Once Jeff left, he endowed us with a few Honda installation tricks and as quick as he came, he was gone! Leaving us with a void of S2K knowledge, Jeff if you are reading this, once again a BIG THANK YOU!!

Once Jeff continued on his path, we got to work! Quickly unboxing everything and putting everything out for weekend installation. Again, I have no patience, I installed the parts then and there the same day. (Few weeks past and we eventually got our hands on an Authentic Amuse Titan R1 Hood from Japan)

 

A we further our build with Rinzler, we decided to pick up a new Koyo Rad Radiator from SOS. Once it came in, we figured we might as well give BOTH of the cars a coolant flush while installing the radiator. Did my research on how to do a proper flush, I must say many of the older threads were very helpful. Radiator de-installation & installation went relatively easy being the fact I have never done this before. A flush or a full installation. After completing the flush on Purist we drain Rinzler and began surgery. The Installation went seeming fine and everything was going well. Purist was properly flushed and fluid replaced. Once we fired Rinzler up, she seemed fine at first but then a small drips of coolant began building on the passenger side. Shut it down, drained coolant again, deinstalled Koyo Rad. Looked EVERYWHERE for a crack or a leak or ANYTHING. Put fresh water in there and rotated the radiator around to see if anything leaked. Welp, I. am. Dumb. Not the worst outcome, turns out the radiator was 100%, I needed to tighten the lower hose more. It was slightly leaking and traveling along the plastics and come out on the passenger side. After deeming myself a dumbass, we reinstalled everything, tightened up ALL clamps and screws and we were finished! Took her out for a shake down after, nothing more than 8 bars on the temp gauge. Great Success!

 

Cheers man. Looks like you have big plans for these cars and everything you are doing makes sense. I wish you luck on everything. Seems like you have to establish relationships with the installers which is huge when it comes to modding

 

Thanks brother!! Yea, my first real build so taking things slowly or as slow as possible.
Thank you for the kind works, appreciate it!

Yea, I am coming to that realization as well. While some experiences were negative, I am grateful and happy I joined S2KI.
A lot of my guidance has come from previous posts.
(IE: Ty Billman, his posts and steps were vital during our Koyo Rad & Skunk2 Alpha header installations)

 

Today on Ratchet Ralph, we learn ALL about VTEC Solenoid leaks and housing!! Went to check on Rinzler this morning and looks like she’s been leaking oil. Turned her on and ran her, immediately saw the VTEC Solenoid bleeding oil. Oh boy! Welp here we go! Went on the S2Ki and immediately was able to identify the problem. I took a stab and said the gaskets were worn out. Did some initial research, once again, was happy to have this forum as sold resource. Cross referenced what I found from people on YouTube, saw a few Solenoid gasket replacements. Ordered up a Kraken gasket upper & lower gasket combo, took apart the Solenoid housing, and unsurprisingly, the gaskets were flat as pancakes. Swap in the new ones, took off a few Header heat shields while I was there and we were golden!

 

 

Greetings S2K Brothers & Sisters!!

Been pretty busy with Rinzler and getting obsessed with auto work, I am almost hoping something is leaking when I pop the hood so I can go back and get my hands dirty all over again LOL. One today’s episode of Ratchet Ralph we go over a Header Installation!!

This installation really hits home for me, when I was a young grasshopper at 18, I decided to put a header in my IS300. My buddies and I worked on the IS ALL DARN DAY! But it was a success and this installation brought back a lot of nostalgic memories for me. Definitely one of my favorite installs.

Now I am NO actual mechanic, but I think there should be a bolt there… and this bolt on the down pipe doesn’t have a spring… I am not going to comment further but I haven’t touched the part of my car yet. Whoever did do this work (I know who), looks like they were in a rush to just button her up. Bummer to say the least, hence why I’ve taken upon myself to do all my own work, I will have no one else to blame but myself.

 

Anyways, got the header and immediately my team went to work! Unboxing the header, and diving into removing stock parts were definitely feelings from my younger years. The install went extremely smoothly, I did however get hung up on trying to get the new header in. Since the tubes are a bit wider on the Skunk2 Header I had a lot of trouble trying to get the header up through the bottom of the car. Did some quick searching on header installations here on S2Ki, came across Billman’s sub-frame thread.

“There are 6 bolts holding the subframe in place, 2 of them are 1 inch threads very short. Remove these bolts completely. The other 4 bolts are extremely long threads, around 3”.Release the bolts to drop the sub frame 1-2” and that should be enough room.” Just as Billman wrote it, I followed his steps and BING BANG BOOM! We got a Header now!!!! Out with the old , In with the NEW!!

 

Got my S2Ki goodies yesterday! couldn't wait to sport off the new threads and decided to wear it to work! Love this long sleeve, its gonna be my official Ratchet Ralph uniform when I do auto work!

 

Looks like Rinzler was a little low on fuel. This is how we fuel up over here! I get sunoco 260GT Race Gas from Newbrunswick Sunoco. Only 1 of 2 places that has 100 octane, other place in Fort Lee is cash only and 20 cents more on the gallon.