Lmao, I've got this nice TimeSert kit that you can borrow if your interested!
A passion that traveled across international boarders
Honestly, I don't know where I should start. Maybe a little bit of background first!
I have been messing with honda's for years, almost 15 to be exact (since I got my license). Many of the honda's I have owned and help friends repair in my youngeryears were the starting point of knowing what line of work I wanted to be in.
I love cars (anything with an engine really), more specifically diagnosing really difficult drivability issues with them. Getting stuck on a problem really pushed me to learn more about things I was unfamiliar with. Through my diagnostic experiences as a vehicle technician, I have learned an incredible amount of internal combustion engine theory and operation including all of the additional systems that support their overall operation and the mechanics at work which ultimately couple the engine output to usable work at the wheels (the full circle if you will).
UNFORTUNATELY, like most people can probably attest, I'm not made of money, I don't have lots of money, I can't spend lots of money all the time (unless I want my wife and son to starve and have no home), I really had to think hard 5 times before spending $50 bucks without jeopardizing something of a higher importance, but that honestly never stopped me from continuing to pursue learning about so many really cool tips and tricks related to Honda's on the countless number of member driven community forums out there (the last year and a bit have been right here!).
I've tuned honda's, built engines/transmissions for honda's, done stupid/cool things with honda's, and most of the time it has always been with someone else's money. All I have ever been truly able to spend on things was time, and I took full advantage of a learning opportunity when it presented itself on someone else's dime.
I am at a stage in my life where money management is still a HUGE part of my responsibility for my overall family goals (as I am still not made from it), but over the past two years things have started to get, dare I say it, slightly "easier" (knock on wood) for me to have like an extra hundred bucks or so every month to put towards my hobbies and things I like to do.
Like most people here, working on their cars is therapeutic and stress relieving. Often times it can turn into downright addiction! I think I'm in the stress relieving group, as I spend time and money on my projects but it's not the end of the world if I have to not touch them for weeks/months at a time.
So without more boring self introductions, I wanted to share an ongoing project that started in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and ended up in North Carolina.
Here she is, the d-series honda platform that has continued to be my hobby that started 2 years ago: the 1999 Honda Civic SI (Canadian, EX in USA) with a low mileage D16Y8 installed by the owner who wanted to get it back on the road eventually (original engine blew up). He lost interest but had money to buy newer toys to pass the time. This car sat in the back of a truck shop for almost 2 years, and the owners of the place were threatening the owner to tow it away if he didn't move it. So I bought it for $200 bucks from him because the engine ran and it was at least worth that by itself, and had it towed to my house.
I have been messing with honda's for years, almost 15 to be exact (since I got my license). Many of the honda's I have owned and help friends repair in my youngeryears were the starting point of knowing what line of work I wanted to be in.
I love cars (anything with an engine really), more specifically diagnosing really difficult drivability issues with them. Getting stuck on a problem really pushed me to learn more about things I was unfamiliar with. Through my diagnostic experiences as a vehicle technician, I have learned an incredible amount of internal combustion engine theory and operation including all of the additional systems that support their overall operation and the mechanics at work which ultimately couple the engine output to usable work at the wheels (the full circle if you will).
UNFORTUNATELY, like most people can probably attest, I'm not made of money, I don't have lots of money, I can't spend lots of money all the time (unless I want my wife and son to starve and have no home), I really had to think hard 5 times before spending $50 bucks without jeopardizing something of a higher importance, but that honestly never stopped me from continuing to pursue learning about so many really cool tips and tricks related to Honda's on the countless number of member driven community forums out there (the last year and a bit have been right here!).
I've tuned honda's, built engines/transmissions for honda's, done stupid/cool things with honda's, and most of the time it has always been with someone else's money. All I have ever been truly able to spend on things was time, and I took full advantage of a learning opportunity when it presented itself on someone else's dime.
I am at a stage in my life where money management is still a HUGE part of my responsibility for my overall family goals (as I am still not made from it), but over the past two years things have started to get, dare I say it, slightly "easier" (knock on wood) for me to have like an extra hundred bucks or so every month to put towards my hobbies and things I like to do.
Like most people here, working on their cars is therapeutic and stress relieving. Often times it can turn into downright addiction! I think I'm in the stress relieving group, as I spend time and money on my projects but it's not the end of the world if I have to not touch them for weeks/months at a time.
So without more boring self introductions, I wanted to share an ongoing project that started in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and ended up in North Carolina.
Here she is, the d-series honda platform that has continued to be my hobby that started 2 years ago: the 1999 Honda Civic SI (Canadian, EX in USA) with a low mileage D16Y8 installed by the owner who wanted to get it back on the road eventually (original engine blew up). He lost interest but had money to buy newer toys to pass the time. This car sat in the back of a truck shop for almost 2 years, and the owners of the place were threatening the owner to tow it away if he didn't move it. So I bought it for $200 bucks from him because the engine ran and it was at least worth that by itself, and had it towed to my house.
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Honestly, I have no idea lmao
Enough boost to hit my power level target. With the cam and port work I've done so far, I figure these probably add roughly 60HP to the previous engine iteration as just simple bolt ons, so I estimate this engine should be at 300-310whp at 15psi. So maybe roughly in the area of 20-22 psi to hit my target?The o-ring procedure only costs about 100 bucks plus a small roll of stainless wire, and the copper head gasket isnt but like $10 more than the Cometic I was going to purchase, so to get this all done and be big studded, being able to reliably play at 350-375whp is a solid reality and one I'm looking forward to.
The most expensive part of any of this was getting all the stuff to go bigger studs, but oh man are these TimeSerts nice. Such a clean process and highly improved stud threads put back into the block. I wish I would have just broken down last year and purchased this kit and gone big stud on my previous block. Could have saved almost 300 bucks at this point.
The next things to break after this at that power level are axles, trans and possibly some kind of spun bearing due to it being a Y8 bottom end. But I hope to play with it at that power level for a while before any of those take a crap.
If axles die, no big deal, 50 bucks a side and autozone lifetime warranty lol.
If trans dies, I have an excuse to put this GSR trans in and do a plateless D to B swap.
If bearing spins, I'll shelve the D series hard parts until I can pick up and fund a Z6 bottom end build in the same way I did the Y8, then in meantime go ahead and build my B series refreshed stock with ARPs, LSD and trans rebuild set for the GSR trans, buy a turbo manifold and do some light fab work, and street tune that bad boy making probably the same 375-400 right out of the gate on wastegate pressure haha.
12
So today I got some crappy, although not terrible news (all things considered). More on that in a minute.
Last night, I roughly assembled the bottom end and head with false valve springs to be able to inspect the combustion chamber clearances:
Pistons sit 0.065" below deck height, so my comp ratio is barely going to be 8:1, but still in the 8's so I'm not too bummed about that:
All measuring was done using an already used and crushed Fel-Pro HG which is 0.027" thick:
False valve springs just to be able to get the cam and rockers doing their thing:
Installed the Colt stick and rocker assembly all lubed up with assembly lube, and indexed the GE cam gear to the stock Y8 gear. According to the keyway positions and the head alignment marks on the gears, the GE gear set to 0° was actually 1 degree retarded from the stock gear position. Knowing that my head has been shaved twice (first time it took 0.004" to get flat, second time after blowing engine up took 0.008" to get flat), and this block once (took 0.004" off to cut the deck surface and the CSS insert flat), I went ahead and set the GE gear to 1.5° advanced to get the cam to be roughly in as close to stock position as possible:
Setting the valve lash to 0 and turning the crank with everything in time, the valves have absolutely nothing to worry about in terms of piston clearance. There is like a good 1/2" clearance between them wide open and the piston no matter the position, so valve clearance is not an issue and there is plenty of room to spare.
Quench distance is pitiful, mind you there isn't much due to these pistons having a large dish and the combustion chamber being pentagonal shaped, but the gap between the highest part of the piston near the edge and the nearest beginning part of the cylinder dome shape is 0.185". So clearance is a non-issue in this engine and is not even worth claying anything because I can see every important gap using a borescope through the missing valve ports:
But with quench being so large, I'm gunning for the Tri-Flow cam design and boost in general to provide a good swirl effect into the cylinder. With the advertised swirl characteristics of this camshaft, I don't feel I will have to worry too much about detonation when flooring it out of boost, so I hope I can put some decent down low timing into it so it's not a total dog out of boost. And with the eventual dynamic compression ratio being high when in boost, I should have a decent setup to play with in terms of messing with timing in boost ranges on E85.
Last night, I roughly assembled the bottom end and head with false valve springs to be able to inspect the combustion chamber clearances:
Pistons sit 0.065" below deck height, so my comp ratio is barely going to be 8:1, but still in the 8's so I'm not too bummed about that:
All measuring was done using an already used and crushed Fel-Pro HG which is 0.027" thick:
False valve springs just to be able to get the cam and rockers doing their thing:
Installed the Colt stick and rocker assembly all lubed up with assembly lube, and indexed the GE cam gear to the stock Y8 gear. According to the keyway positions and the head alignment marks on the gears, the GE gear set to 0° was actually 1 degree retarded from the stock gear position. Knowing that my head has been shaved twice (first time it took 0.004" to get flat, second time after blowing engine up took 0.008" to get flat), and this block once (took 0.004" off to cut the deck surface and the CSS insert flat), I went ahead and set the GE gear to 1.5° advanced to get the cam to be roughly in as close to stock position as possible:
Setting the valve lash to 0 and turning the crank with everything in time, the valves have absolutely nothing to worry about in terms of piston clearance. There is like a good 1/2" clearance between them wide open and the piston no matter the position, so valve clearance is not an issue and there is plenty of room to spare.
Quench distance is pitiful, mind you there isn't much due to these pistons having a large dish and the combustion chamber being pentagonal shaped, but the gap between the highest part of the piston near the edge and the nearest beginning part of the cylinder dome shape is 0.185". So clearance is a non-issue in this engine and is not even worth claying anything because I can see every important gap using a borescope through the missing valve ports:
But with quench being so large, I'm gunning for the Tri-Flow cam design and boost in general to provide a good swirl effect into the cylinder. With the advertised swirl characteristics of this camshaft, I don't feel I will have to worry too much about detonation when flooring it out of boost, so I hope I can put some decent down low timing into it so it's not a total dog out of boost. And with the eventual dynamic compression ratio being high when in boost, I should have a decent setup to play with in terms of messing with timing in boost ranges on E85.
OMG I'm going to pull my hair out haha! It's already starting to fall out due to age!
Guess WTF just happened?
I brought my block to the speed shop that said they would cut my o-ring grooves in my block, turns out the circular bit with the adjustable carbide tip they use on their CNC machine for cutting the grooves in a perfect circle doesn't go down smaller than 3.75", because they only really work on larger V8's
Guess who's honda engine needs roughly 3.180" grooves? ALL OF OURS haha.
![Blond Cheek Fun Nose Interaction]()
I told them on the phone initially during our conversation that it was a Honda engine with 75.5mm bores, I guess their internal metric to standard calculator failed lol.
I sat with them for an hour while the guy was kind enough to call all of his contacts in the area that cut grooves in blocks and heads for this kind of stuff, NO ONE has the tooling small enough to cut my grooves within a 100 mile radius. They all either cut o-rings for larger diesel performance engines or big bore V8's.
I'm fucking tired of it. I've gone CSS and big stud, I'm just gonna suck it up and buy a thin Cometic and be done and throw this thing back together. I'm tired of waiting, and I honestly don't think I'll have too much of an issue throwing the boost to it with conservative timing to get near the 350-375whp mark.
I'm burnt out with all this researching, driving, waiting, paying for things, getting hopes up, asking for refunds, etc. haha.
Guess WTF just happened?
I brought my block to the speed shop that said they would cut my o-ring grooves in my block, turns out the circular bit with the adjustable carbide tip they use on their CNC machine for cutting the grooves in a perfect circle doesn't go down smaller than 3.75", because they only really work on larger V8's
Guess who's honda engine needs roughly 3.180" grooves? ALL OF OURS haha.
I told them on the phone initially during our conversation that it was a Honda engine with 75.5mm bores, I guess their internal metric to standard calculator failed lol.
I sat with them for an hour while the guy was kind enough to call all of his contacts in the area that cut grooves in blocks and heads for this kind of stuff, NO ONE has the tooling small enough to cut my grooves within a 100 mile radius. They all either cut o-rings for larger diesel performance engines or big bore V8's.
I'm fucking tired of it. I've gone CSS and big stud, I'm just gonna suck it up and buy a thin Cometic and be done and throw this thing back together. I'm tired of waiting, and I honestly don't think I'll have too much of an issue throwing the boost to it with conservative timing to get near the 350-375whp mark.
I'm burnt out with all this researching, driving, waiting, paying for things, getting hopes up, asking for refunds, etc. haha.
281 - 300 of 1375 Posts
