Saturday, July 24, 2010

Final visit to SEEKER

Today was a very, very long day !

Around midday on this HOT and STICKY day I dropped off my car at SEEKER's to have the new SPOON baffled oil pan fitted to my car.

This is more of a precautionary insurance policy against a sudden engine failure which can occur under heavy and prolonged cornering. Why now you ask ? Well having bought ADVAN A050s I expect to be pulling more G's and I just don't want to risk exposing the engine to oil starvation under such forces.

The installation itself is actually quite a feat. It requires a complete removal of the bottom engine frame, complete draining of engine oil, removal of the existing pan and then an installation of the new pan. SPOON recommend that a heat bonding adhesive is used to seal the pan to the engine instead of a typical gasket so that in itself requires precision, patience and attention to detail. Anyway it was all done by about 5pm and the end result was something like this ...
Oil pan fitted.
You can see the red bonding agent if you look in closely
Bottom engine frame removed
Before the frame went back on, SEEKER's mechanic Ko had noticed that one of the engine mounts was broken and so we had no choice but to desperately try to find a replacement one somewhere amongst SEEKER's parts. Fortunately Ryo had a single brand new Honda engine mount in stock and so we replaced it on the spot.

Here is what the broken mount looked like...You can see the rubber split on top of the mount.


Apparently these original Honda engine mounts don't last very long if you take your car to a circuit more than 5-10 times a year (in my case 20-30 times perhaps!). They tend to break quite a lot in those situations. I was lucky it was just one, the remaining 3 seemed fine. Ryo recommended using non-OEM mounts which are stronger but result in more vibration throughout the cabin. Not ideal for those sensitive drivers. Anyway MUGEN mounts are supposed to be about 10% tougher over the OEM, followed by SPOON which are even more tougher. I didn't have the luxury of choosing or waiting today so I went OEM.

And so that wraps up my day!

Before I end this post, there is one last piece of performance at last ! I'll let this picture speak for itself :)

This is none other than the brain behind SEEKER's DC5 race car !!
All mine now !!!
And here is their DC5 race car now (retired unfortunately but with a lot of history!)
Loads of appearances in HOT VERSION DVDs and VTEC CLUB DVDs !


And lastly, here are some parting shots of me and the guys !

Ryo Teraoka and I
Ko Omino and I
Thanks guys !

-Rod

5 comments:

  1. I was just at Seeker today and ordered a stainless clutch line for the Fit.

    About the mounts, I would suggest Alex mounts, they use the factory mounts, but are a solid rubber. I had them on my DC5R down in Okinawa, because my stock front mount was toast in like the first 3 months of the car's life. I used Mugen mounts afterwards, but still noticed too much movement for my liking. The Toda exmani even with its flexpipe cracked within the flex pipe and the Amuse exhaust cracked for a 2nd time at the joint mating to the exmani after putting the stock mani back on. 1st time was because I didn't know the front mount was gone. I am pretty hard on my vehicles. :D In fact, I contacted Alex if they would make me a set for my GE8 to be safe. Internal vibrations were not bad at all, at least for me, but my car was already pretty much gutted out even though it was my daily driver.

    Are you staying here or leaving? Bit confused by your blogspot, but I was reading something and it was dated back last year and starting a racinginaustralia blogspot page. If you are leaving, best of luck to you and if you are not, still hope to meet up one day and you can lap my Fit a few times around whatever circuit. hahaha

    Chris (K20ADC5R on ClubRSX)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Chris
    I've left Japan for good sorry mate :)
    My other blog is the one to follow now

    ReplyDelete
  3. t's really great and you guys are doing great job.. nice collection..truly i inspired from this write up, thanks a lot for sharing this information here..

    ReplyDelete
  4. The adjustable PCD Chip module has been designed to work in any weather condition, any combination of engine modifications and any size engine. You can have a factory turbo, aftermarket turbo, OEM supercharger or even a NOS kit installed. It doesn't matter; the detailed instructions we provide tell you exactly how to install the PCD engine chip step by step.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Honda is the world's largest manufacturer of engines and has got its reputation for supreme quality,performance and reliability. Honda acura legend performance parts are manufactured from strict quality standards imposed by Honda engineers for an accurate fit and specific action.

    ReplyDelete