this will be the last round of updates for the car until I raise it, throw snow tires on it, and thrash it until spring.

Welp, it didn't run 14's. Last time at the track I only was able to get in one pass. Still runs 15.06 like it's duty in life.

After some deliberating, I've decided to stick with the F23 that's in it, add some more mods, and call it good enough.

We all know how that turns out, so I bought some more wheels. 18x8 +50 Racing Hart Type-C's that need rebuilt. Not a bad deal for $200.

Then I bought a turbo, a seat, and some other crap for about $20. Sold the manifold for $100. Shoved some foam into the bolsters of the seat to make it skinny kid compatible, have yet to install it.

Last "pretty" photo of the season.

Drove to Erie PA and made a couple stops in Cleveland for some tires and stainless brake lines. Got 34mpg at 80mph cruise, and got stuck in traffic through Cleveland for about 1.5-2 hours. Didn't install brake lines yet. Paid $40 for some Russel's/Edelbrock lines though. Not bad.

General Altimax Arctic's(195/65/15) on some beater wheels, mismatching(two are six spoke OEM Accord wheels, two are steelies). Already scrounged up a matching pair of 6-spokes for the rear of the car, just waiting to have time to strip/paint/install. $300 total in the winter setup. Not super happy with that, but at least I have a set of beater wheels/tires now and can keep the fun stuff inside when it's cold.

"Fun" wheels/tires cohabitating in my back entry. FYI, $50 205 width BFG R1's are WIDER than $250 225 width R1R's.

Then I got distracted with J-series stuff over the weekend. LKQ had 40% off and I couldn't resist myself. Intake off a newer 3.5 RL and some J32A2 CL-S heads. Not bad for $100. One of the heads looks like someone's been in there recently, it looks BRAND new. While the intake still isn't a TLSHAWDGTFO manifold, it still makes huge gains over the earlier stuff. Grabbed the lower runners/injectors off the CL-S, then researched and found out the lower runners/injectors off the RL are better. Gonna see if they'll let me swap them out next time I go. They see me about once a week so it shouldn't be an issue.

Finally went and got it dyno'd.

Two different B18C1 powered cars with bolt ons/basemaps made 140-145whp/110-115whtq on the same dyno, similar conditions, about a week earlier. My car door bangs with both of the lighter Civics.

Tune is pig rich after 5K, VTEC needs shifted to about 3200RPM. Gutted intake, bigger exhaust, cam gear, and modified PLM header will be going on before retune. Should be able to get 3 out of the 4 done(the header will take some time) within the next month as long as weather plays nice. I may just hold off on putting it all on until I get a new trans in the car as 3rd gear is getting kinda crunchy infrequently. There's probably another 20-25whp/tq that I can unlock fairly easily with the breathing mods and a better tune. More power, with a shorter Euro-R trans/LSD will make this thing fun.

Sweet! Nice updates. You have really transformed that accord. Nice fat torque curve. I bet it's fun.

It's not bad. Still need lots of fine tuning. As you can tell, the sweet spot's from about 4000-5500, I hardly ever rev it out further than that. I'm fairly happy with how it's starting to turn out. Moved into a new place, doing renovations as well so my rent's dirt cheap and I live alone. I have a big garage, which really helps move progress along. Been trying to flip junkyard parts pulls which usually ends up making me a decent amount of profit, but it's pretty hit and miss.

Still one of the best GRM style builds on here. Love it.

Thanks! Wish I could compete more with it, life got in the way quite a bit the past year or two. Going into 7 months sober, and I can't believe the dramatic impact it's had on my life and the ability to make progress with this is a HUGE step forward.

congrats ... on the car AND on the sober ... takes a lot of "get with it" to understand that something is wrong and that you can do something about it ... that was me 30 yrs ago with blow ... somehow I just walked away (actually gave away my last gram or two) and never looked back

After the first year, sober becomes the new normal. And absolutely mind blowing. Never thought sober would take me where it has.

Updates!?

Since December:

http://www.hondasociety.com/board/showthread.php?t=153841&page=15

Start at post #433 and move forward. I've tried to post updates a couple of times, but the site would crash when I'd go to hit post.

Main changes:

Wheels are just about done. Did 2" polished lips, and powdercoated the faces black. Ended up with an 18x9 +36ish offset, waiting on hubcentric rings and new valvestems to be overnighted from J-pan. Will have to run a 5mm spacer up front and a 10mm spacer in the rear to clear on the inside. Plan on running the new 255/35/18 Firestone Firehawk Indy 500. Pressed in some ARP extended studs in new hubs for both the front and rear.

Redid the exhaust in 2.5" piping, went with a Vibrant Ultra-Quiet Resonator and Stealth single outlet(center-center) muffler, finally put a flex section into the piping. Really sounds great now. Found some gaskets that actually seal properly for the header and fixed those leaks.

Blew up the passenger side rear Bilstein, so I bought two new ones and sent the old back to Tirerack for warranty replacement. Waiting on refund for that, which I'll put towards the tires. Replaced the rear coilover setup at the same time with some Allstar Performance 7" sleeves and collars, and dropped down to a 9" tall, 2.5" diameter 450lb driver/400lb passenger spring. Took a LOT of the harshness out of the ride and calmed it down a ton. Not quite as tail happy anymore, but much more driver friendly. Added some Hyperco spring tenders and collars on the front Bilsteins, as well as a set of 2" taller extended top hats, and new upper and lower Energy Suspension shock bushings. Feels like wheelhop is just about eliminated, but I really want to get a set of mounts from Innovative.

Picked up a 93-96 Prelude VTEC M2F4 Manual transmission for $100 that had a second gear and 4th gear popout that was previously "rebuilt." Upon teardown and inspection- two synchro springs were missing, but it did indeed have a brand new Synchrotech carbon lined dual cone second gear synchro. Ordered a set of synchro springs from Synchrotech, some other misc things for it, put it together, and put it in yesterday- about $200 total investment. Paired it with an Exedy Stage 1 clutch, replaced the master cylinder, deleted the in-line hydralic dampener, and did a Rywire Kevlar "tuck" line. Feels so much better and pulls through the gears so quickly, it's incredible. 65mph at 3500RPM kind of sucks, but it's bearable. Also added Fat Four Customs Shifter bushings, and K-tuned transmission shift cable bushings- both really tightened up the shifting.

Finally found someone to port my lower intake manifold, waiting for that to come back, then it's install, delete some Evap/EGR stuff, and off to get retuned.

That's about it! I hate to make people link to somewhere else, but copying pictures and changing the links is a PITA for this site.

Intake is back from the porters and I finished cleaning it up the other day. Installing sometime this week and going in for the tune April 17th. Hoping this will help me hit my 170whp/tq goal. With the stock manifold, the runners go up to the flange, are a LOT smaller, and what I believe are to be responsible for making the power flatline at 5000RPM. We'll see if my theory holds true come Sunday.

I parked by you this morning when I stopped in for a new faucet.

TLDR, I don't remember, are you running an F23 bottom end?

Yes, factory USDM 9.3:1CR F23A1 longblock. Strictly bolt ons, only removed valvecover for valvelash.

Hey Beans, you have a random PM/favor request.

Intake on, egr deleted, and swapped to a no coolant JDM B20 IACV. Idles better. And pulls HARD as F to fuel cut at 6500. I think I'll be revving it to 7000 the way it keeps pulling. Zero loss of torque. Can't wait for Sunday.

Ported and stock side by side. Forgot to post this.

Well, results are in. Ported intake was worth some torque down low, about 10whp near Red line. Played with VTEC engagement and found it worked best around the factory engagement at 2400RPM. Gained an assload or torque under 4000RPM. Final run numbers were a little bit lower due to higher IAT's than the initial run, but you can see the old numbers, ported intake+old tune(crome), and new numbers(neptune). Not a big difference in overall peak numbers, but under the curve is sooo much better than before. 14's should be easy with all the new stuff done. At this point, it looks like the camshaft is holding it back. The torque is absolutely awesome, minimum 140lbsft from 2400 to 5500, paired with the gearing makes acceleration in any gear nice and easy.

Wow, this just confirms again how underappreciated the f23 is. Good work sir.

Nice results! Hard to believe that's a stock long block. I bet it's pretty quick.

Thanks guys! Comparing it to a friend's H22A Type-S dyno and his later H23A VTEC Dyno... Mine murders both until about 6000rpm, then I only have 500rpm more until I shift. They both climbed another 2000rpm before revving out.

It's very fun.

Snapped up these 17x8 Axis Touring Cups for $160 with two sets of tires from a buddy yesterday. Will be going on the car for summer while I save up some dough for super fancy tires for the Racing Harts, like R888's or another R compound.