Endurance racing a 3G

[billyballer]

Hey all,
I'm a newbie here, although not to cars in general. I've been working at a restoration shop for the last 6 years (Alfa Romeo), and currently work for a Mitsubishi tuner as both a tech and a PR writer.

I'm running in the 24 hours of LeMons, an endurance race for cars purchased and prepped for under $500, and my entry for this October's race is an 86 accord LX 5 speed. It will be a shark themed car. This is my third time running the event, and I'm really looking forward to prepping the Accord for the event. It's already gutted, and I'm getting ready to install a race seat and a full cage. I'm also working on some armor for vulnerable areas (radiator etc...)

I would love any help you guys have on cheap suspension setups, and cheap tricks to get a little more juice out of the carb setup. I only have $500 to spend, the car was free, but I spent $100 replacing a damaged right front suspension. $400 to go.

So thats my deal.
Glad to be here

-Bill

[A18A]

oh cool, welcome to the forum, please post pics if you can :) does the engine already run good? cause those carbs can be a real pain when they dont wanna work right

[carotman]

hmmm, you might want to convert to mecanical secondary and remove those vacuum lines.

I know that the 4th gen Accord or Vigor sway bars work in the rear. That should be a cheap upgrade.

[billyballer]

Yeah, I was planning on doing the sway bar upgrade, and contemplating de-vacuumizing the carb. Although the mechanical secondary conversion looks a bit complicated, and the sticking open problem doesn't sound too inviting.
Have you done the conversion before, and is it difficult?

Other than some crack vacuum lines the car runs pretty good. hopefully I'll be able to post some pictures soon.

-Bill

[labeledsk8r]

welcome to 3geez. some easy upgrades for that carbed car aswell would be fliped air lid or choped air box with K&N filter or other performance filter, your exhuast do your most basic as posible with no cat etc to save money, good set of plugs, and mayby a mild cam shaft if you can find someone selling a used one on the cheep, thats all i can really think about while keeping it under 400 and still haveing money to spare on some supension mods wich will help the most on a road corse, good luck with the mods and the race, pics would be sweet 2

[2ndGenGuy]

Hi! Man, you beat me to it! I was planning on running a 3gee in the next race at Altamont raceway. You were at the last 24 Hours of Lemons? I was down there with the Festiva team! What car were you running? I wonder if I ran into you down there. I always thought a 3gee would whoop some ass. It's got the nice double wishbone suspension all around that I think most cars at that race lacked. Hondas seemed to do a whoop ass job, but there were too many Civics and CRX's.

I think there is a guy on PreludePower who is running a 2nd gen Prelude with almost the same engine. He may be fuel injected or dual-carb'd instead. The race seems to be getting really popular. The track layout for October's race looks pretty good. I will probably be down with the Festiva team again, just to watch like last time.

You can lower the car for better handling by doing some kind of mod to the front struts that is free. I'm not 100% certain on that. I'm also pretty sure you can pick up the cheap eBay coilovers for certain Civics that fit into the 3g Accords. They're supposed to be dirt cheap too, and would fit into your budget. Well thats about all I know about that, since I don't have a 3rd gen. Maybe someone will elaborate more on it, or point you closer to the right direction...

[billyballer]

Last time around I was on Squadra Pinto, the three car Pinto team (white and blue) that had the turbocharged pinto. It was amazing! Time before that I ran an '87 corolla.

I found a set of KYB shocks in the junkyard and I'm gonna cut the springs a little and mount them on the KYBs. Also planning on doing the later accord swaybars (or vigor if I can find them). The car can get completely cut up so I'm probably gonna chop a hole in the hood and run my K&N cone filter straight up through the hood into the open air (I might fab a scoop for it). And yeah ditching the cat on the exhaust and running a straight through muffler (used of course) is in the works.

I'm wondering for the carb, should I just replace all the vacuum lines and leave it stock, or is there any performance advantage to the coversion to no-vacuum and mechanical secondaries?
-Bill

[2ndGenGuy]

Last time around I was on Squadra Pinto, the three car Pinto team (white and blue) that had the turbocharged pinto. It was amazing! Time before that I ran an '87 corolla.

I found a set of KYB shocks in the junkyard and I'm gonna cut the springs a little and mount them on the KYBs. Also planning on doing the later accord swaybars (or vigor if I can find them). The car can get completely cut up so I'm probably gonna chop a hole in the hood and run my K&N cone filter straight up through the hood into the open air (I might fab a scoop for it). And yeah ditching the cat on the exhaust and running a straight through muffler (used of course) is in the works.

I'm wondering for the carb, should I just replace all the vacuum lines and leave it stock, or is there any performance advantage to the coversion to no-vacuum and mechanical secondaries?
-Bill

Oh yeah man, I totally saw your car out there! I kept seeing that thing go screaming by, and I was like WTF is that sound? It was like OOOH Turbo! Sweet! Well maybe I'll see you down there!

[labeledsk8r]

Last time around I was on Squadra Pinto, the three car Pinto team (white and blue) that had the turbocharged pinto. It was amazing! Time before that I ran an '87 corolla.

I found a set of KYB shocks in the junkyard and I'm gonna cut the springs a little and mount them on the KYBs. Also planning on doing the later accord swaybars (or vigor if I can find them). The car can get completely cut up so I'm probably gonna chop a hole in the hood and run my K&N cone filter straight up through the hood into the open air (I might fab a scoop for it). And yeah ditching the cat on the exhaust and running a straight through muffler (used of course) is in the works.

I'm wondering for the carb, should I just replace all the vacuum lines and leave it stock, or is there any performance advantage to the coversion to no-vacuum and mechanical secondaries?
-Bill


on the vacum line removal, any little bit off helps, just takes time and patience lol, even a stage one vacume removal would help out and get rid of some emitions crap wich should boost your numbers a small bit, if you havent seen it yet theres the step by step digrams for the vacum line removal's in 3 difrent stages in a how-to thread

[Civic Accord Honda]

sounds like u got some good plans

[billyballer]

Just under a week to go before the race and I've made a lot of progress.

Here is my tweaked '86 Accord LX 5 speed.

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l39/billyballer/side.jpg
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l39/billyballer/front.jpg
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l39/billyballer/interior.jpg


List of modifications done in the last month
Interior completely gutted. Cut the frames out of all but the drivers door.
Racing seat on custom brackets with 5 point harness.
Installed roll cage with driver's side door bar.
Junkyard KYB shocks with cut springs.
4th Gen Accord rear sway bar.
Ceramic front pads
Endless high temp brake fluid.
Glass pack in place of catalytic converter.
K&N filter running through the hood.
Custom front tube bumper tied directly into chassis.
Battery moved to passenger compartment with cut-off switch.
Jaguar shark paint scheme

[BITESIZE]

OMG that's awesome and hilarious!

[MessyHonda]

its cool....i like the front end...it looks mean.

[labeledsk8r]

hahah nice, super down force outa those shark fins lolol. does that filter block your veiw?

[knarg]

yeah i like the filter popping out of the hood ahhaha
great work!

[A18A]

LOL thats cool!! haha

[Hazwan]

hey thats nice!

[TWOLOUDNPROUD]

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l39/billyballer/side.jpg


:eek::wtf:

[AccordB20A]

hahaha good man. its gunna serve you well

[2ndGenGuy]

Fucking sweet!

[Cheeseburger]

hahaha thats amazing!!! good luck in the event!

[lostforawhile]

i used to do this in 81 civics but they had to stay pretty much stock, we didn't get to do all the crazy shit,looks like fun. 24 hours in a gutted honda is going to be hell. if you could spend more i would say oil cooler, for one thing set up your fan so it runs constantly it will need it. also go to the junkyard,find a used transmission cooler,and replace your power steering loop cooler with it, it will help the pump a lot on the course. plus the loop cooler weighs a ton.

[Cheeseburger]

was it going to be a shark before a jaguar? lol

[AccordB20A]

i used to do this in 81 civics but they had to stay pretty much stock, we didn't get to do all the crazy shit,looks like fun. 24 hours in a gutted honda is going to be hell. if you could spend more i would say oil cooler, for one thing set up your fan so it runs constantly it will need it. also go to the junkyard,find a used transmission cooler,and replace your power steering loop cooler with it, it will help the pump a lot on the course. plus the loop cooler weighs a ton.
Ahh rubbish!! its an accord it will run forever stock :tongue:

[2ndGenGuy]

How'd you guys do? A 2g Accord got 27th, and a 2g Prelude got 11th. Lots of CRX's...

http://jalopnik.com/cars/racing/the-top-44-lemons-of-24-hours-of-lemons-313355.php

http://jalopnik.com/assets/resources/2007/10/27-81.jpg
http://jalopnik.com/assets/resources/2007/10/11-45.jpg