Building for the road course...again

Different opinions I guess I felt like the rear of the speed was easy. Though I didn't take off the sway bar end links I disconnected the bar from the body to let the suspension drop. Endlinks were frozen and would have required heat and cutting plus replacement. The four bolts in the body came right out. Plus the alignment isn't totally fucked when you are done
 
There is the lower strut bolt in the rear of civic. Some how some way it just ends up so fucking tight it’s a nightmare to remove. I’ve done this 2 or 3 times now and those lower bolts always suck.


I just need to get this shit done and stop crying about it. This weekends mostly a write off which sucks. Not sure how much longer it’ll be above 0.


Have a fellow civic coming by on Sunday for a compression test and transmission fluid change. He’s k24 swapped and is starting to tune with my tuner so compression numbers need to be confirmed. My tuner doesn’t bother with half dead engines lol.


This dude has paid for 3 dyno tunes now from the two HUGE local Honda tuners and all 3 of his tunes were shit. He sent me and my tuner his tune file and it’s the most copy paste garbage I’ve ever seen and I don’t even know what I’m looking at lol.

Also his part throttle fueling is completely untuned. Cars trimming +/- 15% at part throttle. My car is within 2% lol.


He also has a ton of 0* cam advance all over his map which makes 0 sense other than it was copy and pasted and would’ve required too much effort to dial it in so just leave it at 0 right? Fucking losers.
 
Do you have an impact wrench? I bought a DeWalt one that uses the same batteries as my other tools and it has made a huge difference in my frustration from fixing cars. Shit that would have taken hours and tons of swearing and on blaster with a socket now takes half an hour

Of course I was smart I bought it after I swapped the suspension on my speed and the shocks on my buddies truck.......
 
Easter Bunny said:
Do you have an impact wrench? I bought a DeWalt one that uses the same batteries as my other tools and it has made a huge difference in my frustration from fixing cars. Shit that would have taken hours and tons of swearing and on blaster with a socket now takes half an hour

Of course I was smart I bought it after I swapped the suspension on my speed and the shocks on my buddies truck.......
Click to expand...
I’ve got an impact gun of course but there’s no way to get it to that rear lower bolt. It’s just way too tight in there.


An impact wrench would be cool but they are usually not that torque heavy?

Idk. Weather this weekend is junk. Cold and snow/rain so this is gonna suck.


Thinking I’ll do the front end one day, then the rears another day. I’ll have to turn the car around in the garage which sucks since I have everything setup for the car to only go in the garage one way
 
I meant gun. Mine is about 3.5 or 4 inches deep plus the socket.

I have a wrench too but that will only go to 70 ft lbs
 
Browsing the YouTube today I came across this video series a local competitor did.

He hired a camera guy/crew to do the filming and editing and he must’ve spent a few bucks cause the quality is actually pretty high. I’d love to do my own series next season but it’ll be a lot more ghetto since I’ll be doing it on my own


Found this video from 2024. Somehow I can’t seem to escape this reminder of what happened lol


 
Rear suspension done on monday. Was honestly a piece of cake. Not sure why I was crying before. Took maybe 2 hours including moving stuff around and stopping to yap with a neighbor for a bit
1762901868010.png


We have a very aggressive rake right now lol. I bet the car will rotate like hell


Was frosty today. Garage temp showing 1c.
1762901888352.png




Finished removal of the front Coilovers today. Not so bad.

I learned fortune auto offers 2 rebuild options. 2 different costs.

Option 1 - $600. Send in just the bare damper for rebuild/revalve. Must be sent in completely stripped down.

Option 2 - $1200. Send in the entire coilover assembly as is. They will do option 1 as well as replace anything that appears too worn. This includes springs, perches, lock rings, knuckle mounts, camber plates, bushings/bearings. Everything gets refreshed.


Now my findings from today, overall everything is in very good shape. Other then covered in brake dust and tire rubber everything is perfect ALMOST.

I noticed this bearing on both sides is not the smoothest. Feels like some grit as I spin it. I can probably just have them send me the bearings?
1762901955211.png

Front driver side appears to be leaking. This side is the most heavily loaded up at all of the tracks I frequent. Lots of low/mid/high speed right hand turns so this makes some sense.
1762901984590.png



Rest of the pictures,
1762902011262.png

Top hat pillow ball bearings seem nice and tight. 0 play of any sort.
1762902036628.png

I figured this suspension has ~20,000km and 51 track events. No winters ever.

So, I think I am best with option number 1? And get them to send me replacement bearings for those two?





On another note. I thought this was cool to see with the damper all stripped down. I tried various knob settings starting from. 0/24 all the way to 24/24. It is very clear to see where the differences come. At what knob settings.
 
That bearing sits at the top of the spring. You can see the blue in the pictures. Below the camber plate. That is the radial mount I believe.


I found the timken version of that bearing it’s $36 for a 2 pack on Amazon
Or
$32 for a pair of skf bearings off Amazon
 
So they probably don't need to be in the best condition to do their job in that location. But at that price if you can press them in and put yourself might as well change them while they are out
 
That bearing basically prevents coil bind. I’ve had coil bind before on cheap Coilovers back on my Hyundai veloster years ago. It’s basically just noise when turning at low speeds.

Step one will be to see if I can remove the bearing nicely without damaging the mount.


On fortune autos website they don’t sell the bearing but they do sell the entire blue mount with bearing. $85usd for a pair
 
If they move you aren't going to get coil bind. I would bet the bearing is fine just full of fine grit due to its location
 
Easter Bunny said:
If they move you aren't going to get coil bind. I would bet the bearing is fine just full of fine grit due to its location
Click to expand...
yea they seem to move just fine but i can feel the grit in there. Movement isnt the smoothest? IDK its probably just fine.

I guess ill go with the less expensive rebuild option since all the "accessories" seem to be in good shape
 
So I have a meeting set for Monday with the suspension engineer guy over at fortune auto. Thats pretty cool. We’re going to discuss my setup and what we should try. Maybe they have a secret sauce profile for me already I’m not sure.


It’s cool that the company is willing to take the time to hear me out at least. That’s a pretty big deal these days when talking to a human at most companies is a challenge alone
 
Spoke with the suspension engineer today. Over 1 hour long phone call. I was impressed by him showing genuine interest and care. He was asking questions which seemed to be correct in direction.

He actually even watched my videos and made comments on exactly the same corners I was planning to mention. He noticed the bounce, he also noticed the oscillations that my tuner mentioned. Sees it clear as day in the video. Also the “boat” effect. He saw it.

He was able to pull up the valve profile based on serial number I gave him. While we were on the call he was running simulations as well as reviewing my footage again.

He suggested quite a few smaller changes. I made the joke “so the cars gonna feel the same?” He said no. It will be different for sure lol

Mentioned a change in front spring rate, but biggest change would be rear rebound. He says based on the valve profile rear is way way too stiff on the rebound. He said it is clear as day in the video that the rear gets loaded up, then it hangs which forces the front to lift. Then you apply throttle and well…you get it. Nothing good.




He sent me a summary email now outlining the main points.

they will remove 500lbs of rebound force from the rear. He says on the fully soft rear damper setting it is still out of spec for what this chassis should have. So that has really messed up a lot here.

That rear rebound being insanely stiff is contributing to a lot of issues that might look like something else.

“We will remove about 500lbs of rebound force from the rear dampers, and increase compression slightly through the entire range.”

“For the front axle, rebound force is within range, so we will leave that alone. We will add 60-70lb of compression force through the adjustment range to mitigate some of the pitch sensitivity, which should improve cornering stability and steering precision.”

Front and rear will both receive helper springs. We will also be moving to a progressive bump stop.

Bump travel will be tuned.
Droop travel will be tuned.

He said honestly the car will feel different but based on current setup and the footage he has watched from me he sees no issues with me adapting
 
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