Our CR-X budget build-up continues as the shocks are stripped down for inspection and we gather a whole bunch of performance engine bolt-ons in preparation for a subtle but sweet power-up.

Shock Tactics

There is a famous Pirelli marketing slogan: Power is nothing without control. It’s so true. You can have all the engine performance in the world but it’s not going to be much use to you if it can’t be put to the ground efficiently. For that to happen, of course, you need an optimal chassis and suspension setup, and some decent tyres, too.

Because Racer X is intended to be a bit of an all rounder, we’re willing to invest heavily in its handling. There’s a catch, however: we don’t have much cash to invest. So with a set of über-cool Tein Super Racing Dampers out of the question, we’re left with only a couple of options: buy a cheap set of new coil-overs and hope for the best, or have one of the best performance suspension workshops in the land try and make something good from the suspension we pulled out of the car. We chose the latter path.

With branches all over the country, Autolign is New Zealand’s largest steering and suspension specialist. At its head office in Auckland is Racelign, a fully equipped workshop with the expertise and experience to both overhaul and totally custom build performance suspension systems for street and track applications. Autolign certainly has all the right credentials all we needed to do was convince the guys to work on our dirty old Vision coil-overs! After a quick call to Autolign’s product manager, Kris, followed by a chat to workshop manager Iain, we were in business.

Our suspension is a basic fixed-rate shock/coil-over spring combo that markings tell us is by Vision, a Japanese Honda circuit racing specialist. However, the alloy shock bodies were also stamped Tein, leading us to believe that although we possessed a Vision product, Tein had probably done all the hard work. That suited us just fine, because Autolign is not only New Zealand’s official Tein distributor, but also the country’s only accredited Tein service centre. Time to get to work.

To keep costs down we decided to start with a quick service first to gauge what sort of condition the suspension was in. Visually, the shocks looked okay, which was a good start, but to fully understand what we were working with they needed to be pulled apart.

First on the list were the springs, which we handed over to Autoligner Allan to determine the spring rates. It was a straightforward procedure that involved loading the springs up to measure pounds per inch of compression. The fronts came in at 670lbs not bad for a front-wheel-drive circuit application and the rears 620lbs, perhaps a little too heavy for our lightweight CR-X, and possibly the cause of its twitchy demeanour. More on that next time.

Next it was time to measure the shocks themselves. For this task the Visions were handed to Regan in the Racelign workshop, who first needed to modify a bracket so they’d fit into the Roehrig shock dyno machine. Running them up on this device gives an accurate analysis of the valving and the shocks’ bump and rebound characteristics at both high and low speeds. To our surprise they actually measured up all right, displaying all the traits of a good, firm circuit setup, consistent and controlled in both strokes, and definitely not in need of re-valving. What wasn’t so good was that most of the piston shafts had visible wear, and after the decent dyno workout some were leaking a little oil. We knew it was too good to be true.

To make a complete assessment, Regan pulled the shocks down completely, revealing the piston shaft, piston valve, seals and shims. He found an unusual setup inside, which could prevent the struts from being fully serviced. The boys are busy looking into it. The shaft diameter, however, was the standard Tein size, so at least we’ll be able to get that problem fully sorted. We’ll have more on the suspension overhaul next time.

Bumble B16A

Along with the suspension work, this month has been spent collecting various bits and pieces that we’ll be adding to the CR-X’s factory-fitted 1.6-litre DOHC VTEC B16A engine before it goes back in the car.

If you can remember back a couple of issues, our engine was given a good bill of health by NZPC tech guru Steve Murch, who did the equivalent of cupping its balls and making it cough by performing a leak-down test so it’s ripe for a little performance upgrading.

For a number of reasons, we’ve decided to stay with the B16A and keep mods to the basics. Firstly, as you know, Racer X is all about doing things on the cheap, meaning there’s no budget to source and fit a Type R B18C, which, if you spend your time hanging around online Honda haunts, you’ll know is the expected thing to do in upgrading a B16A-engined car. Secondly, it’s been proven time and time again that in naturally aspirated form these engines respond well to subtle modifications, and the more you do and the more money you spend, the less the rate of improvement. And finally, we’re out to prove that getting around the track quickly and reliably isn’t all about horsepower, it’s about the whole package. That’s why the suspension setup is one of our main priorities. All that said, a little extra power never hurt anyone!

The plan is to get the engine breathing a little better on both the intake and exhaust sides of the equation. Included in the haul is a used B18C Type R intake manifold, which possesses far greater flow characteristics than its B16A equivalent, a larger (by a couple of millimetres) B18C Type R throttle body, Toda Racing cam gears for fine cam timing adjustment, a KW intake pipe, a big-ass Blitz SUS stainless air filter, and a Gizzmo thermal gasket to keep intake temperatures down by limiting heat transfer. We’re still waiting on a few more bits, including a bell-mouth adapter to reduce the air filter opening down to the intake pipe size, and a high-strength GReddy cam belt. At this point we’ll be running with the aftermarket stainless steel headers that came on the car, which still seem to be in reasonable condition. However, we’ll redo the entire exhaust system with the help of the guys at Al’s Mufflers Customworks.

The CR-X was running a Still Way tuned ECU that came from Japan and, depending on the tune, we may still use that. For back-to-back testing we got our hands on another factory-spec ECU (a bargain buy that cost $40 on TradeMe!), so when it comes time to run the car on the dyno, we’ll be able try both computers and see the differences between them. Hopefully it will all add up to a little more fun time will tell, we guess.

Another part we recently picked up was a Password JDM sump baffle from Adam at AAP Imports. While this $55 piece of precision laser-cut metal isn’t going to net us any extra horsepower, it might just save our engine if, by cornering or braking too hard, it’s starved of oil. ‘Running’ bearings this way is a common problem in Hondas, and the reason why Adam had sold all of his stock and had another shipment on the way from the States.

The plate needs to be tack-welded into the sump (which, incidentally, needs to be replaced because we found a big dent in it), so we’ll be covering that procedure off along with the rest of the engine performance prep work next time.

Words: Brad Lord Photos: NZPC

This article is from NZ Performance Car issue 153. Click here to check it out.