Driven Daily

s30 for sale

I’ve finally given up trying to sell the car on local forums, I’ve sadly been very disappointed with the turnout. My car is now for sale on eBay, and is fair game for the jackals there. After checking shipping quotes, I’m pretty sure I can ship it to anyone’s door in the continental US for around $3500. If you’d like to skip eBay altogether, email me.

View it on ebay here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260565588268

Flipped BMW

This morning, a BMW somehow managed to flip over at a 4-way intersection in front of my office. It was loud enough that I decided to go out on a coffee break, and am astounded at California drivers.

This intersection isn’t anything groundbreakingly difficult to get around in, it’s just 2 lanes of traffic in every direction, with some lights to tell people when they should go or stop. I’ve seen a lot of really stupid things happen here, from horrid drivers to worse pedestrians to homeless people singing to UPS drop-boxes, but this tops it off. California licenses should not be valid in other states.

If you’re ever in Oakland, and are up for a challenge, try driving South on Broadway and turning right so you’re headed West on Grand. Apparently it’s spectacularly hard to pull off.

CRX HF-Si Rear Disc Brakes

I’ve always been a big fan of the CRX HF as a platform to build upon. It’s lightweight and lacks the extra luxury components from the Si, yet is outfitted with MPFI (multi-point fuel injection) instead of the CRX DX/STD’s DPFI (dual-point fuel injection). With a little creative swapping, the CRX HF shell can be made into a lighter, more purposeful driving machine than an Si or a DX with less work.

HF Rear Brakes

The stock CRX HF brakes are small, light, easy-to-maintain brakes that suit the stock 1900-lb HF perfectly. The stock drums do suffer from brake fade as soon as the car is driven moderately roughly, so an upgrade isn’t a bad idea. The problem is that the trailing arms (which are the parts that your brakes bolt to) are completely different designs.

Si Rear Brakes

The CRX Si rear brakes use a stronger, heavier trailing arm to mount onto. The whole assembly needs to be swapped for it to work on the CRX HF.

At the end of the day, this setup just makes maintenance simpler and decreases brake fade.

Installation

These images offer a look at the differences in the rear braking system setup between the CRX HF and Si. The first notable difference is the trailing arms, the part that supports all of the bearing housing and the area that the brakes bolt to are in fact different. The holes around the si “axle” hold the brake “plate” on, then the caliper covers that and the brake system is complete. Also, in doing this swap, be aware that the brake lines will be vastly different. I think the parking brake is shorter on the HF also.

Just for reference know that the lower control arms are also different. The parts are interchangeable (you can fit SI lca’s on the HF) but the HF lca’s don’t have the hole for the rear sway arm. If you are switching everything from an SI to HF the sway bar also wont bolt up to the body. There are holes for it, but they are only empty holes and are not threaded..

I didn’t get as many pictures as I would have liked, so if you do this swap and don’t mind sharing your pictures let me know and I’ll post up more details.

First Generation CRX Suspension

It’s no secret that the first-gen suspension is mushy and leaves much to be desired. The aftermarket suspension for the 84-87 CRX leaves much to be desired as well, so you may think your options end there.

You’d be dead wrong! You simply need to get a little creative with a hybrid setup. First-gen Integra parts are still commonplace as well as third-gen Civic parts. The second-gen CRX stole the first-gen’s fire, so to speak.

A full rear end can be used from the Integra, which gives the added bonus of rear disks (unless you race heavily, the only difference you’ll notice is the ease of maintenance). The front end of the first-generation CRX is respectable, but the rear really needs lots of suspension love. Focus on stiffening the rear with a strut bar and upgraded sway bar, and if your budget allows, move on to springs and struts.

If possible, search for a full set of matched coilovers or a kit that includes struts. Remember to drive safely, and keep speed on the track.

Cross-country drive

My original goal for the S30 project was to prep it for a cross-country drive to move back to New England. That’s gone way over the time budget I had set aside for it, so I’m driving another 240z that I’ll pick up in Arizona. I’ll be flying to Tucson, AZ on March 29th and driving that Z to New Hampshire.

Planning the drive

This is the rough layout of my planned route.

View Larger Map

Drive it

All told, I’m looking at just under 3,000 miles of driving. I don’t have a co-driver, and only have a few places planned out to stop in along the way.

Day 1 is going to be action-packed. Be at the airport at 6am to catch a flight through Salt Lake City, then to Tucson. I’ll have a ride waiting for me at the airport, and we’ll ride back to the 240z I’m purchasing for the trip on the other side of town. I’ll get my new tires mounted up, run a quick shakedown drive, and head East toward Dallas. If everything goes according to plan, I should be able to leave Mar 29th and knock off ~300mi to El Paso, TX to sleep at The Gardner Hotel (really more of a hostel than hotel, from what I gather). If it’s more expensive than I’d like, I may just spend the night in my car.

Day 2 needs to start fairly early so I can cover 650 miles or so to Dallas. Hopefully I’ll be there in time for dinner, and will be meeting up with a couple friends to go out for some juicy Texas burgers.

Another early start for Day 3 and another 650 miles (~10 hours of driving) lands me somewhere in the Nashville area, where I don’t know where I’ll actually sleep.

Day 4 brings me to the Atlantic coast, where I’d like to stop by Virginia Beach and make some long-overdue visits with friends and family.

Day 5 ends up in the New Jersey area, where I hope to be able to meet a few forum-friends from Ratsun.net

Finally, Day 6 should complete my required driving and I’ll be back in the proper woods.

A note on gasoline. It’s going to be one of my primary expenses, and the car I’m purchasing isn’t exactly the most efficient machine on the face of the planet. With the carburetors it has in it, I expect to get between 15-20mpg for the duration of the trip. With the 15-gallon fuel tank, I should be refilling the tank about twice a day. All told, I’ll burn off somewhere around 150-200 miles of gasoline, and assuming fuel prices stay right around $3USD/Gallon, I shouldn’t need to spend more than $600 on fuel.

Film it

Ideally, I’d like to get ahold of a pair of digital camcorders to mount in the car and film the whole trip. If I can come up with the cash, I’ll just buy a couple. I’d prefer to borrow them, though. If you or anyone you know would like to donate a digital camcorder for a week, let me know!

I’m going through quite a few states there, and if I happen to be passing through yours I’d love to meet whatever car clubs/groups you have and go for a group ride as I head through. Feel free to contact me with the area you’re in, where you’d like to meet, and contact information.

l28et fuel management

I spent a lot of time researching options to control fuel delivery in my l28et for the Sinister s30 project. Xenon is a great resource overall, and answered the majority of my questions, but I had trouble finding a concise explanation as to what common fuel management choices were available.

Fuel Storage

First off, if you’re putting an l28et into your own s30, you’ll need to decide if you’re going to keep the stock fuel tank or not. The stock tank is un-baffled, so fuel sloshes around when cornering, accelerating, or braking. If the tank isn’t full, the fuel pickup will sometimes run dry and won’t deliver fuel to the engine.

If you don’t mind replacing the stock tank, make sure you get a baffled tank. These essentially have doors that keep a small amount of fuel at the pickup so the fuel pump never runs dry. Many s30 owners install baffled fuel cells, which are the ideal solution but are time-consuming and require a welder to install.

If you’re keeping the stock tank without modifying it, you’ll need two fuel pumps and a surge tank. The surge tank is a small container (less than a gallon) that holds fuel. The first fuel pump feeds the surge tank, and the second pump pulls fuel from the bottom of the fuel tank into the engine. This is a simple, economical option if your stock tank is in serviceable condition. I’ll be using an old 1.5liter fire extinguisher as my surge tank, and I’ll post up a diagram of exactly how it works later. For now, you just get a picture of the extinguisher.

The third, more uncommon option is to fill your stock tank with a sponge-like foam. The foam holds fuel and keeps it from sloshing. It reduces lateral weight transfer and is relatively inexpensive, but render conventional fuel gauges useless.

The final option is to keep the stock tank but add baffles. I can’t come up with a compelling reason to do it unless you’re really into keeping the car looking completely stock. You’ve gotta be pretty OCD to care what the fuel tank looks like, though.

ECU

280zx-t ecu is pretty much a paperweight that uses electricity. For most cars, it’s better to unplug the o2 sensor, which feeds information that would be absolutely critical to any other car. The z31 ECU is pretty much plug-and-play and will improve mileage somewhat. There are aftermarket ECUs available, such as the Wolf, which come highly recommended, but are expensive ($1000+ USD).

I came to the conclusion that the ideal solution is to install MegaSquirt, but it’s a time-consuming ordeal. First, you’d have to decide which version of MegaSquirt to purchase. There’s MS1, MS2, and MS3, and there are various versions of software that can be run on each. Without getting into too many details, my recommendation is a pre-assembled MS2v3. It’s worthwhile to purchase a relay board, a cable to connect the two, and another cable to run to the engine itself. You’ll still have to connect all the wires to the correct sensors and inputs, but it’s a straightforward affair. You can get away with building the whole thing for around $400 if you don’t value your time very highly and have a moderate amount of experience with soldering, but I highly recommend the pre-assembled kits.

Sensors

The most crucial sensor on for fuel delivery is the air measurement sensor. The stock AFM (air flow meter, uses a flapper to measure air being sucked/pushed into the engine) is inferior to a MAF (Mass Air Flow sensor, measures air density/velocity), which isn’t quite as good as a MAP (Manifold Absolute Pressure, measures how much pressure is in the intake manifold). MS2v3 comes with a MAP sensor built-in, and can accurately read up to 15psi of boost.

The second sensor that’s important to note is the o2 sensor. It measures the amount of unburned oxygen that leaves the engine, and the ECU adjusts the fuel map based on what information the o2 sensor offers. I’ve heard from several people that the stock 280zx-t ecu goes a little crazy with an o2 sensor plugged in and they recommend removing it for better performance and mileage. It’s strange and contrary to normal logic, but it’s become common knowledge at this point. That’s just one more reason for me to dislike the stock ECU even more.

If you’re installing megasquirt or making a major change to your engine configuration, you’ll want to borrow or buy a wideband o2 sensor. A wideband displays just how rich or lean your fuel/air mixture is. It’s much more useful than a traditional o2 sensor that essentially only tells you if you’re rich or lean.

The more accurate the information you’re feeding into the ECU, and the more information you’re feeding it, the more accurate it can be. The faster and smarter the ECU, the more precise the end result will be. There’s a big difference between accuracy and precision, but you want both, not one or the other.

Conclusion

Fuel management is where you’ll gain almost all the mileage gains on an older efi car. There can be significant performance increases as well if you end up fine-tuning your setup and spending a respectable amount of time getting it right.

Organize your garage

Having every conceivable tool for a project does you no good if you can’t find the one that you need. Reorganizing may seem like a huge task, but the gains from having an organized workspace far outweigh the time invested to upkeep it. This week we’re going over how to clean out your garage, then organize it:

Clean out your garage

By clean out, I mean get everything outside. Put it all in the yard, or in your driveway if you have one, or go through this one bay at a time (putting clutter from one side to the other, working on one at a time). Once the garage is bare, start by sweeping the floors, clean the cobwebs from the corners, and you may even want to paint the walls. Any broken cabinets or shelves should be removed, and you’ll want to start from a good, clean slate here. Keep only fixtures that you intend to make use of.

Remove excess junk

Everyone has extra stuff lying around the garage. Anything that’s of value should have its picture taken and put into a box to be sold on ebay or craigslist as soon as possible.

Now that your garage (or bay) is empty, break everything down into three piles:

Excess:

Maybe you have half a broom that could still be considered useful but you have a better one. Old gaskets, broken manifolds, old spraypaint, old oil, and anything else that isn’t likely to be needed can be thrown away. A good rule of thumb is If you haven’t used it in a month, put it in storage. If you haven’t used it in 6 months, get rid of it.

Storage:

All those Christmas decorations, tool receipts, and once-a-year tools (most gardening tools are hopelessly underused) can go into storage. If you don’t have a storage area set up, it’s probably a good idea to get some big cabinets or even a shed to put this stuff in. If it isn’t absolutely necessary to have in your workarea, it should be out of the way. Cabinets are nice because they keep contents readily accessible but tend not to be in the way, and their contents are less likely to overflow into your workarea.

Workarea:

Figure out exactly what you plan to accomplish in this workarea, and limit the possessions you keep to what you’re planning to do in the space. Eliminate or pack away everything else. Personally, I need:

Hand tools
- Metric wrench and socket sets (Hondas and Datsun body)
- Multiple ratchets (3/8″ and 1/2″ drive)
Shop manuals (a small bookshelf should be plenty for this)
Air compressor (and a small shelf for air tools and the hose)
Low-profile Jack
Safety equipment
- 4 Jackstands (if they aren’t easily accessible, you’re more likely to try to skip them… safety first!)
- Safety goggles (you’ll use them much more if they’re on-hand)
- Mechanix gloves (some people prefer disposable gloves)
Paper towel rack with shop towels (I don’t really care for shop rags, I like prefer shop towels)
Oil drain pan (if something springs a leak, you don’t want it to make a mess… always have a clean drain pan on hand)
Gojo hand cleaner (or whatever brand you prefer)
Sprayables shelf
- WD-40
- PB Blaster
- Touch-up spraypaint (this is when I really appreciate having a flat black car)
Fluids shelf
- 10w-30 (It’s the most universal of oils, I promise you’ll use it!)
- Grease

Once you’ve established what you actually want in your garage, you’ll need to figure out how to keep it on hand without having it constantly in your way. I have a few suggestions on cheap ways to organize your shop:

Wrench and Socket Holders

Many times, wrench sets and socket sets come with plastic ‘cases’ that just don’t cut it. You may want to keep one of these sets under your driver’s seat, but in most cases I suggest ditching the locking case.

Hansen Global Regular and Deep Socket Tray – 3/8in. Standard

Final Pass

The main goal is to have everyday tools readily available, and everything else in accessible storage. Clear plastic boxes and labels will save time and frustration in the future. I’ve found that a big box to throw miscellaneous nuts and bolts into comes in very handy, especially for keeping the floor clean and uncluttered. When you inevitably need some generic bolt to secure something in the future, you can just dig through your bolts bin rather than going to the hardware store.

I haven’t finished cleaning my garage, and I’m not convinced it’ll actually look much more organized when I finish it, so if you have a before and after shot of your garage cleaning, let me know!

Bitch Pin Removal

Tales are told around the campfire on moonless nights about the CRX’s dreaded bitch pin. If you haven’t heard of this terrible monster before, gather ’round and I’ll tell you about it.

There will come a day when you find that your engine must come out of your car, and while your breaker bar will get those motor mounts, and your old rotting rubber hoses can be cut and replaced, the bitch pin is there to stay. Every swap is fraught with danger, but none so great as the bitch pin. It’s an impossible hydra-like beast, meaning every time you hit it it gets stronger and embeds itself further. You may find that perfect punch and a big mini-sledge, but the bitch pin still refuses to move. Never fear, though! This bitch pin has a great weakness to be exploited.

After I had already screwed my bitch pin into a pulp of metal that refused to move, I looked around on the internet to find that everybody else just whacked it with a hammer. Eventually it’ll come out, right?

Wrong. Actually, using physics for dynamic pressure and using only enough force to move it is the key. Experimenting with a c-clamp and a wooden dowel yielded positive results, but I came across a better way. This article gives nice pictures and a good walkthrough of what needs to be done:

bitch pin removal

Add this “bitch pin removal kit” to the budget of any swap you tackle.

C-clamp
sockets (deep and shallow) that fit the bitch pin inside
small drill bit set (for putting pressure on the bitch pin itself)

There’s definitely a science to it, but hopefully this will help you work that thing out.

Sneak Peek

I’m increasingly frustrated with my l28et s30 not being finished, so I went ahead and made a drastic change. My s30 is up for sale for a grand total of $3500. However, that’s not the drastic change. It’s the result of the drastic change.

I have been planning to drive off to Boston in my Z since the day I bought it. Just pack up a few choice belongings, sell everything else, and make a go of the drive from the San Francisco Bay Area to New England. As I progressed through the project, small issues continued to crop up that I wasn’t willing to simply kludge and spent more time fixing than I’d like to admit. Although there are only a few known issues left, and it’s likely that I’ll sort these out before selling it, the car still needs a shakedown period before I’d consider it reliable enough for a cross-country trip. I have a lot of people who are apparently looking forward to me moving back (one lovely lady in particular) so I’m not willing to spend (waste?) any more time on this when I could leave sooner. I have mixed feelings about cutting my losses on this project (selling it for $3500 means lots of losses) but at some point, enough is enough. I’m missing out on other things that are more important to me.

I’m still driving back, and will give you the full details on those plans this weekend, but for now just contact me if you or someone you know would be interested in a sinister s30. I’ll add details on what’s included in the multiple goodie-bags and where the project sits today in another post shortly.

d16a8 or d16zc

In the 1990’s engine technology took leaps and bounds, and manufacturers began adding advanced engineering principles to all the cars that rolled off their showroom floors. Small-displacement, highly efficient powerplants were in vogue, with the Honda b16a1 and Toyota’s 4age powering hot hatches all over Japan and Europe. Even today these engines are sought after as inexpensive ways to produce surprising amounts of power.

The ZC was special because it was a small-displacement 4cylinder motor with aggressively tuned dual overhead camshafts. It came in the CRX and Civic in the early 90’s, and the very similar d16a8 came to the US in the Acura Integra. This stocky little beast had excellent transmission options as well with short gear ratios, long gear ratios, and limited slip differentials available.

It is also obd0, making it a simple plug-and-play swap from a previous MPFI engine, and keeping tuning simple and straightforward using PGMFI. If you have a stock CRX DX, you’ll need to convert the wiring harness to MPFI and use the ZC ecu.

The ZC is one of the more difficult Honda engines to identify, so the folks over at jdmcars put together this pdf: zc_identification for your reference. Power output is generally ~130hp with torque to match, and is a very strong candidate for boost with low-compression pistons. The combination of being inexpensive, efficient, and powerful for its size make this a perfect candidate for a daily driven CRX.

If you’re looking for more info about the ZC, read here:

d-series.org