24 Hours of Lemons Race Car Build

[Tdurr]

I want a cage. make me one?? lol love this man. cant wait to see some action shots of this thing.

[Oldblueaccord]

Can you tie the cage into the car suspension or seam weld the chassis?

[2ndGenGuy]

Yeah, we can tie the rear stays into the strut towers, which would have helped stiffen the car, but we were so short on time, and they would have been too far apart anyways... We might still weld in a rear strut brace eventually. Seam welding is basically free, so it wouldn't have added to the budget. But it's a real bitch with all the seam sealer on the car. I mean, they use TONS of it, and it is hard to clean out, and it messes up your welds really bad. There's a lot of chassis stiffening we can do, just welding in metal parts in various locations, and tying them to the cage. We might eventually cut holes through the dash and run bars to the front strut towers from the cage as well.

[Legend_master]

Oh yeah, and I cut off the stock muffler, and welded on a side pipe that exits at 45 degrees in front of the rear tire:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUHh3_W8DUI

Sounds pretty damn good! Stock cat is still there as is the mid-resonator.

Does that exhaust clear the tire? Seems like it might cause a lot of heat on the tire. Sounds great for no muffler.

[2ndGenGuy]

Took it out for it's first run tonight. And it ran awesome! Got it back in the garage, shut it off using the kill switch. And now the car won't start. Here's a vid of it pulling out of the garage to see just how awesome it ran:

IMG 4351 - YouTube

Now I need help getting it running! Tech is on Friday! Here's a thread I made with the problem.

https://www.3geez.com/forum/efi-tech/...art-issue.html

[2ndGenGuy]

Here she is after I pulled her out of the garage, now that she's running like a top! Looking classy as fuck!

[Legend_master]

It's got electrolytes!!!! Fuckin love that movie lol. Bet that thing is gonna be a blast to drive.

[2ndGenGuy]

It was pretty fun actually! But needs suspension work and moar POWAH. This thing had to be like 10-20 seconds behind our Integra we raced last year. But that also had an extra, what 30hp? And it had springs on it. So I think with a little work, this thing will be a very close contender. And could win Class B that we got placed in, assuming we can keep it running!

So the bad news is that we spun some bearings. The good news is that we drove 4 hours back to my house, picked up a spare block and head that I had bought recently, and installed them in the car. It wasn't just an engine swap, it was a block and head swap. We had to re-use the crusty old oil pan gasket, and re-use the head gasket to get this thing running. Not to mention, the block was from Chris (bobafett here on 3geez) and had been sitting for something like 5 years, and already had 260,000 miles on it, I believe.

We finished the swap over at about 3am Sunday morning. Turned the key and she fired right up and ran great. We ran it all day Sunday around the track, without any issue (other than some oil leaks due to the broken PCV tube, and the shitty gasket in the oil filter base adapter that we had to reuse.

Here's the car all loaded up and ready to go. We didn't have a trailer or truck, so we decided to drive it to and from the track about 80 miles away.




I was the first team member to make it to the track, so I got everything set up in our pit space. The track was packed with Lemons teams and an HPDE going on at the same time. I think I got the last spot, and it was right next to the Lemons HQ, which was nice since we didn't have to walk 1/4 mile to tech and for our penalties.




This was our sticker for passing tech! We flew through the safety inspections, and the BS inspections. They said they knew the Accord could be a class A car, but they'd give us class B with 3 penalty laps, which we gladly took. Judge Phil (AKA Murilee Martin) really knows his shit about cars. The safety inspector actually said it looked like we had read the rules, which we took as a compliment.



Here's what happened to us about an hour into the race. We suspect the car had been pretty well abused by a couple previous owners, and maybe I shouldn't have run 10-30 oil in it on a hot day under race conditions... oops. Probably my fault!

[2ndGenGuy]

Here's us tearing down and making a mess and trying to build one good engine out of two. We had to swap over the windage tray, and tighten up a rod bearing on the block we were swapping in.





It was indeed a spectacle. We had other teams coming by and offering support and help and tools. It is a really awesome community in Lemons racing!

She is back running once again.



So the next day we were back on the road (race track). When you refuel, you have to be in full safety gear. And cutoff switch off with fire extinguisher ready. No messing around with fuel fires.





Here is is out on the track:

[2ndGenGuy]

And more action shots (credit to Murilee Martin's Lemons Uber Gallery):




We won the prestigious / shameful "Heroic Fix" award for working all night.



And a gratuitous beauty shot once she was on her way home (yes we still drove it home!):



And more photos here:
LeMons - The Ridge

And here:
2013 Pacific Northworst 24 Hours of LeMons, The Ridge Motorsports Park, Washington

[EbidaDragon]

Maaan, you guys are quite good in a pinch! Glad you had an extra block! And, I freaking love your design; Idiocracy is an amazing movie!
Plus, the massive amount of pics is always a plus :P

[AccordB20A]

haha good work chaps

[MessyHonda]

i like the JDM duck spoiler

[Rendon LX-i]

That's a a20 for ya. Great work john

[obd0driver]

Sounds like you had a blast.

[86AccordLxi]

Stilll can't believe that that is what became of that car. My wife daily drove that thing for a while til we sold it.

Oh the lulz.

[2ndGenGuy]

Heh. Did I mention that the engine block we swapped in was the one that was originally in Chris's hatch?