My 2003 Civic Type R EP3

[Neil_M]

i had a few years ago and was thinking just that, perfect for the job! theres a few facelift ones on scumtree at the minute around the £2k mark! what sort of miles are on yours?

I wouldn't worry about the Facelift / Prefacelift... buy the best one you can find. Real world there is minimal difference between the two.

I've ~ 120k on mine, pretty much full history, and was bog standard when I bought it.

 

[EF Ian]

Always fancied the idea of having a dedicated track car so I could use all the ideas I have that I wouldn't want to do on a road driven car due to being too extreme. This thread is fuelling that fire.

 

[Neil_M]

Always fancied the idea of having a dedicated track car so I could use all the ideas I have that I wouldn't want to do on a road driven car due to being too extreme. This thread is fuelling that fire.

You have until Sunday 4th November - Track Skills - Providing Track Days for cars at Kirkistown Race Circuit in Northern Ireland - Dates

Your absolutely right, its great fun tweaking a car to be so focused! Its always good learning how to drive properly too!

 

[EF Ian]

With my work at the moment my opportunities to get to track days are very limited. If that changes in the future a cheapish track car will be called for.

 

[Neil_M]

With my work at the moment my opportunities to get to track days are very limited. If that changes in the future a cheapish track car will be called for.

I've a mate thats in exactly the same boat.

Buy something cheap, so that if you only make it out a few times, it's not the end of the world.

It's worth getting down even before buying a car to see what is out there and how it all goes...

 

[EF Ian]

I've a mate thats in exactly the same boat.

Buy something cheap, so that if you only make it out a few times, it's not the end of the world.

It's worth getting down even before buying a car to see what is out there and how it all goes...

Got two cars, a drive and a garage to work on at the moment, but in a year or two I should be able to.

I will take the 260Z out on track at some point, but won't be driving it to ten tenths for obvious reasons. If the Civics mapping goes well I should try that at Kirkistown sometime. It could be turned into a pure track car at some time but as they are rare I might be better doing a full resto and keeping it mint and buying something like an EP3 for track instead.

 

[Neil_M]

Got two cars, a drive and a garage to work on at the moment, but in a year or two I should be able to.

I will take the 260Z out on track at some point, but won't be driving it to ten tenths for obvious reasons. If the Civics mapping goes well I should try that at Kirkistown sometime. It could be turned into a pure track car at some time but as they are rare I might be better doing a full resto and keeping it mint and buying something like an EP3 for track instead.

I feel your pain!

I personally would keep something cheap just for track.

 

[Neil_M]

Time for another wee update.

As the seatbelts are now removed from the Civic, the SRS system needed a little attention.

The resistor worked fine on the seat belt buckle connection below the seat, when the front seat belt reels / pre-tensioners were still installed and connected. However since I have now removed them I need to "fix" it.

I had tried resistors connected to the SRS plugs at each side of the car with a little tape holding them in place. However this was a poor connection and set off the SRS light on the dash. This cannot be reset my simply disconnecting the battery.

So off to a certain online market place I go, to find a used set of front seatbelt reels.

Remove their wiring plugs.

Solder in some fused resistors and make a little quick disconnect loom.

Tidied up a little with some colour coded insulation tape for good measure.

Installed in place to test.

To reset the SRS light you can visit the dealer and pay a fortune. Or drop down this fusebox below the steering wheel, locate the yellow SRS memory erase plug and jump the connections as you turn on the ignition.

When the SRS light turns off, disconnect your jumper, the light will come back on, connect the jumper, the light will go out, disconnect your jumper, the light will then flash two or three times and stay out... assuming all has worked.

Note when you disconnect the seatbelt reels, you need to disconnect the resistor under your seat... otherwise the car thinks you have the seat belt buckle disconnected. I need to do this, then I will have no error lights and the system test will "appear" ok.

I'd noticed after a session at Kirkistown the inlet manifold gets very very warm. I do have the under side lightly covered in reflective foil, however I was still hoping to have it running cooler.

It will of course always get warm with the thermostat, and coolant hose below it, never mind the radiator directly in front of it...

A simple solution was to remove the "dress up" inlet manifold cover. Very simple.

Yes yes, I know the engine bay is boggin!

I'm glad to say the inlet manifold seems much cooler to the touch. No exact science was used here.

As usual the car was scrubbed up for the last Trackskills session at Kirkistown.

Time to get the toys loaded up.

Just after arriving at Kirkistown.

I'm glad to say the car lapped round flawlessly all day.

I did rotate the tyres at the start of the day. The outside edge of the near side front tyre was showing signs of wear. I've been running the tyres for quite a few sessions, this left quite worn tyres at the back, with loads of grip at the front.

I'd several Code Brown moments as the tail stepped out and left the car feeling very unstable at the back. I didn't really gain any confidence in the car for the rest of the day. I've now to decide to run the tyres down on another session and get the value out of them, or replace / upgrade the tyres... I've plenty of time to decide so no big panic.

Due to daylight savings time kicking in the last session was run at dusk. My last session is recorded below. Far from my best driving ever, but good fun all the same.



I'll have a look at the videos from my other sessions to see if they are any more entertaining...

I did also get stuck in the traffic on the way home. Someone had got onto the railway tracks at the City Airport. Lets just say sitting in traffic in the Civic for an extra hour was not the most comfortable experience ever. The firm seats didn't do much for my backside!

 

[Neil_M]

A few photos from the photographers that were there on the day.

Thanks to them for the photos!

I absolutely love this photo. You can see me getting mullered in my video above from the same time.

 

[TSPORT]

Class, That looks like great fun.

 

[Neil_M]

Class, That looks like great fun.

That it sure is.

Now for the winter plans lol...

 

[svensktoppen]

No exact science was used here.

Tut tut

 

[Neil_M]

I may have gotten a little carried away in the Black Friday sales...

The first arrival was a Skunk2 Ultra Street inlet manifold. This is arguably one of the better inlet manifolds available for the K20 engine. I would always be biased towards an OEM part, but this flows that bit better than the RRC manifold (from an FD2 Civic) and being a bargain hunter, was bought for significantly less.

This will of course get lightly cleaned up internally like I done previously.

It's a two piece design. So the porting is much easier than the PRC manifold and many other OE manifolds. This was another reason to buy.

There are a few casting imperfections noted already.

A rear lower control arm upgrade was bought. These are the same arms as what I currently use, however these upgrade the existing hardened rubber bushings to a pillowball setup. Ultimately a spherical bearing with a rubber insulator.

Some ARP head bolts, which may give the game away.

The last few coolant hoses are being replaced. These two were an asbolute bargain from Hybrid Racing. They are the oil cooler / modine hoses. Don't worry proper quality stainless hose clamps will be used.

Another item from Hybrid Racing was a shifter assembly. Following the bearing upgrades, this uses bearings in the linkages in a metal assembly, a much more direct / rigid upgrade from the OE plastic item.

It's a work of art!

Then some more goodies from 4PistonRacing arrived.

This is a brand new ported OE oil pump. Ultimately the standard OE pump cavitates and cannot maintain pressure at high revs. This alleviates these issues and maintains oil pressure up to 11,000 rpm!

In the same box were a few more goodies.

Some competition valves from Ferrea. In standard sizes.

Then we have the rest of Ferrea's catalogue for the K20 engine LOL. Valve seats, titanium retainers, valve keepers/locks, valve stem oil seals and dual valve springs.

I'm still waiting on a few more bits and bobs to arrive. Items being out of stock etc.

Ultimately this will be part of a little refresh to the head to bolt in even more reliability. The oil pump is a sensible option that is a no brainer.

The next updates will probably be the inlet manifold being ported.

The winter rebuild is well underway. The next few months have plenty of jobs pending.

 

[EF Ian]

All great upgrades, I approve.

You must be excited to get them all fitted.

 

[Neil_M]

All great upgrades, I approve.

You must be excited to get them all fitted.

Wait until you see the plans to get it all fitted and mapped .

But yes I am very keen to get it all fitted. More to see how the car drives differently afterwards.

Like all these things it takes quite a bit of research. It may speak volumes that most of the engine parts came from 4Piston Racing in America. I was tempted to have a go at building the head myself but me being me, wants a little extra...

 

[svensktoppen]

Lol, keep 'er lit

 

[Chris tii]

Wow, that looks like some serious kit!

 

[adzy]

Nice! Are you going to get the head ported while your upgrading everything in it? Are we going to see an 11000rpm k20?

 

[**mugen**]

Quality build.

 

[Neil_M]

Lol, keep 'er lit

LOL cheers man. More to come .

Wow, that looks like some serious kit!

It should be. I asked around for lots of advice so this should be more than adequate. LOL.

Nice! Are you going to get the head ported while your upgrading everything in it? Are we going to see an 11000rpm k20?

I'm on the fence regarding the porting. The head flows very well out of the box and probably won't ever pose a restriction for me. It would be if I went to town on the head and had some very lairy cams. However the problem with many of the aftermarket cams is they are hard on the tensioner/chain, the K20s weak point. This is all done to be super reliable... porting the head at this stage would end up losing velocity .

I would like to see 11,000 rpm . After this head work the bottom end is the next weak point. So until I do that, I will be a little restricted.

Quality build.

Cheers man. Do it once do it right.

 

[svensktoppen]

Don't mess with the engine, Mr Honda built it right, it's perfect

 

[Neil_M]

Don't mess with the engine, Mr Honda built it right, it's perfect

It's a bit late lol!

 

[svensktoppen]

I know, some people just won't listen

I'm sure it will be brilliant, get that 13k red line sorted asap

 

[Neil_M]

I know, some people just won't listen

I'm sure it will be brilliant, get that 13k red line sorted asap

You should have said .

Either way, I'll be going for a robust setup over chasing power figures. Much of what I bought is overkill for what I need (suprise surprise), but it will take it all day long. Or well it should.

That would be an immense redline. But I'd need the bottom end sorted before making any big changes that way.

It was good fun researching it all... 75% of the information out there is utter rubbish.

 

[svensktoppen]

More like 95%

Nah, everything on the interweb is fact