Hey guys, a lot of you know me already. I’ve been here a long time now but never actually documented my build. Probably because its never been much of a build. This car served as my daily driver for about 6 of the 7 years I’ve owned it for. Recently I’ve been gathering a ton of parts for it and due to finally blowing the motor I’ve decided its time to retire it from the grind of daily driving. It will now be getting completely torn down and everything I’ve wanted to do since I bought it will finally be getting done. I also have a db1 so this thread will be full of the improvements and repairs to both cars. Some day I’ll dig through my photobucket and find pictures from when I first bought it but for now I’ll just jump right in to where it is currently. Not much to look at but thats the point to a build thread right?
Plans include engine bay shave, brake and wire tuck, swap engine to rebuilt b17 with ITR internals, paint, and a complete suspension overhaul.
Exteriorwise I have a set of OEM optional sideskirts, and I’m planning to get an oe2 jdp lip soon. I’m also in the market for a set of gale ls636 wheels in 15" or 16" so if you come across any let me know!
Chilling in the garage waiting to get some love
Started pulling her apart today…
And my daily db1
Anyway this was just an introduction and hopefully an inspiration for me to stay motivated and keep working on it.
Here’s a few of the goodies for under the hood…
Manual steering
A retrofit that was on my car for a few weeks…
Old pic on SIs…
A different retro…
The b17 I’m rebuilding.
The engine will be freshly rebuilt bottom end. All new OEM bearings, rings, gaskets, oil pump, water pump, everything. OEM type r (p73) pistons. The head has ITR valves, ITR valve springs, ITR lma’s, TI retainers, ITR cams, buddy club cam gears, ITR intake manifold, skunk 2 or ITR throttle body (have both but not sure which I want to use yet), BDL fuel rail, aem pressure regulator, and Marshall pressure gauge.
I’m tuned into the rebuild. How much hp are hoping to get out of the new build? I have the chance to pick up a b17 block for cheap. I want to rebuild it as a spare for my db2.
Also, what size tires are you running on the si’s and what is your suspension set up? I’ve got si’s on my db2 currently.
I’d love to get 200 hp out of the b17 but I think its unlikely. The way I see it though it’ll definitely be an upgrade over the tired b18a1. My compression wasreally low, just slightly over 100 and varied widely across cylinders… Lol. If you’ve got a chance to grab the b17 I say do it! I had one years ago and I’m still kicking myself for selling it.
I believe the SI’s had 195-50-15s on them. It’s been a long time since I got rid of them. I have eibach ground control coilovers on stock struts on this car and surprisingly they rode really smooth. While its apart I’ll be upgrading to koni yellows. I think the only reason that it rode as well as it did is that it was never slammed.
Thanks for checking it out!
Looking good man!!! One of these days we will have to meet up again and a talk cars and chill! I’m down to help with that shave and tuck!
Its good to finally see you have a build thread xD
Thanks for sharing! subscribed
Thanks Dustin! You know I’m gonna take you up on that! I’ll need all the help I can get. I’ll take a look at my schedule and shoot you some dates. Just gotta get this motor out of my way first…
Deceptakhan- thanks man! Something I’ve been meaning to do for a long time but finally trying to make it a priority!
cant wait to see more updates on that engine!
Nice start! Looks like the finished project will be awesome! What’s the plans for engine management?
Hopefully sooner rather than later!
Thanks! My plan was to get a basemap from phearable for the break-in then once its broken in take it down south of me to Sacramento for a real tune on the dyno. I’m definitely intimidated by tuning it myself and would rather a professional do it. I’m open to suggestions though!
Personally, if I were you I’d grab either Hondata S300, Neptune, or Ectune, depending on what your tuner prefers. Not really a big fan of those basemap chips. Granted, phearable is a very trusted source for those. As far as tuning yourself…yea there’s a steep learning curve involved with that. And add in the task of breaking in an engine, definitely worth the money to pay a tuner, lol. Who are you gonna take it to for the tune?
^ fully agree.
The tune is so so so important. Even a basemap from a reputable tuner won’t be ideal…
My “basemap” tune dyno’d at 128whp… final number when tuned was 187whp. Granted my tuner made the basemap for safety and not for performance, I was astounded at the power difference between the two.
The two friends I have that ran Phearable chips both had good experiences… The plugs had a nice coffee-brown burn. I would trust their basemap, but tuning is definitely one of the most important aspects of a build.
Our builds are actually quite similar… I’m interested to see some numbers out of it!
Things are looking good in here… good stuff!
Breaking in an engine on a basemap is the absolute worst thing you can do. It’s super important to have a perfect a/f ratio during break in to properly seat the rings and not wash down the cylinders. I blew my first build by doing that. There’s too many different variations with aftermarket setups/injectors/map sensors etc. Just letting you know about my experience. Since then I only do dyno break in’s and everything has been mint. Also give’s the tuner plenty of time to perfect the low load tune which save’s on street tuning later on.
Motor is ready to pull! It’s only held in by the side motor mounts. I just have to get my friend to bring his hoist over and pull it out!
Thanks for all the advice about tuning! It’s definitely a hurdle for me since I don’t have a vehicle capable of towing it. I’ll figure it out though, I’m a long way away from that still. Still have a lot of research to do about it.
Hopefully I’ll be getting the hoist and pulling the engine today or tomorrow!
CanDigIt!
How far are you from the shop that will be dyno tuning for you? I would trust a Phearable chip to get me to the dyno, they will do their best to calibrate everything to your mod-list and elevation. Take your time and see what works best for you man.
Sacramento is about an hour and 45 minutes from me. Yeah you were the one who first pointed them out to me as an option and after reading some things customers said I feel I could probably trust them to at least be competent at what they do. The thing that sucks is before making a drive like that I would want to not only break in the engine but also the clutch. I’d be a bit nervous going from 0-100 miles a constant speed/gear like that. Something tells me I’d be severely hurting the life of my new clutch.
Maybe I can justify the added cost of arranging towing to Sacramento by accepting that I wouldn’t have to pay for the basemap from phearable along with the extra piece of mind that it would be much safer and protect my investment…
Also, to anyone who’s been in my position before, how important is it that I run a wideband 02 sensor? Especially with the s300? Is it something thats only needed during tuning or does a properly tuned ecu need it during operation to obtain continuous readings?
A tow would be ideal… if you can make it happen.
Running a wideband is good because you can pickup an A/F gauge and keep an eye on engine operation. They also aid in troubleshooting problems with fuel/ignition etc.
That being said, once the car is dialed in, a wideband is not a NEED. Your tuner should have everything needed to get you dialed in.
Yeah thats what I’m thinking too.
That’s what I thought about the wideband. I’ll have to think about it a bit more before pulling the trigger on buying one but I would have to say I’m leaning towards it. It’s crazy how fast the costs add up, which slows me down. I’d really like to drive this car someday…