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Another quick post before I need to run out the door...
This was the same dyno where I had the BP VVT engine tuned, so I got a direct comparison. Blue is HP, green is TQ. At peak numbers, 77HP and 53TQ more than the BP6D, but what is really impressive is the area under the curve. This thing is going to be a riot.
A little catch up... I've been scrambling the last few days trying to get everything ready for the track tomorrow.
Things didn't go perfectly on the dyno... the tuner was having some issues with idle, and then the circuit that carries 12v power to the engine sensors (crank/cam/IACV) faulted. We traced the fault to the IACV, which apparently had an internal short. Moral of the story, don't cheap out on the IACV, buy an OEM Honda part. The tuner advised all of the aftermarket ones are crap. Too bad the Honda part is literally 10x the price.
He got it idling OK without the IACV and eventually got to the power tuning. And the VTEC wasn't engaging. After some diagnoses, we determined the Link was set up for OEM style switching (OEM switches the power to the solenoids, Link is usually set up to switch the ground side, which is how I wired it). Head slap moment for the tuner, because we had discussed this before putting the car on the dyno. From there on out it was clear sailing.
With 7 hours of driving to/from the dyno, it was a LONG day. And the next day it was on to wrapping up the rest of the details, starting with replacing the valve cover gasket we ripped checking the cam timing during the VTEC fiasco above. Next up was modifying the air dam with an air inlet for the air filter, and a 'fender liner' to protect the filter from debris thrown up by the tire.
The car will eventually be getting an all-new splitter and airdam, but I was out of time, so making do with what was quick. I may try to build an enclosed airbox down the road, not sure yet.
Next up was alignment. I picked up a set of Paco Motorsports alignment stands a while back when the price dropped, and this was my first DIY alignment. Never had the room, or a proper floor for it in our previous house. Tedious, but straightforward.
I also organized my 'manuals'... one for the mechanical side of things with the KPower guide, and a bunch of stuff printed from Mazda and Honda shop manuals, the other for the electronics with paper on the PDM, wiring, sensor tech info, etc.
Gave the car a full looking over, and already found a loose nut on the exhaust header... got that snugged up and it's all ready to go.
Except for the AiM camera. The 'bullet' cam itself appears to be malfunctioning, and won't connect to the head unit, so that's on its way back to AiM. Hopefully that will be my last warranty issue with them.
Today, I'm organizing the trailer with all our track gear and getting the car loaded for an early start, since it's 3.5 hours to this track.
Based on my first track day after the swap, plan to do a nut/bolt check on hardware for anything that bolts to the motor after your first session. I had some intake manifold bolts loosen up on me which could have been bad.
So, everything worked, and nothing fell apart. No leaks, ran perfect... mostly. More on that in a minute. Coolant temps on track stayed in the high 180s.
The biggest issue is that I'm an idiot. The last time the car was driven before coming apart for the swap was to a local car show. I use street pads when I drive to local events, and I never swapped the track pads back in during or after the swap. So we showed up at the track with almost 80 more HP, and no brakes. I discovered this when I got to the first hard brake zone on my first 'hot' lap. That was interesting, and nearly involved some farming.
Good news is the power. That aforementioned braking zone was hit with an additional 9 mph (98->107mph) over the BP engine with similar conditions. That's a BIG improvement. As the dyno plots above show, the power curves look very much like a BP, so it feels very much the same to drive as an N/A BP engine. It's sneaky fast, as it doesn't feel a lot faster, but you definitely get to the braking zone a lot sooner. And that 'Vette isn't pulling away....
Of course, I didn't have the other pads with me, so we spent the day on old rubber letting off early and cruising into the braking zones. Never mounted the fresher set of tires... No lap times worth reporting, but I was 'cruising' at very near what would have been 'hot lap' pace under similar conditions....
It was hot (mid 90s), and later in the day, it started cutting out at high rpm under load. Going back and looking at logs, I'm getting Trigger 1 errors (crank position sensor). I'm leaning toward replacing the crank position sensor, as I already have a spare in stock. Going to try to log a trigger scope this afternoon if I have time.
Sounds like a successful shakedown if nothing else! Sounds hectic!
Sorry if I missed this, but is that a 3d printed hardtop, or just a wrap/paint? Feel free to point me back to a relevant post if there is already one here.
It's the Treasure Coast/ CCP hardtop, and it's just white gelcoat. I was going to paint it red to match the car, but my wife wanted to keep it white. I couldn't stand it in plain white, so I added some black vinyl 'checkers' to make it at least a little interesting...
Because I'm a little crazy, I painted our mailbox to match the race car...
That's hilarious, love the mailbox. I assumed it wasn't 3d printed based on the angles of the checkers, but that's the only time I've seen that pattern on a hardtop until now.
I haven't had the chance... I was hoping they'd have the scales out at the track, but they didn't. I have a feeling it's going to be very close to the same weight (2050 without driver). The K24 should be a little bit lighter, but I added electric power steering. What was left of the stock wiring/MS3/dash should be about a wash with the PDM/dash/LINK.
I really don't know???
I ordered a set of cornerweight scales today, so I guess we'll find out...
Sounds pretty good for a shakedown weekend given all the changes made! It's funny how quickly street pads become completely useless on track at 200+whp.
Coolant temps stayed in the high 180s even once it got to be over 90* out? That's fantastic.
I weighed the NA this morning, with a somewhat confusing and disappointing result. But I think the problem was actually the last time I weighed the car, which was in 2022. That was on someone else's scales (that I had no control over), at the track, where I just drove on, got a number and drove off.
Based on that weighing, I believed the car was ~2050 without driver, and actually LOST about 70lbs with the cage installation. A lot of other things changed as well (OEM to race hardtop, gutted doors, etc), but that always had me scratching my head. It always seemed too light for a caged NA.
Today, I used a brand new set of Proform scales from Speedway Motors. I set the tare weight, and I scaled myself on each scale which was dead nuts to my bathroom scale. The result:
With driver:
Without driver:
So, 2170lbs. This makes a lot more sense to me for the car's configuration.
I do think there was something wrong with the weight I got in 2022, though I will try to get another data point if I can. And the car will be going back on the scales for corner balancing at some point after the coolshirt system is in. The good news is this actually helps my classing with the group I run most with and puts me at the pointy end of the class power/weight wise. It also gives me a little wiggle room in NASA TT4. The bad news is I have no way of directly comparing before/after with the K swap (which I think was a wash anyway).
The new number seems a lot more realistic from what I've seen. Sucks if the Proauto scales are off that much, kind of a big deal if you got challenged and weighed. Haven't seen those scales out for at least a year though..
I feel bad not making it to INDE 'cause we're so close, but we're prepping for a two week trip to CO that will include FM's Summer Camp and two days at High Plains, so we're not going to make it. We usually run INDE with PCA... the PRO and NASA events there can be pretty crowded, and PCA runs there in March and November so the weather's really nice. I might drive up for a little while if I get motivated, and it's not going to be too hot.
05-07-2024, 09:30 AM
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