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#3779941
Hi everyone I'm Adam, I'm a motorsport engineer currently studying at Oxford Brookes and this is my first CTR. I've had turbo cars previously in the form of starlets but they are too unreliable for my liking and I've always had a vtec itch that's needed scratching so after about 3-4 months of searching for a CTR that was quite specific I finally found what I was looking for.

After going to view around 4 CTR's are figured out exactly what I was after, a facelift model with under 100k miles, no modifications (or at least very little), full service history and preferably in Cosmic grey, a long with being at the right price.

I then found a 54 plate cosmic grey CTR which had covered 97k miles ( apparently 50k were motorway miles), completely standard except for a headunit and with full service history. I loved the car as soon as I saw it, went out in it and it pulled really well with no unusual noises, had a few downsides which were track rod ends were starting to deteriorate, rust has just started coming through on the rear arches but is only surface at the moment and I wanted to get the timing chain done.

After two days of ownership I gave the car a good wash and detail and came out like this.

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And some proper photo's.

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I then also started to gather some bits for a service, so I bought some Millers 5w40 Nanodrive, Hamp oil filter, Honda Type 2 coolant, ADL blueprint pollen filter and I had some NGK BKR7EIX laying in my toolbox unused. So I decided to gap the spark plugs which out of the box were preset to 0.7mm, I then changed this to 1.1mm and the car seems to be running fine so far with no issues.

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So time came round to doing the service and first up was the pollen filter, the old was full of crap and was well overdue to be replaced.
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New
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Then it was time for the spark plugs, out came the Laser Irridiums which didn't look to bad although the electrode looked as though the engine had been running slightly lean but this might just be how they are mapped from factory I'm not sure.
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In with the new Irridiums

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Then I had a bit of a surprise when I pulled cylinder 4 plug

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Current Spec List:

Engine
Stock K20A2 Motor
Clockwise Motion Sump Baffle
K-Tuned Idle Air Assist Delete Kit
Solid Fabrications 3" Super Silent Cat Back System

Chassis /Suspension
Bilstein B16 Coilover Kit
Eibach SPC Adjustable Rear Camber Arms
Eibach Camber Bolts
Tegiwa Rack Raiser
Tegiwa Rigid Collar Kit
JDP Modified Steering Arms
Buddyclub Roll Centre Adjusters
Function 7 Rear Lower Control Arms
Function 7 Rear Subframe Brace
Q-Drive Track Rod Ends
Meyle Front Anti Roll Bar Drop Links
Progress 24mm Rear Anti Roll Bar
SuperPro Caster Increase Front Wishbone Bush Kit
SuperPro Control Arm Lower Outer Bush kit
SuperPro Rear Upper Control Arm Outer Bush
Energy Suspension Engine Mount Inserts

Brakes
Brembo 4 Pot Calipers
Girling 324 x 30 brake discs
Carbotech XP8 pads
OEM Rear Calipers
Godspeed G hook brake discs
Ferodo DS2500 brake pads
Goodridge Stainless Braided Brake hoses

Transmission
OEM K20 6-Speed Gearbox
Exedy Replacement Clutch Kit

Interior
Carbon Fibre Dial Surround
STRI DSD Oil Pressure Gauge (Still waiting for pod to be made for gauges)
STRI DSD Oil Temperature Gauge
STRI DSD Water Temperature Gauge

Wheels & Tyres
OEM Honda Alloys
Nankang NS-2R 180 compound tyres (Track)
Bridgestone RE050A (Road)
Last edited by AdamB92 on Sun May 01, 2016 1:31 pm, edited 12 times in total.
User avatar
By AdamB92
#3779942
Absolutely covered in oil, so that would be new spark plug seals then!

After that came the time to replace the engine oil, well what is normally quite a simple job turned into a nightmare which took about an hour and half to do. The oil filter was squeezed on there so tight I couldn't undo it with my hands, and due to the location of the filter no tools can help either. The main problem I had was that my filter socket cap set didn't even go big enough for the size of the filter :( So back to the old method of stabbing the thing with a screwdriver and managing to turn the filter ever so slightly to get it lose enough to remove by hand. Was a complete pain because of the driveshaft underneath and what I assume to be a coolant hose just above/next to the filter not allowing a great amount of room for manoeuvrability. In the end the filter looked like I had been shooting at it with a air rifle.

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After that was free it was time to drop the oil from the sump and a nice little surprise was a magnetic sump plug

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Also changed the coolant following the owners handbook procedure which I never got any pictures of as it was getting late at the time, this was the 100k mile service I undertook and managed to find that on top of the spark plug seals it also requires front lower ball joints and a a pair of new rear calipers as the handbrake isn't working very effectively after adjusting and you can feel the resistance of the wheels even without the handbrake applied, more noticeable on the nearside rear than the offside.

So after this service I ordered the spark plug seals, rocker cover gasket and also treated her to some Jazz washer jets, although I have one missing rubber from the washer jets and its seeming quite a task to find some unless I pay Honda £12 just for a single jet which comes with the rubbers.

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So my little check list of things that I would like to get done in the near future is:
- Replace rear brake calipers
- Replace the timing chain and tensioner (Toda)
- Replace track rod ends which I have here but I'm going to gather a few more parts for a FRSU to save paying for alignment twice
- Replace Lower ball joints
- Fit spark plug seals and rocker cover gasket (hopefully tomorrow)
- Demist the headlights with a restorer kit, done a little bit with AG SRP but hasn't come out the best
- Underseal the car

Thanks for reading :-D
User avatar
By AdamB92
#3780371
Well today I managed to get round to fitting the new spark plug seals, so here's how I did it.

Removing the rocker cover is fairly straight forward, it helps to remove the brake & clutch reserviour out the way but I'm sure there's already a tutorial for that.
Once the rocker cover is off lay it on a some cardboard on a hard flat surface, have it pointed up as it would be on the car and as these plug seals have a metal ring inside them place a flatblade screwdriver on the lip of the seal like below:

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Take a hammer and give it a few short sharp taps and the seal will just pop out. Once the old seal is out, take the new seal and put it square to the bore, you can just push quite firmly around the seal to seat it, although I took a 32mm socket and lightly tapped the seal into place.

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And then repeat for the rest of them :)

Few more pics of putting the new ones in:

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I then got round to cylinder 4 plug seal which is the one that was leaking oil into the plug chamber, when I removed the seal I found exactly the reason why it was leaking and it wasn't the plug seal at all :-x :-x

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It looks as if someone has tried to do the plug seals before and has put a screwdriver right down the side of the seal and pitted the bore causing the oil to seep past this part. I took some wet & dry to smooth it off a little bit hoping that the plug seal will now be able to do its job, but time will tell.

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I seated the rocker cover back down with a new cover gasket and oil is seeping past slightly on the corners so I'm going to nip the nuts up a little more and if not I will have to get some hondabond on the corners to seal it up.
User avatar
By AdamB92
#3780535
Cheers buddy :)
I got my pollen filter off the good old bay was £10.25 or around that mark for the ADL blueprint item, there was others on there cheaper but I thought I would stick to a good well known brand that I've used before and can trust.

As for what's next I need to sort out getting a pair of rear calipers to sort the sticking problem out so I can get a good handbrake, after that I will be doing the timing chain with a Toda tensioner to go with it. It also needs some new front brakes as the discs are just starting to show hairline fractures but there's probably still a couple thousand miles left on them.
Just general maintenance at the moment and keeping her clean, later on down the line I'll be looking to get FRSU or if things come up at the right price then I'll start gathering a few goodies now :-D

I'm hoping to get round to trying out some new cleaning products if the weather holds out tomorrow during my day off work. Got some Zaino products along with bilt hamber clay bar and some Poorboy's Natty's wax to try and get a nice deep gloss shine to the paint work.
User avatar
By AdamB92
#3780639
Thanks mate, appreciate it. Always try and do as much as I can, I always live by the philisophy " if you want something done, do it yourself " that way you know its done properly. Only downside is if it goes wrong you got no one to point the finger at :lol:
User avatar
By AdamB92
#3782472
So I finally managed to get round to cleaning the car after being called into work on my day off, didn't manage to give it the detail I wanted was just a quick wash but here are some pics anyway.

First off I cleaned the wheels with some CarPro Trixx to remove the iron particles from the brake pads

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then I pre-washed with AutoBrite Magifaom and washed with Autoglym shampoo, dried off and she came out looking like this.

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And some shiney reflections

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Hopefully I'll get round to doing a proper detail on it using some new products later this week.
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By SeanEP3
#3782474
looking good dude.

you buy it off the forum? thought I recognised the alloys?
User avatar
By AdamB92
#3782484
Well this morning I came down to find a note through my letterbox to say that my neighbour has reversed and hit my car :( Absolutely gutted!

So when I went out to take a look this is what I was greeted with.

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So what happened was that my neighbour was reversing out from her garage and reversed into the corner of my car, what appears to have happened is that the bumper has slid over the top of that corner of the rear quarter upon impact and it has pushed/dented the corner inwards of the body :(
It's what I'm most annoyed about is the rear quarter as I hope it can be pulled out leaving no lasting affects like creases :(

Going to get a few quotes for the repair tomorrow, hopefully will sort it out fairly sharpish.
User avatar
By AdamB92
#3782485
SeanEP3 wrote:looking good dude.

you buy it off the forum? thought I recognised the alloys?
Yes I did buddy, bought it from a chap called Daniel, can't remember what his username was though, did try go looking for the sale advert but couldn't find it :(
User avatar
By AdamB92
#3782630
Kid you not buddy that's what I got quoted today, that wasn't even from Honda, I'm still waiting for that one to come back. I did have a good old chuckle, at least I'm not the one paying for it :lol:
User avatar
By Lewisgame
#3782633
They always go over on their quote. They won't use all the materials listed or spend the amount of time quoted. They'll cash in, especially if they know it's an insurance job.
User avatar
By AdamB92
#3783522
Went to my girlfriend's today and had the nice smell of burning brakes as I opened the door, it was the offside rear caliper sticking/sezing. So going to order new calipers tomorrow and I might as well get some new discs and pads whilst I'm at it seeing as they have started to develop hairline cracks.

Any recommendations on rear discs and pads?
User avatar
By AdamB92
#3783578
NPyke wrote:Why not replace the seal? Not meant to be that bad!
The caliper seals I guess you mean mate? Reason being is that I've heard that rebuild kits tend to let go again not long after so to save the hassle I just want to do it the once, cost a little more but then that's the service you pay for getting the caliper cleaned properly etc.
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