30 October 2015

Retiring the EH9 as my daily driver

A lot has happened in the last three months:

Joining Street Assassins

Street Assassins Car Club [FB]. We are a 50 car strong club and are at all the local bay area meets (the others are out more than I am due to work or family but I try to make it out to what I can as these guys and girls are family to me). We hold monthly meets (The Gathering), do fundraisers for families in need, and over all have a good time! At the last Gathering we flew in world famous HondaPro Jason [YT] [FB], named the event "the HondaPro edition", and made him an honorary member of the club. 

Below is his video footage from the event:


The HondaPro Edition of 'The Gathering'

Quitting Web River

Web River was slowly killing me - I was working 10 hour days (straight - no lunch, just two or three smoke breaks) so by the time I got home I did not want to do anything in the garage. Not only was I working my ass off I was also pretty much being taking advantage of - I was put in a new position that I completely turned around by doing the job proper and I was relentlessly hounded to do more and more. I talked a lot of shit over the years about quitting however it was finally time that I pulled the trigger on the job and not myself. 

Now on to the topic of this post - retiring my EH9:

About 3 months ago I was driving home and hit something in the road on Easy Bay & US 19 that looked like a harmonic balancer. I found our that it cracked the trans case about two blocks down the road so she was parked for about a month while I gathered up parts. With some help from Phil we swapped in a 5MT, got everything finished with the exception of filling the trans with fluid and mounting the shift linkage. The donor car was a 1994 EH6 - same engine as the EH9 and same transmission as the EH3 (Si) - so at the time I thought this was the perfect donor. Little did I know that the shift linkage was too long and the upward bend was too much to get properly lined up. I stopped the process there while I looked for yet another donor - this time a manual EG sedan which so far I had not been able to find at any of the local LKQ yards =/

After talking with my wife and rather than having to continue to work on the car almost weekly in its role as my daily driver I decided to retired it...

..for a 2007 FA5! 

2007 FA5 - Sex on wheels!

Black on Black - Nighthawk Black Pearl & cloth interior with red door inserts, factory sat nav, a 6MT with LSD, and the best part - K20Z3! I'm not giving up on the EH9 or the D16 power plant, just needed something a bit more reliable so I am currently enjoying owning (and driving!) my first DOHC iVTEC powered vehicle =)

Street Assassins - Taking over Tampa Bay!

Factory SAT NAV with XM
The car came without the SAT NAV DVD so I picked up one off eBay. Well it turns out that the previous owner updated the SAT NAV so the 2007 DVD I have will not work. I'm dreading the though of having to shell out $150 for the 2015 DVD however it is starting to look like that is going to be my only option =/


K20Z3 mated to a 6MT with LSD
Holy shit I am so in love with this engine!! The moment when is really hit me how awesome this car is was when I first passed someone on I-275 in 4th gear - I was pulling hard on them and I still had two gears left! This is another chassis that I will own until I die, there is no way in hell I'm ever getting rid of this car!


Red door inserts - same material as the stock inserts!
DOHC iVTEC - This color adds 20HP! =)
The car is mostly stock with the exception of:
  • Headlights - retro-fitted HID 10K with projectors
  • Fog lights - retro-fitted HID 3K with projectors
  • Red door inserts - same material as OEM
  • Red DOHC iVTEC stickers - same size as OEM
The engine, suspension, and brakes are 100% stock so I have the cleanest 2007 FA5 in the bay area to start another build with. This one however will be very, very mild to start with - the usual I/H/E, then suspension, then wheels - until I get bitten by the more power bug anyway. Being a Ferio builder you just know I had to go with the FA5 over the FG2!

So far I'm loving it however this has caused a dilemma - what to do with the EH9 and EJ8. After careful consideration I have decided to part out the EJ8 and put the B20 in to the EH9 (now that it's got all the proper pedals). I thought it was going to be a sad day when the time came that I was not driving my EH9 daily - I have put over 80k miles on the car and absolutely love it, all 125HP of it - however having 200HP got me over that sadness, quick as fuck!

Stay tuned as there is much more to come! Sorry for the long delay in posts but I had to quit my last job and get another one that was going to make me happy =)

16 April 2015

Doing work & getting shit done!

Since it's been a while since I've posted here is a small recap as to what is going down at HYPR Garage:

I have finally got some parts installed! The EH9 pretty much as a completely replaced front end - Skunk2 Upper Control Arms, slotted + drilled rotors, StopTech braided stainless steel brake lines, and the Ground Control sleeve & top hats + Koni Orange setup that has been on the car. However in the process of installing the UCAs I replaced the tie rod ends and now the steering rack has play in it. Time to replace that as well!

Front end suspension and brakes installed
The HDR setting on my camera always makes my car look dirty!
The EJ8 has not been left out of the lovefest! I recently picked up a new heart for her - a high compression (9.6:1) JDM B20B! I already had the B series ceramic coated 4-2-1 header that fits like a glove, just need to get some motor mounts and a transmission and I can drop her in!

JDM B20B

This weekend is going to be a big one for HYPR - I'm going to a new car meet to try and make some new connections & possibly make some parts sales. I've got big things planned for HYPR this year. 2015 is the year we hit the street! We're coming out hard and not stopping for anything!