PEEFREE's Civic Type R FK8 Build thread - Track / Street

[ApexEight]

Random question but do you ever have any issues with scraping/ground clearance with the Verus rear diffuser?

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[solidconceptgroup]

Any comments on the Spoon thermostat? Good fitment and build quality? Do low temp thermostats really help on track? I believe that they should help in theory but don't know how much it would in an FK8 that has a water-cooled turbo heating the coolant to hell.

I installed my Termostat and so far everything has been running great no issues, perfect fitment..... temps are slightly cooler, but without a radiator I don't foresee major changes... I am interested in the acuity hoses they just released, I think in combination with those items you'll see better temps... I am going to test it out next weekend when I go to race the car at the track...

 

[ApexEight]

I installed my Termostat and so far everything has been running great no issues, perfect fitment..... temps are slightly cooler, but without a radiator I don't foresee major changes... I am interested in the acuity hoses they just released, I think in combination with those items you'll see better temps... I am going to test it out next weekend when I go to race the car at the track...

Nice, than you!

Yeah I'd recommend the thermostat (wish we had a cheaper option) and reverse flow hoses to anyone that is already tearing apart the engine bay to change out the radiator. The 2020 radiator should be a good budget option with the PWR/C&R for those that are more serious. Koyo slots in as a mid-range option, but I'd rather save up and get a PWR/C&R at that point.

 

[stariq812]

Thanks for the info, I ordered them and installed them last night. They really do make a difference on how it looks

The gap in the fender wall is where the hot air from the engine is vented out, the hood scope vent is directed there as well and there are vents in the front bumper that suck in fresh air. I dont think honda just left it for now reason.

 

[ipeefreely]

Random question but do you ever have any issues with scraping/ground clearance with the Verus rear diffuser?

haha not random at all. Yeah definitely. I'm usually fine though. If the front clears, just take the same angle and it will usually be fine for the rear as well.

 

[ipeefreely]

6/12 /2020 - Laguna Seca - Norcal / Socal Meetup - Part 1

Sorry this is going to be a long post.

Thanks again to Miguel from Socal for setting this event up. I'm sure it was a lot of planning and the turnout was great.

The idea was to have a joint So Cal and Nor Cal track event at Laguna Seca in June. Anyways... I booked this event back in January, so it gave me a lot of time to do some of the upgrades I wanted to do to the car as well as fixing some of the previously mentioned issues. Some of the issues included:

-over invasive traction control
- Car constantly going into limp mode
- Smoothen out the power curve
- Lighten up the car
- realignment
- Install Radium Surge Tank
- Install rampage RS-450 turbo and titanium inlet pipe
- Install Spoon Thermostat
- Install & reinforce new Type 5 wing

So back in March, right before Covid happened, I dropped the car off to Elite. We were able to install most of the stuff before we got it to the tuner.

The plan was to get everything buttoned up and have the tuner just tune it so it's ready to go come track day. But.... as you know.... things don't go according to plan. Leading up to the track day, Honda issues a recall on their fuel pump. This was already a known issue as my car kept going into limp mode on its previous outing at Thunderhill East.

So I immediately called Ballade to order the Hondata Fk8 Fuel system. Now the decision had to be made whether or not to wait for the Honda part to come out to replace the defective fuel pump or just install the Hondata kit. Ended up installing the Hondata kit because we didn't have time and I wanted a good track day (God knows I needed it).

Ran into issues installing the Hondata Kit so the tuner took all the way until 6/11 to finish installing and tuning.

Goal was to make about 370 hp on pump gas and smoothen out the curve. I think we did that as the car made 378 hp / 356 tq on E15. Also had the tuner basically disable the traction control as that stuff was annoying AF.

RIGHT after the car was done tuning, we had to drive it back to Elite Performance to get another issue sorted which was the rear control / camber arm. Found out during alignment that we had a bent rear camber arm (this might have been what was causing my car to act all crazy).

Got the part in and then had to do a realignment. Just in case you guys can't see the clock in that last picture, it was already 9 pm. They close at 6, so not only did they wait for me to swing by but basically stayed way past operating hours to help finish the car before my track day.


Finished at about 9:30 pm and had to rush home as my friend who wraps my car was coming over to help me finish wrapping the car. We stayed up till about 2 am to finish wrapping the car.

 

[ipeefreely]

6/12 /2020 - Laguna Seca - Norcal / Socal Meetup - Part 2

......Ok. We wrapped the hood, doors, and redid some of the smaller parts in Chalk White. Still not sure if I like the hood being wrapped but I guess the car does look a bit more complete.

Anyways. Woke up at two hours later (at 4 am) to head out to meet up with my buddies so that we can caravan down to Laguna Seca.


Made it to Laguna right at 7 and found a nice spot to park the car.

The event was hosted by Speed Ventures and it was actually a 105 db day. For those of you who are not familiar with this track, Laguna Seca is located in prime real estate county and they have local ordinances for sound levels. Basically there is a sound booth measuring your db rating as you pass by on one of the straights. Usually it's something ridiculously low like 90 db. You blow it, and they'll basically kick you off track. They have a couple of allowed high DB days like this day... and it's usually on these days that everyone brings out the "big guns".

So because it was a high DB day, there were a ton of corvettes, gt3's, Zl1s, ACR's....etc... While these cars are definitely fast, the drivers behind most of them weren't. Needless to say, every single session we ran, we were stuck behind some pighead of a driver who wants to drag race you up the straight.


Without further ado:

Session 1: Ran behind my friend Michael Baxi. You can see all the traffic we were hitting. At some point I just gave up. No use pushing it as you can see him and I just getting stopped every single lap.



Session 2: Once again, just traffic. Almost get crashed into by one of those Caterhams. I honestly don't think these people should be in the advanced group.



Session 3: Got gridded behind a C8 vette. Organizers wouldn't let me run at the front because of the times I was running that day (Like jeez lady... what did you expect me to hit with all this traffic). Got stuck behind the C8 most of the session and then spent a couple of laps just recording my friend to analyze his lines.

Session 3 ended up being my last session. Found out that my coilover reservoir line ruptured. What a day.... lol.

 

[ipeefreely]

6/12 /2020 - Laguna Seca - Norcal / Socal Meetup - Part 3

This is just to talk about my impressions of the car with all the mods we did.

One weird thing that happened today was that my ECT was extremely low while my Oil Temps were high the whole time. Not sure what this is caused by. So this is something we would need to look into.

Going to list the mods we did to the car and my thoughts on it.

1. Seibon Carbon doors - Not worth it. They were a pain in the ass to install, they're expensive, and honestly while the weight reduction is nice, you could probably net the same amount of weight loss by hitting the treadmill.

2. Spoon Thermometer - Not worth it. As you can see, my car is still running hot. lol.

3. Honda Fk8 Fuel system - Not worth it UNLESS you're doing a build. My honest opinion is to wait for the replacement part Honda is going to release for the HPFP and then go with that. You shouldn't need to pay over 3k for such a small remedy.

4. Rampage RS-450 Turbo / Inlet pipe - I liked this. The power is moved upwards from 3 to 4.5k RPM and it's honestly nice. It took some getting used to (and I'm still adjusting) but as you can see from my videos, the car hauls. I think going this route is much better than going flex fuel and all that bs.

5. RV6 Rear control / Camber arms -Get this if you can. Gives you a lot of nice adjustability and it (looks) way stronger than the OEM one.

Overall, the car is moving in the direction I want it to. I think at this point, I need to relearn a bit on how to drive the car but over all, it feels a lot faster.

 

[iLovePho]

Nice write-up! Question on the Hondata fuel system being only worth it if doing a build, what do you mean by that? Are you saying that it's not necessary with just a bolt on turbo upgrade (in your case the Rampage kit)? I'm currently running FBO with the SiriMoto flex fuel kit and hitting the limits of the stock fuel system on E40 mix (current output just over 390whp).

I plan to do the PRL P600 turbo upgrade eventually but given that my stock fuel system is already maxed out, I need to find a solution to that first. So far the most publicized is the Hondata fuel system, but given that it's almost $3k, I definitely want to see what other options are out there and if it is sufficient for the P600 upgrade. I don't plan to build my engine, unless it blows up prematurely of course.

 

[ipeefreely]

Nice write-up! Question on the Hondata fuel system being only worth it if doing a build, what do you mean by that? Are you saying that it's not necessary with just a bolt on turbo upgrade (in your case the Rampage kit)? I'm currently running FBO with the SiriMoto flex fuel kit and hitting the limits of the stock fuel system on E40 mix (current output just over 390whp).

I plan to do the PRL P600 turbo upgrade eventually but given that my stock fuel system is already maxed out, I need to find a solution to that first. So far the most publicized is the Hondata fuel system, but given that it's almost $3k, I definitely want to see what other options are out there and if it is sufficient for the P600 upgrade. I don't plan to build my engine, unless it blows up prematurely of course.

There’s no point because the stock system should be enough for a FBO car (assuming that the HPFP is running correctly).

Besides, anything over 390-400 and you would have other issues. Namely the tranny and engine.

 

[goodvibes]

Wow this thread is super informative, thank you for this.

 

[Zpeedster M]

I like #1 saving $$ on doors. I'm 130 lbs. so I just saved 3K thanks. Great thread, keep it coming.

 

[DPL8]

This information is so useful!

Wondering if anyone knows this ? is it work getting intercooler piping for helping heat soak ? just trying to figure out the best options right now

 

[ipeefreely]

Track Prep (again):

Alright guys, it's been awhile but I'm back.

Just a recap but my last track outing in June yielded me very few results. Didn't break any PB's and we were barely able to run the car because my coilover reservoir line had bursted.

I had signed up for another track day in late July but had to cancel it because everything was delayed. I guess that's just the new normal now huh.

Anyways, if you haven't seen my other posts, my buddy Mike (aka Lust) and I have been working with Cory from C&R to come out with some products for you guys.

Before we proceed, rest assured. I'm not sponsored by anyone so my opinions are just that. MY opinions.

Ok. Let's talk about the mods this time around:

1. C&R Radiator - The C&R radiator is actually not that different size wise but the idea is efficiency. The logic is that due to their technology and their core's fin density, the thing should work better than the Koyo radiator.

2. C&R Intercooler - The other item that we're going to be testing out is the C&R Intercooler. I'm making the switch from the PRL intercooler to this one mainly because of the design. The PRL intercooler, I believe is bar and plate, while the C&R one is tube and fin. I am not sure what sort of IAT's that would translate into on track but I guess we will see.

btw. I think the differences between the two designs are explained by PRL here:

https://www.civicx.com/forum/threads/intercooler-or-interfooler.14894/

3. Acuity reverse flow hoses - Based on the mechanics of it, this part seems like a no brainer and would help immensely with the temperatures. We've had some other CTRs out on track with these and they seem to be working very well. I'm very excited to test these out myself.

4. CE28 Club Racer - Sold my TE37's and picked up a set of these babies. I usually run TE37's or Advan GT's on all my cars but decided to switch things up a bit. I think I'm just getting bored at this point. lol.

5. Switched back to OEM Wing - I ran the Voltex wing last time and the car felt like it was losing a bit of speed on the straights. It was also causing my car to understeer a bit. My friend told me to try switching it back to the OEM wing as we think the voltex might be generating a bit TOO MUCH downforce. Wow. Never thought I'd heard that. lol.

Also since the wing was off, figured I'd wrap the end plates. I was kind of curious to see how it would look and I'm actually really happy with the results. Although, I was kind of annoyed that I had to peel off my original Voltex stickers, buy these black ones, and slap them on.

6. Decals (+10000 hp) - Cleaned up my car and noticed it's been getting some battle scars. No problem. Gave it a band aid for the boo boo.

7. 27WON Intercooler Pipes - If you were running the HKS hard pipes like me and plan on installing the C&R Radiator and intercooler, the recommendation would be to switch the pipes to stock or something else. My buddy Mike had told me that due to angle of the HKS hard pipes, it kind of forces things to touch. Couldn't find my stock pipes so I ordered a set of the 27won pipes in Grey (my favorite color). Thanks again to the guys at 27won for the fast reply and shipping. I got my stuff in two days.

My next track day will be at Laguna on 8/22-23rd. Just keeping my fingers crossed that everything runs well. I've been stuck at a even 1.40 there for awhile so it would be amazing to beat that. Plus i know the car has it in it. Just been frustrating knowing that I've always ran into one problem or another.... sigh.

It'll also serve as a opportunity for me to get some data on the new parts. We've redone a lot of the cooling system so I guess at this point, we just need a good track day to get data to verify that it works.

 

[metal_driver]

Some fairly big changes up front Will. Looking forward to your feedback on how this works following your next track day.

Some quick questions if you don't mind;
- I see you removed the large center mounted oil cooler you had. Did you replace it with something else?
- Are the two side mounted coolers (behind the fog light covers still being used as additional rad coolers?
- Did you leave the AC condenser out?

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