Let's try this again - Alex's NB

[A.Chen89]

Well I should have posted more pics and what not but here it is for making up for lost time!

About those km's, the real km's are just shy of 179000km, I actually bought a separate cluster and something special from Revlimiter a couple of years ago. Must have had the second cluster with the huge km's on it in when I took it to the dyno; this was about June 2019:


My favourite bit; love the detail:




I still swap it in every now and then when I feel like it; its a nice contrast to the cluster that's already in the car:


One more shot from that 2019 era when it was hard parked at a mate's place with the engine in pieces:

[A.Chen89]

With regards to the Honda, well (still 2019), they say a picture is worth 1000 words:
Reasons why it was $1800; but fine by me:

Inspecting at night with a dodgy flash from my phone

The donor vehicle I acquired with help from Manheim auctions:

Requisite parts required

Ready and waiting

In

[A.Chen89]

Continuing on with the time line, went to a Toymods meet around November 2019 and someone was nice enough to take a couple of photos of my car:

[PaulF]

Loving the updates. Turbo MX and a K-swap Civic is a great combo.

[ManiacLachy]

Loving the updates. Turbo MX and a K-swap Civic is a great combo.

Ditto

[A.Chen89]

Sweet, well more content is coming right now if the punters like it!

March 2020
About a month coming back after a snow trip, there were rumors that this COVID-19 virus had managed to breach Australia.
There was a Luddenham track day later on in the month and a few friends thought it would be a good idea to go - incase we had to be locked down at home.

Put the entry in and had a once over of the car; I noticed I was slowly losing coolant and could smell it after parking the car up.
Actually, I had been putting this job off for a while. Gasket must have been old on the coolant reroute assembly or just a little bit off when it was reinstalled.

You can see a bit of red coolant seeping past.

After a bit of swearing and 10 minutes of focus, the gaskets were replaced. Top tip from a mate; use Hylomar from a spray can! Made the process so much easier; stops the gaskets from slipping and keeps the whole assembly in one piece.


Following on, pictures are from the said track day. Unfortunately no PB that day but I guess I wasn't driving hard enough heh:


There was a photographer on the day, normally I'm a bit of a tight arse but these photos came out great so I paid for them!






Do like Luddenham as you can take passengers, good chance to swap between driving and sitting in between cars.
Had friend capture a nice iPhone shot in car:

[A.Chen89]

June 2020
Fast forward to the end of lock down lite, didn't drive the car much but took it out to the Megalong Valley Teahouse. Hit up a lookout in Blackheathe after (never doing it again in this vehicle!) and remembered the suspension is very much not suited to bumpy/rutted roads.




It was also around this time a friend's NB had died on the way home (dead battery?), luckily another friend offered up his trailer and tow car:




It was also around this point I had a mechanic work some 3" brake ducts into the back of the brake dust shields with the other end just flopping underneath the car in preparation for the next track day.

Unfortunately due to my undertray, he couldn't manage to have them fed off the gap between the GV lip and front bumper as he has done other cars. Some air is better than no air though!:

[A.Chen89]

July 2020

Ooph this is where it gets a little bit spicy. Entered a super sprint round at Wakefield, typically don't like these as there's a bit too much rigmarole compared to a normal track day. Typically you get grouped into cars with similar times but I find that I always catch up or hold up people - two cars can achieve the same lap time in very different ways.

In my case, I lay the power down the straight and then try and get traction on corner exit - I was still running Hankook RS4's on the car which are a little bit slower than proper R-comps.

COVID protocols were in full swing


Transponder on, numbers on and ready to go


Had to do a double take when I saw this other car in the garage; someone else is following the cookie cutter recipe too


This thing looked pretty neat:


Ended up doing a PB of 1:08.77 (ignore the class)!



Unfortunately though, my gearbox finally gave up. Around turn 4-5, the car just popped out of 4th gear. Wouldn't stay in third or fourth unless I held the shifter in. Selecting gears was also extremely difficult, but luckily enough gears 1,2,5,6 and reverse were selectable and drivable.

Perfect for getting home without a tow! As to the cause of the failure, probably fatigue. It was the same box in the car when I broke the driveshaft at the drags (shock load from tramping), plus I never made an effort to change the gearbox oil out as often as the engine and diff oils.

[A.Chen89]

Got struck down with the corona virus then some type of other respiratory virus. Fun times.

Anyway, continuing the update... some time in October 2020 there was a deal on a Sony XAV-1000 double din head unit with Apple car play.
Looked like a pretty good deal to me! Definitely a massive improvement in quality of life over the Pioneer single DIN I had bought perhaps almost a decade earlier (how time flies).

Pretty decent looking unit.


Mid way through install with the trim apart; can't rate the Aerpro adapter harnesses enough. They make installation a breeze.


Remnants of the old head unit and adapter harness wiring gone


Adapter harness ready to go for the Sony to be mated to the universal Aerpro harness. Definitely a fan of using these, makes installation much easier and stops molesting the factory wiring which you may or may not stuff up.
Borrowed a M12 Milwaukee electric soldering iron. Made the job a breeze; the small gas hand held ones work but this is much nicer without the fumes:



Installed and with working carplay! Much better for using Waze and changing music, getting rid of the suction cup cradle on the windscreen makes a huge difference. Did forget to hook the power up for the powered antenna, but figured that out quickly when I had no reception.



Highly rate putting a touch screen head unit with car play; almost a mod con you can't go without in the 2020's.

Also gave the wideband sensor a bit of a clean around the same time. Can't seem to avoid having a bit of soot build up on the sensor. But they need to be calibrated and cleaned every now and then. The soot issue would help by not having boost but I think that's too hard to give up.

[StanTheMan]

I know about the calibration of the O2 sensor. I had no idea about cleaning them. Just with a wire brush?

[A.Chen89]

Nope not even, this was all soot.... just gave it a wipe.

I've had it pretty bad before where the soot filled the ports/holes which then gave me some error codes or just pretty bad readings.

[StanTheMan]

no chemicals right?

[A.Chen89]

Yep no chemicals - the spot on mine just wiped off real easy. Chemicals can mess with the sensing membrane.

Other method to clean them is just to blast them with some heat (propane/butane torch etc).