metal_driver
Senior Member
- Joined
- Aug 10, 2016
- Threads
- 3
- Messages
- 1,052
- Reaction score
- 973
- Location
- Ottawa
- Vehicle(s)
- 2004 TSX (Euro-R mods), 2009 Acura TSX, 2008 MDX, 2011 Shelby GT500, 2018 Type R, 2020 MDX A-Spec
- Thread starter
- #1
Bought a new Red Type R in 2018. Red was only available here in Canada for one year. Even though I was one of the first in our area to have a deposit in for the new Type R, I had to wait an extra year for a Red one.
First up was Xpel ppf for the full front including grill lights and fog lights, hood, pillars, mirrors, lower panel sections, and the entire rear arches.
Next was the install of a Mishimoto oil catch can.
I also returned to the dealership to have the optional door sill trim plates installed.
As a family guy with kids I wanted a reliable four door car that I could use for moving them or groceries around in, etc. , plus be able to use on the odd track day for an outing. As I am at the novice level I decided to focus primarily on mods that would help with cooling. I also decided deliberately to stay away from bumping the power up to help keep the heat in check.
Here is a list of items what I have managed to bolt on to date:
- Mishimoto intercooler with pipe kit (black)
- USR driver side oil cooler
- Mishimoto oil cooler kit - modified to fit on behind the passenger side fog light grill
- GRP fog light garnish with cooling vents/diamonds pre-cut
- custom cut venting/slats in the front wheel wells behind both oil coolers
- hand cut venting/diamonds on passenger side fog light garnish
- USR turbo blanket
- PTP inlet blanket
- K&N air filter
- J's grill (with the optional logo mount) to get more cooling air in
- Morimoto headlights
- Oil temp gauge with a matching 1/8 NPT temp probe installed in an after market oil drain plug
- Reflective thermal barrier between the oil pan and front pipe
- Thermal fiberglass wrap on the front pipe
- OEM 2020 CTR radiator install (as it is denser/a bit more efficient)
My brother runs a small business with a shop that has a lift and a great selection of tools to work with. As a prototype designer and fabricator, he was able to provide me with advice and help me out throughout the build to date.
Here are some of my thoughts/experience with the items installed so far:
Miromoto Intercooler
This intercooler was heavier than I expected but the build quality and fit were excellent.
I also have to commend Mishimoto on their excellent "how to" video for this install, as well as the bumper removal video, and the oil catch can install video.
It took a bit of work to get the associated hot and cold larger silicon and aluminum piping installed. However, I feel the extra time installing the piping was worth it as it was of better construction (black coated aluminum on one side), larger diameter than the original OEM piping, and designed with better flowing bends, etc. in mind. The front of the intercooler definitely eats up most of the available space under the crash bar but the entire kit fits well and without issue).
As a side note on intercoolers for this car - for those looking for an easier install that should still give you good and for the buck, I might recommend the PRL I/C as it simply just bolts right up to the oem piping making the install much easier. There are also good quality smaller i/c's out there that work well.
USR side oil cooler
The supplied oil cooler in this kit is a 15-row Setrab (excellent quality). The oil cooler itself is fairly beefy and similar in size and weight to the Mishimoto oil cooler. I originally purchased the Mishi oil cooler kit but decided against installing it on the driver side as it meant I would have to pull the brake cooling duct. The USR kit came with the oil cooler, an oil filter sandwich plate, custom cut oil lines and fittings, and pre-cut metal plates that needed to be assembled to create the cool air duct work. What I liked about this kit was the size of the oil cooler (about as large as you can fit in the space available, the general fit of the kit, and the black oil lines and fittings. Unfortunately, the install instructions were missing, and the edges of the pre-cut metal ducting were a bit rough but still the kit is worth getting in my opinion. When I finally got my bumper back on today I noticed I also had to trim a bit of the metal ducting around the four upper side vents beside the fog light cover to get the bumper to fit on properly.
Mishimoto oil cooler
Having elected not to use the Mishimoto oil cooler kit on the driver side (which it was designed for) because you have to delete the brake cooling duct, my brother and I took a look at the this kit to see if we could fit it anywhere else. We found two other possible locations; one on top of the crash bar in front of the rad, or in front of the water bottle under the passenger side of the crash bar. We decided to go with the latter (below the crash bar on the pax side) and install the Mishimoto oil cooler with the ports at the bottom as it could just squeeze in there. This spot turned out to be a VERY tight squeeze and we had to do a lot of adjusting to get it to just fit in without interfering with the back cooling vents on the fog light, horns, etc. This was by far the most time consuming part of the build and in hindsight I think it would have been far easier to pull the water bottle for a much better fit and proper venting, My brother was kind enough to make a special lower aluminum bracket to mount the lower corner on and for the upper opposite corner he added a mounting surface to the bottom portion of the airbag sensor bracket just above it. Even getting the oil lines cut to fit into the tight space/corners was a real challenge. You can see in the third pic below I took the time to enclose the oil lines in some black plastic wrap and I used foam at the corners to reduce contact with other surfaces.
To supply both oil coolers we used the USR provided 4-port oil filter sandwich plate to mount two sets of oil lines, one to each cooler (in parallel so to speak).
Oil cooler venting
To get more air through both oil coolers I cut out more diamonds on the passenger side fog light garnish (see thread no. 123 https://www.civicx.com/forum/thread...sting-fake-vents-on-front-bumper.27081/page-9). For the driver side I purchased a Evasive GPP pre-cut fog light garnish. I was impressed by the quality of the cuts in their piece. I cut out some additional diamonds to match the pattern up on both sides.
I left the pin out of the garnish pieces so they can be more easily removed to remove the fog lights for extra cooling on track days.
To exhaust the warm air I cut and folded up some slats in both front wheel wells using a hot box cutting knife and a hot air gun to gently bend up the slats.
USR turbo blanket
As others have said before this is a pita to install, and instructions were hard to come by. You have to remove the inlet pipe and the top portion to the down pipe to get this on a bit easier. You also need a special tool to remove the oxygen sensor off the top of the heat shield to get that off and out of the way. I elected to re-install the heat shield for a little extra added protection. To do this, I had to punch an extra hole in the blanket to get all three heat shield bolts back on.
Unfortunately, I did not get any good pictures of the install process for this item.
PTP inlet pipe blanket
The verdict is still out on this one... I had bought this a while back after it came out, so I figured I would try it since the inlet pipe was already out for the turbo blanket install. I realize that I would likely be better off with a titanium inlet pipe but those are larger in diameter and require a tune to work well. Didn't really want to shell out the extra cash for a tune at this point.
As I had an early version of this blanket I had to punch an extra hole or two in it to get the harness mount bolted back on (far left side in pic below). As others have mentioned, one of the inlet pipe bolts is also a pain to get back in during install. I also found a bit of silver insulating material to wrap the small metal pipes above and below the inlet pipe.
J's Grill
This was not a cheap option and unfortunately required paint as a portion of the lower side had been ground down at the factory taking the sheen of the factory outer finish.
For details on the install see post no. 60 and others at https://www.civicx.com/forum/threads/js-racing-fk8-grill.28403/page-4
I went with the optional Honda logo mount. After getting it installed I have to say I am very pleased with the look and the size of area for fresh air to flow through to the radiator.
Morimoto headlights
Also not a cheap option but I loved the look of the jewel lights in combination with the J's grill. The installation of these was pretty straightforward. There is also a thread on these. I did notice after I got them installed that the driver side sequence flasher cut short on some cycles. Turns out my battery was low. After I ran the car for a bit the problem went away.
I like the orange color of the sequence flasher and the output seems decent. As others have stated these seem to come adjusted quite low. I ended up turning a bit more than the max three turns recommended to raise them and luckily I had no issues with the adjusters falling off the gear (earlier Morimoto XB light models).
Oil temperature gauge
Wanted one of these to keep an eye on the engine temps for track days. Went with a cheap CN Speed gauge with sensor. I had to move my sensor from the oil sandwich plate to the oil plug drain as I ran out of ports once I decided to hook up two oil coolers. I set the gauge up in a removable pod just above the dash near the driver door. The wire harness can be disconnect and tucked away under the dash and the gauge stored if I want to during trips around town.
I will provide feedback on oil temps once I track the car a couple of times.
Oil pan heat reduction effort
When I was under the car I noticed that the front pipe is positioned fairly close to the oil pan itself. I decided to put on some flexible thermal DEI heat shield on the bottom of the oil pan near the exhaust and wrap the front pipe to reduce heat transfer in this area. Not many others have mentioned this one to date...
I did not wrap the down pipe as I have heard that may not be a good idea for a catted downpipes. I see PTP now has a small insulating hat you can put on the top of a downpipe. Unfortunately, this was not available for me to purchase or try while I was doing this build.
Note the line to the back of the oil pan in the picture below is for the oil temperature probe which I put in a custom order oil drain plug and then inslated to reduce the effects of any latent heat form the front pipe.
I recently also had the car into a local Honda dealership to get an OEM 2020 CTR radiator installed (as its suppose to be more efficient/effective) along with fresh rad fluid while the bumper was off.
I now have an upcoming appointment to have the the following parts I am holding onto installed:
- G-Loc R-8 front pads
- G-Loc GS-1 pads
- Girodisc front brake discs
- Girodisc front Titanium brake pad shields
- Motul RBF 600 brake fluid
- Hardrace front lower camber adjusters
- NSX wheel install with brand new Michelin Cup 2's
I had the NSX wheels ceramic coated and I bought some of the 19mm Ti Porsche products titanium wheel bolts to put them on with
https://www.civicx.com/forum/threads/lug-nut-solution-for-nsx-wheels-solved.42281/
I also bought the OEM matching grey Honda caps to go wit the NSX rims but I custom cut red adhesive decal material which I inserted behind each silver H logo to make it look OEM.
Still to come ...
I have a J's/First Molding hood on order that I am waiting to get. Once it arrives i'm going to going to get painted and ppf'd to match the car.
I have my first two track days with this car now booked for July and August. I can't wait!
I will let everyone know how they turn out.
First up was Xpel ppf for the full front including grill lights and fog lights, hood, pillars, mirrors, lower panel sections, and the entire rear arches.
Next was the install of a Mishimoto oil catch can.
I also returned to the dealership to have the optional door sill trim plates installed.
As a family guy with kids I wanted a reliable four door car that I could use for moving them or groceries around in, etc. , plus be able to use on the odd track day for an outing. As I am at the novice level I decided to focus primarily on mods that would help with cooling. I also decided deliberately to stay away from bumping the power up to help keep the heat in check.
Here is a list of items what I have managed to bolt on to date:
- Mishimoto intercooler with pipe kit (black)
- USR driver side oil cooler
- Mishimoto oil cooler kit - modified to fit on behind the passenger side fog light grill
- GRP fog light garnish with cooling vents/diamonds pre-cut
- custom cut venting/slats in the front wheel wells behind both oil coolers
- hand cut venting/diamonds on passenger side fog light garnish
- USR turbo blanket
- PTP inlet blanket
- K&N air filter
- J's grill (with the optional logo mount) to get more cooling air in
- Morimoto headlights
- Oil temp gauge with a matching 1/8 NPT temp probe installed in an after market oil drain plug
- Reflective thermal barrier between the oil pan and front pipe
- Thermal fiberglass wrap on the front pipe
- OEM 2020 CTR radiator install (as it is denser/a bit more efficient)
My brother runs a small business with a shop that has a lift and a great selection of tools to work with. As a prototype designer and fabricator, he was able to provide me with advice and help me out throughout the build to date.
Here are some of my thoughts/experience with the items installed so far:
Miromoto Intercooler
This intercooler was heavier than I expected but the build quality and fit were excellent.
I also have to commend Mishimoto on their excellent "how to" video for this install, as well as the bumper removal video, and the oil catch can install video.
It took a bit of work to get the associated hot and cold larger silicon and aluminum piping installed. However, I feel the extra time installing the piping was worth it as it was of better construction (black coated aluminum on one side), larger diameter than the original OEM piping, and designed with better flowing bends, etc. in mind. The front of the intercooler definitely eats up most of the available space under the crash bar but the entire kit fits well and without issue).
As a side note on intercoolers for this car - for those looking for an easier install that should still give you good and for the buck, I might recommend the PRL I/C as it simply just bolts right up to the oem piping making the install much easier. There are also good quality smaller i/c's out there that work well.
USR side oil cooler
The supplied oil cooler in this kit is a 15-row Setrab (excellent quality). The oil cooler itself is fairly beefy and similar in size and weight to the Mishimoto oil cooler. I originally purchased the Mishi oil cooler kit but decided against installing it on the driver side as it meant I would have to pull the brake cooling duct. The USR kit came with the oil cooler, an oil filter sandwich plate, custom cut oil lines and fittings, and pre-cut metal plates that needed to be assembled to create the cool air duct work. What I liked about this kit was the size of the oil cooler (about as large as you can fit in the space available, the general fit of the kit, and the black oil lines and fittings. Unfortunately, the install instructions were missing, and the edges of the pre-cut metal ducting were a bit rough but still the kit is worth getting in my opinion. When I finally got my bumper back on today I noticed I also had to trim a bit of the metal ducting around the four upper side vents beside the fog light cover to get the bumper to fit on properly.
Mishimoto oil cooler
Having elected not to use the Mishimoto oil cooler kit on the driver side (which it was designed for) because you have to delete the brake cooling duct, my brother and I took a look at the this kit to see if we could fit it anywhere else. We found two other possible locations; one on top of the crash bar in front of the rad, or in front of the water bottle under the passenger side of the crash bar. We decided to go with the latter (below the crash bar on the pax side) and install the Mishimoto oil cooler with the ports at the bottom as it could just squeeze in there. This spot turned out to be a VERY tight squeeze and we had to do a lot of adjusting to get it to just fit in without interfering with the back cooling vents on the fog light, horns, etc. This was by far the most time consuming part of the build and in hindsight I think it would have been far easier to pull the water bottle for a much better fit and proper venting, My brother was kind enough to make a special lower aluminum bracket to mount the lower corner on and for the upper opposite corner he added a mounting surface to the bottom portion of the airbag sensor bracket just above it. Even getting the oil lines cut to fit into the tight space/corners was a real challenge. You can see in the third pic below I took the time to enclose the oil lines in some black plastic wrap and I used foam at the corners to reduce contact with other surfaces.
To supply both oil coolers we used the USR provided 4-port oil filter sandwich plate to mount two sets of oil lines, one to each cooler (in parallel so to speak).
Oil cooler venting
To get more air through both oil coolers I cut out more diamonds on the passenger side fog light garnish (see thread no. 123 https://www.civicx.com/forum/thread...sting-fake-vents-on-front-bumper.27081/page-9). For the driver side I purchased a Evasive GPP pre-cut fog light garnish. I was impressed by the quality of the cuts in their piece. I cut out some additional diamonds to match the pattern up on both sides.
I left the pin out of the garnish pieces so they can be more easily removed to remove the fog lights for extra cooling on track days.
To exhaust the warm air I cut and folded up some slats in both front wheel wells using a hot box cutting knife and a hot air gun to gently bend up the slats.
USR turbo blanket
As others have said before this is a pita to install, and instructions were hard to come by. You have to remove the inlet pipe and the top portion to the down pipe to get this on a bit easier. You also need a special tool to remove the oxygen sensor off the top of the heat shield to get that off and out of the way. I elected to re-install the heat shield for a little extra added protection. To do this, I had to punch an extra hole in the blanket to get all three heat shield bolts back on.
Unfortunately, I did not get any good pictures of the install process for this item.
PTP inlet pipe blanket
The verdict is still out on this one... I had bought this a while back after it came out, so I figured I would try it since the inlet pipe was already out for the turbo blanket install. I realize that I would likely be better off with a titanium inlet pipe but those are larger in diameter and require a tune to work well. Didn't really want to shell out the extra cash for a tune at this point.
As I had an early version of this blanket I had to punch an extra hole or two in it to get the harness mount bolted back on (far left side in pic below). As others have mentioned, one of the inlet pipe bolts is also a pain to get back in during install. I also found a bit of silver insulating material to wrap the small metal pipes above and below the inlet pipe.
J's Grill
This was not a cheap option and unfortunately required paint as a portion of the lower side had been ground down at the factory taking the sheen of the factory outer finish.
For details on the install see post no. 60 and others at https://www.civicx.com/forum/threads/js-racing-fk8-grill.28403/page-4
I went with the optional Honda logo mount. After getting it installed I have to say I am very pleased with the look and the size of area for fresh air to flow through to the radiator.
Morimoto headlights
Also not a cheap option but I loved the look of the jewel lights in combination with the J's grill. The installation of these was pretty straightforward. There is also a thread on these. I did notice after I got them installed that the driver side sequence flasher cut short on some cycles. Turns out my battery was low. After I ran the car for a bit the problem went away.
I like the orange color of the sequence flasher and the output seems decent. As others have stated these seem to come adjusted quite low. I ended up turning a bit more than the max three turns recommended to raise them and luckily I had no issues with the adjusters falling off the gear (earlier Morimoto XB light models).
Oil temperature gauge
Wanted one of these to keep an eye on the engine temps for track days. Went with a cheap CN Speed gauge with sensor. I had to move my sensor from the oil sandwich plate to the oil plug drain as I ran out of ports once I decided to hook up two oil coolers. I set the gauge up in a removable pod just above the dash near the driver door. The wire harness can be disconnect and tucked away under the dash and the gauge stored if I want to during trips around town.
I will provide feedback on oil temps once I track the car a couple of times.
Oil pan heat reduction effort
When I was under the car I noticed that the front pipe is positioned fairly close to the oil pan itself. I decided to put on some flexible thermal DEI heat shield on the bottom of the oil pan near the exhaust and wrap the front pipe to reduce heat transfer in this area. Not many others have mentioned this one to date...
I did not wrap the down pipe as I have heard that may not be a good idea for a catted downpipes. I see PTP now has a small insulating hat you can put on the top of a downpipe. Unfortunately, this was not available for me to purchase or try while I was doing this build.
Note the line to the back of the oil pan in the picture below is for the oil temperature probe which I put in a custom order oil drain plug and then inslated to reduce the effects of any latent heat form the front pipe.
I recently also had the car into a local Honda dealership to get an OEM 2020 CTR radiator installed (as its suppose to be more efficient/effective) along with fresh rad fluid while the bumper was off.
I now have an upcoming appointment to have the the following parts I am holding onto installed:
- G-Loc R-8 front pads
- G-Loc GS-1 pads
- Girodisc front brake discs
- Girodisc front Titanium brake pad shields
- Motul RBF 600 brake fluid
- Hardrace front lower camber adjusters
- NSX wheel install with brand new Michelin Cup 2's
I had the NSX wheels ceramic coated and I bought some of the 19mm Ti Porsche products titanium wheel bolts to put them on with
https://www.civicx.com/forum/threads/lug-nut-solution-for-nsx-wheels-solved.42281/
I also bought the OEM matching grey Honda caps to go wit the NSX rims but I custom cut red adhesive decal material which I inserted behind each silver H logo to make it look OEM.
Still to come ...
I have a J's/First Molding hood on order that I am waiting to get. Once it arrives i'm going to going to get painted and ppf'd to match the car.
I have my first two track days with this car now booked for July and August. I can't wait!
I will let everyone know how they turn out.
Last edited: