You're My Boy, Blue

[ScottyB]

not much new to report, really.  just gas and go lately.  we did another ~700mi roadtrip in it recently and that triggered a wave of scheduled and unscheduled maintenance that all ended well.  currently sitting at ~102k.

so we headed up to Roanoke for a quick few days to see family for the 4th + a birthday and decided to take the Si since we were packing relatively light.  for us that means 3 people and a dog and a full trunk including a folded up dog crate, fishing gear, and a cooler full of beer.  managed about 31mpg with the AC cranked and alternating between a 78mph cruise and some bumper to bumper stop and go.

the unscheduled maintenance - AC was blowing warm about 2 weeks prior to leaving.  figured i had a slow leak and went in for a recharge the day before leaving.  left the shop and it was still blowing a limp 75 degree breeze.  shit.  i started wondering if the rallyx dust and vibration broke something in the system.  stayed up half the night researching what it could be - fearing the worst which was a potential compressor replacement ($$$) and decided to try resetting the HVAC control panel as a hail mary move.  press/hold the AC and Recirc button, ignition on, then the panel runs all the settings through and clears any stored codes.  IT WORKED.  couldn't believe it.  my guess is that the blend door was stuck in between the evaporator and heater core and was just bleeding heat into the airstream.  i don't know a thing about AC systems but at least if this ever happens again i have a few leads to go on after my crash course.

anyway, aside from awful traffic in Charlotte in triple digit heat it was a nice ride.  took it up on the parkway to Peaks Of Otter early Friday in freak 75 degree weather and it was magic.  low clouds were pouring over the ridges and i was so glad to enjoy the car on some proper roads even if i had to keep things very tame with everyone in the car.  you VA guys are so lucky to have this in your back yard.


stopped in Charlotte at Dorton Park for a picnic lunch.  if you guys are on 85 passing through, its a great little place to pull off just off the highway and stretch out.


after getting home it was time for an oil change, almost exactly a year from the last one i did.  this time i ran the oil change up to 8200 miles and collected a bit for a Blackstone analysis.  this will likely be my last one - i'm content with an annual change and just looking to see if i need to pull it back a bit.  Mobil 0W-40 went back in, because it just works and is filthy cheap at wally world.

at the same time, the K20 calls for valve lash adjustment at 100k miles.  i grabbed a Mahle gasket kit which was a nice value compared to an OEM set and all the rubber parts look very high quality - much as i remember their stuff being from when i used their products in my Audi days.  grabbed a set of bent feeler gauges too so i could get to things easier.  set the car up for the night to come down to stone cold and up on stands for an oil drain.

there's no getting around that the engine bay is tight.  you can see where Honda went to legit lengths to try to make servicing the car a priority - things are loomed together, minimal attachment points, clearance where they could make it.  its appreciated, but its still a process.  ultimately i got the cover cracked off without much drama and was greeted with a very clean valvetrain.  the inside of the valve cover was totally free of sludge.  very pleased overall.




certainly some cam lobe wear, but absolutely nothing out of the ordinary to my eyes.  chain looked fine, guides have some wear but plenty of life.  i honestly could have just reused the valve cover gaskets, all of them were completely gummy without a trace of cracking.

no shots of the valve adjustment but it was pretty textbook - intake side was a bit loose, exhaust was a bit tight, and all cylinders were slightly inconsistent.  adjusted to .09" clearance on intake and a loose .10" on exhaust, in an attempt to hit right in the middle of the spec.  Honda conveniently makes a port in the passenger wheel well where you can turn the crank pulley with a 19mm socket to turn the engine over by hand, which I did to adjust cyl 1, 3, 4, and 2 in that order.  this is my first time doing valve lash and its not hard, just tedious.  i found the most difficult thing just being consistent - i had to go back 2 or 3 times to get everything to feel exactly the same across cylinders.

no, i didn't take the chance to paint the valve cover something ridiculous.  personal rule is Honda valve covers should only change color for special OEM models or legit internal work.  maybe some day if i get those cams i want...

anyway, cover back on with a dab of Hondabond in a handful of spots.  sat another night to let the Hondabond cure.  drove around today and nothing was leaking or on fire, so i'll call it a success.  seems a bit less tappy when cold, but otherwise ready for another 100k.

next up:  coolant change and then headed for the NC mountains for a weekend with some buds and a chance to really stretch the Si's legs a bit.

[ScottyB]

yearly nerd out on an oil analysis. honestly...nothing to report. extended the oil change by 1500 miles this time and it basically didn't care. i'm very satisfied with the minimal wear on 40 weight oil, so i'll call it quits here with analysis and just remember to change it annually with whatever 5qt jug of 0W-40 is on sale. given the dust from the rallycross i was expecting much more silicon from a potentially overwhelmed air filter but it did its job perfectly. the onboard computer wants me changing it at about 6,000 miles but i'll just ignore that given how conservative it is.

at an 11.9 cst its right on the edge of a thick 30 weight which is ideal. i put mobil1 0W-40 back in and will happily forget about it until next 4th of July.

[Goodspeed]

I gave out an audible "mmm yeahhhh" at your valve adjustment pics. So fresh and so clean, and then you made me feel bad for not having been on the BRP since college. Gotta fix that....car's looking great!

[ScottyB]

the mountains are calling and i must go.

first stab begins Friday morning.  North Friday, South Sunday.  ~200 mi each way, if i didn't have a schedule i'd get further off the beaten path but as it is its about 4.5 hrs each way and i should probably actually arrive where i'm supposed to.

taking 28 up (west side of loop) and then Canada Rd/281 back through Oconee State Park.


some fun looking parts. the sooner i can brutally murder the shoulders off these awful Hankooks sooner i can replace them and the better my life will be.



love me some budget mods and with the hurt i'll be putting on the brakes i went and grabbed a set of Porsche GT3 front air deflectors for $10 from ECS Tuning.  i'll trim up the backing plate so the air can flow right to the disc.  they're tucked up enough that they'll be nicely streetable and should take a hundred degrees or so off the peak disc temps, going from the datalogging others have done.  here's how they look mid-installation on someone else's Si:


not a perfect fit but a little trimming and some zip ties and they hold on tight.  for 10 bucks i'll take it.

[JPolen01]

Porsche parts on a Civic..How do people even come up with ideas like this?

[ScottyB]

Porsche parts on a Civic..How do people even come up with ideas like this?

you'd think!  control arm mounted air deflectors are actually a pretty common OEM part.  the Focus SVT and GTI guys were using this Porsche trick years and years ago.  i've heard of other guys adapting it to their sport compacts of differing brands as well.  

Porsche's part just seems to be a good fit for a lot of platforms and is filthy cheap for whatever reason.

[Kaan]

Honed parts out of Australia make a $200 kit to do this to Hondas ... when you see $20s worth of parts on someone else website you spend 1/10th the price and figure it out.

[ScottyB]

austrian parts on a japanese car never felt so right.

took some trimming but they fit the arm





zipped off part of the dust shield for teh airflowz


redneck chrome over the arm to just to seal the gap and keep the air directed at the rotor vs spilling through the cracks.  it adds some additional stability but the zip ties are tight enough that sucker isn't going anywhere


on level ground it sits perfectly.


brb gonna go try them out

[Senor_Taylor]

Is your dust shield broken in half? Did you do that?

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

[ScottyB]

Is your dust shield broken in half? Did you do that?

no i cut it with a dremel cutoff wheel.  otherwise it wouldn't receive any airflow from the brake ducts.  they're mainly there to prevent dust, i would have taken the entire thing off if i didn't have to remove all the brake components to do it.

[ScottyB]

great weekend on the road.  total ride was about 500 miles, at least 250 of it was some solid backroad thrashing.  west NC is a treasure, aside from being gorgeous its easy to find some really fantastic, vacant roads.  

that said i ended up changing the route on the fly.  my intention was to ride 28 all the way north to Bryson City but the traffic was so discouraging i bailed and headed east on 64 out of Highlands to the much more remote 281 and struck north.  turned out to be a great option with almost no cars but i found that 281 is pretty beat up...lots of broken pavement and gravel washed out into the road.  going back home Sunday i decided not to waste time trying 28 again going south and instead took the parkway and then 215 south to 178.  those 3 roads proved to be the best part of the ride.  that section of the parkway is incredible to behold at 5000+ elevation in the clouds and 215 is a billiard-smooth roller coaster that lives up to its reputation.  178 ended up surprising me completely by being the gnarliest road of all despite its short length with insane elevation change, road surface changes, huge road camber and really tight switchbacks.  traffic was lax on all but the very end of 178 heading into Pickens SC.


for anyone looking to check these drives out, definitely try out 178/215 and don't touch 28 unless its a weekday or very off-hour.  i would not attempt to enjoy any of them in the rain or any holiday weekend unless you want to sit behind terrified drivers, campers, and fat boys riding Fat Boys like they still have their training wheels on.

biggest disappointment overall, aside from the traffic around Highlands (tourist town, i should have known better) was that NC has almost no provisions for passing on any of these roads, and it should come as no surprise that absolutely nobody uses their rear view and/or has the courtesy to pull over to let you by no matter how obvious you make it that you're being held up.  of the 20 or 30 times i was stuck behind people poking along at 10 under, only one single guy pulled off to let me by.  apparently everyone's either not worried about arriving at their destination within the day or they're terrified of hills.  its possible you can be stuck behind the same guy for over an hour if you're particularly unfortunate.  i just pulled off and waited most of the time.

Fun Highlights:
• got challenged to a Touge Battle by a Ridgeline in a remote section of 28 on the GA/NC border.  i'm not kidding, and this guy was 100% committed to an alarming pace.  i did absolutely nothing to provoke him...just came around a corner, he was pulled off to the side and then jumped in front, waited for me to pull up on his tail and took off.  but apparently he was determined to give me a show.  i've never seen anyone hustle a pickup truck like that nor can i understand why, but it happened.  didn't have much trouble staying behind him and he eventually pulled off.  had to give him a wave for just being a freaking lunatic.

• surprise overlanding session between Indian Creek Campground and the parkway.  looked paved on the map, found out otherwise as i was driving next to the creek and just said the hell with it and took it as far as i could to see if it was possible.  turns out you can climb a goatpath in a lowered civic, and i had to do some interesting maneuvers to keep from getting pulled into some ruts.  some of the dropoffs were legit....like, you fall off, your body might be found in 5 years kind of remoteness...so i hugged the upslope of the hill.  quite a few 1st gear, full steering lock switchbacks. never scraped bottom once.  was so sad i didn't come across any jeepers so i could tell them its a Honda thing, you wouldn't understand.

• the parkway between the southern terminus and 215 is phenomenal.  i'm mentioning this again because it deserves it.  i would not judge any man who started crying when they laid their eyes on the pure wilderness and views up there.  the wildlife around you is as rich and alive as you can experience in Appalachia and the road and tunnels are great fun even at the speed limit.  going from blinding fog banks to bright sun on top of a sea of clouds never ever gets old.  its an incredibly unique place at such high elevation with the alpine weather and in August at noon it was a perfect 65 degrees.

• the car did great.  really got to enjoy 2nd and 3rd gears and put the seat bolsters to good use.  i found that i wouldn't change anything about the car if i lived there other than getting some proper tires and probably more front camber.  its set up almost perfectly to enjoy the roads at a reasonable pace and still work great as a daily.  i was surprised to find that i really never needed more power.  the brake ducting was worth it.  i worked them HARD and they resisted fading completely, so i'm calling it the best $10 mod ever.  

getting up to the parkway...nobody can ever accuse me of hardparking again





highest point on the parkway, 6053 feet


Cowee Mt overlook, 5900 ft



you bet your ass i did a 2nd gear pull through every one of these.  the hills are alive with the sound of VTEC


incredible alpine environment.  bright sun one minute, absolute 20-foot pea soup visibility the next.  so cool.


these wheels were totally spotless and bright silver 48 hours ago.  oops

[ScottyB]

no real news on the car, but in a semi related note on past thoughts in this thread....

The Dragon is basically a circus now

found out they had some kind of event up there last weekend called TougeFest, apparently 11 cars went off between Saturday and Sunday, wtf. and who even knows how many close calls due to lane cutting and overcooked corners. thanks i'm good.

cliffs:




still really want to drive it, still really enjoy being around cool cars, but note to self stay the F away from that place in Leaf Season.

[Senor_Taylor]

SICK RACE SEAT BRO

[JPolen01]

Matt Farah (smoking tire podcast) was on a press event there a few weeks ago and said he went around 6am and was the only car on the road. Probably your best bet to enjoy the road without too many other cars around.

[ScottyB]

Matt Farah (smoking tire podcast) was on a press event there a few weeks ago and said he went around 6am and was the only car on the road. Probably your best bet to enjoy the road without too many other cars around.

yeah if i ever go, i'm planning on enjoying it between the hours of 5 and 7 to catch the sunrise, or just forget all of it until night time.

[*insertusernamehere*]

highest point on the parkway, 6053 feet

Hrm, man I didn't know they made BRZ's with four doors

[ScottyB]

gotta brush the crickets outta here.  minor update:

found out through the 8th gen racer grapevine that Autozone is apparently carrying new-old-stock SPC suspension products and simply rebranding them as their own Duralast line.  Not sure what prompted that business decision, but regardless SPC is a pretty well respected company and i've been looking for rear camber arms for a while now to eventually correct that 1/2 degree camber discrepancy between the 2 back wheels.  i noticed on the big mountain drive a few months back that it was not as tail happy turning left as it was turning right, so i truly think its time to address it.

Autozone being the big dumb corporate animal it is, apparently decided it should sell each of these SPC arms for $45 bucks.  thats....$100 per arm under retail.  and they'd ship it to my door, for free.  AND they had a 20% off coupon for $100 orders until the 9th.

so i bought 2 arms, added a $4 wheel brush to make my total $103, and got 2 forged aluminum, made-in-Merica, adjustable control arms for $90 with tax, sent to my front stoop.  the internet is pretty cool sometimes.







i'll see about putting them on over the winter once all the holiday travel simmers down.  i think i'd like to line up the back end at -1.5 degrees, maybe a hair less.  i think it'll rotate nicely and improve my tire wear even more as a bonus.

[WRXtranceformed]

Brazo de mando bro.... Brazo de mando

[Senor_Taylor]

If I were you, I'd snag two more to keep as spares at those prices.

[ScottyB]

If I were you, I'd snag two more to keep as spares at those prices.

"honey what are these charges from Autozone?"
"they're having, like, a control arm blowout.  just look at it.  at these prices we're LOSING money if we don't buy more!"
"you've got the couch tonight"