Vince's Stuff: Second track event of the year... the day I broke stuff

I bought the car to Pat's last week after my first track event hoping he could diagnose the power loss issue. He noted that I had not properly checked the oil on the car, as the level was a bit low. I thought this might be the issue resulting in my power loss last week. We also ran a new wire from the ECU to the vtec solenoid. Finally, Pat noticed that under the strut bar, there was a vacuum hose that was not plugged in. Surely one of these fixes would solve the problem, I thought.

The car spent a lot of time with the hood up Tuesday

I managed to arrive at ICAR Tuesday quite early, before the first session. I emptied the car and headed out on track. After only one lap, the exhaust became very loud, and I suspected that my exhaust system had again become unbolted. I decided to continue my session, but a lap later, I could here my exhaust dragging on the ground, so I pulled in. I was disappointed, but I figured it was early and I would have time to address the issue.

I didn't have tools or a jack, but I managed to borrow what I needed, and the ICAR staff were gracious enough to give me some nuts and bolts to re-attach my exhaust. I will start bringing a jack and a ratchet set to the track, since this type of thing keeps happening. Anyway, about an hour later, I was ready to head back out for another session.

During my second session, the exhaust was holding, but the check engine light came on after only 1 or 2 laps. I was disappointed, as I thought that the issue would have been solved. It wasn't. I focused on maintaining momentum and my driving line, aiming for the best possible lap time with reduced power. The data showed I was managing decent speeds in the corners, but that I was missing 10 km/h or more in the high speed sessions. I managed a 1:48.50, which was not too far off my times from the previous week.

There was one fix I had in reserve if the electronic problem was not fixed. Sajan had told me that sometimes, the OBD2-to-OBD1 conversion harnesses had faulty wiring. I happened to have a spare one of these from an ECU that came with one of my used engines. I tried swapping it over after the session and got ready to go out again.

At the beginning of the third session, the car felt great. All the power was there and the check engine light was staying off. On my second warm up lap, I was already in the 1:48's. By the third lap, all was still good, and I was going even faster. I was catching up to a group of three cars when I began to have clutch issues. At one point, the clutch pedal stayed on the floor and I was lucky to be near the track exit at the time.

I parked the car and tried to figure out the issue. I called Pat and he told me how to inspect the slave cylinder. Sure enough, the bracket holding the slave cylinder had come loose and the piston had popped out of the cylinder. I managed to put everything back together with borrowed tools and had someone help me bleed the clutch, but it began to piss out fluid and I gave up. I drove home with no clutch, shutting off the engine at red lights, and parked the car.

I guess this is what I have to get used to. I have never had these weird issues with any Civic in the past. I will start carrying a jack, jack stands and more tools with me. I had the car towed to Pat's shop and he will surely be able to change whatever clutch hydraulics need changing. What's sad is that I'm not sure if I solved the electronic issue or not, since I only got 3 laps in the final session. The last lap was a 1:47.27, which is encouraging, but I won't know for sure until I drive on track a bit more. To be continued...