Well, some of us So-Cal'ers have decided to build and enter a car in the ChumpCar series.
More info on the series here: www.chumpcar.com (http://www.chumpcar.com)
We bought us a 1986 Honda Prelude 2.0Si for the amazingly high price of $300. The former owner(s) replaced the following items:
Radiator
Axle shafts
Brakes (all the way around)
Timing Belt
Yesterday, we stripped the interior out and did some minor inspection and prep.
EDIT: pics below...
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Quote from: Monsterlover on December 07, 2009, 06:14:12 PM
photobucket wants you to login. . .
ok... Let me work on that.
boo photobucket.......
Horray beer!
Here are some shots.
219K miles on the stock SOHC 2.0L 12V efi motor which was factory rated @ 110hp. Still pretty peppy despite the mileage. Transmission shifts great and the clutch was recently done too...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v48/orangelion03/Prelude/IMG_6153.jpg)
Stock interior pt 1:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v48/orangelion03/Prelude/IMG_6158.jpg)
Stock interior pt 2:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v48/orangelion03/Prelude/IMG_6159.jpg)
Here's Ryan (Short-Bus Bacon Junkie) exhuberantly removing stuffs:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v48/orangelion03/Prelude/IMG_6160.jpg)
Rob (orangelion03) with the successful removal of the rear seat:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v48/orangelion03/Prelude/IMG_6162.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v48/orangelion03/Prelude/IMG_6167.jpg)
Me removing the cruise-control cable and brackets:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v48/orangelion03/Prelude/IMG_6179.jpg)
Our 'spoils' from the hunt for 'less weight':
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v48/orangelion03/Prelude/IMG_6181.jpg)
Solid exterior and chassis:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v48/orangelion03/Prelude/IMG_6182.jpg)
Well...not ENTIRELY solid. Former owner left it to rot for 5 years in his driveway with his neighbors sprinklers hitting it daily... :(
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v48/orangelion03/Prelude/IMG_6185.jpg)
This is going to be fun [popcorn]
You should turbo that thing.
how many races you going to enter?
I have a 91 integra rotting in my driveway, with 250k on the clock, if i can convince the better looking half that this is a better way to enjoy the few bucks we would have made on the car if we sold it, i am in.
thanks for the idea. i have a few friends that race/drift and i have never heard of this chumpcar thing.
Did you guys pull the door pannels?
There's another 10+ pounds I'd guess.
Quote from: Big Troubled Bear on December 08, 2009, 12:56:38 AM
This is going to be fun [popcorn]
Oh. Hell. Yeah!
Quote from: Monsterlover on December 08, 2009, 02:51:56 AM
You should turbo that thing.
We're limited to a maximum investment (w/o safety equipment) of $500 so a turbo would likely put us over the edge. Plus...we're serious about finishing and putting pressure on a 220K motor, well...it may not last as long as a 24 hour race demands. But hell yeah...we thought of it!
Quote from: RB on December 08, 2009, 03:15:41 AM
how many races you going to enter?
I have a 91 integra rotting in my driveway, with 250k on the clock, if i can convince the better looking half that this is a better way to enjoy the few bucks we would have made on the car if we sold it, i am in.
thanks for the idea. i have a few friends that race/drift and i have never heard of this chumpcar thing.
1 at first. Since funds are low and time to do this is short...we're hoping to have the car prepped, roll-caged, & ready-to-rock by mid to late summer. I'd like to do Sears Point me-self... [evil] If the car (and us) make it, then we'll consider other venues.
Safety equipment can total $1000 and that doesn't include the full race Nomex suit you have to wear, the car-racing specific helmet, gloves, fuel, entry fees and such. The four of us (River is the 4th BTW) plan on an investment of about $800-$1000 each w/all our gear, transportation to the track, food, entry fees, etc... You should really read the rules of the thing before you touch the Integra, but yeah...COULD BE GREAT!
Quote from: Monsterlover on December 08, 2009, 03:30:09 AM
Did you guys pull the door pannels?
There's another 10+ pounds I'd guess.
We'll get to the front panels and the remainder of the interior in due time. For right now, I'm daily-driving this car so it still has to function and we don't yet have manual window regulators so keeping the power ones and the power switchgear deemed that the panels remain for the time being.
Thats overall pretty damn awesome! where do you find working cars for 300 bucks? I've heard stories about these races where people get awesome cars and blow away the competition, and then there are some terrible cars that dont make it the first hour
I hate to break it to you but someone put that motor in there all sideways like.
That is going to be serious fun. [thumbsup] I dunno how much I would enjoy an actual enduro, so I might opt for the shorter and even less serious version of this, the 24 Hours of Lemons (http://www.24hoursoflemons.com/)
Assorted selections from the rulebook:
1.6: Your Car May Be Destroyed at Any Time: In addition to accidents and other unfortunate boo-boos, one car may be selected by blind ballot of all teams for immediate removal and total destruction. It could be your car. It probably WILL BE your car. You'll have 30 minutes to yank out any safety items you want to rescue, and then it's toast. Them's the breaks. Don't bring it if you ain't OK with losing it.
2.4: Whiner Eligibility. Whiners are not eligible to compete.
Quote from: Ducaholic on December 08, 2009, 07:58:19 AM
I hate to break it to you but someone put that motor in there all sideways like.
In the words of Jeremy Clarkson "you are giving the front wheels too much to do" referring to a 200hp+ hot-hatch that is front wheel drive and with zero traction.
Quote from: djrashonal on December 08, 2009, 06:58:12 AM
Thats overall pretty damn awesome! where do you find working cars for 300 bucks? I've heard stories about these races where people get awesome cars and blow away the competition, and then there are some terrible cars that dont make it the first hour
Finding a car that is this cheap is the key, and probably difficult to come by right now, but you can find them. Ask your friends and family someone may be sitting on a car they have no intentions of using. I have actually owned two cars because of this, both were high mileage acuras i just had to remove them from the property. Last car coast me $0 so i rebuilt the head with 250k on the clock drove it to 280k before someone t-boned me.
Now i have to sell this idea to my wife.
Found on Craigslist. It has yet to pass smog and was back-registered a few years so those knocked some $ off the pricing.
The 24 Hours of Lemons folks have some funny stuffs in their rules about immediate destruction of the car w/o any say by its owners. The Chump-Car series has none of that non-sense. They can take your car and turn it over to the 'Wrecking Crew' who will disconnect, cut, disassemble it somewhat (depending on the infraction) and then return it to you for you to fix as fast as possible to get back in the race. They can also pull your car and pay you $1500 for it and you're out. After the race, the car goes up for auction w/the opening bid of $1750 (all proceeds going to charity) so you can buy it back for another race...
As far as the race schedule goes, I really *WANT* to do the 24 Hr. stint (as well as all my crew-mates). That way, it's less of a test of the machine and more of a test of the drivers and the whole team.
Do you guys have a name for the car/team name for it yet?
As a team, we're "Team Play-Rude" but the car is yet to be named...
Quote from: Duck-Stew on December 08, 2009, 11:43:46 AM
As a team, we're "Team Play-Rude" but the car is yet to be named...
we also toyed with Pray-Lewd, Quelude (sp?), and Prey-Luge... ;D
Lotsa fun ripping all that stuff out... Probably got close to 100lbs or so outta there! :o
Did you chip out the sound damping tar mats they stick to the floor of the car?
Chill em + air chisel chips em right out.
Heating them just makes a mess.
I removed it all from an 88 Prelude 4WS i used to have (and turbo'd [evil] ) and it was 20 pounds or so
Quote from: Short-Bus Bacon Junkie on December 08, 2009, 04:10:39 PM
we also toyed with Pray-Lewd, Quelude (sp?), and Prey-Luge... ;D
Lotsa fun ripping all that stuff out... Probably got close to 100lbs or so outta there! :o
haha, i like play-lewd too
I'll be rooting for you guys [clap]
Woooooo!!!! I've got a bum-ass Escort ZX2 I could sink some cash into.
I'll be watching this VERY closely!
Good luck Guys!!
Sounds like it will be an awesome time. My buddy and I looked into the rules and regulations. It might be more involved than the average Joe is able to do. The car might be cheap but all the safety equipments/clothing adds up real quick.
Keep us updated with progress and post lots of pics!
Turbo, Turbo, Turbo! (Wasn't that the name of a movie back in the '70s?)
(http://cache-foo-04.gawkerassets.com/gawker/assets/images/12/2009/12/500x_doing_it_wrong_12.jpg)
Quote from: triangleforge on December 11, 2009, 10:09:35 AM
Turbo, Turbo, Turbo! (Wasn't that the name of a movie back in the '70s?)
(http://cache-foo-04.gawkerassets.com/gawker/assets/images/12/2009/12/500x_doing_it_wrong_12.jpg)
Hahaha.... Now THAT'S funny! And it makes me think evil things. [evil]
By the way, we weighed the car as we bought it (on a recycling scale) and it came in at 2400 lbs. (+/- 10lbs).
When we're through w/the lightening and adding the cage, we'll re-weigh it so we know how much we removed and added.
Oh, and I blew-up the Driver-side drive axle today. Not fun. Crunchy noises.
Due to my loss of M-F income, one more of our members income being cut back and all four of us being too busy to donate time to this venture.
It has been permanently shelved.
I drove the car to the salvage yard this afternoon... It is gone.
Perhaps some other day...
Did you break even on it?
Sorry you can't continue. I was looking forward to that...
Was a complete loss of $.
The state of CA doesn't allow you to get a 2nd 60-day temporary registration and the car wouldn't pass smog and it's ONLY 60-day permit expired at the end of the month.
There is a program that buys back gross-polluters but it has to be registered in your name first...and this car was in the process of being registered so a no-go for that option.
Wow, that really sucks man...
Yeah... But at least we hadn't started to *put* money into it (roll cage, racing seats, racing brakes, engine mods, nomex suits, etc...)
I just nipped it in the bud as it was going no-where....
I'm out the cost of the car, registration fees, and about $300 in parts to keep it on the road. At least I won't be loosing any more $$$...
That bites
I'm sorry for your loss
Damn Stew....this sucks.
I was looking forward to living vicariously thru you on this one. :-\
Congrats on the new vans, btw. [thumbsup]
:'( :'( :'(
I'm sad to see her go, but it was fun following Stew to the salvage yard.... He was stopping every 50 - 100 yards to do burn-outs! [evil] [bow_down] [bacon]
This is an awsome idea, and the race is gonna be at VIR . I gotta look into it [beer]
Could you not have "sold" it to someone out of state and had them register it?
Not exactly up n up but sometimes that's how things get done :)
I could have done that, but honestly... I was just driving the car around and the problems with it were getting worse. Stalling, idling around 2200rpm, heater went out...
I figured it was best to just cut losses and move on.
Bought a 2003 E250 van earlier this week and got a good deal on that so I'm better off as I can haul Moto's again! [thumbsup]
Idling ~2000rpm = bad MAF...
No Mass air on those cars, my friend.
No Mass air on injected hondas up to at least the late 90's (where my knowledge drops off) as they used a speed/density system with a MAP sensor.
Alrighty then, that seems to be the general issue with a bad MAF though. Either way, he junked the car so it's a non issue...
Oh man :(
Quote from: NAKID on January 22, 2010, 06:47:35 PM
Alrighty then, that seems to be the general issue with a bad MAF though. Either way, he junked the car so it's a non issue...
Indeed.
An intake leak can also allow a high idle. Manifold gasket or throttle body gasket would do it, or a broken vacuum hose.
This thread makes me miss my prelude
Here's where it got odd: High idle until warm and then only slightly raised idle but it ran really rich all the time... I had thought about opening up a controlled vacuum leak between the air intake past the filter but before the throttle body and then regulate it to the manifold after the throttle body but never got enough gumption to do it.
Eh...maybe another year....
Bad IAC possibly
or one thats just stuck and needs degunked
Since the potential discussions about what could have been wrong with a $300, 24 year-old Honda could no-doubt continue forever...
I'm going to lock the thread so it disappears into oblivion.
G'night sirs and madams.