I love big cams!

Howdy!

I finished installing my new Zex cam a few days ago. My y8 AEM cam gear had to be adjusted -5* degrees to line up with a z6 AEM cam gear. Why didn't I use the z6 gear you ask? Because the y8 gear has 6 bolts while the z6 gear is the old style and has 3. I don't want the gear to slip.

I adjusted the valve lash on the loose side (.009/.011") just to see how much it would clack. Surprisingly the clack isn't that bad, or as bad as I expected. I had once ran a Delta 272 cam in an all motor d15b2 that I had a long time ago. That cam clacked terribly bad no matter how tight the valve lash was.

The first thing I noticed with the cam is how much louder and deeper the exhaust tone is. With the stock cam I could drive comfortably around with an open header. Now that is not the case. I supposed that extra lift and duration on the exhaust side increased the decibles of my engine's exhaust note. The cam has a little lope to it; a smidge more than a stock y8 stock cam.

Performance wise I saw and felt a difference right away. My AFRs went from 14.2 at an idle to 16.4! My motor likes fuel and ran the smoothest between 13.2 - 14.0 in part and half throttle conditions. With the 59300 cam and in non vtec operation, my engine leaned out to 15 - 15.5 in those areas.

I am going to tune the low rpm maps before I even activate vtec. I went to do some preliminary tuning on Monday but ran into a problem with my Ostrich. Any change I made to the ROM then uploaded to the Ostrich would either make the ECU throw a solid cel or would kill the motor. I hope to have that resolved and I will attempt to tune today.

Once I finish tuning it, it's time for some ripper videos.

After that I plan to tear the car down for the winter. I'm going to strip it to a bare shell to remove all sound deadening material (mainly under the car) and repair all rust. No more of this not making it to the track because I can't pass tech. I am sick of that excuse!

Thanks for reading (if anyone out there still reads this lol)!

Finally An Update =)

Today I picked this up for free...



It's a brand new Zex 59300 camshaft. It's never been ran before.

I'm excited and anxious to run this cam. Some have had awesome results while others have had not so awesome results. With the compression my engine makes and my header, I can't wait to test this cam and to hopefully make some more power.

Nothing New to Report

Hello fellow Honda lovers!

It's been too long since I have updated my dear old blog. I wish that I had some fantastic news to report but I don't. My high compression y7/y8 engine is running great at least. My Bisi Beaver header is doing just fine and hasn't cracked. I've put about 1000 street miles on my old '88 this summer. I haven't burned any oil nor coolant. I'm glad at least that my engine has been acting like a Honda and is extremely reliable.

My windshield cracked a lot more as there was some major hail storms in my area. Now there is no way in hell tech would pass me at either 1/4 mile track. Hell if I were the tech guy I wouldn't pass my car due to the three long cracks spreading across the windshield.

I haven't been able to get much work done to my Civic since my Jeep is falling apart. 240,000 miles and its nickle and diming me left and right. First the water pump, now the U joints, the muffler came apart inside, the catalytic converter is rattling, and I need a new CPS sensor. Ughhhh. Just when I thought I was going to make it to the track, something had to come up.

So my dreams of going to the track this year are at a halt at the moment. I am disappointed in myself that I wasn't able to get my goals accomplished at this point in time. Shit happens and it happened a lot so far this summer. I can't and won't let all of my goals go down the toilet. If I cannot make it to the track, I am definitely going to do three pulls at my local dyno for $50 bucks.

Once I get that done, I will post the dyno charts. I am looking forward to at least seeing what my power curve looks like.

Summer Time Blues

A few weeks ago I rented a tow dolly and set my sights on getting to Bandimere to participate in their Wednesday Night test and tune session. Everything was set to go. Bandimere's tech department gave me the go ahead and said they would pass me for tech just this once with a cracked windshield. The weather was beautiful and I managed to get off of work early that day just to ensure I made it there and had time to not be rushed.

Bandimere is about 65 miles away from my house. There are two different highways to take. One has a lower speed limit than the other. I opted to take the lower speed limit route in case I ran into lack of power going up hills when towing. My family and I loaded into the Jeep and took off.

40 miles into the trip my water pump starting squealing terribly. I pulled over. My father and I inspected the engine. The squeal was coming from inside of the water pump's case. The bearing that the propeller rides on broke down and no longer wanted to turn. I thought long and hard on the side of the road what to do. I pondered whether I should try and make it to the track, make some runs then worry about getting home. Then again I did not want to get stranded in a town 65 miles from home. So I turned around and went home.

Luckily my Jeep made it home. Right when I pulled up, my water pumps internal bearing seized and cracked the water pump case. Coolant was shooting out of the cracks in a sprinkler type pattern.

This left me in a bind. Now my daily driver is down and I did not have the extra cash nor the time to fix it. Being that my Civic is insured and licensed, I had to start driving it daily. Open header and all.

It's been a loud ride so far. I've been trying to stay positive about this. Soon my Jeep will be back up and running. Then I will try again to make it to the track.

The only good thing about this situation is I have had the chance to really fine tune my motor with the Bisi Beaver header. My fuel map and timing map are so much different compared to my Pacesetter ROM and original Bisimoto ROM. This is a good thing folks as my car feels more powerful than ever before.

Memorial Day Fun

Today I decided that I needed to capture a decent video of my car running on the streets. My last few videos have been super shaky and criticized. I don't blame the critics, the videos aren't the best. I cannot afford a Go Pro or similar camera at the moment. I figured out that the next best thing would be a tripod mounted in the car to keep the camera still. My Dad had a tripod my sister was tossing out. I acquired the tripod and duct taped it to the floor of my chassis. I took my '88 for a spin and here is the result. I hope you all enjoy! I sure did!

Progress!

I made some progress today. I acquired a breather filter and JB Welded it to the catch can cap...



After three weeks of waiting, my last fitting from Jeg's showed up. This one little guy took that long to get to me.



Now that the fitting is in my possession, I finally had a chance to install my catch can.





I realize that it sits a bit crooked. I don't mind it sitting like that. I will find out if that track will care for some reason just to make sure it'll pass tech.

I also made up a new headlight cover to go behind the velocity stack. This time I fashioned it out of plastic. It came out nice covered in duct tape.

Behind....Again

As you all have noticed there has been a lack of updates within my blog here. I missed my goal (again) of hitting the track on May 11 and for hitting the track this evening. Life is "challenging" at the moment. That doesn't mean I haven't been putting work in!

When I did the pull in the video, my engine puked out a little oil. Oil came out of the top hole within that black breather box on the back of my block. That hasn't happened before. I decided that I need to get serious with my crankcase evac and made a catch can.

I kept my catch can simple. The valve cover port goes to the side of the catch can and the block port goes to the bottom of the catch can. That way if my motor pushes oil out of the back of the block again it will go up the long line and into the catch can.

I don't want to be responsible for a mess at the track plus I want to monitor how much oil get pushed out per run down the quarter mile.

The first thing I did was purchase a 12 AN bock fitting from B&R Fittings. I have to give it up to these guys! My order was here in 3 days and the email communication was phenomenal. I also bought an 12 AN to 10 AN adapter from B&R. Here it is hiding out...



My catch can is a little different than most. I didn't want to spend $100 on a aluminum catch can. So I made my own out of this...



Here are my supplies....



I drilled a hole in the side of the Rockstar can for the block port fitting. I found the barb fitting at Lowe's.



Here's the side fitting JB Welded in...



I drilled a hole in the bottom of the can...



Here's an inside view...



And it JB Welded in...





Here's the end result with the fittings and JB Weld painted...



I'm waiting on one more fitting to shop from Jeg's. I also need to get an air filter for the lid.


That wasn't the only work I did. I told myself I would put any more work and money into MY custom header. Three people have worked on this header, Bisi, Matt and a local tig welding veteran Al. The header was perfect in every way except one- it was a little off on it's angle through the exhaust tunnel. Here's a pic of how it looked...





Matt instructed me where to cut it. I did so and marked the pipe where it would clear the exhaust tunnel. I took the header back to my friend, Al at Front Range Precision welding. This guy has been professionally tig welding for 35 years. Not only did he weld the header back together, he also found another damn crack on it. Thankfully he filled it in for me.

Since the megaphone is mild steel it began to rust quickly even though there isn't an ocean around for thousands of miles. I picked up a can of BBQ grill paint to coat the header. It's good up to 1200* degrees and only cost $5 at Ace Hardware.

Anyway, time for pictures!





You can see where I bashed in the unibody to make room for the megaphone. Now it has great clearance. I am so happy.







Looks can be deceiving...



In the picture above the axle is hanging down as low as the suspension will allow it. There is still a 1/4" of clearance.