1991 Accord LX Race Car

[ukemike]

Well my son and I broke the shelter in place order to go over to Tedds and work on the car. We dropped the tank out, which is harder than you might think. You have to take off the exhuast first, empty the tank, partially lower the tank disconnect all the hoses and wires just to get the tank out. All those hoses have been on there for 27 years and are stubborn as hell. We replaced the whole pump assembly. Had to replace some exhaust studs and all the gaskets when putting it back together. Took two days. Once it was all back together we turned on the power a few times to let the pump run to try to force the air out of the fuel lines. It started right up. Every time I work on it and it starts up, I'm amazed. So other than a brake bleed, I think we are ready for the next race.

Maybe it is time to think about rebuilding the spare motor?

[aventari]

Oh wow I would never go through the effort of dropping the tank! hahah

Glad it started up though. Whats the next race?

Have you thought of an H22 swap instead of F22 rebuild? That's what I'm doing if this motor blows.

[ukemike]

The following weekend we went back and re-installed the exhaust, which included a search of rockauto, autozone, and finally o'reilly for the right sized ring gaskets for the downpipe. When it went back together we turned the electric power on an off a few times to try to push any air bubbles out of the fuel line, then it fired right up. Hopefully that was the problem and it will run well now.

FYI if you have any 3-ton jackstands from Harbor Freight, check them against the recall. They can collapse! HF is buying them back.


Don't know when the next race is. I'll have to convince my wife that it isn't an infection risk, and I'll have to convince myself that my job is secure, which is similar to saying that we are past the worst of this covid crap. I'm actually thinking that a HPDE might be next. It'd be a cheaper way to test and practice. I'd really like to finish our next race. It's a lot more fun that way.

[aventari]

I recommend this header for your accord over the stock stuff. I have one and I wrapped it with cheap header wrap and it's lasted like 4 years or something so far. (check my thread)

It's a noticeable power bump over stock.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/STAINLESS-R...sAAOSwSk5dUbnC

[ukemike]

I'm installing an aftermarket tach and shift light, and it these cars do not have traditional coils to get a tach signal from. It actually seems like the coil is inside the distributor! So I need to get a tach signal from somewhere. Does anyone know a good spot? I had a diagram of all the pins on the ECU but I can't find it today.

[ukemike]

So we were entered to race at Sonoma first weekend of December but the race got COVID canceled. I was done with prepping the car and felt fairly ready. Oh well. Now all the time for the next race can be spent on upgrades or other things. It might be time to finally press out all the rest of the old bushings to replace them with the remaining Energy bushings I have stashed somewhere. Probably time for a new theme too.

Now I am installing an aftermarket tach and shift light. I learned that these cars do not have a traditional coil. It seems that the coil is inside the distributor. So I need to get a tach signal from somewhere. Any suggestions? I used to have a diagram showing all the pin functions on the ECU, but digging around this AM I could not find it.



Aventari,
Oh, was the ebay header a big improvement over the F22A1 4>1 header or over one of the F22A4 or A6 4>2>1 headers? We swapped our old f22a1 manifold for an f22a4 tubular header after our first race and it did make a nice difference.

[Grumpys93]

I’ll snap a pic of the ecu pin outs and see if I can find a tach signal for you.

[Raf99]

Glad to see you're still plugging away at this!

[ukemike]

Okay, so I am super dumb. The 93 does have an external coil! There is a 4 wire plug on it, one is the timing signal. Anyone know which one it is? I might be able to figure it out myself once I get back to the car this weekend.

[ukemike]

I've been busy shopping for a house. COVID year savings combined with my wife's increased income from her new job has resulted in us being close to being able to afford something in the SF Bay area for the first time. Or so we thought. Turns out the market around here is INSANE. Sellers are usually getting 10-20 offers, they don't even look at them if there are any contingencies (even appraisal contingencies!). Winning offers/bids are usually $100k over list and $50k to $80k over the comps, which means that you have to have $50k - $100k extra cash available in case the bank appraisal comes in low. So we gave up and a garage is no longer in my near future.

BUT at least I got a chance to get back to the car. I left it off with the new Tach wired up but with my circuit that actuates the variable intake runners disconnected. Our race series also now requires new belts every 2 years! So I got the new belts in the mail last week and installed them this week. ANYONE looking for racing harnesses I strongly recommend Crow Enterprizes. Top quality, super service, low prices. That's always hard because we mounted the race seat right to the floor so getting under there would be difficult if I had a second wrist in the middle of my forearm, with my current non-mutant arms it's super hard. But with some help from Tedd we got it done.

I re-looked up the specs for my RPM actuator and figured out that I had been way overthinking. So next weekend I'll fix that and I think the car is ready to race!

Next event is Thunderhill at the end of May. The race will be on the full 5-mile course which is epic fun. The east half of the track is high speed with long sweeper turns and the west half is tighter will all sorts of elevation change, off camber turns, decreasing radius turns, chicanes, and other technical fun.

[aventari]

I wish I was doing Thunderhill with you, but it's *so far away*

I'm getting ready for Willow Springs in 2 weeks though. I also needed new belts and a new window net. I just bought new ones for my 944 race car so I'm going to swap them over. You're right it's such a pain getting the submarine belt out. It's a huge pain in both of my cars. I need the extra mutant wrist joint you're talking about.

LMK if you need help with the variable RPM acutator!

[Raf99]

Thanks for the update! I hear ya on the gas tank removal, when I did mine everything was rusted, broken and a PITA when i removed it. Even the tank strap bolts going into the lower sub-frame were stripped. Ended up having to get a new subframe and all new hardware.

[ukemike]

I wish I was doing Thunderhill with you, but it's *so far away*

I'm getting ready for Willow Springs in 2 weeks though.

I feel the same about willow springs.

[ukemike]

We raced at Thunderhill last weekend. As usual it was a crazy weekend, but I'm fairly pleased with how it went.

My son and I towed it up on Thursday evening so we could get in early and get a spot under the big metal canopy. We did get a spot there and it was a life save. It got into the high 90s on Saturday and about 105 on Sunday. The next morning another team arrived and pulled in next to us with another CB7 Accord. That was pretty cool. Their car had an F20B that they said was good for 200hp. We passed out tech inspection without trouble and they put is in B class with 0 laps like usual. Oddly they did the same for the 200hp Accord, B 0.

One of our regular drivers backed out a week or so before with health concerns, so we got the same guest driver that joined us at Laguna Seca. But then Thursday another driver also decided against driving. I decided we were not going to be competitive and to just have fun. The other drivers suggested that, since I'm the oldest and least in shape, that I should go first while it was cool out and drive as long as I could.

I did and it went great. Started in 79th drove for 90 minutes and finished my stint in 28th place and just 2 laps down from the leaders. The car was running great and handling better. It was a joy. Except that the the exhaust started leaking and then the 4 to 2 connector came apart and it got very very loud. But they didn't black flag me so I decided to stay out. After that I started shifting earlier which probably slowed me down a bit, but not too much. This car is really a momentum car, and finally for the first time I felt comfortable carrying very high speeds through turns 1 and 8 (like top of 4th gear fast). 8 I could do without lifting, though I usually lifted a bit to do a little weight shift forward to get a nice turn in. 1 required only a lift during the turn in, unless there was traffic. These two corners scare lots of drivers and so you can just blow by them on the next straight if you can carry full speed through them. My previous fastest lap on the Thunderhill five mile was 3:56 and Saturday morning I did a 3:53.9. I was wiped out when I came in even though it wasn't super hot yet. The guys did a great job reconnecting the exhaust, but we lost lots of places during that stop.

Our guest driver went next and went off twice in his first lap then couldn't find the pit entrance. So we were in trouble with the judges. The rest of the team and my son worked on me hard and convinced me to let my son (17) drive. We got him enough safety gear to wear, and late registered him after our third stint started and the car was still running.

During the day we started having fueling issues again. I never experienced it, and it seemed to help when the tank was full. Our fuel usage was quite high too. During Jason's drive he hit a curb pretty hard and a few laps later that wheel decided to go for a walk. All 4 studs were sheared off. Luckily he went off and the disk only hit sand. We were able to replace the studs put the wheel back on and send him back out.

Before my son drove we found that the fuel pressure regulator was loose and leaking. We hoped that fixing that would solve the fueling problem but it didn't seem to.

While my son was driving I was a nervous wreck, but he did pretty well. The the red flag came out. Red flag means every car stops and pulls to the side of the track because there is a bad crash or a fire. I panicked, but it was just a minor grass fire. That was about 20 minutes from the end of the day so they just called everyone in and ended racing for the day.

The next day I started again and again didn't have fueling issues. I had a great time driving and managed a 3:47.6. It really handles well, enough that the lack of power isn't too big a deal.

So the guys with the 200hp F20B accord that had a paddock space next to us? They blew up their engine on the second lap. Worked all day and night to swap it with another F20B. The next morning on lap one the passed me like I was standing still but on the second lap I passed them back. They had blown up a second motor and were pulled off on the side of the track. So maybe a high strung VTEC motor isn't the right answer for low budget enduro racing after all. I tried to convince them that an F22A is a ticket to finishing the race and getting in lots of laps, but they didn't listen.

We finished in 63rd place which wasn't even in the top half, but no surprise we had several issues during the two days, and any race where I have the team fast lap isn't our best.

[Raf99]

Wow. Living the dream. Great read! The wheel.. lol.. sheering off. You brought spare wheel studs? I .. guess ya. I also wouldn't think you'd have a hard time finding drivers.