2002 - (RSX-S)/2 = Rally

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote: I am fully in favor of everything that's happening here. Doesn't look that bad to me! The cage looks fairly legit, if that tubing is the right size and the junctions/feet are to spec you may be only a few gussets away from a logbook.

+1 from the pictures it looks like the main cage elements are larger than the other tubes, which would lead me to believe that most of it is legal. Get a hold of a scruitineer right away, before you get to far in. They will tell you if it can be logbooked.

Wiring wise, why not just get a stock engine harness? They're pretty cheap and very sturdy (I assume you're going for longevity). I avoid wiring what I don't have to.

Filled all five tires with air. None of them leaked audibly, so that's nice. One had 14psi, one 5.5, the rest read zero. That might have contributed to the rolling resistance. I have one big 6.2 liter with a bad head bolt reason to get this sorted ASAP so I'm going to be hitting it much harder than usual with my projects.

In reply to accordionfolder:

Once I cleared away all of the manky PO added wiring I'm just dealing with a couple of sections that have been hacked off. I need to figure out if those are important or pieces that might have been removed if I thinned down the harness anyway. Buying a new harness is an option depending on what I find.

This looks like a terrible idea. Now I'm interested.

NGTD wrote: I have contemplated trying to move the fusebox in my car, because I can't actually reach the fuses with the driver's seat in place, so if anyone has any good ideas on how to rectify this, I would love to here them. I was honestly just going to trim the dash so I can get to them, but I see many with circuit breakers in the dash and wonder how much work that would be.

I helped with a complete rewire on a race car where all fuses and relays were on a panel where the glove box door used to be. Wasn't too bad since it was a "start over from scratch" on an older car without all the electrical stuff in modern cars. It did make troubleshooting electrical probelms much easier.

I rewired the RX-7 with five fuses and three relays on the dash. That was a brilliantly simple car.
With the RSX, it's more complicated. For instance, where the PO dragged the box, the wires for the clutch pedal switch don't reach. I can extend them or jump the connectors. It's going to be hard to actually make it better than it was. There are a LOT of wires that need to be extended to get the box to a place that is actually better than stock. We'll see.

I see a wire nut in there

Looks like a good starting point. And thank you for starting the thread!

Adrian_Thompson wrote: One advantage of a relatively young chassis is junk yard expeditions should be fruitful. It's not like you're hunting for XR4Ti or FC Rx7 bits.

Hooked up the code reader this morning. I can talk to the ECU and there are no codes.
The very strange thing is that once you hook the battery up the lights are on. Tail lights anyway and I suspect the head lights as well once I replace the missing relays. This clearly indicates something, but I don't know what.

mazdeuce wrote: Hooked up the code reader this morning. I can talk to the ECU and there are no codes. The very strange thing is that once you hook the battery up the lights are on. Tail lights anyway and I suspect the head lights as well once I replace the missing relays. This clearly indicates something, but I don't know what.

My DSM did this when I kept popping the main relay. Bet yours is fried or missing.

Yup the taillight relay was bad. Thanks. Now going through and testing all relays. Fun stuff.

Just posting so this shows up in my "your posts" feed. Carry on.

I think the crags listing is still up unless you are reselling it. I am so tempted to build my own RSX race car, but know that I can purchase a race ready car for a 1/4 of the price. Nice find will be interested to see this run.

In reply to mazdeuce:

Cool! This thing looks so nice! Everything is super well documented in the various caves of the internet in regards to Honda, so that's a big plus. If it's a stock ECU you can just look up the code for it to find out it's quirks, if any.

accordionfolder wrote: In reply to mazdeuce: Cool! This thing looks so nice! Everything is super well documented in the various caves of the internet in regards to Honda, so that's a big plus. If it's a stock ECU you can just look up the code for it to find out it's quirks, if any.

Does that apply for JDM ecu's?

My Civic is using a JDM B18 including the ECU

Regarding water in the back, the seals around the tail lights go bad. They're some garbagey foam. That's the likely culprit.

Worked on tracing more electrical stuff. Found a bad relay as mentioned above. I have all the lights working except the headlights because that wiring has been chopped out. The ECU has power and claims there are no faults. The fuel pump gets power, but is dead. Pulled it, tried to run it directly from a battery, nothing. I'll pick one up tomorrow.
Pulled the gas tank. There were evil things inside. Since I spent three years building a garage and i have a new lift installed, I'm doing all of this outside on the cement. Note to the previous owner, you DO need to pay attention to what is on the other side if your main tool of destruction is 1.5 inch sheet metal screws.

mazdeuce wrote: Super dope JVL Bilsteins in there. Probably need to be rebuilt, but that should be relatively simple.

The hardest part of that is the dozens of hours you will spend with John VL on the phone talking and talking and talking and talking, lol.

NGTD wrote: That really looks like the RSX that Mark Tabor used to run out west. However RRN shows results with him in 2005 and up running an RSX - it shows in some as 04 and others as 02. Many people don't use Rally Computers anymore. With Pace Notes or Jemba the need for them has almost disappeared.

This. And Terratrip is called "TerribleTrip" for a reason. A lot of people (including us) just use online apps (we use a dash-mounted iPad with GPS in concert with one of the online rally apps, and it works well).

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote: I am fully in favor of everything that's happening here. Doesn't look that bad to me! The cage looks fairly legit, if that tubing is the right size and the junctions/feet are to spec you may be only a few gussets away from a logbook.

agree - at a glance you will definitely need a few gussets (like from the A-pillar bar to the support bar) to get an NRS logbook. But overall looks decent visually.

Also, if it really was NRS logbooked, find out the car's history and maybe you can identify the scrutineer. Not sure about all scrutineers, but when Marcel logbooked ours, he took photos of the logbook and had a notebook logging information in it with other peoples' logbooks. So maybe someone has an old logbook "log" and you can get a reissue or something.

Terratrip is already out. I'll let my co-owner talk to JVL. And in theory we know who ran the car originally so working to track down the scrutineer should be simplified. The rally scene in Texas is very small. I think we could just about sit around a single table.
Before cage updates we need a running car, and we don't have one yet.

If you aren't already a member, join this group on FB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1649355358677665/

The car maaaaaay have been runing rich. Or burning oil. Or something. The tops of the pistons look like this or worse. It does turn over by hand though and feels smooth, so that's nice. The number of loose bolts all around the car is troubling.