Honda K20A2/Z3 9.1:1 (Turbo) Build For Sale

Honda K20A2/Z3 9.1:1 (Turbo) Build For Sale

Hey Honda-powered People,

At long last I’m selling my k20a2 block+k20z3 head long block, built by Rich Olivier of TEM Performance Machine Shop in 2017. TEM specializes in race builds. Solid rep. Check them out.

Build overview:

    • 9.1:1 ceramic coated pistons
    • Supertech dished race valves and springs (jhpusa.com “super combo”)
    • Supertech block guard
    • Ceramic coated CP pistons
    • Pauter rods – I beam design reduces windage. More common to Porsche race builds.
    • APR head studs
    • Cometic head gasket
    • Toda Heavy Duty Timing Chain
    • Circuit Hero Timing Chain Guide
    • Skunk2 Billet Timing Chain Cover
    • OEM oil pan with 4piston baffle (to install)
    • OEM crank, sleeves and cams
  • Out she came... Needs a new loving home.

I ran it with 12-14 pounds of boost for 340 whp with a tune by AJ (IG post on dyno new tab) Performance In-Frame Tuning (opens PIT website new tab). Rich once said the build “will take whatever you throw at it”. But of course we all know running I wanted to run safe with lower boost. But if you know these engines you know what they can do.

I put under 7k miles on this build. I drove SF North Bay Area, peninsula backroads and along the coast some weekends. And ran four track days in group 4 with NASA. Mild, non-competitive fun. Ran like a top. Crazy fun – especially in a car weighing about 2100 pounds.

$3,999. OBO. Half the cost of same as new build. 

I’ve looked at the usual market places and forums and I don’t think you’ll find a better turbo-ready build at this price point. If you do, show me

Email k20elise@gmail.com to schedule a call. 

Enjoy

 

Why Race?

Why do we race? Some may join the fray without asking. Racers are a truly diverse bunch, to be sure. Because of this we also share a special kinship. There is something global, almost universal, about racing’s appeal. Yet it is not for everyone. Only a tiny percent of the population can and does do it. Here’s a look at why.

Lotus Exige Honda Type R“Because race car” is an entertaining answer. It addresses the instinct to race and ignores any reason. The humor is in its truth. There’s little reason to race. And that’s the paradox: keen intellect and logic are necessary to race well, but they play little if any part in our motivation. That resides at a deeper level, a somewhat inaccessible place in our psyche. One reason can’t easily reach.

“The heart has its reasons that reason knows not.” —Blaise Pascal

karbrainThe speed instinct must run deep in our genetic evolution. I suspect it lives deep in the damp, murky corners of our *basal ganglia, sharing space with other unnecessary edifications, like cooking over and gazing in to open flame, grassy lawns that evoke unconscious memory of our ancestral savannas, and the desire to hunt and shoot, dispite their obsolescence. We don’t need to do such things anymore, but we inexplicably enjoy them. These are survival instincts. The first to chase down prey eats and breeds. Human intellect—the functions of our frontal lobes—have given these insticts their contemporary shapes. Fast cars, barbecue grills, golf courses, compound bows, etcetera.

The things we make resemble ourselves. Cars are no exception. They have a skeleton (chassis), brain, (ECU), power plant (musculature) and so on. Even skin (Ariel Atom excepted). When we’re driving in flow and harmony with it, many of us even experience a car as an extension of our body. This is a great part of the joy and excitement we drivers experience: extending our body’s capabilities. For some this may seem an end in itself. For the small percentage of the general population who track and race cars, it is only a means.

Extending our body is small joy compared to the demands it puts on our mental capacities. This is where driving ends and racing begins. The kind and degree of mental challenge that racing gives is like no other.

“Driving is largely a mental game… you could make the argument that it is 100% mental. The best drivers know how to control their mind. The worst drivers don’t. —Ross Bently

Speed sports uniquely acquaint us with our amygdala-related fear responses. This also relates to why I suspect the joy of driving derives, far back in our genetic history, from a hunting instinct.

Like other technology-augmented sports, motorsport (brakesport?) challenges us to reevaluate and re-calibrate not only spacial cognition but our relationship to our self. Overcoming deep self-preservation instincts with knowledge and practice to develop driving skill can give us some control and triumph over inherited parts of our self, and a sense of self-determination and free will. Triumph over others may be socially rewarding but it can pale in comparison to the personal triumph of self definition.

“Mind management is the best thing I ever learned.” —Sir Jackie Stewart

We race through space but we race against time, in the space-time continuum. We make time through self-discipline. The self-discipline of practice and preparation. Competitors and the course are the stones we sharpen our selves against. “Steel sharpens steel” some martial artists say. Lest we forget, course and competitors are a means. The journey of self-improvement, to become more than we were and to do more than we thought we could, that is the cup we fulfill through racing. There are point-to-point distance races i.e. Mille Miglia, rally courses, Pike’s Peak and the like. And I’d love to try any of them. Even so, those races too are primarily races against “the clock.” Needless to say the closed circuit course predominates. In this context our test is always time. As I learned in courses on the physics of sound, it requires a source, a medium, and a sensor. No sensor, no sound. The tree that falls on no ear makes no sound. The same for time. It doesn’t exist separately from our measurement, nor the measurer.

sennasyndromeOne of the residual benefits of racing is the relief to a competitive attitude on the street. There is nothing like charging forward with every cell in your body, with others doing the same, to relieve you of competitiveness on the road. A martial artist who has tested how much hard competition they can really take is normally left with no remaining desire to fight a stranger. They’ve proved themselves to themselves. I like to call it The Senna Dividend: The faster you are, the kinder you are.

Probably more, because—thankfully—we do it much more frequently. (If driving and boxing meet, we have failed miserably and completely.) So much of our time in “public” is spent in a car. How we act, react and interact with each other on public roads is a clear and direct reflection of our beliefs about our life.

Our behaviors behind the wheel express our sense of self, and our relatedness to others. Relatedness to others—social and shared responsibility in a competitive environment—reflects our sense of our self. Do you feel you belong, or must you force the matter? That will show up in reaction to others actions and opportunities to be careful, or careless. Mindful, or mind-less.

“The way you fight is the way you live.” —Cus D’Amato
Boxing trainer to Mike Tyson, Floyd Patterson, José Torres

D’Amato’s quote applies as much to driving and motorsports as to boxing. Self-fulfillment and self-realization are among many “reasons” we race. If and how we use our sport as a means of self-improvement is up to each of us. Yet there are some foundational principals of the game we play. I have won no podium in them. Far from it. I am just practicing to develop them as quickly as possible. Practicing them consciously, with intent to make the most of every opportunity to develop, on and off track, helps us make the most of our lives together.

  • Putting what was or could or should be aside, and deal with what is.
    No one who is focused on what just happened or what could hypothetically happen wins the race with others or themselves. Generating negative emotions blocks focus and acceptance of what we can and can’t control. When “what is” isn’t helping us, we have to help it. Cars especially. Other drivers, generously, too.
  • Overcoming fear with knowledge and skill through practice.
    We may not think fear-override in racing is transferable because overcoming one fear does not overcome all of them. Yet we do find many top racers do amazing things off track. I.e. public speaking and business. And we can apply our on-track learning methods to other tracks in life, also.
  • Looking forward, not backward.
    “Eyes up” means being aware of our natural tendency to focus too close around us, the path too close ahead or behind, “driving in the mirrors”. It transfers well to life in general, if we think about it.
  • Playing hard but fair.
    Accepting the need for people to compete with, in order to enjoy our sport, is to accept the paradox of an “individual” sport. Maintaining rules of fair play as a social contract, by trading some individual freedom for the social benefit of mutual respect, makes our sport possible. There is always someone more experienced. Likewise, winning “at all cost” can cost a lot more than a win or two. Mainly our growth and enjoyment. As in traditional martial arts, mutual respect equals self respect.
  • Patience/persistence.
    Our lot is not known for patience. Ironically, speed requires patience to develop. We learn the most through mistakes. The more mistakes, the more we learn. Sometimes they’re mechanical. Sometimes not preventable. But we “Go slow to go fast” is a common refrain, meaning be patient. With persistence speed will come. We need it most when, and because, we have it least.
  • “When I look fast, I’m not smooth and I am going slowly. And when I look slow, I am smooth and going fast.” —Alain Prost

  • Focus.
  • Let’s admit that we have a “problem”. Additiction is defined by consequences, not the quantity or frequency of an activity. We can state or debate the benefits of racing but it certainly isn’t a logical activity. Not financially, perhaps not in other ways too. It is a passion and an “itch” that only pushing ourselves past our own preconceived limits can scratch. For me, this redefined self through focus, concentration, and “mindfulness” is the reason to race. Yes, there are other ways to practice these, and they too support performance improvement. Yet this one is so entirely unique.

“Contrary to what we usually believe, moments like these, the best moments in our lives, are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times… The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.”
Control of consciousness determines the quality of life.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, in Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

 Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman
Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman
There is terrible struggle, sometimes very real pain, and great joy in scratching that “itch” we feel. One that sets us somewhat apart from the main. We for whom speed is freedom to be our self. After all, racecar is “because driver.”

The kinship among race-minded people is so special that it occupies a space in our hearts that is very difficult to replace with anything else. The residual effects of developing the abilities that racing requires are unique, and can be applied to many other areas of life.

After some years of tracking cars and licencing to race in a few organizations just this year, I am a novice racer. I’m continually grateful and inspired by the racing community’s generosity and willingness to share their knowledge and time. Lotus may have ignited this fire in me, but the club racing family provides it fuel and oxygen.

“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup…. water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.” —Bruce Lee

Mindfulness, the ability to become so focused, to be so sensitive to input and interaction with our environment, to slow time, lose self-consciousness and simply “flow“, is the reason I believe we race. The cars, tracks and fellow competitors, however much we love them, are merely means. It is the practice of both self and situational awareness that racing requires that I simply call sitting in the Lotus position.

The Lotus Position

*Footnote: The basal ganglia’s function is to coordinate signal transmissions across multiple brain regions and its utilization in racing may exercise brain integration activity to cause much of the residual enjoyment of racing. Brain integration exersizes are considered helpful to racers. And exersizing it is known to improve our brain’s functional coordination abilities.

Honda K20 Elise Build Overview

Here is a list of essential components of this build (not comprehensive):

  • Honda k20z3 from 2006 Civic Si (used, 37k mi)
  • Innovative Mounts engine mounts, axles, shift linkage adapter
  • Garret GT30R turbocharger
  • DMC liquid to air intercooler
  • Hondata K-Pro ECU
  • Lotus wiring harness adapted by Rich Werks (Rich5150) with more adaptations by Enginetiks (Casey)
  • Injector Dynamics 1k cc fuel injectors
  • BOE Fuel Surge Tank
  • Innovative Mounts fuel rail
  • 2004 Honda RSX six speed transmission
  • Quaife LSD
  • Exedy stage 2 clutch and lightened flywheel
  • Hondata dash adapter
  • K-tuned coolant filler neck

Most all else is stock/OEM i.e internals, throttle body, etc.

Custom fabrication by Enginetiks:

  • Turbo exhaust manifold
  • Ported head
  • Exhaust with Borla muffler
  • Breather box
  • Extensive ECU wiring
  • Innumerable details of preparation, planning, removing (i.e. 2zz engine), acquiring, routing, adapting, mounting, fastening, welding, connecting… all done knowingly and deliberately, often fabricated using tools Casey fabricated.

Not listed here are numerous pipes/flanges/hoses/connectors/clamps/fasteners/adapters etc. etc.

Also not otherwise mentioned are the many hours of research and many miles driven by a number of people to get, modify, and deliver parts. To say nothing of the miles driven to and from the project, hotel stays, or ancillary and supporting efforts i.e. moving shop.

My grandfather liked to cite Edison’s axiom that “success is ten percent inspiration, ninety percent perspiration.” I would say my contribution to this project about ten percent, sub-divided in to stubbornness, curiosity, love of a dream, and vision, and of course some cash.

This Honda turbo Elise is not only inspired by Casey it is rolling homage to his skill and patience (especially with me). It wouldn’t be possible without him.

There are things to finish and repair to consider the project finished, yet. Not least is engine tuning. I hope it is finished someday Or do I?

k20 elise turbo build

The Mazda Elan

I’m going to do something unpredicted. By me. Maybe by you. I’m going to talk about a non-Lotus. Sort of.

This car is sort of a Lotus. That will not resonate with many. Too few know that the car I am going to talk about is “sort of a Lotus.” But it is. If you know Lotus’, you know the Elan. And by simply knowing I’m not talking about it, or Lotus, you may already suspect… I am talking about the MX-5, the Miata.

The Honda Elise project, a joy to imagine, has been undrivable. Resurrection can not be forced and it is not miraculous. It is work. There are steps. Patient, sometimes tedious tests, requiring tenacity and focus. Urgency, yet patience. All of which only agitated my drive to drive.

I thought long and carefully, not hard, about what I can drive that will scratch the itch that Lotus infected me with. And finally I abandon reluctance for the opportunity I found through patient archeology of the list Craig started. It wasn’t love at first sight. Neither was the Elise. But it was “yes” at first question.

Though my first love, at this point the K20 Elise has also become like a wife. Perhaps even trophy wife, monetarily at least. The question of what to drive, then, that is affordable, is similar to the question, “can I be your mistress”? A perk of loving cars is that you need not love only one. And so often (not always), the answer is Miata.

Like the Lotus, the Miata is small, low, awkward to enter/exit, and has four cylinders. There are more differences than similarities, though. And though expressed differently, both the Lotus Elise and Mazda Elan, I mean Miata, were sprouted in the same design philosophy greenhouse. “We wanted to capture the spirit of the British sports cars” says the Miata’s designer, Tom Matano. (Can’t expect him to say ‘yes, we copied the Elan.’). Both can infect you with “Lotusitis”.
ElanMiata
When I first got Lotusitis I thought, naturally, only Lotus could fix it. I knew other cars could convey similar experience-derived elation. But I had Lotusitis. I was intoxicated. Blind. Love does that.

So while the Elise is the love of my life, being undrivable for a time, in the mean time I’ve settled for her cousin. If Honda Elise is Ginger, the Mazda Elan is Mary Ann.

What I love—what you and every one loves, knowingly or not—about a Miata, is its Lotusness. Its scale, agility, eagerness… it’s joy for existence, that originates with the British open two seater.

But there is one difference that would be shameful to ignore. It’s what the Miata taught me. To wit: Humility. And I am grateful for it.

The Miata is remarkable, and not because it is exotic, but because it is the opposite of exotic. It is nearly ignorable, except for the stubborn contradiction it is to every other car, which has been super-sized. Even the Mini, another Brit ex-pat (BMW), is an oxymoron. The VW bug democratized transportation. Honda democratized the motorcycle in the U.S. And the Miata/MX-5 democratized the joy of driving. It is as populist in its attitude as a car can get.

And if you’re already cycling though your list of, and this is the key; small, light, affordable, accessible, non-muscle-rod convertibles (Ghia, Sprite, Spider, S2000, 7, and so on), forget it. None of those, not one, can be found in mass, at most any track, most any weekend. Spec Miata is the most popular racing class (for drivers) ever. None of the other “sportsters” are to be found parked at a hair salon and driven on a track on any given Sunday. None.

Porsche is arguably a close second, but because of price (how many Miata’s can you buy for the price of one Porsche?), and power (how many Miata’s would it take to match one Porsche?), it really is not in the same class. Forget it, too.

The humility that a Miata owner owns isn’t humiliating. More, humbling. Good humble. Forget exotic cheese, kale, and quinoa. Eat your spinach, bread crust, and drink tap water as we should, humble. Old-school making the most of it humble. “What you see is what you get. No false pretense at all”, Matano says. And it is this honesty, through lack of pretense that is rife in the rest of the contemporary auto world, that I’ve learned to appreciate, and respect.

The Miata is not “famous for being famous.” There is nothing rare or precious about it. Yet popularity itself has no value to a driver’s driver. Experience, control, and feel do. A Miata is driven for driving. When you see a driver driving a Miata, you know the driver’s intent is for driving, and driving pleasure only. Unlike others in the sports car market, it conveys no prestige to the driver. When you see a driver driving a Miata, rest assured, they drive it for driving enjoyably, not conspicuously. The experience is reserved for the driver only. And in this sense it is more personal, and possibly more intimate.

Make no mistake, there is nothing like driving a Miata to remind you you’re not driving an Elise. Yet the “Mazda Elan” has more Lotusness than all but the Caterham, which shares none of its availability, affordability, maintainability, practicality, or accessibility.

Despite the Miata’s wholesomeness, if sufficiently powered, it is a tear. It can scare. And unlike a Lotus, or any even mildly exotic car, replacement parts can be had cheaply and easily. It may even be the most practical Lotus derivative/ex-pat.

Yes, it scratches the itch alright. And I don’t worry if the scratcher will break. That deserves respect. I am humbled. Thank you Mr. Matano. Lesson learned. Nothing like a mistress to remind you your faults.

Mr. Matano, it is worth mentioning, lives in San Francisco. The Miata was designed in California. For those of us who live here, it is one of our own.

Here is the one I drive.
90MazdaElanTurbo

Hennessey Venom – For The Record

Hennessey’s “Venom” (Chevrolet-powered Lotus Exige) is, for now, the fastest “production” car on record.
Hennessy sets speed record in v8 Exige

Also for the record, I have mixed feelings about this car. “Mixed” I say feigning some semblance of fairness. As an unabashed Lotus enthusiast, I am biased. Meaning extremely ambivalent about this “record.” Imagine being British, or having been involved with Lotus Cars Ltd. and seeing this. You’d simply think, “Wanker”.

As ambivalence might merit an attempt to reconcile the conflicting pros and cons, first the pros:

  • It is based on what I think is the very best, and now proven to be most versatile, production performance car chassis, for the price. Ever. This would seem the more notable record: “Lotus chassis serves as basis of sexiest, most fun electric vehicle (EV) under the Tesla Roadster badge, and sets speed record under Hennessey’s Venom moniker. Proving it to be the most versatile performance car chassis. Ever.” And in fine print: “Your body modifications and power plants may vary. Not valid before 2005 or after 2012.”
  • I can’t say I am not glad to see Old Glory fly over this car. I am glad for it, even as an idealistic inclusionist in my attitude toward nationality (this as a military veteran book-ended by veterans, one with Purple Heart).
  • And… that’s it for pros.

Now, the cons:

  • It’s a Lotus chassis. Add your brand, if you must, John. It is unethical, at the very least, to remove the designer’s brand and claim design credit for dropping a V8 in it.
  • It’s for turning! And doing so better than anything on four wheels. The “Venom” does so very poorly.
  • Bugatti (VW) designed, engineered, created, and productionalized a car. It is mass produced. Hennessey merely modifies a few a year. I wouldn’t blame the German’s (and I hope some Italians) for rolling their eyes at the “Venom”.

Americans who travel much, and maybe not very much, are likely to be familiar with the feeling of some occasional embarrassment from national identity. It can come when we begin to discover our own ignorance of other peoples and cultures, or if present to any of us acting garishly or without manors when in other’s country/culture. And sometimes it can come from our politics and poor international relations. Sometimes it has four wheels. This is one of those times.

It is not without some nationality-embarrassment that I regard the Hennessey Venom. Hennessey took a small European car, designed very specifically to optimize cornering speed, and turned it in to dragster. How ironic. Yet I hear no irony in any reporting of it. This lack of a sense of irony… well, you get the idea.

Pride + embarrassment = ambivalence.

I almost said, leave it to a Texan. But in a way, we can’t blame them. After all, their roads are almost all straight.

One of the most influential movies in my life is American Graffiti. One of George Lucas’s cinematographic masterpieces. It is based on his place of origin, Modesto. Where the roads are also very long and very straight. The turns are 90 percent 90 degrees. I’ve recently become very familiar with the California Central Valley. I love the on-going spirit of hot rodding there. And I grew up going to Fremont Drag races and reading Hot Rod magazine. I love our uniquely American contribution to autosports. But the “Venom” is a Lotus. Straight 4 or V8, it is a Lotus chassis. I am putting a Honda in my Elise. I’m not going to name it after myself. By claiming something that is not his own, Hennessey is merely exhibiting typical American exceptionalism. It’s embarrassing.

However, there is one other way to look at Hennessey’s Venom. A third way. The Shelby Cobra way. The Cobra is based on the Bristol AC. A classically British chassis. Shelby added American muscle to it. But, even here, there is a significant difference. One of business conduct. Shelby contracted with Bristol. As had Tesla and Lotus. In both cases, it was business arrangement between the companies from the outset. There is no evidence or indication of any similar sort of arrangement between Hennessey and Lotus. Hennessey has usurped and adapted the chassis to create yet another Lotus-derivative car. It is not a unique creation, legally, or as an automotive design. And it isn’t mass-produced. So is it a even “production car”?

Hennessey, like Shelby, designed neither the engine nor the chassis. Fabrication + tuning = “production” brand? There’s more than one envelope being pushed by the “Venom.” It is one of English usage. Or at least a loophole in it, from lack of governance. Mariam-Webster has no entry for “product car”. Google refers us to wikipedia’s entry, an unreliable source. The FIA defines Production Vehicle as one producing “at least 25 identical cars produced within a 12 month period and which were meant for normal sale to the individual purchasers.”
Hennessey’s own site says, “Hennessey builds just five Venom GTs per year.” So there you have it: it isn’t a production car by FIA standards.

Also, the Cobra can turn. I’m liking it more all the time.

I would accept “Hennessey LS2 Exige”. Or any brand name with Lotus and Chevrolet in it. That, my dear reader, is as fair as I care to be about Hennessey and his Hubris, I mean, “Venom.”

Ventures

Enginetiks a.k.a. Engtuning has closed its doors for business. The Lotus Honda swap project is moved to an undisclosed location for completion.

Honda swap on race trailer

An era ends. 2009-2014. Rest. Peace.

Endinetiks

And yet… endings large and small, for all of their time-bending melancholy, or at least pause, so long as we can feel it at all, hold out something else for us: change. Something new!

And we may as well admit it, too, every venture requires at least one of both; a beginning, and an end.

Pray the tragic-comic cycle never stops.

“Speed has never killed anyone. Suddenly becoming stationary, that’s what gets you.”
Jeremy Clarkson