The BLACKBIRD saga continues... NEW UPDATE !!!

[joetrisman]

Sounds very interesting. Look for specific ets or whp?

[JRCivic]

For all you newbies on this board... this is an engine project that I have been working on now for FIVE years. The first year was spent developing the initial design and rotating assembly geometry. The longblock was completed and assembled in the following year. The next year and a half were spent waiting for Oscar and Moss to create a custom intake manifold for me to adapt the Gen4 M62 (which is found on the new RSX-S kit) using a counter-rotating head assembly. This never materialized... Oscar retired and the project stalled. During this time, my shop was hit by a massive FLOOD and the engine was destroyed... the sleeving had to be re-done, the rings, pistons, bearings, oil pump, water pump, seals and gaskets had to be replaced... and everything had to be meticulously cleaned. I made a change in the piston CR as well as the design... to modernize the project to capitalize on more recent findings within the JRSC community. I am now using a JE FSR piston design with an approximate CR of 11:1.

As of today... I am SOOOOO CLOSE to firing the car. The engine resides inside the engine bay of the '93 Si which you see at left in my Avitar... mated to a brand new GSR transmission augmented by a Quaife LSD and a LS 5th gear set... coupled to the crankshaft via a Tilton dual-disc 7.25" cerametallic clutch with their new hydraulic release bearing. To cope with the additional power, I added DropZone D1 fully adjustable coilovers, braided stainless steel brake lines, AEM pads front and rear and a traction control system.

I have only a few tiny details to address before I fire this baby up for the first time... the braided steel fuel line (from stock fuel filter to rail) is still on backorder, the battery tray and battery must be installed, the cooling system filled and bled... distributor and external coil wired up, gauges wired up and the interior must be re-installed. Obviously, the flood wreaked havoc on the electronics inside the car... and I am going to get the alarm, power door locks and stereo addressed before I re-install the dash, seats and door panels.

So, STAY TUNED here you guys !!! There will most likely be an early firing of the engine... before the interior is completed... just to make sure everything is functioning. Shortly after the interior re-assembly, I will run up the necessary break-in miles and then apply the final tune.

I will keep you all posted.
This has been a long-time coming for me... and I am very excited about what is to come.

[JRCivic]

Yes, the goal is 300 wheel HP and 11-second timeslips in the quarter mile. The car will have a FULL interior, including a custom subwoofer enclosure in the spare tire well... so this is NOT going to be your typical stripped street-war wonder egg.

[GSRShane]

You mentioned everything you replaced, may I ask, was resleeving neccesary (flood damage aside) for a 300whp goal? Or did you do this as an added precaution? You didn't mention new rods in the replaced parts, did you just leave that out or did they get spared somehow?

[JRCivic]

The rods were spared... thank God. They are made of Titanium and thus are impervious to water damage. They are a custom made one-off set... they are 6mm longer than a stock GSR rod and have a smaller pin end to accomodate the piston geometry changes... as well as a special .007" laser cut oiling channel down the length of the rod beam. Replacing them would have cost nearly $4300.00... my bank account is happy that they were spared.

The sleeving was done because of the bore increase to 84mm... there just wouldn't be enough strength in the stock sleeving to hold the cylinder pressures of boost. In addition, if I ever plan on making more power (say with a BIG turbo kit), the block is already prepared for it.

[Holden]

Very good to hear Jim!

I can't wait to hear more...

Greg

[JRCivic]

My understanding is that my new braided steel fuel feed line is on the way... and should arrive on Thursday. This means that it will be quite possible that I will finally fire the car up before Christmas !!!

One more thing: Would anyone be willing to host-n-post a pic for me so that I can give you guys a sneak-peak at the engine bay ?!? If so, send me an E-mail that I can reply to with a pic... or two or three.

[gsrev]

Good luck Jim!! Did you stick w/ FAST or did you go w/ hondata?

[JRCivic]

Alex,

I lost both Speed Pro Bank-to-Bank systems last year in the flood... FAST doesn't seem to care about my unique situation, and has basically said (in a very nice way) "Too bad, so sad".
The good folks at Hondata on the other hand were quick to jump right in and help... repairing the sunken s200 system that resided in the car at the time of the disaster.

So, to answer your question: I will be using HONDATA... since it was already paid for. I see no advantage in re-purchasing another FAST B2B with a wideband and datalogging system... I cannot imagine any significant HP gain that would warrant the nearly $2000.00 cost.

By the way... it is good to hear from you. I hope that you are doing well.

[Moad'Ib]

Originally posted by JRCivic:

One more thing: Would anyone be willing to host-n-post a pic for me so that I can give you guys a sneak-peak at the engine bay ?!? If so, send me an E-mail that I can reply to with a pic... or two or three.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Jim,

Let me know about the picture. I can get it posted up on our site here and let you link to it all day. send it to me at [email protected]. Give me some detail about it and I'll be happy to post it up.