Last event of 2020 is a bust for my Civic

The last official track event to be held around here for 2020 was Carl's "Friends and Family" track day at ICAR last Saturday. The weather forecast was for a possibly rainy morning and a clear afternoon. My plan was to leave Alex and the boys in Deschaillons and head back to Montreal with the Saab, which was already in Deschaillons anyway. I left at 6:30 am, drove through some pretty rainy weather, and arrived at home by 8:30. I switched to the Civic and was at ICAR around 9:30, just as Carl and his crew arrived with about 6 of Carl's cars. Rob arrived shortly thereafter in his super-clean E36 M3. We had a casual driver's meeting and a bit after 10, I headed out on track in the Civic with Rob as a passenger, since he had never seen the 2020 configuration of the track. The car felt good, but after only two laps, a severe throttle problem appeared... I could not increase the revs beyond idle. I knew it wasn't a broken throttle cable, as there was a hiccup every time I pressed on the gas. I was close enough to the track exit and decided to come in on idle at super low speed. I knew it was a fuel problem as I could see my fuel level had visibly dropped in only a few minutes. 

Again one of the first to arrive

We parked and popped the hood. When we turned the key, there was fuel pissing all over the area of the fuel rail. I then noticed that the whole fuel rail had broken off... it was supposed to be held in place by 2 bolts, and they had sheared off. As the bolts were broken off inside the holes, it was not going to be an easy repair. Crap! On top of that, the weather was brilliant and the sun was out! Nobody I talked to had ever seen a failure like this one.

I searched around for some tools and then borrowed Kevin's Honda Accord to drive to a Canadian Tire and buy a tap set and bolt extractors. I was back before lunch and got to work, but after a while, I realized I was only making the area with the broken bolts worse. When I realized I had lost a fuel injector seal, I gave up on fixing the car. 

Several people had offered me to drive their cars, including Choo (K-swapped Civic EK), Rob, and Carl (who had offered me to drive my old EK race car). I went for a drive in the M3 with Rob as a passenger and had a really good time. The laps were in the 2:00 range (10 seconds slower than my Civic the previous week), but I still think Rob picked up a few tricks. He drove the next half of the session and improved his own times.

After arranging the towing of the Civic to Pat's shop, there was time for one more session, and I strapped into my old race car. I headed out on track and was immediately having a great time. The main difference between Carl's Civic and mine was the throttle response... it was insane. I struggle to heel/toe with my car, but with Carl's, the revs shoot up. I asked Sajan about it afterwards and he told me it was related to the lightweight flywheel and a second item which I forget. I got caught and passed by Choo and tried to keep up with him afterwards. He was slowly pulling away, but I was having a blast. 

I thanked Carl and Sajan (who maintains the Civic for Carl) and got a ride home from Rob. I hopped into the Saab and headed back to Deschaillons. The day had been a bust for my car, but I still had a pretty good time, since I got to drive on track and hang out with many race buddies I had barely seen all year. The car was towed to Pat and, despite my "handiwork", he had the car repaired the next morning. I don't know if there is going to be a way to drive the car a bit more before winter, but I hope to find a way!

My Civic beside a bunch of Carl's cars

It's amazing how many in our gang are still driving Honda products!

Rob on track in his M3 (Photo by JP)

The two cars I got to drive

Finally back on track with a reliable Civic!

Well, it didn't rain Saturday and I was able to head to the track. It was not the track I thought I would be going to, since Ste-Croix cancelled its track day. Fortunately, ICAR's cancelled Tuesday night lapping from last week was re-scheduled to Saturday morning. I got the car ready Friday night and was among the first cars at the track on Saturday morning. Apart from a check engine light, the car seemed to be running fine.

Among the first to arrive

I managed three sessions on track before the day ended at lunch time. In my first sesion, I took my time getting up to speed as the track was cold and there were still a few puddles from Friday's rain. I had the Accusump on and the oil pressure never waivered. Part way through the first session, the exhaust note suddenly got quite a bit louder. I figured that a crack had developed in the header, as had happened with my old race car. I decided to just keep driving as normal and ended the session with a best lap of 1:52.7. I hoped that with multiple sessions, I would be able to improve on my personal best time of 1:48.5. I was well off that time, but knew I could push quite a bit more. I looked for the crack in the header, but could not spot it.

In the second session, I had the Accusump off and could see only a slight oil pressure drop in left handers, to maybe 50 psi from 70. I guess the oil problem is solved, as it used to drop to 15-20 psi with the old (leaky) pan. I could see my lap times coming down and wanted to get in a lap under 1:50. It wasn't to be, as my best lap was a 1:50.00! I compared notes with a driver who had a very similar Civic to my own (210 whp B20-vtec, same suspension, R888 tires) and he had managed a mid-1:48. Despite his better tires, I thought I would be closer to his times, as he was relatively inexperienced. I looked under my car, and noticed that one of the two bolts holding the header to the exhaust line had lost its nuts. The header was not cracked! However, I had no spare nuts, so I would have to wait until I got home to fix it. 

It looked like there would only be time for one more session. I strapped into the car, turned the key, and nothing happened. Nothing at all... I got out, opened the hood and looked at the starter. There was only one wire attached to it, and I thought there were supposed to be two... there was no time to fix it then, so I asked someone to give my car a push, and I bump-started it. I arrived just in time for the session.

I didn't know how much more I could push in the third session, but I was determined to improve my times. I passed a couple of cars, got passed by others. I very slightly improved my time to 1:49.86. I was satisfied.

I parked the car and left the engine running. Then I called Pat, to ask him where to find the missing wire to the alternator. You would think it would be obvious, but there are several unplugged wires under my hood, as several sensors have been disabled on my car. Coincidentally, Pat was very close by on his way to get some parts in Mirabel. We met at a gas station in Blainville and he showed me what had to be plugged back in. I told him about the check engine light and he pulled the code: vtec solenoid. He asked me if I haf a problem with vtec on track, and I told him all seemed OK. It had been hard to tell from the sound if vtec was engaging, as the exhaust note had changed when the the header became partially unbolted. 

Now, with hindsight and data analysis, I can see that there was possibly an issue with the vtec... my top speeds in various sections were off by 5 to 10 km/h. Did I have vtec? Some of my top speeds were even lower than with last year's engine. I felt like I was driving well. If I was indeed down on power, maybe it will be easier than expected to beat my personal best lap time. 

If all goes well and the weather holds up, I may get one last chance this year to improve my time, this coming Saturday. If this is to be my last session of the year, it was a decent one. ... to be continued?. 

Some high-dollar machines... there were 2 other Porsche GT3-RS's as well

That GT86 easily passed me on track

This 944 was one of my favourite cars there

The more low-budget gang

Partially unbolted header

The weather was pretty decent

Even the "base model" is a very good-looking car

Cayman GT4 and a couple of GT86's

Cool and rare Toyota MR-S and its main competitor

The Civic is fixed... I think!

The Civic is ready to be tested on track

Pat and I changed the oil pan on the Civic Thursday and he installed the Accusump on Friday. I picked up the car from Pat's on Thanksgiving Monday and all seems well so far. There is no way to know if the oil leak or the oil starvation problems are really solved until I try the car on track. I decided not to go to Mosport with zero testing, hoping to go to ICAR lapping on Tuesday. Unfortunately, it rained all day. The race school at Calabogie this coming weekend has been cancelled because of the pandemic (makes sense). This leaves my with a track car, but few choices of events before the season ends. 

Luckily, the small track near the country house, at Ste-Croix, is hosting a track day this weekend. If the weather looks promising, I will attend. The last time I drove that track was when I had my Dodge Neon, so about 20 years ago. Not only have I found videos of a lap (it's a simple layout), I even found the file to play it on Assetto Corsa... pretty cool. I can't wait to try the car on track. If all is well, I will be able to put the car away for winter in track-ready condition, which almost never happens. 

Pat and his dad were going to work on this Saab, one of the last 9-5's. Sadly, it has rust issues, like previous Saabs.

The M3 and the Civic at Pat's shop.

Nice paint and wheels on this Boxster

Leaves on the car mean the season is almost over...

Still waiting on the Civic...

I will miss Mosport, but hopefully the car will be ready for the last couple of events of the year...  Here are some car photos from around town.

You almost never see these Jags anymore

The Saab in winter mode... I chose not to buy more 17" winter tires, so I will use the old 16" wheels

A rare M3 CS...

The only one I've ever seen (except for Mazen's)

A Civic Type R near the office

Looks great in black

The whole family bought skateboards after we realized how fun it could be. This is mine.

The Saab and a couple of nice Mazda's... all small cars

An unfortunate colour combo for this Rolls, looks like a taxi

The 992 looks pretty good in this spec

Nicely modded GT86

I haven't seen an Escort GT in ages... this one was in clean condition, just needed paint

Back when the SLK was supposed to be a fun little car

The Huracan looks good even as a convertible

A couple of cool older European cars

Local Alpina B7

The new Bentley Continental looks meaner than the old one, as if they were inspired by the GT3 version. The old car looked nothing like the race version, which was so much lower.

Updates on the three cars

I post a lot about the cars, so much of this information is not new. Anyway, here is an update on each car:

THE CIVIC:

Civic being used in the city to run errands

The Civic is currently at Pat Boyer's place awaiting a bit more work. There are still two oil-related issues to fix: the major leaks at the oil pan and the oil pressure-drop in left-hand corners. To solve these issues, we will install a new Ebay oil pan made for a swap like mine, which does not use a gasket to seal, but rather a sealant. This should resolve the oil leak. It is recommended to use the oil pickup from a 1998-2002 Honda Accord with this oil pan, so I started to look for one. This simple tube and pickup costs about 200$ at the dealership (about the cost of a whole used Accord engine!), so I decided to go get one at Kenny U-Pull. I got lucky in that I found a car where the lower engine mount had already been removed. I just needed to unbolt the exhaust pipe so I could remove the oil pan. I succeeded, but it took a while due to the condition of the nuts holding the exhaust together. I ended up paying less than 11$ for the part. I love that place! I also got a windshield washer bottle because mine is cracked and does not hold fluid. 

To solve the oiling issue, I bought an Accusump oil accumulator. I got lucky and found a used one for 200$, a huge savings over the cost of a new one. When the oil pan arrives, the car should be back on track fairly quickly. Unfortunately, I won't have it in time to attend our club's Mosport track day in a few days. I don't mind that much, but I really hope these repairs will make the car reliable. I am satisfied with the car's performance, I just want to be able to drive it more. 

THE SAABARU:

Saab will be around for another winter

Since the BMW has been in and out of the shop, we have been daily driving the Saab. We have made several trips to the country house and the car is performing flawlessly. Now that the BMW is fully repaired, I will put the winter wheels on the Saab and store it at the country house until it snows. It was convenient having this car around this summer (instead of leaving it parked, like we did last year). I am glad we decided to keep it for another season.

THE BMW:

Major work done on the M3

There were three issues I wanted to resolve on the M3 this summer: the annoying vibration at certain RPM, the clunk when you got on the throttle, and the oil leak. I took the car to BG, my alignment spot, and he did not have time to fix any of these issues. He did find a bad tie-rod and replaced that. I then contacted Seb Rochon, who has a small business making roll cages and fixing BMW's. He told me he doens't really fix cars anymore and recommended I go to to George at TC Automotive, which I did. George was able to fix the oil leak (Constant Pressure Valve) and diagnose the other two issues: the vibration was the exhaust, which had rotten flanges, and the clunk was probably due to a rip in the chassis, which is a common failure on these BMW's. He referred my back to Seb, who gave me an appointment to leave him the car. As Seb worked on the car, he found a couple of other issues which were easily solved with the rear end all disassembled. He welded in the reinforcement kit, added generic flanges to the exhaust and changed a bunch of bushings. The car feels great now. I replaced the auto-dimming rear-view mirror element yesterday, an easy enough job. If it doesn't rain this evening, I will meet Mazen for Mountain Drive 2020 - Part 2. We will daily drive this car until winter. 

So basically, I am close to having all three cars fully functional, and it seems I might achieve this in the next weeks. Stay tuned...