Steverino's Road Race Build Thread (Road to CSCS) - Updated almost Daily!!

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Stephen (duh). I've owned my Accord for quite a few years now and it's basically gone from rice to somewhat-nice and just down-right abandoned.

A good friend of mine was kind enough to be as enthused about building a dedicated road-race vehicle to compete in the upcoming CSCS Time Attack series and lent a hand as well as a space in which to work with.

Additional background information will come up as I update this thread.

--------------------------------TABLE OF CONTENTS--------------------------

Post #1 - Story and initial parts list.
Post #9 - Engine Removal
Post #15 - Interior carpets/trims removed
Post #17 - Engine harness details/Current state of engine
Post #21 - The update that sucked
Post #35 - Timing Belt, water pump / engine harness work / 3" exhaust considerations / engine bay prep
--------------------------------THE PARTS/MODS LIST--------------------------

CHASSIS

• 1998 Honda Accord 4cyl Coupe

ENGINE & POWER

• Honda F23A1 engine
• AEM Engine Position Module
• AEM long pencil coils
• Turbonetics T3/T4 ball-bearing turbo
• TiAL 38mm wastegate with 7.25psi spring
• GM Boost solenoid
• AEM water-methanol injection kit
• Drag manifold
• Blitz BOV
• Drag intercooler
• 3" KTeller stainless exhaust
• Magnaflow high-flow cat, muffler and resonator
• Omni 2-bar MAP sensor
• Innovative 75A engine mounts
• Samco radiator hoses
• Walbro 255lph fuel pump
• Unorthodox Racing 3-piece pulleys

TUNING & ELECTRONICS

• AEM EMS 30-1010 with EPM mod
• Defi Boost BF gauge
• Defi EGT BF gauge
• Defi Oil pressure BF gauge
• AEM CDI Twin-Fire module
  

TRANSMISSION & DRIVETRAIN

• MFactory LSD
• Competition Clutch Stage 4 6-puck sprung disc clutch kit
• ACT ProLite flywheel
• Torco MTF

SUSPENSION

• Koni Yellow SP3 sport shocks
• Ground Control coilover sleeves; (450lb/in front, 550lb/in rear)
• Ingalls front upper control arm camber kit
• SPC rear camber kit
• Comptech Titanium series front strut bar

BRAKING

• Wilwood Dynapro6 calipers (front)
• Wilwood GT36 2-piece rotors (front)
• Wilwood Polymatrix B pads (front)
• Axxis Ultimate pads (rear)
• Goodridge Stainless steel brake lines
• Custom brake ducts

WHEELS & TIRES

• 17x9 RPF1 +45mm
• Dunlop Star Spec 255/40/17 front, 235/45/17 rear

INTERIOR & SAFETY

• Autopower 4-point race rollbar
• OMP 804 Leggera 6-point harness (driver)
• Bride Zeta III-L (driver)
• Bride Gias Low-max (passenger)
• Works Bell short-length hub
• Works Bell Rapfix II quick-release adapter
• OMP Corsica steering wheel (red/red)

EXTERIOR

• 98-00 Honda OEM optional underspoilers
• Blackhoused headlights with headlight duct
• Shaved OEM trunk (remove taillights)

WEIGHT REDUCTION

• A/C removal (compressor, condenser, lines)
• Cabin sound deadening
• Trunk sound deadening (may remove trunk spare tire pan, undecided)
• All rear interior panels/trim pieces
• Remove spare tire
• Remove emergency tools
• Carpets
• Front bumper beam damper
• Front subframe damper
• Automatic transmission wire harness removal
• Audio system removed
• Deka ETX14 battery
• VIS carbon fiber hood

--------------------------------THE STORY--------------------------

My current 1998 Honda Accord started life as an automatic. Since then I've done some pretty standard things: 5-speed conversion, 5-bolt conversion, 4-piston brakes, race seats, turbo, LSD install. As of last summer, I ended up making 220whp and 214 wtq on a DynoJet roller dyno.

Now, most Accord owners would be happy with what I've done any time of day, but an opportunity presented itself where I can park the car and do some more work to it without having to worry about putting it back together to get to work the next day, so plans were drafted up . . .

Introducing Steverino's Road Race car

So what's the fuss about? Well this is an opportunity to budget-build a race car that will be competitive in the local CSCS Time Attack series in Street class. The car won't be driven on the streets save to get to/from the track, so comfort and noise considerations can be neglected. I won't say no expense will be spared because there is obviously a budget limit to how much I want to put down on such a non-road-race-oriented platform.

My power goals will be in the neighbourhood of 280whp and 280wtq with 10psi and water/methanol injection. Again I'm not going for crazy HP #'s as with my previous goal, because I want something with a kickass powerband, manageable and reliable. A key consideration is the fact that stock F23A1 motors are $300 at the local junkyard. I would much rather blow up a $300 motor than a $2000 built motor. And we all know how well >300whp on a FWD handles in something OTHER than a straight-line.

For fun, here are some pics of what the car used to look like, back in its heyday as a street queen:

Re: Steverino's Road Race Build Thread (Road to CSCS)

Sounds like you've got a nice project going. Good luck with it, and good luck in the series.

Re: Steverino's Road Race Build Thread (Road to CSCS)

sick!

Re: Steverino's Road Race Build Thread (Road to CSCS)

nice, car is looking good.

Re: Steverino's Road Race Build Thread (Road to CSCS)

looks like a you got a solid plan sir, i'd like to see this to the end......subscribed.

Re: Steverino's Road Race Build Thread (Road to CSCS)

Good luck

Re: Steverino's Road Race Build Thread (Road to CSCS)

Looking Good, wish I had the kind of dough to do this type of stuff

Re: Steverino's Road Race Build Thread (Road to CSCS)

Subscribed. Good luck with the racing man! Seems like we have a very similar build, but you got a few more baller components than I do.

Re: Steverino's Road Race Build Thread (Road to CSCS)

Okay so we spent Thursday/Friday tearing down the car and removing the engine.

Things were a bit of a pain because since the car was originally an automatic, it wasn't exactly by-the-book. Automatic transmission mounts were mixed with Manual transmission mounts to make our lives that much harder.
Not to mention there were all sorts of add-ons like the wideband O2 and Defi wiring that had to be removed. Also my old alarm system's wiring was tapped into the vehicle harness and that had to be labelled and cut-out.

The cosmetic parts had to go first:
* Hood
* Bumper
* Headlights
* Fenders (optional but since we were going to be doing some heavy work, probably better to remove them than to scratch them up. Also it allowed us to get more leverage on the car)



Removed the fuse box, strut bar and fished the engine harness through the firewall.
Next we removed the AC condenser, canister and lines, unplugged all the heater/rad hoses.

Since we were going with the AEM coil-on-plug conversion, the dizzy came out and allowed us to access some heater/rad hoses better.

Front suspension was removed and axles were disconnected/removed.

Here's our parts shelf:


We also completely removed the rad to make our lives easier.

We didn't take any in-progress pictures because our hands were caked with brakedust/oil/grease/coolant/gearoil/dirt.

Anyway, shortly after poof, the engine was replaced with... what?


I wish it was as easy as it looks.

Re: Steverino's Road Race Build Thread (Road to CSCS)

Last night we spent some time cleaning up the shop/tools and getting re-organized.

Also we removed the engine harness from the engine because I wanted to remove the extra automatic-transmission plugs/wiring as well as re-loom everything with braided nylon sleeves and adhesive-lined heatshrink. The stock Honda wiring loom is super cheap and non-shrink sleeving was used throughout with an abundance of electrical tape that's become saturated with grease/dirt over the years. I'm also planning on tucking the wire loom UNDER the fuel rail to tidy up the engine bay a bit.

More pictures to come tonight. Heading over to the shop in a bit to get started on the interior.
Today's goals are:
* Remove seats
* Remove carpets
* Tear down engine harness to assess what we're dealing with and order the correct size heat shrink/wire sleeving as necessary. (poor-fitting sleeving = YUCK!)

I managed to bend one of the Tial wastegate bolts and had to order a new set.
I also ordered DEI Gold wrap

I'll be wrapping my intake pipe as well as post-intercooler charge air pipe in an effort to reduce intake charge temperatures EVEN FURTHER. Since I don't want to bump the boost pressure any more, I'm doing as much as I can to increase intake air density.