Wake The Dragon 2011

First off sorry for the lack on posting on here, however I have been super busy personally. Anyway I headed up to Fontana Village last weekend for WTD, I was in a small caravan on the way, but we made the best of it stopping and visiting friends on the way there. For us it took 7.5 hours to get there but it was worth it. I believe roughly 130 S2000's attended the event, once again it was alot of the older crowd that has been going the past 9 years. Most of the cars that attend the event really are not that much to see however, everyone is a nut about these cars and the general focus seems to be about driving. It also seems well that they set it up the same weekend as Import Alliance, because some of the cars that may have gone to WTD chose to go to IA instead, and that was cool with me. Back on topic, Friday started out with a good run through the dragon 318 turns in 11 miles, and down the Hellbender to the cabin. Once we checked in a poker run was setup it was roughly 89 miles and took about 2.5 hours to complete. This was a great start to the weekend to gain some more familiarization with the roads if you had not been there in a while or was new.  After this we did a number of runs through the dragon, and then went back to the cabin to clean up for the night. That night they had a "Beer and Wine" swap meet where everyone brought there favorite beer or wine and put it on the table and you just went back and forth getting whatever spirit you wanted, this was a good time to catch up with old friends and just get drunk. Saturday was the big day it started off with the line up for the "Monster Roll Out", this was where everyone lined up and drove the Dragon and the Hellbender in a giant line of S2000's. The roads were wet that morning but dried up soon after this. Once again driving all these roads through the mountains seemed to conclude around noon where everyone met up atop Fontana Dam and had a catered lunch. Then we drove some more roads until it was time to clean up for dinner. Dinner consisted of more drinks and food, with some door prizes and such. We had a nice chat with videos from Killboy of www.killboy.com, where he discussed the name and cars,bikes, and big wheels. He is the resident photographer from the Dragon. What a job he has to get to drive the roads all year and take photos. After all this some people had a bon fire and some activities ensued. The next morning was time for us to leave a few more trips on the Dragon and a sad good bye. It was a great weekend and was relaxing to get away from cell phone signal. The S2000 is an amazing car for roads like that once you have driven the car there you always have a new love for the car. In fact when we came home we bought us a second S2000. I had put alot of work in my car in preparation for that weekend. It turned out great. But, I was plagued with a few problems. My EMS took a shit on the way there so the cars tune ran like shit, it reverted back to like a start up tune or something, and on the way home the cam bolt that came loose a few months ago on the toe arm came loose again after it had been replaced from the previous time. Im currently researching why it keeps doing this. Fortchentally this happened on the way home and I was able to make it home for the cost of 2 new tires soon. Im really excited for this fall for the unofficially announced Dragon Ball Run DBR. Keep up to date with this and make sure you attend this event!

You can follow all of this here http://www.s2ki.com/s2000/forum/49-dragon-events/

Hardcore Hardtop

Its been a bit since I posted on here but I went to Wake the Dragon S2000 meet and tore up the mountain roads while having a blast! I have yet to buy my pictures from www.killboy.com, however I will be doing that in the next day or so. Anyway while you patiently wait, enjoy this video from a good friend of mine, and his XXXXXX rated S2000. If you were wondering its on a custom Moton Setup amongst other things! PS just picked up another S2000 2003 GPW! 

Long Black Nuts

Lug nuts commonly become a "Bling" item, I myself had been running T1R titanium open ended lug nuts for a few years, and decided it was time for a change, I have been seeing the bling blang nuts on some hellafail bullshit lately, so I need some more distance. I decided to go with some plain old Rays extended wheel nuts, I happen to be running ARP extended wheel studs, so without researching I pulled the trigger on them thinking "Extended" means for extended wheel studs, guess what they didn't fit Fail! I contacted Evasive Motorsports, talked to them and steered me into their own EVS tuning "Super Lap" lugs, these instead of being duraluminum happen to be made out of steel, and will withstand constant removal and installation. Here's the low down, these aftermarket "tuner" lugs are designed to fit in aftermarket wheels, whereas stock wheels use an acorn style lug nut that fits in the machined hole in the hub of the wheel. Use of either lug on the wrong wheel will result in an unsafe torque where the wheel can fall off. Back on topic the "Super Lap" lugs managed to thread all the way over my extended studs and give the nice plain appearance I was looking for. These are very high quality and come packaged nicely and with a price of $134.00, It's honestly a bargain on todays standards, when most other quality lug nuts cost in excess of $200.00 it seems.  Also, here are a few more tips, always ALWAYS torque your wheels, an over or under torqued wheel runs risks of coming off, and check your torque often. I use 80-90 ftlbs as a good rule of thumb. Remember never use a torque wrench to break a lug nut loose, and always zero it out when your done, also loosen your lugs and tighten them in star pattern.

Your Transmission is coming in Leaky !?

So, this has been in the works for a while now, the dreaded AP2 transmission swap into an AP1. What a fiasco it was this past weekend. Of course I'm rushing to get my car ready for Wake The Dragon this weekend. So this past week, I had been keeping up with my terrible transmission leak that has been ailing me. I finally decided I was going to pull the trigger! I picked up an AP2 transmission for $600.00 a few months back now and it has been sitting in my garage. I took the plunge and managed to get my AP1 out in about 3 hours, it would have been quicker, but I ran into some issues having to cut some of my old propeller shaft (drive shaft) bolts out. Once it was all out, I took my time and put new fluid in the new transmission and did the required modifications to it. I changed the output flange from my AP1 because the AP2 flange uses a larger bolt, and took the time to regrease the shifter. Unbeknownst to me I forgot to tighten the fill plug, problems later arose. We battled with installing the new transmission after that on jack stands, finally managed to get the transmission back in, took it for a drive and sure as shit the new transmission was leaking. I couldn't believe it! It had been sitting there for months with not one drop. So I got to thinking, what could it be? It had to be something I had done to it. So today I went back to the garage, got back under the car and changed the drain plug and crush washer to a Spoon drain plug, put a socket on the fill plug and Shit!, it was loose! I once again filled the transmission back up and made sure to tighten the fill plug this time, cleaned it, and drove it no leak! This was a very dumb mistake on my part, however I am glad I discovered it now and was able to resolve the issue. I wont get into a long winded discussion over how to remove the transmission and what not, I'll give you the low down on what will need to be done if you're considering doing this swap. First you will want to source the AP2 transmission, then I recommend you buy the following from Honda,

New bolts for the Drive Shaft (Propeller Shaft) there is 6 in the front and 6 in the rear, most likely you will need to cut the heads off of these for removal, as the allen head tends to strip
Honda MTF the transmission holds a tad under 2 quarts but I always buy a few extra quarts to have on hand
New fill plug gasket
New drain plug gasket its the same as the oil drain plug
New out put flange gasket
New output shaft nut
Now you can either swap output flanges from the AP1 to the AP2 or buy an AP2 differential flange and AP2 drive shaft and the corresponding bolts since they are larger
Honda UREA grease You will want this for the shifter and clutch release fork as well as input shaft
Aside from this you might as well tackle the Clutch and Flywheel since your there, you will then need all the required parts and bearings
Also you will want to use a Modify Yellow Jacket speed calibrator, because your speedometer will be off due to the difference in gearing. You can use your handy GPS unit to calibrate your speed.

The rest of this madness is plug and play, the skill level is well you need some skills and patience and several extensions, as well as an impact. Its a pain in the ass, to be honest and I hate doing this job.

The advantages are carbon synchros, 1st - 4th gear has a closer ration gears, 5th is slightly closer and 6th is more over drive than the AP1, so I should see a slight increase in fuel mileage in 6th.  I am currently using a 4.77 Final Drive so I used this calculator to show my differences with the AP2 transmission vs AP1
http://www.turnzero.com/technical_resources.php?resource=gear_calculator

Here is the 4.77 with AP1 transmission

Here is the AP2 with the 4.77

Stainless Steel Brake Lines

This weekends project on a friends car was to install some Earls Stainless Steel Braided Brake Lines, and of course replace the fluid with some ATE Super Blue as previously discussed on here. So lets knock out a few facts as usual on these lines. First off its a very noticeable upgrade for a braking system, and its cheap usually around $100.00, so this falls in the good dollar per mod money. What's the advantage? there is a number of advantages, however the top ones are, OEM rubber lines tend to expand under braking thus you loose the fee on your pedal. So with these installed you obtain much improved brake pedal feel during braking as the brakes heat up, you still maintain the feel up until the brake pads fade. The lines also do not flex as much and become more durable from debris on the ground. This is just part of the brake upgrades that consist normally of lines, fluid, pads, and rotors. You will lose fluid in the process and have to bleed your brakes after the install so you might as well flush the fluid afterwards. I would put this mod as a very easy mod for anyone to install with basic tools and knowledge, the hardest part will be bleeding the brakes, so if you're not confident, I would not tackle it because until the brakes are bled, you can not drive your car.
Tools needed
-10mm open ended wrench
-Vice Grips (just in case)
-14mm Socket
-10mm Socket
-Ratchet
-Pliers
-19mm Open Ended Wrench (Or An Adjustable Wrench)
-21mm Open Ended Wrench (Or An Adjustable Wrench)
-Drip Pan

Get the car up on all four jack stands and remove the wheels. Doesn't matter where you start but the front lines are different than the rears. However, the Earls happened to be marked and also marked Left and Right. If you start on the rear, use 10mm open end wrench and loosen the brake line from the hard line, don't forget to have the drip pan under here as the fluid will drip out. A quick tip is if the 10mm feels like it is starting to round, stop and put the vice grips on it to loosen it, once it's loose use the 10mm again to finish removing it. Now once that is un hooked, use the pliers to pull the metal tab off so that the hardline end of the brake fluid will be loose and able to be removed. Next, remove the black cover of the brake spring, it has a 10mm bolt on the top and side, finagle this off. Now remove the two bolts holding the line to the shock and the caliper. Finally, use a 14mm socket to remove the brake line from the caliper, make sure the crush washer is off the caliper and the bolt there is one above and below the brake line. Discard the brake line and make sure to keep the bolt. Installing the new brake line is just the opposite, you may have to play with the line to get it to bend correctly. The tab you removed is replaced by a nut on the top and bottom of the factory bracket. Tighten than then tighten the fitting back into that from the hardline, when it comes to the caliper re-use the old bolt, replace a crush washer above and below the line and tighten down, make sure not to over tighten. The front is the same process, if your coilovers do not have brackets on them for brake lines, just throw a zip tie around the shock and through the tab on the brake line to keep it from getting tangled. Make sure everything is tight and add fluid and refer to my post on replacing brake fluid and bleeding. Once completely done, take it for a spin and enjoy the added brake feel!

Partner in Crime

Just wanting to introduce one of my good friends S2000. Its a Berlina Black 2004 car, this thing has seen a drastic turn around in the past few months, its been exciting with big plans still to come!

You can check out his mod list in the project cars----->

Super Blue

Well In preparation for the Wake The Dragon S2KI meet coming up, I went ahead and changed my brake fluid. My old fluid was dirty, so I had picked up a liter of ATE Super Blue Dot 4. When fluid shopping remember you can go up in DOT from 3-4 (DOT 3 and 4 also mix), and so on but to go from a 5.1 to a 4 will require draining and cleaning. So why go from a 3 to a 4. DOT 4 has a higher boiling point, and attracts less moisture. However moisture has more of an effect of 4 than it does on 3. Brake fluid attracts moisture, so the longer it's in your car, the more water builds up in the fluid, the more water you have the more decrease in boiling point. This is where the "My brakes quit working" comes from. Something got the brakes hot, then in turn, boiled the fluid because of the lowered boiling point and the brake pedal went to the floor. It's a good idea to change your fluid often throughout the year, some people will recommend every time you change brakes or open the brake system up. I normally just stick to a few times a year (to prevent corrosion) or when its looks discolored. Now lets move on the ATE Super Blue fluid. It's blue and they also sell a brown color so that when you change fluid you can change colors, so that you are always able to tell when all the old fluid is out. ATE is also not expensive $12.00-$15.00 for a liter and it will be plenty. Lets get into the process of doing this, it's very easy. It could be easier with a bleeder pump that pressurizes the system but I don't have one.  any way took about 15 minutes start to finish.

Tools required are a 

10mm box wrench 

10mm deep well 

Ratchet

Clear tube bleeder valve

Bottle for old fluid

Clean Funnel

Jack 

4 Jack Stands

Start off buy jacking the car up and placing it on 4 jack stands and remove all the wheels. Start at the right rear, the furthest from the reservoir. Something I normally do is use the 10mm socket to just crack the bleeder port because I don't like to break these. After I initially crack them the wrench works good. You may also have a dust boot over the cap you can just pull it off by hand. As you can see I customized an empty bottle of transmission fluid and stock the hose in that to catch the old fluid. Now place the box end wrench on the bleeder point, attach the clear hose over the port and then loosen the bleeder with the wrench a quarter turn. That way you can easily tighten it back up. Now with the bleeder, open fluid will start to move out, have a person sit in the car and pump the pedal, stopping from time to time, close the bleeder and add new fluid to the reservoir,  once you start to see blue fluid or clean fluid come through the tube, close the bleeder, top the reservoir off and continue to the rest. Make sure not to pump the brake pedal with the Reservoir Cap removed, now continue to the Left Rear, Front Right and Front Left. Once I have blue or clean fluid at all four corners, I have the person pumping the pedal pump it ten times and hold it to the floor, then I hook my tube up to the bleeder and crack it if I see no air bubbles, I close it and move on to the next, if I do, then I close the bleeder, pump the pedal hold the bleeder open and repeat the process. Also if you are using a dual piston caliper I always do the outside bleeder valve first and then the inside. And the last bit to add when you start to drive the car be cautious at first, incase the brakes have air in them. 

You should have a ton of fluid left over so before you lower the car its a good idea to change the fluid for clutch, that happens to use brake fluid. The reasons to change this are the same as before. This is also very easy. 

Tools Needed 

Funnel 

8mm box end wrench

Drain Pan

Under the car on the left side of the transmission you will find the clutch slave cylinder, atop of it on the side you will see a familiar bleeder valve, but it requires a 8mm wrench this time. I am never patient enough to try to get a clear hose to fit on the bleeder valve so I will just put a drain pain under it and let it go where it goes, then clean it up afterwards. So the steps are the same, open the bleeder port have a person pump the pedal, close the bleeder port, add fluid and repeat until you see the blue or clean fluid come out. Once you have done this you can bleed the slave cylinder, by having the person pump the clutch ten times hold the pedal down, open the bleeder port, and then close it. If you see air repeat the process until its all gone.

Remember that the feel of the brakes will be tough to truely judge until you have the vacuum from the engine running, going to your brake booster and car on the ground rolling. Also some good upgrades prior to doing this would be stainless steel braided brake lines and and stainless steal braided clutch line, and of coarse some Mugen reservoir covers in case the system ever boils.  One last thing I like to do is take a paint pen and write the milage and date of the fluid change on the brake reservoir, you will be able to scratch it off with your finger nail when you replace is next time.