- Joined
- Aug 18, 2008
- Messages
- 4,081
Guess this is now a 'build/project' rather than my ride.
For those of you that haven't seen it, here's my car.
Bit's n stuff:
B16B
Head rebuilt by Will Hincliff at RDT
Supertech valvesprings and retainers
High compression viton stem seals
3 angle valve job
Head decoked and skimmed 0.10mm
B16B cams
New OEM water pump, headgasket, timing belt and tensioner
ARP head bolts
EK9 manifold, cat and carback system
EK9 Intake system
OBD2a EK9 ECU
Energy suspension poly engine mount inserts
APEXi VAFC
AC removed
Suspension
Spoon springs and dampers
ASR 24mm rear ARB kit w/brace and EK9 drop links
Energy Suspension polybushed trailing arms
Recently had refurbed rear calipers
MGZS 282mm front brake conversion with EBC grooved discs and Yellostuff pads
SPC front camber/castor arms.
Transmission
S4C gearbox with Quaife differential
ACT 9lb Flywheel
Clutchmasters pressure plate with OEM EK9 friction plate replaced at time of engine conversion
Exterior
Buddyclub P1 SF alloys 15x6.5 4x100 with 2x Yoko AD08 and 2x Goodyear Eagle F1.
Replica colour coded EK9 lips on original VTi bumpers front and rear with colour coded sideskirts.
SiR front grille
I've used this car as my daily hack for almost three years now, with weekend autotest events with the local car club and the occasional track day, and recently tried my hand at sprinting.
The car was brilliant, never let me down no matter how much **** I threw at it, and I loved it. My friends sometimes commented that I was 'long overdue a breakdown' without the amount of abuse it simply lapped up. Well sadly that day came in mid Novemeber last year, where in my early morning daze on the wa to work I mistook my car for a yacht and drove it straight into a flood, which promptly shot straight up my crappy AEM intake and filled cylinders 1 and 4 with water and hydrolocked the engine.
After having it towed out of the water I removed the plugs, pumped the water out and tried to restart it, only to find that it span over the same whether the plugs were in or not. Sounded like a major loss of compression...
Straight on EK9.org, found a B16B for sale with a good rebuilt spec at a good price from J700OCK and promptly purchased it after a brief chat with John and Will at RDT to confirm the rebuild. Week or so later the engine arrives in a bulletproof package at the local garage, mechanic makes lots of rude noises about just how well John and packed it. He did tell me to check it out, I was impressed.
Left at the garage for a week or so, by this point the temperatures are down below zero and my choice not to attempt to swap the engine on my parents driveway (with half my toolkit lost to the ether) is paying massive dividends. Get a call to say the swap is complete after sourcing a stock OBD2a EK9 ECU to run the engine along with a new OEM EK9 friction plate and energy suspension poly engine mount inserts. Pick the keys up on my way home from work and run the car up and down the road to check it runs properly. It runs sweet, really really sweet. The mechinc commented how suprised he was when it fired up on the first turn of the crank, guess these sort of jobs are usually riddled with problems.
I drive home and return later to pick up the car. Warm it up and take it for its first drive, once it is warmed up I give it a proper push up through the revs, there's no difference from the B16A until 6200rpm, then it all goes a bit batshit and the thing pulls like crazy until it slams into the limiter, begging to go further. Liking this then... Annoyingly I only get that one thrash in and it starts snowing. No bother, only a few flakes and it's the Isle of Wight, it doesn't snow here. Wrong, it snowed, properly, whilst I'm out on my maiden voyage in the middle of nowhere. Luckily, although grip is low she's perfectly controllable, the Spoons are lapping up the uneven surfaces with ease. Ease the car home, a few corners from home I see the brand new Citreon C3 understeer off the road into a wall. ****, nothing I can do I'm already commited to the corner by this point, so I stupidly pull the handbrake and the car executes a massive broadside drift into the corner, plant the throttle and it pulls round clearing the striken Citreon by a few feet as the driver looks on in annoyance. That was ****ing lucky!
Anyway, new engine is settled in and all is good for a few months. The car club is in it's off season for tarmac events so I don't get to try out the new engine until about Feburary. First event comes round and the car feels good, absolutely rips in the top of the rev range and managing to hold some decent times down. Only when someone comes over and asks me if I have shares in Castrol do I twig something is wrong. Apparently it is smoking, really heavily on the throttle, thick blue smoke. Sure enough I do another run and check the RVM to see a cloud of blue behind me.
Cut the day short on seeing this and limped the car home suspected knackered piston rings. A compression test shows all cylinders producing 200psi, which kind of rules out the piston rings. I learn that a blocked PCV could cause the same issues, so pull it out, clean it out with carb cleaner and the problem appears to go away. All fine for a few months more...
Roll on 10th April, IOWCC gets invited by FDMC to the Dimanche Sprint at Farnborough's Rushmoor Arena. Despite a regular attendance of 50-60 cars at IOWCC events, there were only four takers for Dimanche, most likely due to the costs of getting a license, the safety kit you need and the costs of travelling to the mainland for essentiall 6 minutes of driving. None the less, four 'visionaries' from IOWCC sign up, a Mk1 Escort RS2000 rally car, a VX220, an MX5 and myself.
We make good time up from the 5am boat to Rushmoor, (with me finding out my car does infact have a JDM 112 mph limiter still in place, much to my annoyance) and get signed on and scrutineered and set out the deckchairs overlooking the arena. Unlike IOWCC events, every driver was given a number had had to run as close as possible to order, so we await out turns and head out. I've swapped some A048s onto the front wheels for this, putting the AD08s on the rear and softening up the rear bar to try and compensate for the increased oversteer.
The practice runs are good, I'm missing apexes all over the shop having never run the course before, but still managing to put in fast times within class, and managing to beat the VX220 is the bain of my life at IOWCC events. Feeling pretty good about how the day would I go I head out for the first timed run, and screw up a corner exit losing me about half a second. Never mind, three more to nail it in. Start up the car for the second timed run, and as I reverse it out of our makeshift paddock, there it is, the death rattle. It's silent at idle, runs as sweet as it ever has, but hit 2k rpm and the bottom end knocks like a skeleton having a wank in a biscuit tin. Game over.
Here she is on her last run:
Get the car towed out of the event and down the road about 2 miles, borrowed an AA card and pretended to be my mate and arranged recovery. When the bloke arrived, obviously asked what I was doing up on the mainland from the IOW, I nonchalantly say I am up visting friends for the weekend and the engine has packed up. He starts hooking up the car to the dolly to tow me home, and all is going well until he asks me to open the boot so he can hand the tailer lights and numberplate. Open the hatch to reveal a boot full of racing tyres, jacks, tools, oils and a helmet. Busted!
Luckily, the guy just laughs, he knows full well what I've been up to but reassures me that it's OK, the AA recover from trackdays. Really I think he just wanted to come to IOW...
Caar goes back to the garage that fitted the block for diagnosis, few hours later and sure enough, some knackered bearing shells are removed. Luckily the failure was caught very early and there is no damage to anything, some new shells should sort it. Considering the car burnt a litre of oil in the drive up to and including three runs at the sprint, I am fairly sure the rings need replacing, unfortunately this bumps the cost of the rebuild right up, and with an imminent house move on the cards I arrange to have the car stored at a mates barn out in the coutryside.
For those of you that haven't seen it, here's my car.
Bit's n stuff:
B16B
Head rebuilt by Will Hincliff at RDT
Supertech valvesprings and retainers
High compression viton stem seals
3 angle valve job
Head decoked and skimmed 0.10mm
B16B cams
New OEM water pump, headgasket, timing belt and tensioner
ARP head bolts
EK9 manifold, cat and carback system
EK9 Intake system
OBD2a EK9 ECU
Energy suspension poly engine mount inserts
APEXi VAFC
AC removed
Suspension
Spoon springs and dampers
ASR 24mm rear ARB kit w/brace and EK9 drop links
Energy Suspension polybushed trailing arms
Recently had refurbed rear calipers
MGZS 282mm front brake conversion with EBC grooved discs and Yellostuff pads
SPC front camber/castor arms.
Transmission
S4C gearbox with Quaife differential
ACT 9lb Flywheel
Clutchmasters pressure plate with OEM EK9 friction plate replaced at time of engine conversion
Exterior
Buddyclub P1 SF alloys 15x6.5 4x100 with 2x Yoko AD08 and 2x Goodyear Eagle F1.
Replica colour coded EK9 lips on original VTi bumpers front and rear with colour coded sideskirts.
SiR front grille
I've used this car as my daily hack for almost three years now, with weekend autotest events with the local car club and the occasional track day, and recently tried my hand at sprinting.
The car was brilliant, never let me down no matter how much **** I threw at it, and I loved it. My friends sometimes commented that I was 'long overdue a breakdown' without the amount of abuse it simply lapped up. Well sadly that day came in mid Novemeber last year, where in my early morning daze on the wa to work I mistook my car for a yacht and drove it straight into a flood, which promptly shot straight up my crappy AEM intake and filled cylinders 1 and 4 with water and hydrolocked the engine.
After having it towed out of the water I removed the plugs, pumped the water out and tried to restart it, only to find that it span over the same whether the plugs were in or not. Sounded like a major loss of compression...
Straight on EK9.org, found a B16B for sale with a good rebuilt spec at a good price from J700OCK and promptly purchased it after a brief chat with John and Will at RDT to confirm the rebuild. Week or so later the engine arrives in a bulletproof package at the local garage, mechanic makes lots of rude noises about just how well John and packed it. He did tell me to check it out, I was impressed.
Left at the garage for a week or so, by this point the temperatures are down below zero and my choice not to attempt to swap the engine on my parents driveway (with half my toolkit lost to the ether) is paying massive dividends. Get a call to say the swap is complete after sourcing a stock OBD2a EK9 ECU to run the engine along with a new OEM EK9 friction plate and energy suspension poly engine mount inserts. Pick the keys up on my way home from work and run the car up and down the road to check it runs properly. It runs sweet, really really sweet. The mechinc commented how suprised he was when it fired up on the first turn of the crank, guess these sort of jobs are usually riddled with problems.
I drive home and return later to pick up the car. Warm it up and take it for its first drive, once it is warmed up I give it a proper push up through the revs, there's no difference from the B16A until 6200rpm, then it all goes a bit batshit and the thing pulls like crazy until it slams into the limiter, begging to go further. Liking this then... Annoyingly I only get that one thrash in and it starts snowing. No bother, only a few flakes and it's the Isle of Wight, it doesn't snow here. Wrong, it snowed, properly, whilst I'm out on my maiden voyage in the middle of nowhere. Luckily, although grip is low she's perfectly controllable, the Spoons are lapping up the uneven surfaces with ease. Ease the car home, a few corners from home I see the brand new Citreon C3 understeer off the road into a wall. ****, nothing I can do I'm already commited to the corner by this point, so I stupidly pull the handbrake and the car executes a massive broadside drift into the corner, plant the throttle and it pulls round clearing the striken Citreon by a few feet as the driver looks on in annoyance. That was ****ing lucky!
Anyway, new engine is settled in and all is good for a few months. The car club is in it's off season for tarmac events so I don't get to try out the new engine until about Feburary. First event comes round and the car feels good, absolutely rips in the top of the rev range and managing to hold some decent times down. Only when someone comes over and asks me if I have shares in Castrol do I twig something is wrong. Apparently it is smoking, really heavily on the throttle, thick blue smoke. Sure enough I do another run and check the RVM to see a cloud of blue behind me.
Cut the day short on seeing this and limped the car home suspected knackered piston rings. A compression test shows all cylinders producing 200psi, which kind of rules out the piston rings. I learn that a blocked PCV could cause the same issues, so pull it out, clean it out with carb cleaner and the problem appears to go away. All fine for a few months more...
Roll on 10th April, IOWCC gets invited by FDMC to the Dimanche Sprint at Farnborough's Rushmoor Arena. Despite a regular attendance of 50-60 cars at IOWCC events, there were only four takers for Dimanche, most likely due to the costs of getting a license, the safety kit you need and the costs of travelling to the mainland for essentiall 6 minutes of driving. None the less, four 'visionaries' from IOWCC sign up, a Mk1 Escort RS2000 rally car, a VX220, an MX5 and myself.
We make good time up from the 5am boat to Rushmoor, (with me finding out my car does infact have a JDM 112 mph limiter still in place, much to my annoyance) and get signed on and scrutineered and set out the deckchairs overlooking the arena. Unlike IOWCC events, every driver was given a number had had to run as close as possible to order, so we await out turns and head out. I've swapped some A048s onto the front wheels for this, putting the AD08s on the rear and softening up the rear bar to try and compensate for the increased oversteer.
The practice runs are good, I'm missing apexes all over the shop having never run the course before, but still managing to put in fast times within class, and managing to beat the VX220 is the bain of my life at IOWCC events. Feeling pretty good about how the day would I go I head out for the first timed run, and screw up a corner exit losing me about half a second. Never mind, three more to nail it in. Start up the car for the second timed run, and as I reverse it out of our makeshift paddock, there it is, the death rattle. It's silent at idle, runs as sweet as it ever has, but hit 2k rpm and the bottom end knocks like a skeleton having a wank in a biscuit tin. Game over.
Here she is on her last run:
Get the car towed out of the event and down the road about 2 miles, borrowed an AA card and pretended to be my mate and arranged recovery. When the bloke arrived, obviously asked what I was doing up on the mainland from the IOW, I nonchalantly say I am up visting friends for the weekend and the engine has packed up. He starts hooking up the car to the dolly to tow me home, and all is going well until he asks me to open the boot so he can hand the tailer lights and numberplate. Open the hatch to reveal a boot full of racing tyres, jacks, tools, oils and a helmet. Busted!
Luckily, the guy just laughs, he knows full well what I've been up to but reassures me that it's OK, the AA recover from trackdays. Really I think he just wanted to come to IOW...
Caar goes back to the garage that fitted the block for diagnosis, few hours later and sure enough, some knackered bearing shells are removed. Luckily the failure was caught very early and there is no damage to anything, some new shells should sort it. Considering the car burnt a litre of oil in the drive up to and including three runs at the sprint, I am fairly sure the rings need replacing, unfortunately this bumps the cost of the rebuild right up, and with an imminent house move on the cards I arrange to have the car stored at a mates barn out in the coutryside.
