Merlin's 4G Time Attack Lude

[Kawa]

Nice update

[Merlin]

Thanks

We have finished polybushing the rear, and pretty much was easy. So easy that you could almost do it by hand. The "lube" they give you is funking horrible, really sticky .

All but one bush (the big trailing arm) is really easy to do. The trailing arm bush was a bit fiddly but using a bit of plastic pipe to push into and an iron bar to keep the bush striaght as it went in, it slid in:






All painted


Building the rear up before it goes on the car


New balljoints all round!

[Kawa]

I like the gold

[JayJay]

Very nice, so jealous you have the space do to all this!

[Merlin]

Many thanks. Yeah the space and tools are great, its up at my dads. Its great to work in a big workshop out of the wind and rain. Its the same place where I store my 5G over the winter.

[Merlin]

This is throwing the timeline off but here is the historical bits from my PUK profile.

Pics of the car when I got it (pics - 17th Oct 2010):







H22a2 huh!???? Engine swap at some point?






















Pics from the first work I ever did to it (exhaust, decat, front balljoints)






Before we started work I had a good look over the bottom of the car and spotted this on the exhausts mid-section:



So it had a full Fujitsubo exhaust on it, and some heathen chopped it up to install some crappy custom job that not only looked and sounded crap, was built crap as well. I have never welded before but im convinced I could have done a better job that this twunt I took a screw driver and could push it through the welds. Anyway, the only way to get the old exhaust off was to cut the CAT bolts off the downpipe.





As this JDM 4G has a secondary (CAT) sensor, I stripped the wire and bolted it to the chassis. Over the last few days before we did this when I was running theold system with the old CAT, I was getting a CAT sensor light on the dash. Now it doesnt light up




Rolling Road 6th November 2010 - Car Tuning Clinic Ltd, Edinburgh

I got the car on the rolling road this morning. I didnt get to use the UK ECU as I didnt test it out properly untill this morning and the immobiliser didnt seem to like it The pic below shows the ECU that came with the car. Your guess is as good as mine about whats really in there




With the resonator recently removed, plus the new exhaust, the car made 199.0 BHP Not bad IMO when the H22a2 should be 183 BHP. Full spec of the car is on page 1.







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The sound on this video get distorted at the end as its so loud.
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Specs at the time of the dyno:

Engine / transmission:
UKDM H22a2
Spoon Sports JDM P13 ECU - VTEC @ 5K (no limiter)
NGK Platinum spark plugs
Amsoil synthetic manual gearbox fluid
HAMP oil filter
Petronas Selenia 5W-40 ACEA "C3" oil
K&N Flat panel filter with resonator removed
Fujitsubo exhaust manifold
2.4" SS Japspeed decat
2.4" straight through SS Japspeed exhaust


Some night shots:











After having new track rod ends and suspension fitted a couple of weeks ago I wanted to get the wheel alignment sorted. The car was booked in to get it done last week by the guys machine broke down so I had to do the last track day as the car was. Today I finally got the car back into get it sorted. £39.50 for the adjustment, Honda want £75 + VAT .

CLCM Auto
Sighthill Industrial Estate
Edinburgh
EH11 4EJ











Some pics of how my interior is at the monent:

Baby mirror to see my offside blind spot


New video camera mount


Back of the car


Roof


Front of the car




Removed the aircon over the weekend, there was no fluid in it and as such it didnt work anyway so best to have it out. The only real problem I encountered was that the drivers side indicator was rusted inplace, making the job of getting the front bumper off difficult.



The evaporator from under the passenger side of the dash:




Ready to be put back under the dash, minus the internal gubbins:


My radiator that needs replaced, I only noticed how bad it was after I removed the aircon rad:


Vanzep's BB4:




Fitted my braided clutch hose yesterday:















The new hose feel good, very direct if you know what I mean, feels like your attached directly. I do get a bit of vibration through the pedal although I guess that its to be expected. It took me about an hour to fit, and 5 mins to bleed with someone pumping the pedal for me. I used JayJays write up:

Really easy to fit. If it helps anyone:

- Remove intake pipe
- Open clutch line bleed valve on slave cylinder
- Pump the pedal a few times to get the fluid out
- Unbolt the MC fitting
- Unbolt the SC fitting (careful, oil will drip out)
- Unbolt the SC hard line bracket (just trace the hardline back)
- Remove the SC hard line
- Fit the MC fitting (with the washers!) and tighten down by hand
- Snake the new line through the bay (I used the old SC hard line bracket)
- Fit and tighten the SC fitting
- Tighten the MC fitting

Looks like a lot of steps but its very, very simple! I haven't remove all my lines yet but its simple enough, just trace the hardlines around and see where they all bolt up

Now, as the system is completely empty of fluid I had to bleed it the hard way.

- Open the bleed valve on the SC and fit a hose to it
- Drop the end of the hose in a bottle with some brake fluid
- Top up the clutch fluid reservoir
- Now, with the bleed valve open get someone to push the pedal in.
- Close the valve and get them to pull the pedal up.
Repeat the last two steps

This will pull fluid from the reservoir into the system. Without any fluid in the system you can't just pump the pedal as all it'll do it move air. You'll have to repeat these steps a few times. Once there is sufficient fluid in the system you should just be able to just pump the pedal with the bleed valve open without having to open/close the valve repeatedly.

Ensure you fit the MC fitting first. I did that, then did the SC, then had to remove the MC fitting as I forgot the washers and as the hose is twisted it was impossible to get it in the right position! So MC fitting first.

Also, you may have to remove the resistor box and some other black box (any idea what it is?) from just above the MC to get some more space.

http://preludeuk.forumup.com/posting.ph ... =preludeuk


My new mechanic:






After seeing how bad contition the radiator was in I had to get a new one. I splurged a whole £35 on a new generic Ebay rad

Old and new together


New rad ready to go the car, minus aircon fan



While the radiator was out it was the perfect time to get rid of the air con pump, removing it with the rad in place is possible, but with this much space the job was made alot easier.

More junk off the car, pretty heavy pieces!!


New alternator belt, size 6PK913


Space left by the aircon pump


All running fine




The lovely finish on my rocker cover



Now to the good stuff I was my intention to only install ATR cams, I bought a pair but unfortunately one snapped in transit. I was hunting around on some accord forums and found an H22a7 going dirt cheap, true it has had suspected auto tensioner failure, but even if there is damage I can still use plenty of the parts. Fingers crossed I can use the whole engine after any fixes, it did come with the intake manifold and throttle body and Im hoping to use the head.









Lots of work lies ahead

[Merlin]

Knockhill Hot Hatch Day 07/11/10

A fairly eventfull day at the track yesterday, lots of crashes and general crazyness going on. In my final session there was a four car pile up, resulting in a Opel Kadet pretty much being written off, two other cars being damaged, and some guy on his first track day (in his Subaru Impreza Turbo 2000 - the silver one in my vid) being hit up the backside and destroying his rear bumper and exhaust system

Anyway the Lude was OK on the track, the cheepie tyres were unsurprisingly guff, and I had really bad wheel wobble under braking. I must have warped discs. Approximate timing showed on my "hot" laps to be 2 seconds down on my 5G's time, and thats even without my heavy mate in the 4G with me Shows how much time im loosing under braking and in the corners. The vid below was not the best run I had that day but was probally the most eventfull I cought on camera.

The camera wobbles a bit as I havent quite figured out how to get a secure position on the 4G's head rest area.

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You can see my car flash past in this short vid of an "E" reg Toyota Starlet doing power sides round the hairpin. I was following this car on my final run and I thought I had some great in car footage but infortunatly my camcorder had buggered up

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In my final session there was a four car pile up, resulting in a Opel Kadet pretty much being written off, two other cars being damaged, and some guy on his first track day (in his Subaru Impreza Turbo 2000 - the silver one in my vid) being hit up the backside and destroying his rear bumper and exhaust system

The vids of this happening have finally surfaced. I would have had a vid of the aftermath but my camera had buggered up.

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A great day at the track yesterday despite it being literally freezing, snow on the ground in the early moring, and snowing lightly throughout the day. The moring sessions were so wet and slippery, the track did dry out a little but a load of oil was dropped by someones car which made it just as slippery as before .

The Lude was much better than last time out as it has had a fair bit of work done since then, braking was fantastic, although I had locked up my wheels a few times (no ABS in this Lude) going into the two big corners. Not that its a race, but the car was far more "competitive" than before. 2L Corsas (and other hatchbacks with 2L conversions) are no problem to overtake like they were before.

The only gripe I have (other than my tyres being total crap) is that it sounds like my clutch is slipping a bit when changing from 2nd -> 3rd, listen to the vid.


Two thirds of the way through we start to lap the back markers. Also I got a new mounting braket for my camera which is screwed into the top of the dash, I used to tape the camera to the passenger head rest, this new way is better.

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02/02/11 - Track Scotland trackday @ Knockhill

Format - 4 hour open pit session
Cost - £85 + free extra driver + free passengers
Conditions - very wet & slippery

A great day at KH, heavy rain in the afternoon meant challenging driving conditions (ie more fun!). It was a 4 hour open pit session of which I managed to get around 2 hours track time which coincidentally equates to a whole tank of fuel. I got what I think to be quite an impressive 11.6 MPG . While on the track the Prelude performed great, I was able to run much longer than I thought I would.

I had an hours tution with a pro who told me what I was doing wrong, after which I was alot smoother round the track. The tutor seemed to quite like Preludes, he knew a fair bit as his mate has two .

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Cars - Blue Subaru, White Golf, Black Subaru, Silver Astra Coupe, White 911, Maroon Mini, Silver CTR, Red MX5



Some of the other vidz I took on the day, check out the end of number 2 (its a short vid) a white Subaru!!

1.
Cars - White XR2i, Blue Escort, Silver Subaru Wagon

2.
Cars - RS4 Estate, White Subaru, Silver Astra Coupe, Ford Fiesta, White Golf
Best lap 1:17.3

3. <- Practically a completely empty KH to myself
Cars - Silver CTR, Silver Clio, Pug 106
Best lap 1:13.4



A couple of pics of my car taken by Neil and samvia from http://www.trackscotland.co.uk:







More pics great pics @ http://www.trackscotland.co.uk/forums/v ... sc&start=0


Fortunately / unfortunately (whatever) my car decided to keep its mechanical problems for the drive home. Even at the chequered flag it felt fine, as soon as I went to go home there was a loud knocking coming from the front of the car so I had to limp home. Engine and gearbox are fine as is suspension and wheels, it sounds like driveshafts to me but thats only a guess at this stage I have 3 weeks to fix it before the next track day.


A few more pics from the guys at Track Scotland:









b]27/02/11 - Knockhill Hot Hatch Day[/b]

Format - 10-4 with 10 min sessions throughout the day
Cost - £61 + £5 for each passenger
Conditions - Wet in the morning, dry in the afternoon

Usually when on a regular Knockhill track day im in group 1 with the "normal" road cars but last weekend I was put in group 3 which was full of Evo's and M3's This was the first time I had been out since I had my tuition with the Pro on my last day, I took it easy in the morning (new tyres and rear brakes) and put the hammer down inthe afternoon (as you see in the vid). The Prelude was once again fantastic, although in the first two sessions I had to take it easy and burn off loads of corrosion on the discs. The corrosion was causing the brakes to grind and give steering wheel wobble. By the 3rd session it had sorted itself. It was strange driving in the dry with so much grip, all track days for the last 3 months have been wet, plus the new Uniroyals gave so much more grip than the regular road tyres I was using before.

I tried to get as much milage on the new tyres and rear brakes on the Sat before I went on track, I got about 200 miles on them. This didnt stop the rear brakes from getting quite hot, even the disc "hub" had gone blue with the heat .

Look out for the 2006 Audi RS4 going sideways round the bends and as I was in a fast group, dont expect to see me overtake anything. I was having to get out the way alot, but I made sure I was letting things past in places that wouldnt effect my laps Im quite happy though as I feel this session was probably some of the best laps I have done.

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Lap times:
1.11.5
1.10.6
1.09.9
1.10.0
1.10.7
1.11.6
1.09.0 Personal best in the 4G
1.09.9

A quick vid of the pack going up the main straight with me at the front. The Lude is quite loud, I didnt realise how loud untill I saw this vid.
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Small update - Had a track day last weekend, I do have vids but nothing spectaular in them (apart from me shouting at a Volvo Estate that was slow and in the way ) so not going to post. I did however beat my old best lap time, now it stands at 68.5s.

Some pics on the day (Iphone 4 HDR):







Last Saturday I finally managed to fix my hot start issue, it was my main realy. After re-soldering the contact in the main relay the car now starts with every turn of the key, even if the footwells are hot .

Fook it was bored so made the vid anyway

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Not the smoothest of driving by me on that day. It was really hot (sweating in my helmet) and I got a bit too eager to drive fast. In the first half of that session I did manage a PB lap time, but after that performance fell away as my RainSports were overheating and my brakes (for the first time ever) began to loose performance as they began to overheat. The brakes still worked but they had lost the bite they give during optimal performance. I did have the slicks ready to rock N roll but I realised that I didnt have a set of tuner nuts to use with them , next time then .

Now that the only mecahnical issue left is the bouncing idle I have more time and ££ to spend on mods and weigh saving. I have continued to strip the interior, getting rid of the centre console and radio bits, door cards, and rear wiper. Im just building up my enthusiasm to remove the dash.



Track Day Part 1

Format - Track Scotland Track Day 9am-5pm open pit
Cost - £185 + £10 for each additional driver + Free passengers
Conditions - Dry but still slippery in the morning, Sunny with intermittent showers in the afternoon


I had been looking forward for this day for three months , ever since my last track day with Track Scotland. I had spent the previous couple of weeks getting the tack car ready for today, even not going to the last couple of regular Knockhill days so to prepare, every thing was sweet apart from the car was really needing a wash:

Crap!


The track day was the day before round two of the UK Time Attack Series at Knockhill. Some of the Time Attack cars would be sharing the day with us so that they may test their race settings. I was concerted that I would just get in the way of these cars, some running 600bhp+, but in the end most of them ran in the morning and others cried off because of the rain. The afternoon was fairly clear of traffic and we got some good laps in .

The day didn't get off to the best start as my best mate/mechanic/co-pilot/man servant Steve forgot his helmet and had to go back to get it. This made us a bit late but we just managed to make the race briefing.

Nice 911, sounded mental


We met up with PUKer Graham (Indigolemon) at Knockhill, and he came out with me early morning to have a warm up run.

Sorry for the shaky video, my camera mount has become a bit loose. It's something I will fix before the next time out. Look out for us nearly running into a spinning Blue XR2i around 5 mins.

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Lap times for my "warm up" on a slippy morning track.
1.10
1.10
1.09
1.14
1.11
1.10
1.09
1.09

That run was great, the car was feeling good and the track was drying up and getting some heat into it. I decided to stick the slicks on. The wheels that the slicks are on use a tuner nut instead of the fatter OEM nut, I got some brand new off FunkyPower. When I was trying to fit them I snapped two wheel studs off the front left I blame 4thgenphil for selling me cursed wheels:



Even with one snapped stud (especially on the front left) meant I couldn't use the 4G on the track for the rest of the day

For part two of this track day see the link below:
http://preludeuk.forumup.com/viewtopic. ... euk#438890

[Merlin]

A little update only as I am so exited about the build being finished tonight/tomorrow night. The rear has been built up and tonight is the front. The car is booked in for its wheel alignment on friday in preperation for a 4 hour open pit track session on Saturady (snow dependent )

Here is the full list of parts that have been fitted in the past week with their approximate cost show what is involved in such a large job:

Tein Basic Coilovers £200
Whiteline front and rear anti-roll bars £200
Megan Racing rear toe arms £195
Megan Racing underbrace £45
Spoon Sports front strut brace £90
OEM induction kit (my old one was cracked) £10
Energy suspension ARB bushes
Energy Suspension polybush Master Kit
Energy Suspension polybush Trailing Arm Kit £150 for all the polybushes
Rear pivot arm bolt and nut
OEM rear toe arm bolt £12
Rear calliper refurb kit £25
Rear upper and lower balljoints £50
5 rear wheel studs £25
8 front wheel studs £50
Front lower balljoints £50
Front upper arms £144
Front calliper refurb kit £26
Front calliper slider pin from Vanzep
Front calliper slider bolt From Vanzep
Front ARB drop links £42
Hawk HP+ front brake pads £120
Brembo front discs £48

Drivers side wing £30
Front lip £120
Euro/Bubble side skirts £60
Washer nozzles £10
Gold Hammerite £30
2 x Castrol Super DOT 4 brake Fluid £22

3rd gen upper ball joints (to replace toe arm balljoints) that didn’t fit £26
4G rear upper ball joints that didnt fit the front £26
OEM Toe arm bushes that I couldnt use due to the OEM toe arm being useless £50
5G (apparently) front upper balljoints that didn’t fit the 4G £26 This is why:

Stock rear upper wishbone or UCA as it's sometimes known. Although generally considered to be strong enough for road use I have had my doubts for some time over it's ability to resist twisting during hard use - you can in fact twist them relatively easily in your hands. Honda must have had the same doubts too as the later 5th gen received a hefty plate addition to beef up their arms.

http://www.ludegeneration.co.uk/honda-p ... 40-50.html


Basically the only thing to have survived is the rear discs and pads, everythign else under the car was drokked even down to the coil isolators on the stock shocks. On the front I was able to get about 3-5mm play in either direction on any of the bushes. The rear bushes on the lower control arm were shot beyond belief .

[JayJay]

Nice, proper job on it Should handle like a dream with all that!

Just watch out for the underbraces on speed bumps I *had* a Tanabe front underbrace...

[Merlin]

And I just remebered that now that it is the 1st of Feb I need to tax the fecker as well.