Well after 4 yrs of civic ownership, the best suspension ive so far managed to "roll" on is my ITR shocks and Tein springs.
No more :D
Having done a deal with an ITR owner who was selling up, im now in the possession of some Cusco Zero 2 shocks and Cusco Rear Camber adjusters!
Info here:
Ohhh how blue and shiney!
$2380 worth of suspension for a mere £200 + my old ITR shocks :) Unfortunately they didn’t come with any C spanners or setup instructions. But fortunately my bro had some old Tein C spanners that fitted for the preload and donated to me, and his new apexi coil over c spanners are perfect for the height adjustment - so i took one and made a copy at work :)
So after a quick clean up and "service" (stripped down, cleaned, oiled and rebuilt) they looked thus:
And after some digging decided on the following "settings":
So I got home today and made a start on removing my temporary setup from Mr_Bens panda (some Group N rally shocks) over to Cusco shineyness!
Being 5 level’s of Adjustment ive currently set them all to Level 2 and ill see how that feels, I know for sure its going to need to settle, and then re adjust the ride height, and also ive yet to fit my rear camber adjusters - and they defiantly need to go on!
Oh and the compulsorily wheel shot
Ill hopefully get some pictures of the car Sunday at the meet once its had time to settle out a little and ive washed the car :p
Firstly happy new year to everyone! bit late, but there you go!
Secondly wow cant belive its been 8 months since i finished my little tamama, how time flys!!
Cars been so far ace! a few niggle problems but nothing huge or too problematic! and i thought i would just keep you up to date with whats been going on, as its has been a good while.
Other than general servicing, changing the cam belt etc, ive managed to do a few more improvments to the car since last july, naturally all done myself.
Namely:
Tein S/Tech Lowing Springs mFactory Oil cooler and oil filter relocation Kit Bride Recliner Seat (i think its a brix but im not 100%) Full set of Eagle F1's
Not a heck of alot, had to pay my insurnace off, then christmas came and now im saving for tuning :)
Anyway heres a load of piccys i just took today, it was clean, but then while trying to find a good piccy taking place it got mucked up :(
Anyway enjoy:
The cooler kit has made a great differance, over summer my oil temps where reaching 110 deg C or more after some vtec'ing, now in the uk our summers arnt that warm and since my long term plans are to eventually move to malta, i thought it would make a worthy investment! And its work well, over winter my avererage driving temps have been around 70-80deg C, maybe 85 with some vtec'ing, so im happy with it!
Also just last week i picked up a bride (brix) seat for a mear £50! it needed some fixing, and has had some stiching done to one of the sides - but otherwise is perfect! so i made me a seat rail at work using the std civic seat rails, designed it all up on autocad and made it! its amazing the differacne a good seat can make to your driving, i know its not like they "add power" or something silly, but it gives you such a feeling for what the car is doing and thus more confidence!
Well just a quick update for now, ill try to post what goes on a bit more regular, especialy with the show season coming fast!
Damn what a hot day, but my dad came over early and we got stuck in!
1st up was fitting the drive shaft back in, after removing it totaly and cleaning it all up - it popped back in just fine - and stayed locked in place - hurray!
So next up we fitted the front bumper back on after spraying the grills black, and we re-fitted a few bits of under tray and such. I also sorted out why i had no reversing lights - the fuse had gone - well at least it was an easy fix !
So we then set the tracking - would it make it off the drive? you know it would!
And once set i took it for a gentle drive to the nearest shell garage for some optimax goodness!
By now the oil temp was at a steady 85-90 deg C, it was only 2pm and i felt the need to erm.. .test VTEC?
Good lord is all i can say! Wheel span in 1st, get into 2nd and vtec kicked in at 6K ish and i short shifted at just over 8K - opps still in B16A2 mode - into 3rd and i took her to 8.5K - come on it can go more!! 4th gear up to 9K.
Holy jeeebus its quick - i quickly ran outta road and left myself plenty of stopping distance as to bed the brakes in gently.
Boy am i impressed and happy - and a little scared, i need to take it easy for a good while till i get used to the power and the steering is.... well yes its heavey compared to P/S - well durrr, but with only 2.5 turns lock to lock - it don't take much turning to make a turn anyway, so like everything else its gonna take some getting used to!
Ive also got some odds and sodds to sort out - like the jdm wind deflectors and jap size number plates and giving it a damn good wash! but all in good time! more importantly it needs a new cam belt - im not taking any chances of it snapping! :D
And so onto one of my fav parts - the thank yous!
Without the kind help and support of the following people none of this could have happened:
To start it has to be my dear long time suffering wife Claudette for putting up with..well me and my constant car related stuff and spending too much money and always being in the garage
My parents! Mum and dad you've been amazing coming over most days to help me and make food and drinks - youve both been fantastic i dont think i can ever thank you for the help youve both been to me!
The rest are in no real order just as i think of you all theres so many!!
Perrymoo - Pez Mr_Ben - Ben Spoon_civic - Rich Civic_EG_Northants - Ben Civic Disturbance - Chris Lee EddyESi - Eddy Spider - Iain chrisellis - Chris E Spodder ProjectVTi - Kyle B16Beg - Luke Jonion - Jon A2KLAU - Albert
And eveyone else from Honda revs, SXOC, CSC, and all the other forums im seen on - thanks to you all for your support and kind words!
All the guys at Acordis in Coventry where i work - John Field, Chris monk, Chris mouser, Pete B, Steve Goz, my manager Paul for letting me bring in stuff to do at work! and all the rest of you guys!
Im in debt to you all Thank you so much!!!
The car will be at JAE in just over a weeks time (21st-23rd of july) so i hope to see most of you there so i can thank you in person!
It started well, got myself to Custom Chrome in nuneaton - and damn helpfull they where, got me a new flange for my JDM size cat - welded it on - all sorted in less than 20mins and for only £30 (the flange was £20 and the guy even tryed to find me a cheaper one as he dont like to over charge!) - i cant recomend them high enough :D
Got me 2 new ring gaskets as well!
So i got to working fitting it all back on - and it went very well, not the stress or hastle of yesterday muchos pleased!
And the sound on start up - yum yum :D
Vrooomm!
So i started her up and began to move off the drive way! As i did so i had to take a sharpe left turn to get onto the road - and bang - suddenly lost drive! My mind was racing what have i missed? whats gone bang? why now!
So me and my dad pushed it back onto the drive, i thought it could be the clutch, or the release bearing or god knows what - either way a gbox off job - cue 6 hrs removal, and expencive fix and 4 hrs re-fit! Only to then be told by my dad that the other day when he put the drive shafts in - he wasnt sure if it "clicked" in ok or not! Which is fortunatly exactly what had happened the drive shaft has popped out - no big deal, just a bit more work. Only problem is we didnt have a ball joint splitter and im going to a theme park tommroow so its now all called off till wednesday - then it will run and be spanky!
yay in bits again :rolleyes:
And some spooomage for you all!
Anyway the spoon sounds sweet i hope you will agree (if not :P i dont care i like it lol) and the engine seams to be running sweet, just need to sort everything else lol
And then wednesday - we shall see if we can make it out onto the open roads!
At long last the day has come, the day i turned the key and it fired to life!
To start i finaly fitted my HKS oil temp guage and wired it all in ready, then my mate Mr_Ben came over, so i started by getting my Spoon cat back system off his car!
After struggling for over an hour it was finaly off - sodding stuck bolts grrr!!
However the fun had just begun - i left ben fitting his std system back on, while i attempted to fit my spoon to my car, which wasnt have any of it!
I found out the "JDM" sized CAT - the end flange was way too big to connect to my std EK9 exhaust manifold, thus menaing i couldnt get my exhaust on today :( so im hoping a local custom exhaust place can sort me out tommroow and ill be well away ;)
However it wasnt gonna stop me starting the beast up - it would just be stupidly loud!
SO there we stood, myself at the wheel, ben, my wife - her sister all watching - I clicked the key... it was trying hard bless it... then we discovered a fuel leak so i switched off before it even fired up!
After that anti climax we tryed again - and....
She ran!! Whoop!
And with only two fault codes and no reverse lights !
Faults codes where 7 - Throttle angle sensor - whcih i 1/2 expected to play up as it was damaged when i got the engine, so i "fixed" it, but clearly not well enough! So i removed the one from a D16Z6 Throttle body i had spare and fitted that - all sorted!
The other was a code 20 - which is the electronic load detector - now this is ment to pic up engine revs when you, for example, tunr on the headlights and the radio - sapping energy - it automaticaly pics up engine revs to compensate - but i dunno where to start with this yet im gonna consult the honda workshop manual later on.
And the reverse lights - i have no idea im sure its a fuse or soemthing!
Anyway im over joyed! it ran, and it ran sweet!
We then set up my Fuel pressure regulator to 40psi (ive read its ment to be 38psi or 40-45psi at idle so i figured 40 would be ok for now - pls email me if you know for 100% sure) then drove to the end of the driveway and back to check the clutch was working ok!
So im happy as anything :D 2 yrs planning, 10 months finding the parts and money, and 15 days of building - not to mention copiouse amounts of blood, sweat, swearing, bruising, stress and tears - but its been worth it :D
Tommorow i hope to sort the exhaust out and get that on, get myself insured then take her out for my 1st ever test drive - and yes i will be driving like a big girl and taking it easy :P
Day 12-14 .... 99% done the last 1% is a biatch.....
Day 12 - 14 - tbh i havnt got much done, but then theres not much left to do so heres a quick round up:
Day 12 - Drained thro the brake fluid and clutch fluid, and finaly fitted all 4 wheels on the ground :D
Very happy with how it looks, tho its in "4x4 mode" with a huge arch gap, so im hoping it will seatle down once its driven - otherwise ill have to get myself so decent lowering springs as a quick fix till i can get me some loverly coilovers.
Thus i fitted nthe final touches to the engine bay - the clutch and power steering res's so now theres nothing more to add!
Over all a very productive day and a happy one!
Day 13 - I didnt get anything done at all!
Day 14 - Decided it was time to get the dash sorted out once and for all. So after sorting out alot of wiring and adding an extra 12v cig lighter socket (to power my ipod) and some kill switches, the interior is finaly completed!
As you can see the interior thats going in, is now all in - it needs a darn good clean tho! and the cf sun visors need some "trimming" to make the work properly, but all in good time!
I also re-fitted my side skirts, and fitted my black JDM spoiler with 3rd brake light - this was originaly on my old VTi - thus why its black, but i quite like it in black it "goes" with the white/black combination so it might stay black :)
I also fitted the battery and got to test some of the sytems, like the lights, heater controls, the alarm,imob and fuel cut controls etc and so far it all works fine - which is a good sign! I couldnt "test start" the car as i havnt plugged up my oil temp guage thus theres a hole in the engine where the sensor for it goes, but tommroow is the big day!
Day 15 im getting my spoon cat back system back form my mate ben, im borrowing his Fuel pressure regulator guage so i can set mine up properly and ill get the oil temp guage fitted - so with some luck it will all start up and run! hurray! or it wont start and ill cry :( booo hisss
Sorry this is so short and to the point only my sister and mother inlaw are both over for the week so im not getting much chnace to get online or work on the project + getting dragged to the shops all day by 3 women isnt my bets idea of fun... but we guys will struggle on eh? ;)
Ill will update tomorrow night with how it went tho!
Anyway another busy day on day 11, lots left to do, the plan was to get fitted the front hubs/brakes/drive shafts, and re-fitting the front subframe with steering rack ,and the 24mm front a/r bar, and fitting the shift linkage and anything else i could get done!
So i made a start - my parents came over to help so me and my dad got started on lifting the heavy crossmember back into place - which we just managed, and bolted up. Meaning that now the engine is fully bolted into place at all five mounts, next i got working on fitting the Antiroll/sway bar, while my dad got starte don preping the drive shafts to go in.
Meanwhile my mate chris came over, bringing back with him the freshly painting up door handles and mirrors - and what a damn fine job hes done on them as well :D
I like them muchos :D
So we where all pritty busy on our own sections as you can see (ok ok i took 5 mins off to take some pictures :P )
Then came fitting the drive shafts and hooking up the front hubs etc - and it all went rather smoothly and the end result:
NSX calipers, 282 Black diamond 20 grove disks with AEM fast road pads - oh yes pls :D
Mean while chris was making a start on the interior and got it ready to this stage:
Now its all ready to drop the dash and seats in today, day 12 - as well as sorting the brake fluid and clutch out. Sorry for the half hearted post today but ive gotta be fast as im off into town and then to make a start!
Welcome to the Project Tamama "blog"! This project is now 'finished' and on the road/track!
Please feel free to leave comments, ask questions or email me at :
Project_Tamama@hotmail.co.uk
Thanks for Reading!
Hi there Im Chris, most ppl call me Chris_Gee, or Mr_Gee or something along those lines.
Im 23yrs old, married (happily), born and bred Nuneaton-er, with an often "un" healthy obsession with hondas lol
