Midnight_Raven's Build

[Midnight_Raven]

Thanks Hondahero10, I agree every ounce does count. Less stress on the brakes, tires, suspension, engine so it's a great goal imo.

So I was able to sell my old Comptech exhaust and with the money made from the sale I decided to put back into the NSX. I decided to continue working on stage 2 of my weight reduction plan posted #73 of this thread. I ended up buying a Shorai battery from the group buy and also buying the aluminum square tubing to make the front and rear bumper beams. I'll be fabbing the bumper beams when they arrive, which I'm assuming will be in a week or so. It seems like both mods should net me near 60lbs removed from the total curb weight bringing me down to about 2800lbs! That's basically NSX Type-S Zero and NSX NA2 Type-R curb weight oh yeah!

 

[Midnight_Raven]

Today I installed my rims back on with the Dunlop Direzza Z2s. Drove it around a little to see how the car felt. My initial impression is that the steering feels light compared to before. Are these class of summer tires usually like that or could it be the tire is filled to a higher pressure than before? I'll check the pressure in the morning. Additionally these are definitely louder than the S.Drives. If there are any weird grooves the tires make more audible noise than before.

Additionally my aluminum square tubing arrived yesterday as well. I won't start that until the following week. I'll bring more updates then.

Update: I went and checked the pressure all around and the pressure in the front are 30psi and the rear is 31psi. I don't think my S.Drives were any lower than than so I guess maybe the compound makes it feel lighter. Either way can't really complain makes parking easy for me .

 

[TURBO2GO]

What are you doing with the square tubing?

 

[JLCoolman]

I read through your whole build a while back and would like to commend you on some awesome DIY work!

Very nice build. I like the NA1 Type-R route that you're going with the weight reduction.

I have more comments, but I'm just starting to post on Prime again so I'll keep it short.

Also, I know you already did it, but you could've used dry ice to help remove the sound deadening material from the floors.
Honda builders have been using this method for quite some time now... unless it's a no-no on the aluminum chassis.

Lastly, I'm super jealous of your titanium exhaust. I had my eye on that GRF too (also the Advance that sold recently), but am hoping to hold out for an ARC one day.

 

[TURBO2GO]

I have an ARC. if I go turbo I will sell it. It is an NA1 91-94 exhaust attached to GT-One F1 headers also 91-94 style.

 

[JLCoolman]

I have an ARC. if I go turbo I will sell it. It is an NA1 91-94 exhaust attached to GT-One F1 headers also 91-94 style.

Hey Dave,

If you go turbo you should consider the SoS Twin Turbo system just so you can keep your ARC exhaust! (That's a setup that I've dreamed of, lol.)
Is your ARC a dual or quad-tipped?
I just recently went full '00+ OEM exhaust configuration ('05 manifolds/headers, '00+ test pipes, '00 exhaust/muffler), so a '97+ ARC exhaust would be ideal for me not having to use adapters (I believe the NA2 ARC exhausts are slip-fit and not the typical NA1 plus adapters).
But I would still definitely be interested in any ARC exhaust regardless.


Alright, enough derailing of Anthony's thread.

His square tubing is for his bumper beams, I believe.

 

[TURBO2GO]

The hell with Anthony's thread. Bunch of nonsense anyway...

LOL...

Mine is single tips. Special cut. If I go twin turbo I am doing Dave Dozier's system.

 

[Midnight_Raven]

WTF!?! What's going on here?! Oh the agony! My thread is getting jacked by Dave! lol

Dave in response to your posts, sometimes I ask myself what would Jesus do....

LOL

LJCoolMan correct the tubing is for the bumper beams.

 

[TURBO2GO]

I want beams to. Can we make too?

I learned how two spell all my to's from facebook. seriously though I want front and rear beams.

 

[Midnight_Raven]

First u jack mah shi', now u wan' mah help. Oh hell no!

LOL

Sure Dave I don't mind making you a set after I make mine and learn the process. It won't be for a couple weeks from now though. I'll let you know when I'm done.

 

[JLCoolman]

Sorry for going off-topic Anthony.

What were your thoughts on having the S.drives on the NSX?

I have them on my Civic and really like them. I had contemplated using them on my NSX because they were still geared towards performance, but would last longer. Instead I went with the Neova AD08s (which I know beats the S.drives hands-down performace-wise).


Also, did you see my comment about using dry-ice to remove sound deadening? Wondering if you knew about that method? Or if that method is not good for the aluminum chassis?

 

[Midnight_Raven]

The S.Drives felt good to me. I was happy with them but since my rears were low I used that as an excuse to upgrade to stickier tires. If I didn't care about performance I would of just kept the S.Drives since they were great for the time I used them. S.drive Road noise was quieter than my Z2s for sure.

I did see the comment on the sound deadening. I contemplated using dry ice but decided I still was going to have to use a heat gun to remove the sound deadening on the rear firewall, since gravity won't let me lay it down on a vertical surface.

 

[JLCoolman]

Thanks for the feedback on the S.drives. I'm due for some new tires and will probably go back with the AD08s, unless there is a possibility of the new AD08Rs coming out over here.


That makes sense about the rear wall. I wonder if "bagging" the dry-ice against the rear wall might work, but it probably isn't worth the effort.

 

[Midnight_Raven]

So update after a couple of weeks. I've worked on the rear aluminum bumper beam this week. Just finished it not too long ago. Almost a perfect fit. I weighed the steel beam and got a weight of 22lbs. The aluminum beam with the custom made aluminum license plate brackets weigh 8.4lbs for a total weight savings of 13.4lbs in the rear. I probably could of saved some more if I didn't get a beam that filled the entire bumper width but I'm happy with the weight savings. Next is the front bumper I'll start that next week and I'm hoping the week after I'll receive the Shorai battery and custom bracket to bring my curb weight down to 2800lbs!

I ordered a 62" long aluminum square tube beam. Here is a picture of it side by side with the steel beam.


Here is a pictures after I finished making the beam. This took me about 10 hours to make since I was taking my time measuring things over and over again. Additionally I had to use a hack saw to make the triangular cut outs to be able to form the beam to the shape of the foam. The liscence plate brackets I made from the 1"x1"x12" squre tubing that I ordered and cut up with a hack saw. Took a while to do this work but it came together good in the end.



Here is the bumper beam installed inside the bumper. There is less than an 1/8" on either side it's a near perfect fit.




And just for kicks I took a picture of the GRF EX003 without the bumper. The exhaust is starting to change color it was a silver with a very light blue hue before now it's turning darker and more purple.

 

[TURBO2GO]

wow nice work. How about you build two front beams please.

 

[Midnight_Raven]

wow nice work. How about you build two front beams please.

Dave I have to see how good my front comes out before I commit to making more. Hopefully I'll have it done by the end of next week I'll let you know then.

 

[Midnight_Raven]

So I finished making the front bumper beam and installed it back on the car. Looks like a perfect fit so I'm happy . I weighed the beam before I started drilling and tapping holes into it. It weighed 6.6lbs and was 11.2lbs lighter than the steel beam which weighed a total of 17.8lbs. So combining that with the weight saved in the rear I get a total weight savings of 24.6lbs. Addtionally I removed about 2lbs from the removal of the windshield washer container, some of the brackets which I decided to not use, and some of the black plastic air duct that I cut off to allow the new beam to work. I'll probably have to add another lb back after I figure out how to install a small container for the relocation of windshield washer fluid so at the moment I got a total of 25.6lbs off the car. I was hoping it was going to be 30lbs but I guess 5 lbs off isn't too bad. Didn't really take any pictures since well it's just a 4"x4" beam with some holes in it lol.

Additionally I have scheduled a Dyno run for my car for this upcoming Monday. I'm interested to see how much power my car makes with the upgrades I have on it. Hopefully I'll be able to talk to the guys and have them also weigh the car for me while we are there, to get a near curb weight reading of it. I'll give you guys the details next week.

 

[TURBO2GO]

Where are you doing this...

 

[Midnight_Raven]

I'm doing the dyno runs at KMC Auto.They are located here in Lawrence, MA might as well support a local car shop right . It's the same place that was servicing the Ferrari F40 I told you about earlier.

Here's a dyno video of the F40 they did a year ago.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/EPsNbbdrPR0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[TURBO2GO]

How much and what is the dyno?

 

[Midnight_Raven]

I believe they told me it's 100 dollars for 3 pulls with no A/F readings. If you want A/F readings as well they charge 150 for the 3 pulls.

They use a SuperFlow AutoDyn 30. They only have the 2WD dyno they can't do AWD setup.

 

[Midnight_Raven]

So I did a little more work on the NSX this week. Since I had to remove the windshield washer fluid reservoir from my NSX I had to come up with something else since in Mass I believe the windshield washer fluid has to work to pass safety inspection. I purchased a universal reservoir that only cost 15 dollars with pump and a bunch of accessories on amazon. The only place I could find to place it where it wouldn't be in the way of anything else was on the bracket around the ABS module. Tied it with 4 small tiewraps and it seems to hold it in place. Nice thing is this is also bringing the weight more towards the center of the car so I guess you could say I improved handling a little lol.

Anyways I was able to get it to kind of work. When I use the windshield washers only the right side of the passenger side nozzle shoots good. The other 3 shoot with low pressure and just hit the hood. I then went back and put on the old pump and tried it and again same issue. Not sure what it could be making this not work. Maybe I need to clean out the nozzles. Anyone have some input on the issue?

 

[TURBO2GO]

I had this issue. But I am no help because Mitch fixed it for me. Don't know what he did. It happened after the R hood was swapped.

 

[JLCoolman]

Great work with the beams!

Dyno Day!!! good luck

 

[Midnight_Raven]

Well I just came back from the dyno run. It was suppose to be on Monday but the only guy who knows how to run the dyno at the shop was not in so we rescheduled for today.

We did 3 runs with no air to fuel ratio readings. Below is the HP dyno plot for the 2nd run. They told me as we did each run the car kept making more power, about 1-2% power increase each pull (Maybe has to do with oil becoming less viscous as it heats up). My 3rd pull I got a peak HP reading of 251HP in regards to the dynojet plot. If I assume a 12-15% drive train loss, that means I'm making between 280-288HP at the crank. Makes sense about 10-18HP increase with the mods I have. If I base it off the superflow plot I would be making between 267-274hp. Which would mean I'm only making about 4hp more than stock. Could be true since the motor does have almost 100,000 miles on it.

In regards to torque the 2nd run data shows max torque of 180.5FT-LBS, if I increase the the torque by 1% to match the increase of HP between run 2 and 3 I get 182.3FT-LBS. If I then calculate the increase between Superflow vs dynojet I get 200.5FT-lbs of torque. I'm assuming 12-15% drivetrain loss means I'm making about 224-230FT-LBS at the crank. Not bad compared to stock numbers for a C30A motor.

Although I could be a bit optimistic using the dynojet numbers vs the superflow numbers but since most people use dynojet I'll go with that graph. Seems like the motor is healthy based on the numbers I got. Additionally I'm wondering why is it that the motor is redlining at 7,800RPM vs 8,000RPM.

They took video of the 3 dyno pulls so I'll post it up when they email it to me.

This is information for the 2nd pull. The top green plot line is the dynojet estimated plot line that the superflow dyno expects to be since it reads lower than dynojet. The dark blue plot is the superflow dyno rated plot. The light blue plot is the new SAE rated plot.