i built a car

[alex.s]

[corksil]

Good man. So what did you do today?

I did some more EFI tuning today on my CRX. Finally got WOT leaned out enough that I feel confident leaning on the go pedal with my full weight.

should take some go pro vids. Next step is bringing the water/meth injection kit online and spraying. Then re-tuning the final fuel maps and finally bringing those two degrees of engine killing ignition advance back in very cautiously.

Then it's the drag races.. but I'll need to find some slicks to borrow or buy, because I'm not going to put down good numbers on street tires.

Hell, one day of tuning and I've roasted through half the treadwear on my front tires.

/dear diary.

[alex.s]

i accidentally screwed up one of the upper tubes so i gotta remake it. good thing i have extras. i'll probably get that curved and cut up and tacked on tonight along with the main crossbars. the center channel on this car provides not only a place to mount the gear shift lever but also a strong compression strut between the front and rear suspension boxes to help support during jaunts. the car is a little bit narrow in cockpit. still thinking about doing something to widen it or if it is big enough for two large adults. i'll have to test fit it with my brothers and see if it will do how it is.

i have lots of bracketry to make and i'm trying to decide on the best way to go about it. i'm thinking that i will cut them out of sheet and bend them to shape then weld them up. the other common approach is cutting square tube. but i have many different widths of brackets i'll need due to the various sizes from the honda mounts, so cutting my own from sheet seems like a better idea right now.

still trying to figure out what i'm going to do for front spindles. i would like to simply modify the rear spindles from the honda but it's looking more likely that i will go with something like miata uprights and brakes. another option is to just make my own, which is looking more and more like a viable option.

i will need to modify my steering rack to cut it a few inches shorter and to lock the flex tube and seal the oil inlets to make it a real manual rack. maybe i'll just buy a shorter rack that is already manual.

i've been looking for a gas tank that will suit my needs but have come up with basically nothing. so i think the gas tank will get pushed back. i'll probably have someone build one to my dimensions in aluminum with an inner bladder and the proper piping and venting and fuel gauge and fuel pump access... hopefully i can have one made for less than a few hundred dollars... might need to get a few favors.

for now i'll be using the stock suspension front and rear with small modifications to allow preload adjustment and oil changing on the stock civic shocks. eventually i'll switch to fancy electric valved moto shocks on all 4 corners. but that will be much later when the car has it's computer system installed. it will be running android eventually- full track computer / lap timer with dual gps and rate gyro/accel logging, eventually it will control the tune, shocks and various control surfaces on the car depending on set variables like speed, location, tire pressure/temp, car mode etc. i'll be using my 3d printer to do most of the user interface stuff. the engine computer will still be running the stock civic ecu to provide an odb2 port so it still passes smog (the plan is still to get it street legal eventually) and the exhaust system will be basically stock for now.

the car will have storage space... about 1'x1'x6" in the front... "frunk". enough to hold paperwork, some gloves, and maybe some drinks.


anyway... lots of details to be worked out

[Alex]

I would think the fuel tank would be one of the easier problems to solve. Can't you just check out the Summit Racing catalog and find one that looks about right? A 4-gallon racing cell served as the base for my aux cell on the RT, and I think it was < $150 for the cell itself.

[alex.s]

the shape is the problem. its a wedge behind the seats with only about 7 inches between the seat and the engine box, but nice and wide and tall. i could use just a really small tank and be done with it, but the biggest one i can find from summit that will fit is like... 2 quarts... but the volume should be able to hold at least 10 gallons... its just not a good shape. maybe i will just use a big aluminum tube tank.

[alex.s]

found one that might be workable... i'll have to make a few small changes though. better to make the changes now than later though.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/rci-2171a/overview/

[corksil]

Well you're certainly keeping busy.

I'd look into hondata s300 for a tuning platform. I don't know what kind of android-based tuning systems there are available, but the s300 is damn fine at everything it does.

[Alex]

Originally Posted by alex.s

found one that might be workable... i'll have to make a few small changes though. better to make the changes now than later though.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/rci-2171a/overview/

Nice! < $300 for a 17 gallon tank, that comes with a fuel level sensor already installed. No bladder in it, but not sure if you're really using this car for racing or just for fun.

[alex.s]

probably wont ever see a "real" race. plan is just a track day car and occasional mulholland cruiser. though it would be smarter i think to plan for the worst (full race tech inspection and head on collision at top speed) than to accept such small safety compromises just to save a little time or money

[corksil]

Unless I'm mistaken, you're not going to get a second run if you break 12.5 seconds in a typical quarter mile on an NHRA sponsored 1320.

If you break 12.5, they are going to tell you to go home and install a roll cage before you come back and try to run your car a second time.

Then again, I don't exactly know what your car is, so good luck and hopefully you can find an exclusion. It kinda is a roll cage.

For all the folks following this at home, do you have an estimate of HP numbers and curb weight? Once you get "done" with the project... (I'm aware that these types of projects are never "done.") Approximate estimations.

[alex.s]

it will have a scca legal roll cage
it wont be competing in drag races
starting power will be about 100hp, weight around 1200lbs
power will hopefully go to around 180 or 200

[alex.s]

i did more research and compared price options and decided to buy a tig welder and build my own gas tank in aluminum to correct dimensions

[alex.s]

this ****** harbor frieght bender. i've stripped the set screws like 5 times now and each time the screw breaks off and its impossible to get it out. piece of ****.

i only have one more tube to finish but i've screwed it up 2 times now and im on my last tube. but its not bent enough and the bender needs more fixing. grr.

[corksil]

It has been my observation that; that is life indeed, isht breaks and if you don't fix it, it becomes junk.

Buy a screw extractor, expect that to break, plan out how to fix screw extractor before it breaks. Quality stuff is not bought, it's made, perfected, and constantly used under scrutiny to identify it's points of failure before they occur.

Or maybe figure out a better way to bend tubes. I've got nothing.

[alex.s]

stupid screw extractor wasn't working. (also from HF, what a surprise) i've been able to remove the busted screws a few times with vice grips but i think i will drill them out and retap the next size up with some bigger grade 8 hardware. i wish good tools weren't so ****ing expensive

[corksil]

Two words.

Grade. Eight.

[corksil]

Our you could lift weights like I do and become a big beefy gorilla who can bend his tubes by hand.

There's always that..

[alex.s]

anybody can bend tubes by hand. its getting a nice smooth arc with a decreasing radius toward the end in just the right shape that's the hard part. i have one tube that is very close now. i have to cut it and give it just a little more love. then ill tack it up and i can proceed after countless enraged hours of banging my head against that bender. then i'll do the upper cross bars and finish up the rear motor and suspension mountings. i need to go get another batch of metal- about 100 feet of 1 inch round tube 16ga. then i'll finish up the floor for the cockpit and the interlinks for the spars and all the cross bars for the running gear boxes. once that's done i'll do full measurements and true everything up and then weld it all for real. after that i'll need to make front wishbones, uprights with wilwood brake mounts (might go with miata uprights and balljoints)
i've been doing a lot of reading on modifying steering racks. so that'll probably get done this weekend too.

[alex.s]

fixed the bender. bent the tube. car looks like a car now. it looks good. i took photos but my phone is dead. i'll post photos later. pretty big milestone. lots of brackets to make.

[alex.s]

[alex.s]

[alex.s]

had a visit from a retired machinist today. found out im using the wrong welding wire. not a complete loss but ill have to add some reinforcements to a few places and i will have to switch to a higher carbon wire. one of four of my legs is attached. upper and lower right rear wishbones are on and work well. need to do push rods and linkage to the shocks

[corksil]

Good work! Coming along quite nicely. Gonna loan my bike to a friend for a week so I'm forced to drive my car and perfect it's tune. If you want to have a look at the hondata system, it's a free download and I can send you a few datalogs and the fuel map I'm working on. I think you'll be amazed at the versatility. The datalogs are just like riding in the car, plus a whole bunch of other info that you don't see in the cockpit even with my 8 gauges.. Things like injector duty cycle and IATs and all that.. pretty cool.

I think a real racing seat should be on your list eventually. IIRC those civic seats are 27lb apiece. A used sparco off of CL should be 100 bucks and weigh around 7lb.

Power to weight ratio. Only variable is traction. Tell me if you figure out how to get more traction, I'm having a tough time tuning third gear because a hard pull in 3rd is wheelspin all the way from when you punch it up until redline, messes with the VSS and hard to tune because of the conflicting data..

Anyways, looking good alex. It's miller time.

[alex.s]

my wheel base is only 105 inches, so too much power and ill be doing wheelies with my weight. im trying not to think about tuning until it at least runs. im also trying not to look at the website for the belt driven turbine supercharger that fits on my engine. one step at a time.

the dash will be a hard wood polished and lacquered in red stain

i'm using the adjustable steering column from the civic and eventually ill make a removable steering wheel but for now it will bolt on just like the civic. waiting until i get further along with the front suspension to do the modifications for the civic steering rack.

i'm using modified pedals from the civic. i've ditched the brake booster and im running the master straight from the pedal. this will feed into a wilwood dial proportioning valve on the dash board which will go out to the front and rear brake systems. it will only be split front/rear. no safety left/right split system unfortunately. maybe later.

the hydraulic clutch from the civic is being used basically as is.

the shifter is going to need special love. it doesn't use cables like newer japanese cars, it has a solid rod, so i'm debating converting it to cable or just make weird linkage.

i'll be making my own seats. i also knit, crochet, sew and make clothing, do upholstery and leather work. my leather work is pretty terrible, but i can knit you a mean scarf.


i really need to go pick up some argon. and i need more metal. specifically 1inch round 1020 for the wishbones and the cockpit undercarriage. and i need sheet so i can start making brackets and the uprights

[alex.s]

i need to learn more about aero because it needs big hulking f1 style active wings. because racecar.

[nickjpass]

...meanwhile nick is changing his oil.

[alex.s]

i made two of the first of many of the little interconnecting links between the main spars of the frame. i also joined the front suspension cross bar to the front suspension box and found a nifty new way to cope the 2" tube to the 1.5" tube (involves a hammer!) that results in a much better cope. i also used halfinch round tube to create the dash board and mounting structure for the steering column and the pedal boxes and i mounted the clutch pedal. i had to cut up and remake the pedals cause they were weird before. now they are straight. i might ditch the adjustable steering column for weight. i need to go buy metal.

[alex.s]

pedal boxes are all mounted up. it's kinda insane how many little details there are in every little piece. i am kinda wishing i had made the entire thing about 6 inches longer

[alex.s]

i just made a trade. i get miata front hubs and brakes in exchange for a built front suspension box. sounds fair to me so i'll be using front miata uprights and calipers for the foreseeable future. i'll spring for the wilwood dynalite 6pots once i get the supercharger worked out :P

my brother has a nice source for cheap wilwood parts, so i will be getting a manual proportioning valve mounted to the dashboard. and probably a wilwood master cylinder before too long.

[alex.s]

[alex.s]

today i modified the steering rack. it is no longer a 27" power steering rack. now it is a 19" manual steering rack. i still need to pack it with grease though, and replace the bellows. i also should weld on a washer or something to make the bellow clamp a little more secure before it's finished.

i also removed from the civic as much of the wiring harness as i could and the ecu and fuse box and moved it over to the car. all the engine wiring is plugged back in except for the starter and alternator which are removed right now. there's some relays and things i need to take out of the civic and transfer over still. and i need to run wires up to the ignition switch/starter. the battery, ecu... basically all the electrics for running the engine will be mounted directly behind and to the side of the engine. i'll use the lead acid battery i have for now but i'll switch to lipo later for weight. i don't like the civic gauges. i don't think i will use them.

i think i might be getting sick. i need to go to the metal supply depot and pick up about 60 feet of 1.5" 16ga so i can do the cockpit underbody/floor and the spar struts as well as the gas tank box. maybe i'll go tomorrow morning after work... i also need like 10 feet of square tube for mounting brackets for things like suspension components and the like. i also need to get more weld-thru primer. **** goes fast.

[alex.s]

i bought metal today. i build the seat floor and tacked it all up. it is not as nice as the atom because the atom uses nice small radius bends, but my small radius bender wasnt doing a good job so i did them straight like most of the atom clones do. i need to decide on what im going to do for the floor under the pedals... when i drive i like a solid floor. so i think i will build a nice solid floor for the driver and passenger feet. at this point, most of the frame is cut out and tacked up. things are a little crooked still so i need to spend some time working on getting everything lined up straight before i go ahead and do a full weld on everything. i think tomorrow i will spend time and finish mounting the rear wishbones. and finish up the engine mounting. i need to order some suspension components like heim joints, and gsxr shocks. (it will use 4 side gsxr shocks since they are cheap and fully adjustable minus height which i get from my linkage adjustments. i'll probably use the knuckle from the gsxr shock as my cantelevers. i need to make lots of little brackets for everything. the gas tank is proving to be one of the harder things to settle... it will come basically almost last and for the time until then i'll be using a red plastic bottle to hold fuel.

[alex.s]

i cut out the right uca mount from the civic and put it on the new car and mounted the right side rear gear and put the wheel on. i also made progress mounting the engine... i have made mounts for the right side, and i'm using the stock mount/subframe for the rear engine mount. i also have the right front engine mount about half way done... the front left mount i haven't started but the rear left mount i took the stock bushed mount and had to flip it up side down which required lots of cutting and moving support to the other side of the mount. now i just need to build some braces that the mount will bolt onto. there are about a million little pieces that go between this and that that i've been cutting out and tacking up. made more progress on electrical but it's still a long way off. i hate soldering wires.

[alex.s]

[Alex]

Starting to look like a real vehicle!

[alex.s]

I cut out the left side main engine mounts and welded them on. Welded up the right side main a little firmer. Bolted everything up and took the wood out from under the engine ... holy crap its holding the engine.

[alex.s]

heres the left side mount. both sides will get up and down supports... right now each side only has one set

[corksil]

lol @ "holy crap it's holding the motor" --- the trial by fire will come soon enough. I'd plan on over-over-engineering everything that transfers torque from one component to another.

I will try to get you a picture of some recent welds I've done with a business associate. They look a little different than yours -- my machine is a miller trailblazer diesel welder-generator, kind of a different animal, but I want to be of assistance if I can. There's so much to learn over time, maybe I could give a shortcut.

Perhaps you could post a picture of your welding setup next time the camera starts flashing.

I don't mean to be an asshole, and I don't mean to criticize. I surely endured quite enough of that for the both of us when I detailed my build on HT. That place just keeps devolving.. however, I haven't been there in years and perhaps it has somehow pulled a 180 from the place it used to be when I left.

Looking good so far, keep the pictures incoming. Some of us motorheads like to stare at complicated pictures until they make perfect sense. (Your skull still looks a little vulnerable in the unfortunate event of a rollover.)

[alex.s]

i'm using e71tgs onto a1020 16ga through a harbor freight mig powered by a harbor freight genny. the electrode says only positions 0-5 or whatever... no overhang. i have to set this mig to basically almost as high as it will go, which also just about maxes out the generator. i'm satisfied with the penetration and i have been laying down extra material because i'll be grinding and polishing everything eventually. andy the welding teacher who has a masters degree says that flux core welds are actually stronger that normal inert gas welds... for lots of reasons that were slightly above my head but that basically boiled down to being hotter. and that porocity isn't a real issue if the puddle is hot enough

[corksil]

Keep the pictures coming.