Higmeisters K20 DC2


Should be good. Normally a great turn out with a variety of cars.

I'm going to wait to the end of the month to see where things are to judge if I'll make the first one
 
Hopefully! I just want to get the initial nervs/excitement out the way.

Well I hope you can make it mate :)
 
You'll get over your nerves once your out. Best to take someone out with you for the first time to show you the lines.

Helped me a great deal my first time on at KH
 
Good advice, even just for the first few laps would help!

Ryan is going and has been round before and sure there will be others as well :)
 
Well I've been pretty busy as of late and unfortunately neglected this thread...but all is good!

That car is pretty much mechanically finished with the K-Swap and re-shell. No had much time to drive the car but I got onto Knockhill the other week with the Monster Unit guys.

Only need to finish the body work and it should be perfect. It's a bit mismatched but it has a purpose.



Totally loving the car again. The car feels positive and gives you a great deal of confidence which my previous chassis, but that was probably down to the reduced structural integrity due the rust and old bushed.

I'll hopefully update this will all the work that was carried out in the build but for now here is a video of the car going...



 
Well going back in time, I was looking for a new shell for the build after finding out my Type R was riddled with rust and decided to pull the plug on it. After looking around for months I finally found a clean shell with no rust. One thing though...it was a JDM SIR. I didn't care it wasn't a Type R. It was clean which was my main priority.

SIR shell on the left, the old Type R shell on the left.

The only downside to the shell was that it has a few dents around the car. The paint work needs a little TLC after the shell not being used for several years. But i'm planning on doing a respray with it at some point.


It seemed like a good idea when doing the re-shell to powder coat and re-bush all the suspension arms as were all off the car.

...and back from the powder coaters


The subframe was done too....


Bushing wise we chose to use Honda RTA's and Hardrace for pretty much everything else. Worth every penny doing this to the car. Over the moon how well the car handled with the new bushes.
 
I wasn't planning on doing this at all, but while we were preparing the shell it was time to get out the welder was wheeled out to weld up all those holes in the bay...

Note that we welded on the offside engine mount to the chassis leg instead of bolting it through.

Just to get it smoothed and painted.
 
Welded up, now to be smoothed, primed and painted...









Primed...



and painted in New Formula Red...






I'm planning on doing the entire car in this colour, but the bay had to be done first for us to progress in getting the engine in the car.
 
Love the integra mate, Keep up the good work and keep us updated
 
Upgrading a few thing to the engine and transmission along the way. A new clutch was required, OEM would have probably have done the job fine but I was upgrading the flywheel to something a bit lighter. So I ended up getting the ACT Prolite Flywheel (3.8kg) with ACT Stage-1 Organic Street Clutch. Should do the job nicely...


 
So, moving the timeline forward again...

A few mates were going up to Knockhill on Saturday to do a track day in the morning. A last minute decision was made to get myself booked on with the Teg to get some more seat time before the season is over. I would be heading up with Andrew Baird (Automek) an his Rotrex'd K20/24 Honda powered Lotus Elise and Jags K20'd EK9. The weather was looking good (cool but at least dry) and there would be some pretty cool cars on track so was going to be a good day.

Last time out at KH I was doing 64s laps and knew the car and myself had a lot more time to get out of it. I was pretty pleased getting a few 62s laps in. Still plenty of room to push, especially in breaking into Duffus and the hairpin.

The exhaust is hitting off the chassis at the rear making an annoying buzzing noise, so that needs to be fixed.




I'm pretty pleased with the performance of the car. I progressively got more comfortable throughout the morning and the confidence grew. I could feel the difference in track temperatures from morning into the afternoon as the rear was more settle towards the end of the session. Definitely need more seat time in the car. Spring rates in the car seem a little on the soft side so hopefully get something changed there to reduce some roll through the corners. Plenty to take from the day to progress with.
 
Again a very last minute decision was made to go on track last week. Literally the decision was made the night before and I still work to go to the next day! Cheeky half day and up to Knockhill for a 4 hour track night. The weather was looking good so it was a no brainer to go.

My only concern was it was Knockhill in REVERSE which I had never driven before.

I must admit it was pretty fun, and after a few laps I was getting into the swing of things.

There was some serious machinery there...




Anyways, this is one of my laps which is pretty bad. shocking downshifts into the hairpin, locking up the brakes into the chicane and I'm still uncertain of which line to take at some corners. The car held up well again though breaks and tyres will have to be renewed for next time and the exhaust is blowing at the back box flange. So I think I will retire the car for this year and start getting a few bit and pieces ready for next year.

 
Nice work mate. Saw the car on Instagram the other day so it's nice to catch up on the history of it. :)
 
Nice work mate. Saw the car on Instagram the other day so it's nice to catch up on the history of it. :)
Cheers man. I've still got a bit of writing up to do on this when I get the time. How your swap is going to well.
 
After the state my old shell was is, it was a must to prepare the underside of the car to prevent as much corrosion as possible. All surfaces were rubbed down, any surface rust (very little) removed before applying a generous coating of underseal. It is now immaculate underneath only with a few components to be changed out in the future. All suspension arms have been powdercoated which really finishes it off. Shame you will never see it....

All exterior panels covered before applying the underseal as this stuff gets everywhere!














Lower suspension arm looking clean after being powdercoated. New ball joints added. All suspension bushed were replaced with Hardrace bushed apart from the RTA's which were replaced with Honda.


Skunk2 Pro Series Front Camber Arms




Everything under the car now looks immaculate, unfortunately my slightly aged Cusco Zero1 coilovers is letting it down. New suspension is on the list to get in the near future but the Cusco's have been great so far. Track rod ends are needing to be replaced as there is slight play in the wheels, but they will do for now.


Skunk2 Rear Camber and Hardrace Toe Arms to finish off the rear set up. Honda RTA's were selected as they were a little more compliant than the Hardrace bushed.


 
Great build. Are you going to paint the front suspension fork?
 
Knowing that I was going to be running an oil cooler (19 row Mocal to be exact) the oil cooling jacket where the oil filter is situated on the back of the K20 would be coming off as the oil temperatures on track would just heat up the coolant. Maybe it might not increase the coolant temps by much, but the cooling jacket is unnecessary IMO. By removing the oil cooling jacket you are left with two coolant ports on the timing chain side of the block. These need to be blocked. I've seen some people welding them closed, but I thought that would be a little messy. So I decided to use some of my CAD and engineering knowledge to model up a couple of blanking plugs that would bolt up to the ports using the original fixings. This was the outcome:-

Using Solidworks I generated 3D models of the plugs from which I would create drawings for a machine shop to make them from.
Front plug model


Rear plug model


The plugs back from the machine shop. A little discolours from the welding but I'm not bothered.


Rear plug fitted


Front plug fitted


Bolted up and the coolant system bled and up to pressure these don't leak one bit. Success :)
 
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