Reelmotion (Dave's) DC5 Blog

Jan 2012 - Wash, paint clean & wax

Dave — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 23:43:30 +0000

Time for a new year update..

I had the car turbocharged a couple of months ago now and recently it's taken a beating by the weather. A couple of recent long trips up and down the country with rain, sleet and snow has made the bodywork look pretty grim so I decided it was time to think about protecting the paintwork. First up was a good rinse, then another for good measure.

The plan was to remove as much of the grit and grime as possible before even getting near it with a sponge. Once the car was throughly rinsed it was obvious that the paint would need a clean as well but first up was a good shampoo. As I was stealing (borrowing) my mates products it wasnt a decision process its was more of a what have you got... fortunately my friends have good taste so when the autoglym car shampoo came out i was more than happy.

Once the car was washed and rinsed it was clear that this (Autoglym shampoo) was a step above halfords own brand shampoo (my usual).

I took my time with the washing and used the two buckets technique to try and get rid of the grit before asking for the paint restored/cleaner.

Again, I was pleased to find that my mate had some Faracela Paint renovator, it was easy to apply and very easy to remove.

The results were impressive and it got rid of all the tar spots that had built up on the doors, wings and skirts. The most impressive results were the ease that it removed all the carbon off the rear bumper. Previously, I had been collecting some of my exhaust gasses on my rear bumper and it had started to look pretty brown! Now its brand spanking again thanks to faracela and a bit of elbow greese.

Now that the paint was clean and spot free it was time to seal the paint with a wax. The wax on offer was autoglyms hd wax, this would be the first time i'd used a hard wax on the car and it worked a treat!

Not sure if i'm a complete convert as I do love my NxtTech2 in a bottle but I will certainly be investing in some autoglym hd wax too.

Stage 1 - Autoglym Shampoo

Stage 2 - Faracela Paint Renovator

Stage 3 - Autoglym HD Wax

The results...

Exterior:

Wheels:

Engine bay:

More to follow, overall I'm really impressed with the products easy to use, quick to apply and remove and the results seem to last. This was a couple of weeks ago and the car is still gleeming - underneath the grime ;)

Dec 2011 - Boost is coming

Dave — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 13:16:37 +0000

Well after trying all the "cheap" mods the various bolt ons its time to go a bit crazy. Inspired by Ben's Turbo EG

I decided to take the plunge and let Tdi North go mad with the car.

The car is booked in on the 7th December and updates will follow in due course.

Target power for first round of install is 350bhp.

Oct 2011 - Apexi Induction kit (Installed)

Dave — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 21:52:32 +0000

Following on from the sound deadening I decided to fit my Apexi induction kit this weekend. I bought it at the last Mimms off another itr-dc5 forum member for £60.

There has been a lot of debate about heatsoak from the open cone filters but since I had a custom air feed into the bay and the ambiant temperature is dropping (winter coming) I decided that I'd go for it.

First impressions are good, a nice deep growl in vtec - almost a bark! Pretty similar to my modified stock airbox before 5k rpm.

This is the before and after shots,

Engine bay:

Close up on the kits:

During the install:

In summary the kit was really east to fit and needed no additional parts, (I had to borrow 2 x bolt and 2 x rubber spacers from the standard intake box but the kit fits like factory and was on in about 30mins, would have been even quicker if i wasn't taking photos).

Here is a shot of the bay now with the Apexi induction kit installed

I have a before and after sound clip that I will post here later this week

Oct 2011 - DIY (Sound deadening - removed)

Dave — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 20:17:33 +0000

So since the outside was looking good afer the TGM refresh last month I thought it was time to do some of the little bits I'd been meaning to do for ages.

First on the list was to remove the sound deadening from under the bonnet then give it a clean.

Before:

During:

After:

And the engine bay, will be adding an open cone filter - short ram instead of the modified stock airbox as the air temp will be much cooler this time of year. Hopfully I'll be doing that later this month so watch out for the results.

The finished result...

SEPT 2011 - TGM Refresh

Dave — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 08:12:55 +0000

Well it's been long overdue but the time came to eventually tidy the car up and TGM were the people to do it. Having had a previous nightmare with a bad fitting replica kit i wanted to take it somewhere where i knew the people and knew they would do a good job.

I wasnt dissapointed the work carried out by Tom & Willy @ TGM was top notch.

Some pics...

The end result, front

The end result, rear

In progress...

And a mini photoshoot...

New wheels from Rarerims

Rota Fighter 17x9

ET50

That's all for now

May 2011 - Spoon Socks, Lowered Seat Rails and First Trackday

Dave — Sun, 22 May 2011 10:58:10 +0000

It's been a while since i've updated this thread, there is a good reason for that. And the reason is, I havent really done anything to my car in a while. The last thing I did was the lowered seat rails...What a fantasic mod that is! Really reccommend getting some lowered seat rails.

The most recent bit of news is that I took the car out on track at Japfest (Castle Combe).

While I was there I bought some Spoon socks from Hendy Perfromance to cover the reservoirs under the bonnet.

Here's some pics:

The next mod was installing an HKS lowered driver seat rail, Here's an image of the hks seat rail along side the standard one.

I can't reccomend this mod highly enough!

Granted there are a couple of downsides:

You will look like a midget driving your car
You can't see where the front of the car is
You can't see where the back of the car is

If you're short,

You won't be able to see where other cars are...

but those asside, it really is a top mod.

The driving position is much better - You sit lower in the car and as a result feel more secure
The dials are no longer obscured by the wheel
The gearstick position relative to driver is much better
The room between my knee and the base of the wheel is much bigger - meaning more room to move your legs around
The feedback from both the tyre and the car is much better - especially when braking or cornering

I have no idea how it can make such a difference but the feedback it gives when sat 2inch's lower to the ground is much better.

Overall, I'd say it works out at about + 20-25% confindence in the car when cornering.

JAN '11 - Mugen Lip Kit

Dave — Mon, 09 May 2011 00:41:51 +0000

Well I had been looking for this kit for a while and I couldn't justify the expense of an authentic one so I decided to go the replica route. If you like perfect this is not the option for you, I have since found out its not the option forme and i'm going to get it replaced as its not 100% perfect so it bugs me.

Anyway, some pics from a distance

June '10 - Performance Parts Test + Hondata Dyno Tune - TWO

Dave — Sun, 08 May 2011 20:17:52 +0000

After seeing the various result on the Dyno day I was inspired to try and get a little more air going into the engine to try and free up some more power.

Round two of the Reelmotion DC5 Tuneup project...

I compared the result of the various different inlet designs and decided that the GruppeM would be the best option, however with GruppeM's selling for a little under £1000 I decided that I could not justify that amount of money for any airbox!

After a bit of research on what was available off the shelf... (thanks itr.dc5). I managed to source a couple of parts second hand that I could use to make the new intake so I decided to go cutsom.

We had seen on a previous dyno test that the RAM style intake setups seem to work the best. With that in mind we spoke to TGM and Tom agreed to help design the new intake.

5ziegen CAI scoop.

This would be fitted behind the bumper and a whole would be cut into the bumper to allow the air to be forced into the air box via this cold air ram pipe.

To keep the costs down I decided to stick with the stock air box and do the "Hondata Airbox Mod".

Tom cut out all the internals and smoothed to aid airflow.

The final piece of the puzzle was an aftermarket air filter so i opted for the spoon item.

Dropped that into the modified airbox and went off to the dyno.

Over to Fusion...

This was the difference on the dyno:

Before:

As expected the dyno sheet proved that airflow had been improved into the engine especially in vtec.

While at Fusion we were keen to free up some of that lost power by replacing the exhaust as well before remapping.

I had managed to source a Fujitsubo RM01A and the plan was to mate that up with the existing DCSports header.

We had seen previously that the RM01A performed well on the dyno so we thought we would give that a go. Additionally, being Jasma rated it should help keep the noise down in the cabin.

Mugen Twinloop exhaust off...

Side by side comparrison:

Mugen pipe bend - bad flow design:

Fuji pipe bend - much straighter and freer flowing:

It wasn't just the flow design, the Fuji system also benefitted from a larger pipe diameter.

Although this was good for flow, a larger diameter exhaust also means more noise which i was trying to avoid.

The new exhaust system managed to increase the peak power by 5hp compared to the old system.

We had done a power test with all of the bolt-on's and compared the results so Fusion set about remapping the various engine parameters to allow the engine to take full advantage of the new free'er flowing components

Finishing up the final parts of the map...

And the results,

Just a little rundown of the findings:

Starting Figure ---- 227hp

Stock Airbox Vs Custom Inbox ---- + 3hp

Mugen Vs Fujitsubo ---- + 5hp

Fusion Remap ---- + 8hp

The best bit of all is that the power is very usable and the car is still quiet to drive just with a sporty tone. I'll get an exhaust clip up one of these days.

The car's spec at the end of this video is as follows:

Engine

Honda K20A

Management

ECU - Hondata Kpro - (fusion motorsport tuned)

Exhaust

DC Sports 4-1 manifold

Decat

Fujitsubo RM01A

Intake

TGM Custom Carbon Air Intake

Hondata Airbox Mod

Spoon Air Filter

Transmission

Race Spec LSD

Suspension

Eibach Coilovers (approx -50mm ride height)

TGM Fast Road Setup

Eibach geo kit

Brakes

Braided Brake lines

AP Racing Disks with Aluminium bell

Mintex 1144 pads

Standard Brembo 4pot Caliper

Wheels

Rota Fighter 17 x 8 ET45

Tyres

Bridgestone RE070 - 225/45/R17

Body modifications

NrG Carbon Fibre Spoiler (vertical struts painted in CW)

Ings Front Splitter

What's next, thats the question?

May '10 - Serviced by TGM then Cleaned, Clayed & Waxed

Dave — Sun, 08 May 2011 20:12:41 +0000

Freshly Serviced...Running a dream...Mods ready and waiting to go on...so I treated her to a wash

The results

A photo from Japfest May '10

May '10 - Carbon Spoiler, Arms Painted Championship White

Dave — Sun, 08 May 2011 20:00:09 +0000

I hadn't been happy with the full carbon spoiler since I got it, it looked nice from some angles but on the whole I felt that it wasn't working for me.

I took inspiration from the FD2 Civic and tried to miminc the 3 piece construction look (CW struts and a carbon blade).

I spoke to Tom at TGM and explained my plans, he gave the car and the brief to his brother who runs the spray shop and here are the results..

First a naked one lol...

Fitted...

In the end really pleased with the results TGM achieved.