The Canadiana build thread

[ryanprins13]

Videos of my festiva towing!
*edit* i cannot make the playlist appear. There is 3 videos in a playlist if you see it, but i will do individual links since i cant seem to link the playlist... :/

https://youtu.be/C4ecGlVdyCU

https://youtu.be/NEyncS-saWs

https://youtu.be/7M6yHwLvBqU

These videos are partly to show how well a b3 can tow but the reason i did it was to see if my work all winter made a difference.

So i took the new festiva out for a test run to see if i could overheat it. Last year with my red car (no a/c, manual trans radiator, low compression, lots of blow by) it would overheat pulling this in +30c (86f) pretty quick. +27 (81f) it did kinda ok but i had to pull over after long stretches of flat to let it cool and it would get to 225/230f or so up hills. +25c (77f) it was fine, that 2002 civic in the video blew a head gasket in +23 (73f).
That trailer, engine and lawn mower togeather is 900 pounds. Hardly noticable without the plywood honestly, i pulled it off last summer and my vaccum reading were almost the same as empty cruising on the highway, you forget its there once your at speed. but the wood catches a lot of wind. 28.3mpg with the a/c on! Got 29.5mpg last summer in the red car with no a/c. I believe also that the red car always has run too lean.

Anyhow, next summer i need to pull a more aerodynamic but twice as heavy trailer through the rockies and alaska with 3 more people in the car. Thats what these tests are for. Might get above +30 a couple of those days, but not really until we hit ontario and quebec later in the summer it may get to +40c (104f)

By the end of this video it had cooled from +30 (86f when i started) to +27.5c (82f). I apologize for repeating myself but these videos were taken over a couple hours. Couple accelleration clips in here and some hills. The hills are not like the rockies or something but they are quite a bit steeper and longer than they appear in this video. I was unable to overheat the car, it got up to 210f only once when i pulled over at the top of a long hill. It stayed under 200 the rest of the time. Will have to test again when it gets hotter. I was dissapointed that those clouds appeared near then end and it cooled off.

The suspension, wheel alignment settings and sound deadner really did make a huge difference!

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[ryanprins13]

Question about tires: i have some old 155/13's on for daily driving this summer. My toe is set to zero. With them last week the car would drive perfectly straight on the highway when you let go of the wheel. They shook a little bit.
Put my 165 14 achilles on for westiva and no shake but they pulled to the right. Not significantly but as soon as you let go of the wheel the car would head to the right straight away.
Put the same 13's on when i got home and today driving to work they dont really shake and not they pull ever so slightly to the left. Hardly at all, but they arent going straight like they did last week. Any ideas on why this happens? Thanks

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[firebush357]

Are either of them Hub Centric Wheels?

Also maybe the tires were worn in a certain way and you rotated from front to back?

Also could depend on whether you were on a different road testing each time.

[ryanprins13]

Are either of them Hub Centric Wheels?

Also maybe the tires were worn in a certain way and you rotated from front to back?

Also could depend on whether you were on a different road testing each time.

The 13inch rims are aspire rims so yes. The 14inch have hubcentric spacers to match my aspire hubs.

I thought that might be the case with the 13in tires so i went and double checked. They are on the same hubs as before. I write on each tire with a paint marker so i dont mix them up.
The 14inch tires were brand new, put the first 1000 km on them saterday and they were like that every time i tried.
13in tires were on the same road but travelling the opposite way as i tested last week. I can try on the way home, but that road is crowned pretty evenly.



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[ryanprins13]

So whats my code?
My check engine light has been coming on about once a week or less but only for 10 seconds or so, then it goes out. Today i finally checked it.
Either a 25, 17 and 8
or 10, 15, 17 and 8.
Just not sure if the first one is a 10 and 15 or just a 25.
What do you guys say?

https://youtu.be/u9Imuf9EDwI

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[jawja jim]

My GUESS would be choice B. It might be helpful to leave the video running thru several cycles. If i remember right, it continues to cycle over and over, and it might help to see it repeat 2-3 times.

[ryanprins13]

Thanks, its my guess as well. If no one can answer for sure by the next time it comes on i can take a longer video, light went out as soon as i restarted the car.

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[RayRay]

Here's what I've learned. The flashes are separated by a ~4 second long pause between different codes, and a ~2 second long pause between each digit of a two-digit code.

So in your case, if I'm seeing it correctly, you've got one flash, 4sec pause, that's code 01.
One flash, 2sec pause, five flashes, that's 15.
One flash, 2sec pause, seven flashes, that's 17.
Eight flashes, 4sec pause, that's code 08.

So you have:
01, 15, 17, & 08.

Someone let me know if I'm wrong! :-)

[ryanprins13]

Here's what I've learned. The flashes are separated by a ~4 second long pause between different codes, and a ~2 second long pause between each digit of a two-digit code.

So in your case, if I'm seeing it correctly, you've got one flash, 4sec pause, that's code 01.
One flash, 2sec pause, five flashes, that's 15.
One flash, 2sec pause, seven flashes, that's 17.
Eight flashes, 4sec pause, that's code 08.

So you have:
01, 15, 17, & 08.

Someone let me know if I'm wrong! :-)

Thanks a lot! I didnt know about the 4 and 2 seconds.
With the first number, its a long flash so it would be 10 right? An 01 code would be a short flash? Or am i wrong about that?

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[RayRay]

I stand corrected... you're right, that first flash IS a long flash, making it the first digit of a two-digit code. A four second pause afterwards means it's moving on to the next code... so as you said, it starts with a code Ten. Apologies for my mistake up there!

[ryanprins13]

Time for a small update. I have just been driving the car and working on the trailer this summer. Had intended to do a test trip through some mountains this september but i still dont have the trailer ready.

I put this on facebook but thanksgiving weekend i hit a cyote with the car. It was thankthfully the last bad thing that happened on thanksgiving... i spent a good part of the day working on the trailer for our trip, but didnt get even close to the amount i wanted to get done. My wife was sick, kids were sick, i was sick, we had cleaned a lot of kids puke out of the other car earlier (not fun) from the drive home from thanksgiving dinner. I was finally coming home pulling a trailer loaded with a lot of wood i was going to have to unload when i got home. I had to stop 3 times to adjust straps and add more to keep the load secure, other people were driving pretty crazy, i wasnt in a good mood, was sick and tired so i took the back roads home. Normally i always keep my eyes on the road and dont even look at the radio to change songs or stations. But i was annoyed at a whole row of songs i didnt want to listen to and was looking at the radio display to see what the titles were to change songs faster. Then boom, cyote. That just made my day so much worse... it was right by someones driveway so i spent 20 min looking for it in the grass in the ditch in case it was a dog but couldnt find it. Went home, unloaded the wood and got to bed at like 1:30am. The next morning found the cyote and there doesnt appear to be too much damage to the car. Except its covered in fur and i think it pooped on my car... lesson to myself and all others- keep your eyes on the road every second :/
I also have my passenger headlight aimed more toward that ditch and the drivers side kinda aimed straight ahead which didnt help this time. Here is the video of it. It was around the 20 second mark.

https://youtu.be/HnQTbraPtJQ

So i started looking into making my headlights better. Got some help from John Glenn (theastronaut on here) and some other forums. Bought some new headlights locally, orderd some good ones for the festiva and my civic off amazon and am piecing togeather a relay harness. Got some parts coming from ebay now, couldnt find everything locally. I also plan to mount some auxillary high and low beams on the bumper but havent found something i like yet.

Anyway, i replaced the bulbs that came with the car. They had date codes printed on them, they are just a little old... no wonder they were dim.


I ordered moog control arms off rockauto and i dont think that what i got was moog so i ordered moog control arms off another site. They are in the mail now.

The plan is to park this car for winter and drive the red one. Then I will finish everything i intended to do last winter on this car, i still have a long list. Did a decent size rockauto order and got brake parts, exedy clutch, control arms, bearings and all the oil gaskets i need for the engine and transmission.

I have just been commuting in this car this summer, put about 18,000km (11k miles) on it since may. Working well except for some real bad lifter tick, the occasional cel and the headlights, lol.

This was a picture of the trailer on the car about a month ago. I should have another updated photo later this week when i take the trailer home.



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[ryanprins13]

So the whole point of building this car is for it to pull the trailer I am building for it. I worked all summer on the trailer but it still needs a ton of work to be able to go anywhere with so i will have to work hard and fast on it in the spring. its too cold to keep working on it so i took it home today. Thats the first drive with everything on the exterior except the doors. I made a video that shows the trailer and tongue box fairly well, its lower down.

The trailer brakes worked quite well but need to be adjusted tighter. it was nice to tow on the highway 55km home. I went to a deserted highway near my house and tried some fast stopping. I was impressed but it was moderatly hard to not lock the front tires. A proper hight reciever and properly adjusted rear suspension will help, anything else? I have 165/50 r14 achilles with manual trans aspire front brakes and festiva master cylinder and booster. Would a different booster or master cylinder help that any or not? Maybe the tires didn't like the cold so much, could be that too.

I also did some 'emergency manouvers' -basically swerving hard into the oncoming lane and then hard back. I also tried to make the trailer sway by cranking the wheel back and forth. Started at lower speeds and worked up to 95kmh and everything was great, it tracks well. It handles a mild crosswind fine, wind from oncoming semi's is not noticed but headwinds sure are, wow. wasn't expecting it to be that bad. crosswind was half throttle in 5th to keep 62mph but with the headwind i had to floor it in 5th. The trailer does not sway at all but the back end feels a little off at freeway speeds when changing lanes quickly or when the car moves around from the torque steer when shifting. I will have to check my rear alignment with the trailer on later.
Steering is a little loose and torque steer was bad when shifting but i likely have toe out with the back end loaded down and the front raised a little like this. But once i have the weight properly distributed, proper reciever hight and the full load of the 2 of us in the front seat of the car I will do the alignment again so that wont be an issue. Hopefully new balljoints and bushings fix the problem of the car shooting to the other side of the lane whenever i shift.
i had heat on the way home! Fancy that!
I put it in my tarp shed for the winter and mouseproofed it once home.
It was actually hard to get used to that tow mirror....

. Check out the video for details on the trailer but the drive was good and enjoyable. Hopefully it still is with weight in the trailer :/

I started a thread a while back on the trailer. I will update it and then post a link to it back here in case anyone is interested in it.

Video of trailer and car: https://youtu.be/_Y1cBrMl0jg

Some photos:


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[Dragonhealer]

I think I have less braking problem when towing as I have Aspire rear brakes (and beam w/torsion bar cut out).
It would be cool if there was an easy way to switch out rear brake pressure limiting when towing. As we know toung weight takes weight off of the front tyres.
5th gear is only used light throttle on the level or shallow downhill when towing. Don't use heavy throttle in any gear higher than 3rd.
A load leveler (load transfer system) would help a lot, but would be totally custom in this application, and put a lot of stress on the hitch mountings!

[ryanprins13]

I think I have less braking problem when towing as I have Aspire rear brakes (and beam w/torsion bar cut out).
It would be cool if there was an easy way to switch out rear brake pressure limiting when towing. As we know toung weight takes weight off of the front tyres.
5th gear is only used light throttle on the level or shallow downhill when towing. Don't use heavy throttle in any gear higher than 3rd.
A load leveler (load transfer system) would help a lot, but would be totally custom in this application, and put a lot of stress on the hitch mountings!

It would be really cool to be able to increase the pressure to the rear brakes!

Its funny because someone was just talking to me about that, but the last thing i need is more stress on the hitch


I will try the trailer again in the spring when its warmer, with more weight in it, with a level trailer and car. I am hoping that will fix it enough. Also i will have installed the new drums, shoes, cylinders, hardware and lubricated the adjusters by then in the rear.

Right now with the trailer pointing down and the rear of the car also down the weight transfer lifts the front even more when braking i think. With a level trailer and car the weight should transfer much more to the front of the car i think and hopefully improve braking.
If not i will have to look at aspire rear brakes.
Yes, i only used 5th like that for a bit to see what it would do. I wasnt planning to use 5th much, but not 4th either?? Should i be looking at a transmission swap before this trip?

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[firebush357]

Do you have the Coilover Kit in the Back or just stock suspension? That is the cheapest part of of the Advance Suspension swap and it makes the rear of the car a lot more stable and you could even go up a little on the spring rates if you needed to so that it doesn't transfer the weight as much.