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My NSX is ON THE BOTTLE!

Joined
7 February 2001
Messages
1,617
Location
CORONA, CA USA
Ok, I'm excited so I had to post. I will be getting the RM NOS kit shipped to me in a couple days. I already called Larry up to let him know I'd be scheduling an appointment. He's upset because I guess he was looking for one for a good price too, and I got this one out from under him.
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Aparrently, he uses Randy's kit to make a different system. I am no expert on NOS, but he explained that he wires a bit differently, bypasses the intake, has a management system, and does a wet kit (as opposed to the standard RM dry kit). He just finished doing this for 3 or 4 people, so I trust him. He said that with a wet system and the way he sets it up, it would be more of a 100hp shot. It just takes more work and tuning from his end, but I'm up for that.

I do need some experienced advice on one issue. I can either go the manual route (manually push the button) or have it set up so it releases for me without having to push any buttons. I was leaning toward the manual route and Larry also prefers it. He explained you have more control over the gas in case something goes wrong.
However, there are probably benefits to having it work for me. Anyone with experience with the automatic setup?

DAMN I'm excited. I want to get this baby in before 'fast and the furious' comes out.
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Who is Larry and how much is he charging for the kit?
I have always heard that the wet NOS system is safer because you don't rely on your injectors to inject the extra fuel. In the wet system the nos and extra gas is injected together. Therefore once it is set up as long as you have fuel the NOS will have enough fuel to work. Correct me if I am wrong.
 
Larry is the mechanic at Team NSX in LA and self proclaimed 3rd best NSX mechanic in the US.
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He does Doug's and Alex V's car among others, so I'm not one to argue.
He uses RM's kit as well, I just think he goes farther with it. I'm sure that RM Racing could put together (and probably have) a wet system like this as well if asked. Since he uses their kits, I don't know about the pricing. People may buy them from RM and take it to Larry here in LA.
Maybe someone who had a kit installed by Larry can chime in.
 
I'll bet they can't do aftermarket like him though.
It's funny, he told me the same thing... that they were Honda Engineers. Is there an actual rating somewhere??? That would be cool.
 
nope, I'm not joking. I keep going to race flicks hoping that one of them will actually be good. No matter how many bad ones I see, I keep hope alive.
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I had a friend see an early screening of the movie (we insure most of the bigger releases) and said the races were awesome and there was lots of nitrous. I am getting nitrous installed, hence I'll be hyped up for the flick. I don't expect good dialouge or story... that would be asking too much. Just tricked out cars and great races. Especially since some of the cars in that movie were done by someone I know at JPS (or so I was told).
 
I would venture to say (and I suspect Larry would agree) that the number 1 and 2 NSX techs in the country are probably Mark Basch of Basch Acura Service in Phoenix, and Bernie Plotnick of Davis Acura in Langhorne PA outside Philadelphia. Both do plenty of work installing mods.

I wouldn't count Mr. Woodwork at Acura's Techline service, who is equally knowledgeable if not more so, but can't tell you everything he knows.
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And this is not to show disrespect towards any of the other many good NSX techs at dealers around the country. Here in the Chicago area there are two dealers who each have two absolutely top-notch techs, and Acura of Brookfield (WI) has built a substantial business on modifying and race-prepping NSX's. "Barn Man" in Nashville also comes to mind. There are undoubtedly other great techs in many other cities around the country as well.

Picking the number 1 and 2 NSX tech is like picking Miss America... there are so many excellent candidates to choose from!

[This message has been edited by nsxtasy (edited 01 May 2001).]
 
Originally posted by ilya:
I do need some experienced advice on one issue. I can either go the manual route (manually push the button) or have it set up so it releases for me without having to push any buttons. I was leaning toward the manual route and Larry also prefers it. He explained you have more control over the gas in case something goes wrong.
However, there are probably benefits to having it work for me. Anyone with experience with the automatic setup?

DAMN I'm excited.
biggrin.gif

I remember feeling like that once for NOS!!

Here are some comments:
Although correct that a wet system is more consistent than a dry, this only becomes significant when injecting several hundred horsepower worth like in drag racing. A puny 75-100hp does not justify going to a wet system unless you want to premix so the injectors don't work as hard and avoid installing an aux fuel pump. Without going to a six fogger system you will need to go pre-throttle body. Passing fuel through the throttle body concerns me (fire). This requires much tuning and complicates end user friendliness (difficult to tune). I too started out with an RM kit. I didn't like how it was put together so I re-engineered the kit. I prefer the manual injection but now am also using a control unit from NOS that reads WOT at the throttle position sensor. This is for safety and allows me to keep the button down between shifts and know it will only re-inject at full throttle (kinda "semi-auto").
 
Originally posted by ilya:
I do need some experienced advice on one issue. I can either go the manual route (manually push the button) or have it set up so it releases for me without having to push any buttons. I was leaning toward the manual route and Larry also prefers it. He explained you have more control over the gas in case something goes wrong.
However, there are probably benefits to having it work for me. Anyone with experience with the automatic setup?

DAMN I'm excited.
biggrin.gif

I remember feeling like that once for NOS!!

Here are some comments:
Although correct that a wet system is more consistent than a dry, this only becomes significant when injecting several hundred horsepower worth like in drag racing. A puny 75-100hp does not justify going to a wet system unless you want to premix so the injectors don't work as hard and avoid installing an aux fuel pump. Without going to a six fogger system you will need to go pre-throttle body. Passing fuel through the throttle body concerns me (fire). This requires much tuning and complicates end user friendliness (difficult to tune). I too started out with an RM kit. I didn't like how it was put together so I re-engineered the kit. I prefer the manual injection but now am also using a control unit from NOS that reads WOT at the throttle position sensor. This is for safety and allows me to keep the button down between shifts and know it will only re-inject at full throttle (kinda "semi-auto").
 
Anyone running RMs 70 shot think that there are other mods that should be done when installing the kit...i.e. fuel pump or other supporting devices?
 
19inchNSX is correct.
Larry was referring to 2 Honda Engineers above him. I wouldn't even begin to get into a discussion of who is better after that. I would guess Larry is the best period for full blown, racing applications (Doug's flamemobil). He's probably the best with the GruppeM superchargers as well. However, others would be better at other things. They are all so knowledgeable and experienced that I would just end up going to whomever is closer to me. We're lucky we have people that good as it is.

Vicster,
thanks for the advice. I'll mention that when getting the work done. I like to have some control over the gas, but a safeguard like that would be nice. I'm sure once I get it done I will know exactly what he did. I'm the kind of person that likes to be there with him the whole time to learn what he is doing and understand the process. It's nice that he has an open policy with his shop. if you want to hang out, talk and watch him work, then go ahead. I think he likes the attention.
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I want to get as many questions and info together before having it done as possible so it can be done to my liking. What usually ends up happening is I am ready with all my info, research and what I want done. Within 30 minutes I realize that Larry was planning on doing that for me, and then some, anyway so all my research was for not. However, I still feel better coming in prepared.
 
ilya - Go with manual release of the gas.

Find out exactly what setup you are getting here: wet or direct port. I know Larry did a a direct port install on Randy N.'s car. I agree with vicster that a wet kit is a poor choice. Do not do that.

A direct port install is great, but there is no real need for it on an NSX unless you are running a much larger shot than 100 HP. You can run a 100 HP dry shot by just swapping the nozzle on the RM kit. If you are going to go to the effort and expense of doing a direct port install, you should certainly go for a higher HP shot!

Sig - There is no need to do anything else with the standard RM 70HP kit. If you wanted to do redo your fuel delivery it never hurts to have more capacity, but for nitrous on an NSX you don't need it for a dry shot until you get more into the 150 HP range, although I know people who have done it on an otherwise stock NSX and they haven't blown anything up yet (I would never recommend that or do it on my car though!)

[This message has been edited by Lud (edited 02 May 2001).]
 
ilya,
Have you seen "Driven" yet? I know some of you must have seen it by now. The reviews I've seen so far are pretty negative towards the story line. I saw it last Friday and I really liked it. Lots of good special effects and camera angles. Of course they had to "Hollywood-ize" it by makings some scenes rather unrealistic but I still thoroughly enjoyed it.
Can't wait for "Fast and the Furious" like you.
Hope you really like your new NOS setup.
 
Larry is actually going to be in Georgia this weekend for a bunch of installs. He is doing 2 or 3 NOS kits and a supercharger.
I will make sure to ask him what kind of setup it is. He is big on fuel management and VERY good at it, so I'm sure his setup will take some kind of advantage there. The only thing I recall him saying is that he bypasses the intake altogether and goes straight to the throttle body or something similar. Don't quote me on the throttle body part, I may remember wrong. However, I'm sure he bypasses the intake. Whichever case, he said it will take 3-4 hours MAX, so I'm not worried about the labor. One thing about Larry (at least from my experience), you get what he quotes. If he says $300 and it takes all day, it's still $300.
I plan on going with the manual setup like you guys suggest. He seems to favor that setup as well.

I thought the action in driven was very good. I enjoyed watching. However, the dialogue left something to be desired.

"You couldn't even wait for me?"

"I'm not your waiter!"
????????????????
 
Lud-
You said you can bump up the RM kit to a 100 shot with the switch of a nozzle..... DO you get this as an upgrade from RM? Are there any additional steps one would take in addition to swapping the nozzle? Thanks.
 
ilya - The 70-100 shots are just not big enough to need the additional tuning afforded by a wet or direct port setup. If you want to go with a big HP setup, a direct port or even progressive (multi-stage) direct port kit certainly offers the best management but it's just not worthwhile unless you are going for big HP.

All nitrous kits bypass the intake. Wet and dry shots shoot into the inlet for the throttle body. Direct port kits bypass all of that and shoot straight into the cylinders.


Sig - I think RM used to carry them but I'm not sure if he still does or not... if not, any tuner shop will have them. You just swap the nozzle and you're done. If you want to go much bigger than 100 HP I'd suggest looking at alternatives to a dry shot.

[This message has been edited by Lud (edited 02 May 2001).]
 
The following may be approx. the way Larry does his NOS. I found this on Doug's site and thought it may be helpful. What exactly is he doing?

Meanwhile, Larry is turning into a full fledge NSX Tuner extraordinaire. He looks at the NOS setup on Randy's NSX. Larry doesn't understand why the NOS hose is routed 12 inches from the throttle body, into the metal tube for air. Larry proceeds to drill a hole DIRECTLY into the throttle body, taps the hole at an angle, and re-routes the NOS into this newly tapped hole. Zoom zoom, Randy now has instantaneous throttle response from the NOS at full throttle, and it is making a lot more power. So much power, that Steve, another NSX guy, is now thinking about a NOS kit on his NSX now, as he needs to experience the rush that Randy gets whenever he floors the gas.
 
I'm really not sure what that is describing. The RM kit does not inject 12 inches from the throttle body. And the HP gain is determined by the jet size; maybe it was rejetted when the location was changed. Also, according to e-mails I've seen, Randy N. has had a a direct port setup since at least last fall. I have not seen his car in person to verify this though.
 
I'm confused. these are two different people, right?
For Randy N, Larry has done a full direct port injection and his car has been featured in magazines. So has the RM racing NSX.
There is a great article on it at nsxfiles I just read.
I thought I had it all figured out and that it was a different Randy, and then I noticed you were referring to a Randy N. ???
confused again. LOL
 
Yeah... I got to that article too.
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I have an appointment set with Larry next weekend so if all goes well, I be all set by the 20th. I'm sure he will do compression test, check gaskets, etc. before installing.
If all is well the work can begin.
 
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