Jarrett : 2003 Acura 3.2CL Type-S

[Jarrett]

I've had this car for a little over a year now. I bought it to swap the engine, transmission and dash over into my CG2. A combination of this thing being way to nice to tear up, along with my brother completely trashing out the 2002 Accord, has led me to just fix this car and drive it instead.

I bought it as a salvage-titled vehicle from Copart in Dallas. It was a fun learning experience buying a car on an online auction, and I've even done it since then to purchase a second CL-S6 to repair this one. Thanks for looking!


Engine

Stock


Suspension/Brakes/Wheels

Koni yellow shocks
H&R Race springs


Exterior

Stock in the sense that it has not been upgraded, not that it came from the factory this way.


Interior

Stock


Future Upgrades Waiting To Be Installed

2009-2014 J37A4 magnesium intake manifold
phenolic runner and throttle body gasket
custom 3.5" aluminum intake
SR-S stainless headers
Progress 24mm rear sway bar
Brembo TL calipers (still need all of the supporting components my CB used, less the calipers)


Just a picture of its current condition. It goes to the body shop for dent removal and paint prep as soon as I can get moved into my new place in Dallas. Once I get it back, I'll be setting up a booth in my garage and painting it there. Any tips for painting Nighthawk black pearl metallic?




This is what it looked like when I first bought it. The core support was bent as well as the body where it bolts to. I had a body shop bend the frame rails in front back into place. For the most part is looks like they did a spectacular job. All bolts line up exactly like they should.




This was another selling point. The J32A2 in the other CL-S6 I bought, however, has over 300,000 miles.







Front End Repair:


You can see from the following three pictures how bad the damage was once all of the exterior cladding was removed. The core support is tweaked and both rails are bent to the side.









Frame rails after being repaired at the body shop.







The core support removed from the silver CL. You can't buy these new unless it's from Acura. For what they wanted, buying a parts car almost always makes sense.





That core support installed on the black CL and then painted in Chassis Black spray paint.







Test-fitting all of the panels to ensure gaps and alignments are correct.





Everything back together, finally!











Here's '09-'14 TL SH-AWD J37A4 intake manifold I bought for it. Instead of spending all of the extra money on the cover plate, bolts, EGR tube and throttle body studs, I bought a used manifold from a '08-'12 Accord to scrounge from. They use a similar magnesium intake manifold and all of those listed parts can be taken from it. The IMRC module on the new cars is a very different design than the runner system on the J32A2 so there was no chance of getting the variable runner plate from the J37A4 to try to work. To my knowledge, no one on any of the V6 forums has gotten it to work yet. The last I knew, someone was coming up with an auxiliary Arduino-controlled box to control the newer butterflies. I'm good.

[c91bse7]

Nice, looks like you've made some pretty decent progress!!

[Jarrett]

Updated the first post to show damage and repairs.

[cp[mike]]

car looks great! this is probably a nice thing to daily.

[Jarrett]

It's very fun to drive. The seats offer plenty of bolstering to keep you planted in some of the turns that the Koni/H&R combo allows you to take at speed. I can't wait until I get the Progress rear bar on this thing. You really don't feel the weight when this thing is turning.

As for the performance upgrades, I'm waiting until I have time to build my own 3" aluminum intake before I do anything. This new intake manifold does not have provisions for the IAT sensor so it must be relocated. I bought a bung to move it to the intake pipe, but this engine needs more than just a puny 2.25" intake that's commonly sold. People see gains going to a 3.5" pipe over a 3" with the J32A2! I think I'll be fine with a 3", but I need time with my welder, first. It's plenty quick enough to run to the grocery store and back for now, though.

[Jarrett]

Well, updates on this have been slow. I still haven't taken it in for body work as I've been nearly completely focused on fixing my girlfriend's Legacy that ALSO was involved in a front end collision. That thing is going to be AWESOME when I'm finished!

Anyway, this happened the other day.



I was driving along I-45 late last Sunday night and all of a sudden a chunk of the tire decides that it will peel away in resentment of the rest of the tire. I guess the tread had a falling out with the belt. Anyway, these tires have about 5,000 miles on them, but I am not the original purchaser of them. They came on the car when I bought it, as well as the receipt for work done, but now I can't find it. I'm thinking about emailing Sumitumo and raising this concern with them. In the meantime, I have an appointment tomorrow at Wal-Mart to get a pair of Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3s in 225/50/15 which is 10mm wider than the factory rubber. I don't want to get too crazy yet as I'm not sure if these are the wheels I'll keep on here.

I've also been ordering more parts for this car recently. A few are already in and there's more I'm waiting for seller's responses on. One of them may hold up the intake install for a little longer, but whatever.

[sonikaccord]

Whoa.
How fast were you going when that happened? I would have rather had the whole tire take a dump than a section...

[owequitit]

YEESH! With the way people around here drive, I am just waiting to have to fix body damage...

Is there a dyno proven gain with the J37IM?

I also believe the 3" or bigger intake thing because even the K20Z3 will see gains with a 3" intake over a smaller 2.5" one.

Are you going to do any of the J-pipe or header mods? It seems like there is about 30 WHP to gain in there without making too much noise.

I was on Sam Rayburn Tollway the other day on my way to work and I hit a pot hole that wiped out one of my new Michelin Pilot Sport AS3's...SMH.

[Jarrett]

Whoa.
How fast were you going when that happened? I would have rather had the whole tire take a dump than a section...

The speed limit on I-45 is 75mph. I may have been doing between that and 80mph. Trust me, if there was ever a time in my 20s that it was excusable for me to involuntarily soil my pants, that would have been it. All things considered, I was about 100 feet from an exit ramp that led to a gas station. The only problem was that this was at 10:45 PM on a Sunday night. These wheels have wheel locks and for the life of me, I could not find the key! I finally found it under the driver's seat about 30 minutes later and got back on the road with the spare.

YEESH! With the way people around here drive, I am just waiting to have to fix body damage...

Is there a dyno proven gain with the J37IM?

I also believe the 3" or bigger intake thing because even the K20Z3 will see gains with a 3" intake over a smaller 2.5" one.

Are you going to do any of the J-pipe or header mods? It seems like there is about 30 WHP to gain in there without making too much noise.

I was on Sam Rayburn Tollway the other day on my way to work and I hit a pot hole that wiped out one of my new Michelin Pilot Sport AS3's...SMH.

There is a dyno proven gain, but it's not without a well-deserved asterisk. The only test I've seen shows the intake manifold gaining 3hp at peak and as high as 14hp at one point during the rev range. The gains were across the board. This was also on an engine that had known compression issues and as a result was down on power everywhere. Those facts are countered with the existence of an underdrive pulley and Comptech Icebox being installed for the baseline run. While those remained during the dyno of the intake, there's no doubt they worked to inflate the numbers that the intake manifold put up. Possibly this only offset the loss in power due to compression, but the fact remains that there is no perfect dyno result for this modification.

As for the header mods you asked about-yes, I will. I have a set of SR-S headers in my garage which are essentially just generic copies of Comptech's design made about as well as any other eBay header is. But, it's the only thing available unless you can find a used set of Comptechs. If you can find them, and they happen to be the design that clears the rear mount on the 6-speed cars, they're about $900. No thanks. Now that the Vibrant group buy for the H22A header was so successful I'm in talks with the owner of Prank Parts about possibly making a limited production run for a set of headers for this engine that will bolt up to the J-pipe available for later cars. The J-pipe on later cars uses a "collector" flange positioned much lower than the true collector flange on my headers. This would allow room to design headers with longer primaries and a true collector with a spike. If that can't get out of the preliminary stages, I'll just clean the inside of these up with a Dremel and put them on.

And sorry to hear about your tire. The roads around here are pretty bad. As a matter of fact, that's why I'm in Dallas. I'm part of AGL that's redoing I-35E from Dallas to Denton. How do you like the tires for grip and ride comfort? I only drive this car on the weekends for highway trips so I'm hoping that they're somewhat quiet. Given my recent history, I'm also hoping they don't explode for no reason, either.

[owequitit]

The speed limit on I-45 is 75mph. I may have been doing between that and 80mph. Trust me, if there was ever a time in my 20s that it was excusable for me to involuntarily soil my pants, that would have been it. All things considered, I was about 100 feet from an exit ramp that led to a gas station. The only problem was that this was at 10:45 PM on a Sunday night. These wheels have wheel locks and for the life of me, I could not find the key! I finally found it under the driver's seat about 30 minutes later and got back on the road with the spare.



There is a dyno proven gain, but it's not without a well-deserved asterisk. The only test I've seen shows the intake manifold gaining 3hp at peak and as high as 14hp at one point during the rev range. The gains were across the board. This was also on an engine that had known compression issues and as a result was down on power everywhere. Those facts are countered with the existence of an underdrive pulley and Comptech Icebox being installed for the baseline run. While those remained during the dyno of the intake, there's no doubt they worked to inflate the numbers that the intake manifold put up. Possibly this only offset the loss in power due to compression, but the fact remains that there is no perfect dyno result for this modification.

As for the header mods you asked about-yes, I will. I have a set of SR-S headers in my garage which are essentially just generic copies of Comptech's design made about as well as any other eBay header is. But, it's the only thing available unless you can find a used set of Comptechs. If you can find them, and they happen to be the design that clears the rear mount on the 6-speed cars, they're about $900. No thanks. Now that the Vibrant group buy for the H22A header was so successful I'm in talks with the owner of Prank Parts about possibly making a limited production run for a set of headers for this engine that will bolt up to the J-pipe available for later cars. The J-pipe on later cars uses a "collector" flange positioned much lower than the true collector flange on my headers. This would allow room to design headers with longer primaries and a true collector with a spike. If that can't get out of the preliminary stages, I'll just clean the inside of these up with a Dremel and put them on.

And sorry to hear about your tire. The roads around here are pretty bad. As a matter of fact, that's why I'm in Dallas. I'm part of AGL that's redoing I-35E from Dallas to Denton. How do you like the tires for grip and ride comfort? I only drive this car on the weekends for highway trips so I'm hoping that they're somewhat quiet. Given my recent history, I'm also hoping they don't explode for no reason, either.

I don't doubt that there is probably a legitimate gain to be had with that IM. The later dual stage J series manifolds (and even the single stage for that matter) were essentially simpler and revised versions of the manifold that came on the J32A2. Then, for the J37 they made it a little bit higher flow and managed to improve the intake trumpets in the magnesium casting. I was just wondering if anything had been measured. I am asssuming that the ultimate goal is to use the J37 TB as well? That is quite large and I know it is a popular Si mod that is worth some extra HP. In fact, a TB would be one of the few mods I would do to the car without supercharging it first!

Glad to hear that you are making money off of I-35. It definitely needs it! I drive a tiny stretch of it between George Bush and Sam Rayburn every time I drive to work and will be glad when it is done.

As for the Pilot Sport AS3's they are pretty decent. They did a pretty good job in all of the rain we have had lately, and never caused any problems. I could tell there were times when they weren't evacuating water as well because you could feel the car get a little loose, but I just slowed down a little. The grip isn't as good as when I had my Pilot Super Sports (still can't believe what an amazing tire that one is) and they aren't as direct in handling. Oddly, my MPG is also just slightly lower with the AS3's than it was with the Super Sports. However, I don't think the Super Sports would have handled the rain as well without hydroplaning. Overall, a good tire, but I only have about 7K miles on them so I don't know how they wear yet.

[Jarrett]

Well, as some of you saw on Facebook, this car is no more. On Halloween I was driving in the rain and another vehicle and I attempted to go for the lane between each of us at the same time. I noticed him and he did not see me. I swerved to avoid him and ended up losing control on the interstate. I keep replaying the scenario and have no idea what I could have done differently to avoid it once I had seen him.

Anyway, yesterday I bought another one. This is my third one so far, and the third different color I've owned. I need to pull the Koni/H&R Race suspension from the black one to swap over. I'm pretty sure the accident destroyed one of the shocks, so that's something I'll have to buy, too.

I'll be posting the engine and transmission from this car for sale soon, but I will likely focus those endeavors to a crowd where I'll get more hits.

A member's ride will be coming soon for that car.

[AccordWarrior]

Well, as some of you saw on Facebook, this car is no more. On Halloween I was driving in the rain and another vehicle and I attempted to go for the lane between each of us at the same time. I noticed him and he did not see me. I swerved to avoid him and ended up losing control on the interstate. I keep replaying the scenario and have no idea what I could have done differently to avoid it once I had seen him.

Anyway, yesterday I bought another one. This is my third one so far, and the third different color I've owned. I need to pull the Koni/H&R Race suspension from the black one to swap over. I'm pretty sure the accident destroyed one of the shocks, so that's something I'll have to buy, too.

I'll be posting the engine and transmission from this car for sale soon, but I will likely focus those endeavors to a crowd where I'll get more hits.

A member's ride will be coming soon for that car.

Ooof.

Sometimes there's nothing you can do, unfortunately. I lost my Accord when someone came in front of me on the highway and locked up. I'm not sure if I spaced for a millisecond and could have braked sooner or if there was nowhere I could have gone as it all happens so fast.

If nothing else, you found a new chassis that you're passionate about, and have a whole new skillset to work with. That's definitely worth something.

[Night Wolf]

jesus! whats the manufactured date on them? could be old (5yo+) and dry rotted.