JacobFatz

Well.... about an hour ago I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep. So the most reasonable thing to do at 2am is to go install hardtop hardware and a seat rail, right?

The install was extremely easy. It seriously took like 20 minutes going in without looking at any kind of DIY.

Take the seat out, remove a few bolts on the bottom, put the new rail on, bolt it back into the car.

Stock rail shown below, just remove the handle to lean the seat back by pulling on it, then remove the plastic held on by two small Phillip's head screws, then three 14mm bolts on each side. The bottom of the rail has two 12mm nuts on it.





Make sure to run the seat belt wire between the rail and cushion before bolting anything up, I had to do take it half way off to get the harness through.



The only issue I found was the plastic shroud thing wouldn't sit flush against the rail anymore, so I couldn't get the screw back in closest to the front of the seat. It's easily accessible inside the car; I'll fix it when it's not 2:30 in the morning.


And it is super low now! Just sitting still in the car, it felt really good. Like Feezy said, it is kind of hard to scoot the seat all the way back because it rubs the carpet. The inside of the car felt much roomier after this mod. I also left the seat belt sensor loose under the seat and put it to the side because I thought it would break off if I left it clipped to the bottom.



I also went ahead and installed the rear catchers on the car, the front latches on the top (My car still has the hardtop front strikers installed from my Berlina OEM top), and the rear defroster wire. Not sure why anybody would ever remove that wire, though. Oh well.




Now I'm just waiting on my 02-05 defroster harness to arrive in the mail and then window tint and the top will be 100% installed. Hopefully I can have somebody help me bring the top out to the car and put it on tomorrow since all of the hardware is installed now.

*screeching like a little girl*




Next stop- 15% rear window tint and a car wash.

bouford

nice build sir! the BYS rail was one of the first mods my 6'4" friend did

JacobFatz

New tires!

Bridgestone Potenza RE-71R, 215/45/17 in the front/245/40/17 in the back.

I'm not a very trusting person and I don't feel comfortable letting anybody touch my car. So instead of having the tires shipped to a tire shop, I had them shipped to my house so I could install myself at a friend's dealership.



I won't miss the Hankooks. 98% life remaining still.




I love being able to use fancy equipment again... After mounting and balancing, I refilled the tires with nitrogen at 32psi.



My trunk is apparently leaking as well. Many posts about rusted trunk pans scared me, so I checked mine and it was clean. Thank God.



In the next month or so, the entire shifting experience is getting a nice refresh.
All parts are brand new and waiting to be installed for now.

OEM rear main seal (for good measure, my car only has 66k on it)
OEM AP1 flywheel
OEM pilot bearing
OEM clutch disc
ACT H021 pressure plate
OEM throw out bearing
OEM AP1 slave cylinder
SOS stainless braided clutch line (00-03)
OEM input shaft seal (again, for good measure)

OEM shifter pivot ball
OEM shifter cradle

Also some maintenance coming up. OEM oil filter and Pennzoil Platinum 10w30 with Royal Purple synchromesh friction modified manual transmission fluid (per LHT's recommendation). Should be a fun month!

Took a day trip down to Orangeburg, SC (AKA middle of nowhere with nothing for miles - it's actually pretty awesome) to meet up with a friend and 16-year Honda Master Tech. He has a lift at his house that we were able to use which was another reason for the long drive to meet up.

Mileage at time of service: 67,334

The transmission came out in about two hours. I'm honestly not sure why people say it's so hard to remove and how people break the knock sensor. We removed the airbox, loosened the alternator, and reached the top starter bolt through the intake manifold with an extension. Lower the front subframe about 2-3" and you have all the clearance you need to get to the bellhousing bolts.

Pile of parts from the engine bay:




It's super clean in the transmission tunnel somehow. Very little dirt. I would never believe this car was owned up north at any point if you told me.



I was curious to see if it was the original engine and transmission. I assumed they were but now I have proof!




After the transmission was out, we cleaned everything as best as we could before continuing. First the rear main seal was replaced as preventative maintenance. I'm always nervous when doing these but this one actually went in perfectly on the first try.



Next was the input shaft seal, again just because it's already out and the seal is like $10.



The "old" clutch parts look pretty damn good for having 67k miles and a few track days on them. I also took some photos comparing the OEM AP1 and AP2 flywheels.






After installing the new AP1 flywheel (and pilot bearing into the flywheel) then clutch disc, and ACT H021 HD pressure plate, the transmission was cleaned up a little bit before reinstalling. We removed all of the shift levers inside the shifter housing and cleaned all of the old grease out of there to make room for new grease.



After that, the plastic bushings on the shifter itself were pressed off (although they were in pretty good shape) and replaced with new OEM plastic shifter bushings. The Amis/Renegade brass shifter bushing is a complete waste of money in my opinion. By the time the factory one will wear out or need replacing, you should probably be re-greasing the shifter anyways. The factory part is something like $15 versus $80 for the brass one.



Then it was time for the transmission to go back in!



After installing the transmission and tightening down the bellhousing bolts, the subframe was tightened up. Then the exhaust manifold, heat shields, and airbox were put back into place. Next step was the slave cylinder.



I bought a new OEM AP1 slave and the AP1 version of SOS's stainless braided clutch line. As it turns out, there is a different brakcet on AP1s and AP2s that hold the clutch line to the body of the car. I will be bending/cutting/flaring the brake line I have now to be as similar to AP1 as possible and replacing the bracket with an AP1 bracket. For now, I am pretty satisfied with how the line sits in there. The rubber tubing was added as extra protection from rubbing the plastic along the frame rail, although I'm very confident it will be totally fine.



The friend helping said that he bought an AP2 version of this line and it was a bit too short for the AP1 slave. It seems that SOS should make a line that goes from the AP2 body into an AP1 slave since this is such a popular mod.

After that, we filled the transmission up with Royal Purple Synchromax (feels good so far but I honestly don't know if I can tell a difference from OEM Honda MTF since so much work was done at the same time), changed the engine oil with Pennzoil Platinum 10w30 and an OEM oil filter, and bled the clutch fluid.

Before the first start up, we jumped the neutral safety switch to prevent any kind of possible thrust washer failure in the future since that seems to happen with heavier than stock pressure plates.

All in all, I am very happy with everything. The fitment issues on the SOS line were disappointing although apparently I did order the "wrong" part for my car since it's an 04. I made it home, staying under 5k rpm and no WOT/hard shifts, without any issues or leaks and the transmission feels AMAZING. I really like the way the lighter flywheel feels and I'm very excited to feel everything after it is broken in.

JacobFatz

I don't remember if I mentioned it or not, but during the clutch install I found that the catalytic converter was in the early stages of failure. The catalyst was pretty loose inside and could be shifted around easily. While driving, this was really loud and obnoxious. Keeping in mind that I would like to install a supercharger on this car one day, I opted for a Berk 63.5mm test pipe. I chose 63.5mm instead of 70mm to match the OEM exhaust diameter and was told that the 70mm will cause slight drone as well.



The quality is pretty good. It comes uncoated. I chose the Berk because the CEL fix is built into the test pipe and no extra pieces were needed for a stock car that still uses the secondary O2 sensor. The welds are great quality, both on the inside and out of the pipe, and look hand-made. It also comes with all hardware needed to install so that was a plus. At the end of the day, it's just a pipe with flanges welded on but I feel like Berk made exactly what I was looking for with this.



I'm really starting to miss my lift... The install was super easy and straightforward. I had to take off the first exhaust hanger closest to the cat to get the test pipe in there while I was able to get the factory cat out without messing with any hangers. Other than that, install should take you 30ish minutes by yourself. While I was under there, I made sure to check for any leaks around the bellhousing and slave cylinder area. Everything is in perfect shape!



If anybody knows the best place in the Charlotte area to sell a used cat for the most money, let me know. I've found places that will take them for free but I've also heard of places paying as much as $80 for one.

On a pretty unrelated note, I was supposed to be driving in the opening ceremonies at the Honda Indy Car Grand Prix of Alabama this past weekend but Honda ended up renting a bunch of Ridgelines instead. I didn't drive my S all the way to Alabama but it was still a great time. The museum at Barber is a must if you ever go. Here's a few rushed photos from the event including the S2KGA and Alabama guys.

Nibreezy

JacobFatz

Speaking from experience, buy the car you want. I rushed into my SIlverstone AP1 and found myself wishing I had a cleaner, white 04-05 instead all the time. I'm glad I owned that car to learn on and kind of let myself mess a few things up but I would not want to go back to it. If it takes you a year plus to find the right one, (like what happened to me) then so be it.

JacobFatz

I thought I'd update the Berk test pipe really quick. Long story short, it is throwing check engine lights at random times and I'm pretty disappointed. I guess I will add an L pipe or figure something out. Kinda thinking I might just buy a used OE cat and call it done. The CEL came on one time, I cleared it with a scan tool. It came back pretty quickly but then just as quickly went away and has not come back. After around 100 track miles, it is still off. I have not checked to see if a trouble code is stored or not, but the CEL is not illuminated so I guess the ECU accepted the Berk TP as it is.

We took a trip to the mountains yesterday and I have some photos. I'm absolutely loving my new setup. The car looks amazing, the clutch feels awesome, and the tires are incredible.

I went back to this spot to recreate one of my favorite photos but it was just a little too early and the sun kind of messed it up. Still came out decent.




Lineup from today. Me, SRestre22, JasserV, Yoyosupmang, Ryan M (friend who helped install the clutch), and a new Charlotte owner.


I especially liked this picture because SRestre22's car is almost identical to what my car looked like when I bought it, minus the side strakes (which are the ones I bought and never installed) and Tamon rear spoiler. It's basically a real-life before and after photo.




On the following Wednesday I saw a Facebook post about an SCCA Track Night in America event happening at Charlotte Motor Speedway (30 min from my house) that started at 3PM. So I did what any reasonable person would do and I signed up at 2:44PM and showed up a few minutes late completely unprepared. On the drive home, this is when I realized why I love this car so much. On Sunday, I went to the mountains and drove all day. Then a few days later without doing ANY kind of prep work other than checking the oil in the paddock, I did over 100 miles on track and there was not a single issue or reason for concern. My clutch was also only at around 175 miles when we went to the mountains and about 400 miles when I did the track day... safe to say it's well broken in now.

Also- the RE71-Rs are AWESOME. Now that I've pushed them pretty hard I can say that they're amazing. I've never felt so confident in my car before.



-Tradd's Photos

Found a few friends as well

Kenny_Stang

Car looks amazing! Sometimes I wish I hadn't gone down the tracking rabbit hole so my GPW still looked as clean as yours!

JacobFatz

Thank you! I am trying to keep this car conservative but also capable. It's a very difficult balance to keep sometimes.

ntenseone

First off, I love your car and love what you've done with it.
Secondly, there were a couple of things that you talked about but didn't provide specific details on that I'm curious about.
1. You said you found a trunk leak. Where was it coming from and how did you fix it?
2. What code did you get with the test pipe, do you recall?

I, like you, have tried various things only to find out I didn't like them or eventually changed my mind later...such as the exhaust. Granted, my GReddy SE dual isn't as loud a Toda, but for daily duty (yes, my play thing is in the garage) I think a factory exhaust is far more pleasant. I'm also wanting to do a supercharger with a test pipe but was curious to know what system you're thinking about using and why.
I previously owned an AP1 with numerous modifications including a Kraftwerks (ver. 1) kit and loved it, although I think this go round I'm interested in using a SoS Stage 1 because while the KW kit netted me 388hp, I'm wanting to keep a light clutch pedal, I want to keep some decent fuel economy, I'd like to put less stress on the engine (~150k mi.), and, to be honest, I've realized I don't need that much power too be REALLY fast. Plus, should I desire more power later I can always swap on a smaller pulley and retune.

I'd love to hear your thoughts in deciding on a S/C setup, as the are, of course, several things to consider before buying.

Have a great day!