Stage II.5 complete

I have installed the Hondata intake manifold gasket, the K&N short ram intake and have gotten an alignment for the Si.

First of all, there are a couple of good DIY's for what I have done here and here.

Driving Impressions:

The combination of 1.2° of negative camber up front, the HFP suspension and the Progress rear sway bar result in induceable oversteer. Stable unless provoked. A.K.A. - Perfect.

The short ram intake, well, the wave of evil that leaps forth from just above your knees and into your ears at 6000 rpm is worth every penny. It makes children cry. It may suck a little hot air when your are not moving, but for the most part it's Satan screaming after Vtec kicks in.

A few pointers for the noobies:

Clean the area above the IM BEFORE your start. Use a vacuum cleaner and a toothbrush to get all the grit out of there. You WILL be struggling to get this damn thing off, and shit WILL drop into your head. By the time I got done, there were aluminum shavings on the head from where the stud threads gouged the IM.

The Hondata instructions say to remove the LH stud. Don't. There is not enough stud sticking out after the IMG install to get the stud all the way in using the two nut method. You CAN use the 2 nut method to get it out, but then you will be totally clueless on how to tilt the IM back on with both studs in place.

The bracket under the IM, the one that does not go to the bar, does not need to be removed from the IM if you unclip the wire harness that is attached to it about half way up. It can be removed from under the car.

Push hoses, don't pull them. There are 8 trillion hose ends you have to push off. You will be an expert by the end of this project and will be taking them off and putting them on as easily as plugging in a hair drier.

I tried to cheap out and half drain my coolant. I was holding the IM up with one hand, and pushing off the pink hose with the other when I discovered that there was quite a bit of coolant left in my engine. So here I was on the cusp of FINALLY getting it off and my shoes were getting soaked.

Use a vacuum cleaner to suck up any bits of crap that fall onto or into the head. DON'T SUCK GASOLINE YOUR VACUUM WILL EXPLODE.

Extensions extensions extensions. Be sure you have plenty of extensions for your ratchet. I was able to get to the bracket bolt on the underside of the IM from under the car using a stack of extensions. A universal joint and extensions are required for this job, as are a 8,10,12mm sockets and a 8,10,12 mm wrench. Here's a pic of extension being used for getting under the IM.

Also note the copious use of 3m blue masking tape. Basically, if it lead to somewhere after the intake filter, it got covered with tape if I was leaving it overnight. I also covered the fuel rail with a plastic bag to keep dust off the injectors.

Camber Bolts

Camber Bolts went on without much trouble. A few tips for any DIY'ers out there:

• Use a bright colored paint marker to clearly mark the head of the bolt. Once you get it in there, no telling where the lobe is.
• The lobe on the bolt is forged, and therefore has a rough surface. Turning the lobe inside of the knuckle is easy, getting it into the knuckle, not so easy. Use the nut to pull the lobe through once you are sure you have it started in the knuckle hole.
• The socket sizes for the nut and bolt are different than the stock nut and bolt. The camber bolt is a 15mm and the camber nut is 18mm. Be prepared.
• For maximum camber, point the lobe perpendicular to the line between the two spindle pinch bolts.
• The provided directions, though correct, are misleading. Install the bolt with the small tab lined up with the lobe, but ultimately the big handle needs to be pointed in the direction you want the knuckle to go, and perpendicular to the line between the two spindle pinch bolts.
• Before tightening the bolts, load the suspension to take out any slop in the bolt holes. I did this by putting a piece of wood on my jack and carefully lifting the suspension by pressing up on the brake rotor. BE CAREFUL! Don't put the entire weight of the car, or lift the car off the jack stands. Why? The front hubs will turn and the car will either roll off , or eject your jack into your leg. You only want to lift enough to compress the spring about an inch.

And... I found a screw in the shoulder of one of my tires. Funny how even the best plans can fall apart as a result of the smallest circumstances. So rather than driving my car to the alignment shop, it remains on the jackstands.

Stage II begins

After some reading I have found that other Si owners have had good results with adding some camber to the front wheels. Supposedly this helps dial out some of the understeer that I have experienced with the HFP setup. Though the overall cornering abilty and turn in are much improved, the car still pushes worse now even with the 22mm sway bar.

I have purchased a set of 1.75° camber bolts for this purpose.

While I was e-shopping I also bought a small 12v compressor to replace the spare tire. This, along with a quality plug kit should get me back rolling full speed in the event of a puncture. This will not, however, get me back rolling in the event of a blowout or a failed safari expedition. Risk vs weight.

In an attempt to smooth out the 1-2 and 2-3 shifts, I also orderd some Amsoil Syncromesh transmission fluid. I HIGHLY doubt that this is going to eliminate the problems, but it's worth a try.

And just for jollies I also bought a K&N short ram intake. The stock intake is very good in that it pulls air from the fenderwell. It's bad in that it has about 8 miles of tube and resonator chambers. With the SRI, I will get a less restrictive intake at the expense of gulping down hot air at low speeds. After some hard runs, I've put my hand on the stock air box and found it cool to the touch so I'm confident that there is plenty of cool air in there when underway. Since I am looking for more power coming out of corners, rather than coming out of a stoplight, I think that a heat shielded SRI is an acceptable compromise.

The Si has been sitting in the garage for about two weeks undriven due to weather. In that time I have wiped down just about every plastic or rubber surface in the car with 303 Aerospace protectant and vacuumed out the interior. I need to jack it up to keep the tires from flat spotting and trickle charge the battery for a night.

Driving Impressions

• The ride is noticeably rougher. Not in an unbearable, holy-crap-something-is-about-to-break kind of way, but in a locked-down purposefulness. When going over bumps it's as if the suspension is in a mad rush to stop moving. It is impossible to tell which contributed to this the most: suspension or light wheels. The ride height difference in the car is unnoticeable.
• With the back seats and trunk trim out, it's louder. Road noise is up, wind noise is up, and the exhaust has more of a rushing air sound. I've removed the seats before and hated how loud it was. This time it seems to complement the new immediacy of the suspension. Plus, it has already saved me from having to carry a backseat passenger.
• Steering response is much quicker. It was quick to begin with.
• It drives straight now. (I was having problems with it pulling to the right, which was likely tire related) It also seems to have a larger dead center which from what I understand is a trait that all the Si's have. I've never noticed mine because I was always fighting left to keep the car on the road. This dead center might be toe related or because of the wider tires. I'm running 48psi in the front and 45psi in the back. I still need to get the alignment checked.
• I've tried every trick I can to get the car to upset. I've gotten nothing but mild understeer and fraction of a second of mild oversteer in the most extreme cases.
• In turn confidence has improved greatly due to the above.
• They feel just like stock when they are cold, which is until about 3.6 seconds after you fist press the pedal.
• After they warm up a little, they feel just like the stock when light pressure is applied. - At medium pressure, at highway speeds, the friction increases over time, requiring pressure to be removed from the pedal to maintain steady deceleration. I think this has to do more with the first point beacuase the rotors have cooled back off.
• At high speed heavy deceleration, they perform with no fade after broken in (but they do smoke the first few times 8P )
• At low speed light to medium pressure, they grab really well, and often surprise me.
• At low speed, when coming to a complete stop using light pressure, they squeak just a wee bit.
• My rotors keep changing colors. Blue, brown, silver, black, and I imagine they were orange there for a few minutes too.
• The matt black wheels don't show brake dust, and there is a LOT of brake dust on them now.

And now for a few more random pictures:

Eventually I will get some outside pretty just-been-washed pictures, or maybe some action shots!!