[SkittyDoogle]

Switched the car over to 93 octane for the cold months ahead. Took it out to the middle of nowhere to a friend’s house and changed the oil. I felt the car was a little lower on power than I remembered it to have on the 93 tune. Flooring it to the limiter I watched as the boost gauge only climbed to 6PSI compared to what it was last year at 9PSI. Somehow it lost a third of the boost it should have. Oh well, I can bring it by the shop again and have them check for boost leaks.

 

[Crash]

Switched the car over to 93 octane for the cold months ahead. Took it out to the middle of nowhere to a friend’s house and changed the oil. I felt the car was a little lower on power than I remembered it to have on the 93 tune. Flooring it to the limiter I watched as the boost gauge only climbed to 6PSI compared to what it was last year at 9PSI. Somehow it lost a third of the boost it should have. Oh well, I can bring it by the shop again and have them check for boost leaks.

Check the serpentine belt tensioner. Had to retighten mine a few months after SC install, and belt slip will reduce your boost.

 

[96firephoenix]

wow, that blister over-fender set is really neat! it's not a wide-body kit, right, just a re-shaping of the hip area?

 

[SkittyDoogle]

wow, that blister over-fender set is really neat! it's not a wide-body kit, right, just a re-shaping of the hip area?

Yep, it just sticks right on top. In Japan they have slightly different terminology for car parts. An “over fender” kit is like a stick-on fender flare. But a “blister fender” covers the whole fender without increasing clearance.

 

[96firephoenix]

where did you even find those?

 

[SkittyDoogle]

where did you even find those?

Let’s just say I have a lot of free time. I’ve found quite a few manufacturers of CR-Z parts I keep to myself and an exporter I use who can get me pretty much anything I want. You can PM me for his details if you want. Here’s a link to Mulsanne’s CR-Z page:

http://www.mulsanne.co.jp/mulcr-z.html

 

[SkittyDoogle]

Picked up some more parts for the build. First and largest item this delivery was the Nagisa Auto Gacchiri Support, pretty much a front fender brace.

It’s interesting how they even remind you to inspect the product for damage when opening it for the driver.

The fender braces themselves look pretty nice. They have some odd tabs on the ends that swivel. Not sure what they’re for yet.

Got two pairs of wheel spacers from Seeker. Gonna use them to experiment with wheel fitment and get extra clearance for the front wheel to add even more negative camber.

Added some snazziness with some laser engraved, flame treated titanium valve stem caps. I knew titanium was light but these things feel like they should be made of plastic!

Last but not least, flame treated titanium lug nuts! By far one of the coolest purchases I’ve ever made. Feels like a premium item through and through. Fashionable box, attention to detail and no plastic crap. It even includes a card explaining its material composition and its authenticity.

The lugs are the pentagonal version, which includes a wheel lock key. And it is also made of titanium. Both the set of lugs and the key are actually milled! Milling titanium is quite difficult as the melting point of titanium is pretty high and the tooling used to cut it wears out quickly. You can see the finishing pass on the key and it’s pretty cool.

 

[Fediej]

With carbide tooling and the proper speeds and feeds, machining titanium isn't really any more difficult than brass or stainless but without it can be a pain. Cool accessories though!

 

[SkittyDoogle]

Check the serpentine belt tensioner. Had to retighten mine a few months after SC install, and belt slip will reduce your boost.

Dropped it off at my preferred repair shop that knows the car pretty well. I let them know about the belt tension before they looked at it and found it was tight and not slipping. They even said they smoke tested it for an hour and didn’t see any boost leaks so it’s not that either. I redownloaded my tunes from King Motorsports to reflash it just to make sure I didn’t do something stupid like reflash it with a supercharger base map from Ktuner. Nothing worked.

I stopped by a local tuning shop as it’s only three miles from home. Told them all I mentioned above. They said it’s likely a mechanical issue. A tech said he had a similar-ish issue with his Type R and the problem was a throttle body coupler. Appointment is set for well more than a week out as they’re very busy so we’ll see how that goes. Pic related is when I stopped by with the car for a little block party they had:

With carbide tooling and the proper speeds and feeds, machining titanium isn't really any more difficult than brass or stainless but without it can be a pain. Cool accessories though!

I see. My father is of the much older generation so his thoughts and experience are limited and a bit out of date! On top of that very few companies he’s dealt with actually deal with Titanium simply due to cost. But he did tell me the color wasn’t for style, rather it’s a side-effect from using heat to harden the material that happens to look pretty. I’ve been learning a lot! He finds it fun to see all the neat stuff I get from Japan.

Also, out of curiosity I asked the exporter I use to ask Digicam/Kspec if the spectragram card is generic or if it’s actually from the material they use. They actually responded and confirmed it’s specifically from the material used to make the set of lugs! Can’t think of any company that goes out of their way to do that.

 

[SkittyDoogle]

Welp, one of the most inconvenient accidents happened. I got the FEEL’S wide fenders in the mail. Lo and behold the left fender has several significant cracks from shipping making it completely unuseable. Thanks, DHL. So now I need to take them to a body shop who knows how to fix fiberglass. I hit up the exporter I used who was responsible for the packaging and even he wasn’t too pleased with how his packing guys sent it out. But he’s gonna file a claim with DHL to get compensation for the damage when I get a quote to fix them, and have a word with the packing guys who wrapped it and sent it.

Also, a disappointing fact about these fenders is that they claim to be 20mm wider than stock. This is technically true, but it still maintains roughly the stock fender clearance and doesn’t seem to actually allow an increase in wheel clearance. But again, because it’s fiberglass, it can be modified and cut out a little bit to allow a bit more room if needed. It just won’t be 20mm like advertised.

 

[Rydo]

Thanks for the link, just skim read your thread and it's looking good. Love the wheel you managed to grab!

So what are your thoughts on the Mugen ZF2 front lip LEDs?

 

[SkittyDoogle]

Thanks for the link, just skim read your thread and it's looking good. Love the wheel you managed to grab!

So what are your thoughts on the Mugen ZF2 front lip LEDs?

From what I can see in Mugen’s accessories, sometimes they use some dedicated parts and sometimes they use universal parts. Judging by the instructions the LEDs themselves are universal. A kit they sell has the same LEDs as the CR-Z, which is meant for the S660/N-Box. The only thing slightly different is the harness itself. It shouldn’t be too different so I can’t imagine it’d be difficult to use it anyways with some left over parts, so just follow the instructions as close as you can while improvising whete needed. You can have a look for yourself.

S660/N-Box kit:
https://online.mugen-power.com/nmos/upfile/pro/33400-XG8-K1S0.pdf

CR-Z kit:

https://online.mugen-power.com/nmos/upfile/pro/33600-XLTB-K0S0.pdf

 

[SkittyDoogle]

One thing that I severely underestimated was the sheer cost and difficulty of fixing fiberglass. Just fixing the cracked left fender costs more than $1000 to repair the right way.

I have a bodyshop I normally go to but their solution was to use bodyfiller to patch it up. That wouldn’t be an ideal solution to begin with, but they were kinda hesitant and didn’t wanna give me a quote to give to DHL for some reason. The local repair shop I go to recommended a place just outside of a complex famous for hosting very popular and expensive car shows with the garages alone worth north of $700,000. But even they didn’t wanna fix it! I had to stop by an automotive/marine body repair shop that happened to specialize in fiberglass almost 45 minutes away.

However, they are willing to oblige my request of cutting out some of the inner edges of the FEEL’S fenders with their saw to increase wheel clearance for the tires I want to run next year. Might have to trim the fender liners or outright remove them. I’m thinking if I have to do either I’m considering having the inside of the fenders coated with undercoat to reduce noise from loose gravel and road debris.

 

[SkittyDoogle]

FINALLY got the CR-Z diagnosed at the local performance shop. Turns out it WAS a boost leak after all. But it’s in such an unusual spot that even the manager of the shop said they’ve never seen something like it before. The hole is very small and there’s nothing touching it that could have punctured it. Look for the red dot.

On the positive side, it’s only about a $600 fix with the diagnostic included. Called up a dealer to get it ordered. To my surprise they actually still make it and they could expedite it to the shop! Although I had to argue with the parts department for a minute because they told me “that’s not a Honda part number,” which is so far at least the THIRD TIME I’ve heard that. Oh well,
I should just be grateful I can still buy parts. For reference it’s the part number 7 in this diagram:

 

[SkittyDoogle]

So here’s something absolutely infuriating. The new pipe came with a worse leak than the old one. How Honda can mess up a piece of plastic is bewildering. It seems they have to sorta drill and dap in some hardware and it just doesn’t work in this case. So I asked the shop to seal it up with JB weld. Pic of the NEW part where you can even see how awful the plastic molding is:

What’s even more rage inducing is that the dealer won’t let me return in. They say it’s technically a Honda accessory so it’s therefore not returnable. They offered to warranty it but it’s gonna take another week at least to get another one, then the car has to come apart AGAIN.

On top of that, the boost leak STILL EXISTS. They have no idea where it is but boost still isn’t getting to where it should be. Hundreds of dollars down the drain for absolutely nothing. I’m likely moving to Texas in a few short months so I just cannot spend any more money on it while preparing to potentially move. I love Honda to death but this is absurd.

 

[SkittyDoogle]

Just today I received the CR-Z Hybrid Racing shifter kit from @cbass ! Some of the spare parts will come in a day or two. It’ll be the last parts purchase before I make the move to Texas as I’ve received a job offer out there and I gotta save for the move.

During some cleaning for the move I happened to find the J’s Racing Civic Type R adjustable shift boot collar I bought like 3-4 years ago. I couldn’t mount it at the time because the Type R shaft is slightly thinner and it wouldn’t fit the normal CR-Z shifter. I completely forgot I had it, but I’m glad I found it because it’s a great fit on the Hybrid Racing shifter! It has three adjustable allen key screws to adjust for height and a thick band to slip the top of the boot in.

Since I likely have much more height compared to using the shift boot collar from Seeker, I’m likely gonna take the Mugen Formula shift knob from my CRX and put it in the CR-Z. The shifter in the CRX is pretty far away so a cylindrical knob isn’t the most comfortable type to use in that car. If it fits, I’m gonna give my black carbon Mugen knob to a really good friend as a parting gift. He loves Hondas and Mugen but he’s never been able to afford anything fancy because he’s married with two kids. We’ll see if I can install it this weekend or next weekend!

 

[SkittyDoogle]

Upon further inspection of the shifter, I found out you can unscrew the top portion to swap the spring that stiffens the resistance between the gates. Not absolutely mindblowing but I had no idea what the spring was meant to do.

 

[SkittyDoogle]

Picked up two extra HPD tailgate emblems since I lost my original one, and I’m keeping the extra just in case Honda discontinues it! Anyone can buy these emblems but you’re gonna have to INSIST that the part number is real because the parts department WILL give you a hard time about it. Ask me how I know. 🙄

 

[SkittyDoogle]

Got together with a friend a bit last minute to have him help install the Hybrid Racing shifter kit. He’s way more experienced with Hondas than I am and he knows lots of tricks to handle Hondas.

It was a bit dark and cold, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. We stripped it down to the bare shifter with a bit of effort.

After it was stripped down I took the plastic pieces inside to rinse them from dirt and dust built up over the past few years. It’s so much nicer not having to deal with grimey plastics!

After getting the plastics rinsed he was basically done with the install.

We put all the bolts and clips back in place and buttoned it back up. The difference is insane! I had installed the stiffer spring inside the shifter assembly already thinking the softer one would be too soft, but I think I might be wrong because it’s incredibly stiff! Kinda reminds me of a 2017 WRX STi shifter I tried out.

Anyways, it was pretty dark out since winter has already set in so I’ll take better pictures tomorrow.

 

[SkittyDoogle]

There was a sudden snowstorm in MN last night. Heard over a hundred cars got stuck in ditches. I stopped by the side of the road to film a quick clip of the exhaust before heading home and getting stuck in the driveway for half an hour. 🙄

Login • Instagram

Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.

www.instagram.com