2011 NASA Rally Pilot

[hondamaint]

We are building a Pilot for next year NASA stage Rally. We plan to make the sandblast event in SC next year and maybe Rally Tennessee.
It will start with non turbo motor and a few minor things to help the motor a little.
We have a few companies working with us on this project.
Enkei
MOMO
Unorthadox racing
RV6 Performance
Midwest converters
H&R suspension
EPM
Oh yeah Honda also.

This is going to be FUN

We started with a new body(VIN#13)

and took it to Mark at Kirk (in B'ham Alabama) racing for a cage. There are still a few bars we need to add after looking closer at the rules.










Paul Street
Honda Manufacturing of Alabama

[humanoid]

Very nice, Paul, can't wait to see the finished product!

[hondamaint]

A few more pictures







We are just getting all the fuel, brake and elec. stuff in it now.
We have a little more than this done now but not much.We hope to get a lot done in the next few weeks.

Paul Street
Honda Manufacturing of Alabama

[hondamaint]

For the drive train we will take all of that out of another Pilot we have. We have one with 60 miles on it that we will use.
We put the donor Pilot up on the lift today and started taking stuff out. We should drop the front subframe/suspension tonight. We will start after that with the rear subframe and suspension. This will save us a lot of work doing it this way. That way the 2 main units are already put together.
We have not set a goal yet for getting it running but here goes a shot??????? How about we shoot for Sept. 30th as our goal.It does not have to be completed but we will shoot for moving under it's own power.That gives us 6 weeks. I know 6 weeks sounds like a long time but we are pretty much building a complete car from nothing and it is funny how long even the small things can take sometimes.
I talked to Anders Green with NASA last night to find out what we need to know along the way to help the build.

Paul Street
Honda Manufacturing of Alabama

[hondamaint]

We got all of the front and rear subframe out of the donor pilot .I thought I had taken a picture but I guess not.
The plan is to take the motror off the subframe and install a J37 -300HP MDX motror along with a Midwest converter upgraded torque converter built by them to match the weight,HP and intended mission for this car. We also have UNORTHADOX RACING lite weight underdrive pulley set for it along with precat delete and J-pipe from RV6 performance.
Chris is also working on an Accord ECU instead of the Pilot one.There are a couple reasons he wants to use it over the Pilot one. We may at some time try one of the AEM piggyback units to see how it works.
We are pretty much ready in the engine bay to install the motor.
Here is Jeromy putting the last harness in



All of the headlight stuff is completed also.




Here is the Rally Pilot sitting next to the donor Pilot and the front/rear subframe we will put in.


Next we will move inside the car

Paul Street
Honda Manufacturing of Alabama

[blodyholy]

Originally Posted by humanoid

Very nice, Paul, can't wait to see the finished product!

Agreed! Loved the RallyCross and I'm sure this will turn out awesome too!

[moda_way]

Any chance you guys are going to contact Hondata to help with the ECU? I've always wish they would do some things for the J series motors, but they've to date only focused the 4 bangers (like my TSXs K24A2 which has the reflash on it).

I see you're going to do an underdrive pulley setup. Are you going to keep the stock motor or go to a non-VCM motor or just shut down the VCM altogether?

[thecaptain]

First, I was detailing my Honda this week and saw that it was built in Alabama. So its nice to see this Rally Pilot take shape there.


GREAT looking so far! Love it! Keep it coming!

[hondamaint]

Originally Posted by moda_way

Any chance you guys are going to contact Hondata to help with the ECU? I've always wish they would do some things for the J series motors, but they've to date only focused the 4 bangers (like my TSXs K24A2 which has the reflash on it).

I see you're going to do an underdrive pulley setup. Are you going to keep the stock motor or go to a non-VCM motor or just shut down the VCM altogether?

We may try to work with Hondata or HPD but for now we will start with a stock pilot or accord ECU.We can do a reflash at the plant if needed. We my try the AEM piggyback just because it is quick to tune.
We plan to use a J-37 from an MDX with underdrive pulleys,precat delete and J-pipe from RV6 performance , torque converter from Dennis at Midwest converters and a free flow exhaust to start.Our goal is 325 or so hp to start.

[Shindig78]

This sounds like a great project! Thanks for sharing your story and pictures. I am looking forward to following this thread and seeing the finished product.

[moda_way]

Originally Posted by hondamaint

We may try to work with Hondata or HPD but for now we will start with a stock pilot or accord ECU.We can do a reflash at the plant if needed. We my try the AEM piggyback just because it is quick to tune.
We plan to use a J-37 from an MDX with underdrive pulleys,precat delete and J-pipe from RV6 performance , torque converter from Dennis at Midwest converters and a free flow exhaust to start.Our goal is 325 or so hp to start.

So given these plans, will you also lighten the crank, pistons and put some stronger valve springs in for potentially higher revs (traditionally a place where the J series have some extra punch)? The downside is the transmissions at the higher revs of course.

I should think a 25 hp increase would be a reasonable goal just with some basic modifications (that darn A/C is a blood sucker). I achieved 200whp on my TSX 6MT without doing a whole lot (intake mods, ECU, and header/cat). It was really a fun car with my custom flywheel from Fidanza until my ACT clutch decided to fail (pressure plate spring tooth lodge under the pressure plate). The J series really is a "fun" motor IMO with a lot locked out by the ECU. I'd love to spend a day just watching the R&D when it comes to engine management.

You all know those who know how to modify the ECU at the plant. The 3.7L is just a stroker over the 3.5L (approx. +1mm bore x +3mm stroke), right, which doesn't lend itself to boosting (6-8lbs at most reliably) given the internals, but there certainly is plenty of room in there to do so. Still, it would be great to see a rear mounted turbo or a Comptech'ish Supercharger under the hood. In the end, getting this big girl up and moving with some torque would be great to see.

[hondamaint]

No plan to lighten the crank or anything else. We have BEAT on these J-5's on the race track in turbo and non turbo application and have never had a single motor related issue at all, very good motor.I agree it would make it a little quicker but we will just start with easy stuff.
We picked up 32WHP on our dyno on an Odyssey we run SCCA TT with when we added an intake, freeflow exhaust and ECU reflash so I agree 25 hp should be a good goal. At this point we really are not too concerned on making BIG HP #s.We want to get the car running and get it set up good and learn to drive it. I kinda think for stage rally we may be better off to start with the stock HP until we get up to speed.
The J-series does pretty good boosted.We did one a couple years ago and it still lives fine to this day.It will spend this next Saturday at Talladega Gran Prix raceway for an open track day. But we did send the short block off to build for turbo application. The head and valves are all stock and the same set that came on the car when it was built.

Here is a little secret,please do not tell anyone.
We hope/plan to run this Pilot next year alongside our new 2011 Odyssey in the Motortrend One Lap of America. We would have to add different suspension but that is not a big deal. We have H&R doing the suspension for our Odyssey so we can get a second set for the Pilot.
At this point management has not told us we can take it but the plan our team has is to get it ready and them work on them.
The Pilot does pretty well as a track car, we took our Rallycross Pilot to an SCCA autocross and it did really well. We will take it to the track this weekend and I will get pictures for you guys.
Thanks everyone for reading my post's.

Paul Street
Honda Manufacturing of Alabama

[rocky]

Your secret is safe on the internet. Are you going to run it in awd?

[hondamaint]

yep.

[cwa107]

Originally Posted by hondamaint

Thanks everyone for reading my post's.

Paul Street
Honda Manufacturing of Alabama

We enjoy them Paul, thank YOU for sharing with us here!