Fun with the water jet

One of the cool things about having the ability to fabricate is knowing that if you need something custom you can build it. It's a blessing as well as a curse though. Plans can become elaborate when there are less restrictions. 

Here's a great example: I need a surge tank, but the ones like the one in the picture aren't quite as large as I'd like. So instead making due with what's available, I spend an hour modeling in SolidWorks, half an hour on the water jet, 20 minutes on the press brake, 20 minutes welding and half an hour fitting. Then I'll modify and move the gates from the ATL surge tank to my aluminum one.

Oh well, hopefully the engine will appreciate it. 

Finally, some progress

The last two days here at Hasport were calm enough that some work got done on project cars. I was feeling pretty bad that I put up a post on the projects and then nothing. But business has been good and we've been busy at Hasport, so projects have been pushed to the back burner. Back when there were only a few employees at Hasport I used to joke, "If it weren't for all these customers, I could get some work done." We've got more employees now, but more work too, thank heaven. Seriously, if weren't for the customers spending their money, we couldn't afford to do the fun things we do. Kind of a "Catch 22."


One of the long overdue projects is the getting more HP out of the 2000 Honda Insight. For those not familiar, the Insight and I are the record holder for the G/GT class at the Bonneville Salt Flats. In 2009 we broke a 22 year old record set by a 400 HP Lincoln LN7, and did it with just over 200 HP from a stock K20Z3 engine. The old record was 157.805 MPH and we eked out 157.869 MPH. This year I'd like to bump that up another 10 MPH. To start with, we were able to add about 16 HP with Skunk2 cans, but it seemed to be petering at the top end. That's where we need power too. So we're adding this –

This is the Skunk2 manifold for the 06 Civic and the 74mm K20A throttle body. You're not supposed to use this t-body with this manifold but hey, we had an 06 Civic engine and intake, but a cable operated Accord Euro R throttle body. Since the Skunk2 manifold is designed to use the drive-by-wire throttle body and we can't use that, we had to modify it to use the big 74mm K-series throttle body.

Check it out, this should open up the breathing on the top end and give us a little more hp. Next, I'll haul it over the Tim Kelly at Xact Dyno for some testing. When done, dyno charts to follow. By the way, I'd like to give a big shout out to Tim for helping with the record run in 2009. I might not have been able to do it without his help.


-brian at hasport

January 1, 2011 The New Year is upon us.

And by "us" I mean "me." As is my custom, this year I am biting off more than I can chew. This is my way of getting things done. It seems, sometime during high school, I decided I did my best work under pressure; so I'm piling it on. If I get half of it done, it will be a pretty effing phenomenal year.


The Project cars  Nine project cars is too much, so I decided to add a tenth project car. An H2 road racer, so I can start racing again. (Example of piling more on in two ways; that's efficient!) Honda is paying some big bucks to entice grass roots involvement of amateur racers, so why not. I am an amateur when it comes to racing. The car will be a 90 CRX with a B20. The B20 and CRX combo should be very competitive, whether or not I am, is another story. I'll post more on the project when I get started.


Blogging  In addition to this blog, I am launching a website to house all the information on the project cars. It will be updated regularly as the project cars are worked on. We won't just cover the nuts and bolts of the modifications but also the thought process behind the modifications. I'm still in the early stages of development of the site, but should have it up soon.


Video  I have a project I have been working on with two very talented people that I think is very exciting. (Did that sentence sound like a marketing guy or what?) It will be a web-based video show on Honda performance. It's called Nacho Speed Garage and it's coming soon. We've started a Facebook Fan Page and have started trickling out a few pictures, with video to come soon.


Podcasts  A few weeks ago, Will Cannady of Will's Car Cast interviewed me for one of his episodes. It got me to pull the trigger on my own podcast and I started recording some practice podcasts with Rodrez from Honda Tuning. The podcast will be about Honda's (what else) and what's happening in the Honda scene around the world. It will soon be up and I will be sure to post some links for anyone interested in listening. By the way, if you're interested in hearing Will's podcast follow the link above, he has some really interesting guests.


New products from Hasport  With addition of some new equipment at Hasport, waterjet and CNC press break, the product development pace should pick up this year. In fact in the next week of so, stock replacement mounts for the 06 up Civic Si will be available. Yay! But not just new mount kits are going to be released. The big push this year will be on peripheral products to make engine swaps easier and less expensive. Less expensive is good, huh? And if you have a suggestion for a Hasport product, drop me a line brian@hasport.com, I'd love to hear your ideas. I really need more things to do.