VTEC YO

Finally went on the dyno today to see how she is now compared to her competition BSP trim a year ago. Surprisingly, she didn't lose that much power. Yes I did lose about 15ft/lb torque midrange for about 1000rpm but considering that was on ethanol and ITBs I'd say the old girl still has some decent kick on 93 pump gas.

Dotted line is from 2017, Solid is from today - 3-19-2018

The Toda header really makes a difference. Even though I still have a cat for emissions (basically STR trim), this header seems to like a low VTEC engagement point. VTEC is at 3600rpm right now and she revs to 8600. Power is pretty solid. Seat of the pants I'd say she feels on par with Lupa right now which is a good thing. The cool things is the Racepak dash is finally back on so I'm no longer blind to what's going on under the hood.

Racepak IQ3 with all sensors working - 3-19-2018

She also achieved full legal status this weekend passing with flying colors. I mean I guess it shouldn't be a surprise. She is after all, mostly "stock" now.

Fully NYS compliant - 3-17-2018

Donning her new plate - 3-17-2018

I did have a minor issue that thankfully happened post inspection. On the way home, I was having idle issues where the car would die when I'd slow to a stop. More specifically idle recovery wasn't working. The likely culprit was the IACV (idle air control valve). The IACV was cleaned before installing but apparently based on the forums, what you also have to do when this happens is remove the IACV motor and oil the ends of the rotary shaft. This part tends to start to stick over time causing it to lag to the ECU inputs. The symptoms of course is overly low RPMs when you try to go back to idle and depending on how low, this can stall the engine. It's not too complicated but you do need a special "pentacle bit" (5 point torx) to remove the IACV motor (and not lose the special spacers that go in between the valve and the motor). Luckily SJF was able to get this tool locally and now she idles perfectly again. Yes, the shaft was definitely sticking quite a bit and after a drop or two of oil now spins freely for smooth operation.

Oiling the IACV rotary shaft - SJF Performance - 3-18-2018

I also picked up a new GoPro 5 Session that I'll be using as my primary in-car camera this year so I figured I'd give that a try. Video is definitely clearer than my old GoPro 3. Figured I'd do just a quick video of how she drives with a quick pull on the onramp.

Bumblestook Post Dyno - 3/19/2018

I got enough driving this weekend to go through almost a tank and a half of fuel to make sure she's running right. Other than the IACV issues, every system seems to be working really well. Now if only this hood would show up already so we can get her to the body shop. She's such a blast to drive. 100% I made the right call in doing this build. So many smiles per gallon...all the time, money and effort has been well worth it.