Track Prep FN2R

[jyh888]

I have been inspired by many car fans and builds such as BYP civic, JDM yard civic, Js Racing DC5R etc to name a few which has motivated me to mod my fn2r that i have recently purchased. Hence I would like to share my experiences on my build on this forum.

Firstly, although the stock rims complement the looks of the car, it is ridiculously heavy – weighted at approximately 20kg including tyres per corner! The rims/tyres alone weigh approx 80kg all up! Despite the weight of the rims, the stock tyres (Bridgestone Potenza RE050A) offer extremely good grip for street tyres. To pursue my path of weight reduction, I have purchased a set of Rays CE28Ns in gloss black (17x7.5 +43 offset) with a set of Yokohama Advan A048 semi slicks (225/45/17) for track and a set of Bridgestone Potenza Adrenalins RE001 for the street.





The ce28ns are impressively light-weight, approximately 5kg per corner! Which is a 5kg weight reduction from the stock rims which weight up approx 10kg each without tyres. From this I have already reduced 20kg all up of unsprung mass! To complement the rims I have also purchased a set of Rays Duralumin nuts  After driving the car, I could feel a day and night difference in driveability. The car requires less force and due to the less mass the car accelerates a lot faster, it seems like there is more available torque at every gear throughout the entire rev range. Furthermore, braking is also improved as it requires less braking force and due to the smaller diameter it absorbs shock slightly better. The semi slicks sound awesome! And they are effing grippy, it is almost impossible to lose traction driving these on the streets, the car feels like it is on rails and stick to the road like it should!



Secondly, I find that the stock intake system is very restrictive and after pulling it apart you will understand what I mean! It is massive and also weighs a fair bit...





Stock Intake System


Stock Air Box


Stock Resonator




I wanted a cold air intake to give me better gains and induction sound. After doing much research, I was tossing up against either the gruppeM vs Injen intake. Effectively the gruppeM intake is a short ram intake using a K&N pod filter with a large carbon fiber scoop, used to ram air into the filter – for the price of this intake ($1000+) i could not justify purchasing it, people had also questioned whether the ram/scoop effect was effective or not as the scoop lies under the bonnet and draws air from the grill however some argue that the radiator was in the way and would not allow efficient air flow. My second option was injen, this intake is a true cold air intake that draws fresh air from the left hand side near the foglight/wheel arch. In the end, I chose the injen intake because many dynos results showed similar results to the gruppeM and it cost less than half the price!

Injen have designed a revised intake for the fn2 which I believe gives better gains as they have enlarged the diameter of piping, filter and use a different mounting bracket. However, there were a few hiccups to installing this intake and I would like to give credit to the JDM yard crew who had spent a lot of time with me to ensure this intake fitted perfectly (pm me if you need details). I also bypassed the throttle body coolant line and as result the intake manifold is a lot cooler even after a hard drive, i can comfortably place my hands over the manifold whereas before it can get extremely hot especially due to our small engine bay. In conclusion, the injen intake delivers good gains throughout the rev range (dynos show a positive +6hp net gain) and is much more responsive with no flat spots at all. The foglight however seems to cover up the area of the filter, so i am looking into removing the foglight and making my own ram or scoop to deliver more direct air. Another alternative is to use the mugen air garnish but it does cost a small fortune...

Injen Cold Air Intake


Piping and hoses removed for tb coolant bypass


Hopefully sometime I get the chance to track the car as is before I make further developments, next I will be looking further into upgrading suspension and brakes before I chase more power so stay tuned!

[Chriskoss]

Hahaha i live near you and drive by your house alot... and I drove by your house when I saw you doing this stuff to your FN2R (wont say where for security purposes)
car looks good mate! I like the white type r rims on the other fn2 you/your friend etc has aswell

P.S its chris.. jimmies old mate

[jyh888]

Sorry for the small pictures, I have resized and uploaded them. Haha thanks chris, glad to hear from u..just pop down next time if you drive by

[xntrik]

sick!! another tracker

[damienm]

before you hit the track remember to install an oil cooler and baffled sump just so you dont get oil starvation esp when youre running those semi slicks.

[br3nny]

g'day fellas..i had a similar dilemma

this is for an alternative to the mugen air intake garnish which wouldnt' put a dent in ur pocket or leave u starving for a month. initially i only had the holes drilled in each slot but thought that there wouldn't be enough space for the air to make it through so i decided to cut as far as i could

in doing so the sound that comes from it you can tell that there is ALOT more air getting to the intake now !!

i'm not sure about local dealers but you can source the foglight inserts from Civinfo. I got mine through Gordons Honda for £65 (this included shipping) but from what i remember he mentioned that the price had gone up since Dec 09. fyi its better just to order the pair for the extra £5

if you have a free day on the weekend just chop it up and cut out the solid honeycomb insert like so


you can see the injen cai's useless bracket hiding behind


i also added flyscreen mesh behind to stop rocks and bugs from flying inside (held down around the edges by selleys clear silicon)

hope this helps

[jyh888]

before you hit the track remember to install an oil cooler and baffled sump just so you dont get oil starvation esp when youre running those semi slicks.

Thanks for the tips, already looking into them. Do the type r's already come with an oil cooler stock? If not which kit can I use for the fn2r? Another question is running 5W-30 viscosity engine oil fine for track?

[jyh888]

Thanks br3nny, that was a great post and good alternative to the mugen air garnish, ill try to source the inserts Do you ever get problems with rain going through the inserts? and can you show me a picture of the car in whole with the inserts? i.e. a full pic of the car, thanks.

[damienm]

im pretty sure they dont come with an oil cooler stock. Get an oil cooler off jdm yard along with the fittings n stuff and you can custom mount it yourself. Try go for a 10W-40 oil when youre tracking just for insurance as the 5W-30 is a bit thin

[jyh888]

im pretty sure they dont come with an oil cooler stock. Get an oil cooler off jdm yard along with the fittings n stuff and you can custom mount it yourself. Try go for a 10W-40 oil when youre tracking just for insurance as the 5W-30 is a bit thin

Thanks for the tips mate.

[lukits01]

oil pan is not necessary if you keep your oil levels in check
mines done 65000km with a lot of track abuse with semi slicks and its fine
the FN2 sump is much better designed than previous K20s
oil cooler also not necessary unless you are doing constant 20-30min stints of hard driving
K20 comes with with a basic integrated oil cooler as part of the radiator

[br3nny]

Thanks br3nny, that was a great post and good alternative to the mugen air garnish, ill try to source the inserts Do you ever get problems with rain going through the inserts? and can you show me a picture of the car in whole with the inserts? i.e. a full pic of the car, thanks.

hey no problem with rain, just get a hydroshield for the filter and you should be good, just remember that its NOTWATERPROOF best way to describe it is like water beads while its along it common sense just tells you to avoid puddles (which need to be around knee height to before you actually start sucking up water)



and pictures as requested