pieces of me

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Project Civic Part III: Getting OVERHAULED

With over 130,000kms to the odometer, she’s almost an old lady already. It’s about time for her to get overhauled. Her status has been SDT for a major PM since the weekend right before my Phuket vacation. 2 weeks on, her progress is now about 70% complete.

Prepping the block ~ includes cleaning to remove sludge & oil deposits, before proceeding with surface conditioning & deburring; Quite a meticulous process.

So squeaky clean & brand new looking that I could barely recognize my engine

High compression CTR cams & engine block guard fitted in. The block guard is a piece of CNC-ed metal with cross-drilled water passages that fills the gap between the cylinder walls & the engine block. These act to stabilize the upper cylinders in Honda’s open deck engines; reducing cylinders wobble at high RPM loads. A reliability upgrade when building a high performance engine that revs up to 10,000rpm.

Insist on genuine Honda parts only. Replaceable (worn-out / need replacement) parts i.e rubber seals, o-rings, gaskets, engine mounting bush & etc (plus a spoiled water pump) list runs a page long & is already costing a cool one grand plus. Yikes! Xo

Lightened flywheel ~ from a stock weight of 8.52kg to CTR spec of 6.67kg to improve throttle response for better acceleration (due to less inertia), by machining off the metal on the outer edges. Rule of thumb says 1.2kg taken off the flywheel affects acceleration as though 2 ~ 4kg’s have been taken of the car; But, bear in mind that the acceleration of the engine internals is much greater than the rest of the car. *if driver is overweight, he/she may consider dieting for a more effective solution =p* Downside: smooth idling may be affected slightly.

Yet another reliability upgrade: Power Enterprise KEVLAR timing belt. KEVLAR, the stuff used in making bullet proof vest. Designed to protect the engine and improve its performance and consistency., by eliminating belt stretch which occurs at high RPMs, resulting in inconsistent cam timing and power output. Claimed to be 700% more durable than stock timing belt, & yes it costs a bomb too.