Installshield's NA Build

So did you get your valve leash to .022 on the exhaust side? I am putting in my cams now and the paper I got from megacycle is stating the stock .011 leash on both sides........
 
yeah .022" across the exhaust side, .010" across the intake...or as close to that as i could get it...its perfectly fine for your cams to be .011" on both sides, as that is the factory lash requirement...and i believe you had some factory cams turned into what you have now, correct?...its very common for that method to not change the base circle, and there for not change the lash requirements...

My twiggy exhaust cam, on the other hand, has a different base circle and kind of radical ramp angle...while the intake is the same as a factory cam...even if your cams were built off of twiggy specs for the most part, the ramp angle was a figure not made entirely public...at least to my knowledge...so the tech probably stuck with what he already had to go with...

in either case...you're going to be happy, dude...crazy ramp angles are completely unneeded, and actually not great, for the engine speeds you were looking to run iirc...in my case currently, its just a wasted feature of the twiggy's until i get the bottom end redesigned...
 
Last edited:
no problem, can't wait to hear from you when you get them in there...To my knowledge you're the only one so far with megacycle versions...
 
Sorry again for the lack of updates, i've been running nothing but a laptop from 2006 at home...and it finally died...I've been on very limited internet access (from my phone mostly) outside of work...but i have been getting a lot of car work done.

building a new PC, as soon as i get all the parts together i'll be back around here a lot more often.
 
haha w/e. PC is finished.

If friends would stop getting married, i'd get the clutch in over a coming weekend...

On the other hand, my mid-pipe is finally at the 11th hour...when started cold, car sounds like a ups truck...after it warms up though, the rattling/vibration and obvious exhaust leak seals back up...kind of sucks, as the mid-pipe was custom cut out of the original...and a lot of muffler shops are giving me a hard time about replacing a custom exhaust part...For now, this is priority number 1...

both of you got a ton of work done lately...I'm way behind haha.
 
original exhaust i.e. OEM or?

Does the midpipe bolt in/out for you or is it welded? (My exhaust is in 3 pieces. Header, Pipe, Muffler.)

Eh don't feel bad man, its summer there so lap it up! You also have a fiance IIRC. Its winter here and I don't have a better half therefore I have more time. When summer comes around there's just that more cruising and better things to do :)

Still going ahead with the 1.8 crank etc?
 
Last edited:
^yep picked up a 1.8L crank at the beginning of summer from a local wrecker. Just $50, and seems to be in great shape so far...Its now at the machine shop, waiting for further word on what rods i end up with.

Currently i'm a little stuck, though...Part of me just wants to rip out my current engine and rebuild it with the 1.8L, but at the same time...engine wise, the car is running so well i almost don't want to mess with it...so i haven't fully decided if i'll just source another block and head...which with the age of these things, wont' add a whole lot of cost...so knock on wood, i'd rather not have the thing fall apart until i get some more free time haha.

as far as the mid-pipe...the JDM header i have is about 8" longer than the stock down pipe...so i had to cut the factory mid pipe (so yeah, its a factory pipe, sort of) to bolt up properly...I got under there Monday and checked everything out...spring bolts are rusty, but seem solid...can't see any water or anything dripping from the 'donut' gasket thing...the mid-pipe has some rusty weld seams, but doesn't seem outrageous or anything...

but the sound is pretty unique...i'm positive its coming from directly under the gear lever...its loudest when cold, and after a drive in this hot weather, its almost entirely gone...but still seems just slightly different than before...when cold, its a very buzzy sound...like the mid-pipe is touching the cross member or something...but everything checked out for the most part...even replaced the two hangers while i was down there, and it didn't change it at all...pretty weird...I'm wondering if it might be inside the cat?
 
Sounds like a dead cat :)

IIRC Duratec rods are pretty close to fitting and about the correct length too.

Personally I'd go with getting another block :)
 
Yeah, this is going to be a crazy build. I would go with the separate block. You wont be as stressed as much if something goes wrong.
 
I had a prob when i put on my OBX and midpipe years ago rattling off the crossmember. I swapped all the rubber for urethane on the hangers it did the trick.
 
Wild month at work, crazy hours, but i did get the exhaust fixed it up...

My header had actually cracked...right at the coupler just in front of the flange where it meets the mid pipe...it was only the upper 'half', and had walked away from a weld a little...

can't remember if i mentioned it last month, but when i first noticed the odd sound at start up...i got underneath and the first thing i replaced was the mid pipe hangers...They had not completely ripped, but were hanging a good 2 inches lower than they should've been...and looked ridiculously stretched...I'm fairly sure this is what caused it...i had never replaced them, and that extra weight could've been right on the header for years...replacing the hangers also made the crack not get any worse...i drove the car for a month or so regularly, because the sound continued to completely go away after 2 or 3 minutes...

So anyway, spent nearly a full day calling different exhaust shops...and NO ONE had a tig welder (the header is stainless)...but then out of no where found a custom bike builder 3 miles from my house!?...took him about a half hour to clean it up, drill the ends of the hair line crack, and weld it closed...for $30...reinstalled last night and so far so good...and even better; i think i found a go to shop for any other custom exhaust work...he made it sound like he could completely replicate that header pretty easily in his own shop...

its not been the summer i planned, been way busier than i expected...but i finish a major project for work just before labor day, and the build takes off again then...crank is good to go, might have sourced a good block/head to put it in...and will get the rod/ems thing taken care of in September...clutch goes in that weekend...
 
doing awesome, man! it took a lot of messing with timing, but i think i have them pretty dialed in as best as possible for the mp3 ecu...

A friend has an 06 Civic Si, pretty heavy with NA mods...Since we don't have a dyno within 90 miles of my house...he's had is hondata ecu flashed by one of those 'send in' places, who do testing on a shop car they have and will bolt on as similar mods as possible to what he has done...and dyno it there...if that is accurate, he is at about 223whp currently...

the reason i'm bringing that up is with my torque pro android app and elm thing...we managed 221.9whp multiple times on this 'test track' i've been using near my old office (just an abandoned farm road that is nearly perfectly flat for over 1/4 mile)...and with some aggressive cam timing, i'm peaking just under 150whp at about 6700rpm since putting on my cold air box...problem with that is that it refuses to idle with the intake cam set to that position...for daily use i dial it back a little, bringing power more in the lower 140whp range, but a better bump to mid-range output...

so i'm happy for now...that is some of the higher numbers i've seen with any form of stock ecu and an FS-DE bottom end...i know its nothing compared to FI, but a 50whp bump from stock is extremely noticeable haha...its only as accurate as that app, but its so damn consistent, and tests elevation change with gps (less than 2 feet on this road over the distance i use), reads afr, is aware of an entered vehicle weight (with me in it), etc...if i pull in 2nd gear, then do it in 3rd, i get peak hp readings back to back within 1whp...i don't have enough room to try 4th, i can't reach red line in time haha...but the curve remains identical to where i need to let off...

and just for fun...tested my 82 Porsche 928 w/ an '85 928S Euro exhaust and ecu...that is not OBD-II, so i can't use the elm adapter for any real time ecu information...but the app can use straight up gps for vehicle speed, and we weighed it at the same scale...got 314.5 whp out of that haha...not bad for a car form the early 80's...thats back when corvettes had under 175 hp from an even bigger V8...
 
Last edited:
a 50whp bump on a n/a fs is INSANE. sounds like you are ready to destroy some stock/lightly modded msp's. as far as the idling thing goes. Have you tried just bumping your idle up a tad to compensate for the aggressive cam timing?
 
yeah...even with a idle set up above 900 rpm by jumping the diagnostics, i'd throw a p0300 on every start up and still stall on throttle lift...and also, my area won't pass a car on emissions if heated idle is above 900rpm...actually, idle rpm and troubleshooting codes, plus inspecting just to see if the car has 1 catalyst; is all they check entirely...i could bump idle down just for the inspection, but having cam timing set there would pop the code immediately, so they'd still fail it...i kind of prefer setting the cams and keeping them there, as the cam gears are very rare and i'd rather not strip an adjuster bolt or something haha...

what worked best was dialing the peak hp down just a bit with only the intake cam, and keeping the IAC bypass screw backed out a little...no stalls, idles safely at 700rpm, and only throws a p0300 once or so a month, and only if i let the car idle from cold up to warm...if i just start driving lightly while cold, it'll never pop up...i can live with the loss of 5-7whp for the time being, especially since it makes the 3k to 5k range a lot better...not quite the same animal above 5200 rpm, but still a lot of fun...
 
^well, a little...I got in touch with a college friend who helped me with my original build almost 9 years ago...He now works in the engineering department at penn state, and claims i can get access to some of the equipment...will probably be the easiest, and even cheapest way, to get some custom rods made...I'd be going back to 'billet' aluminum rods...which is way stronger than stock, but not as strong as having them forged after being cut/shaped...my first build used this material, and it seemed to be fine, although I never used it for very long...the 1.8L crank checked out fine, its just waiting for rods and whatever block i end up using...they can then finish up alignment and misc machining for installation...

Wedding wise we finalized the photographer, venue, music, ALCHOHOL!!!, etc...only thing left to do is catering...this had wrapped up every weekend nearly all summer, but its pretty much out of the way and i can get back to the car...Header has been holding up fine for the past month...repair seems to have worked so far, so i'm happy about that...I found a 'brand new' Haltech sprint 500 ecu about 30 miles way on CL, but the description didn't have a lot of detail...trying to get more information, but he was only looking for $650...if its new, that isn't all that bad depending on what it includes...but we'll see...little shady as he's claiming he doesn't have the included software anymore...i'll keep digging...
 
Back