In my never-ending pursuit to increase the reliability and longevity of my car, I have spent many dollars on buying upgrades to prevent failures rather than improve performance. Sure, some of the upgrades I have done arguably “increase” performance. However, I have only purchased them with the intention to preserve and extend my cars life.
There will be two three parts to this series. In part one I will be installing three two upgrades: In part two I will be installing the Giro Disc’s and in part three I will be installing a few other goodies.
After typing this post and realizing how long and detailed it was just on the oil pan and Rigid collars, I decided to break it up into three parts and have the Giro Disc’s be a whole part as well because there is a lot of good info for the Giro Disc install too.
In this post I will be going over the importance of and installing the three two parts pictured below.
- UNIT2 Fab baffled oil pan
Giro Disc front rotors(coming up in part 2)- Spoon Sport rigid collars.
I’ll be starting off part one with probably one of the most important “prevention” pieces on any track car. While a baffled oil pan won’t increase any horsepower, improve handling, or quicken laps times in anyway… What it does do is, provide insurance for your engine. I know an oil pan baffle or baffled oil pan is hard to spring for, especially when building a track car on a budget, but keep in mind how much money it will save you in the long run. Engine rebuilds or even engine replacements can cost you thousands of dollars and can cause down time on your car. Because my car is brand new, I want to ensure that it will last me at least until its paid off.
Normal production cars have what is called a “wet sump” meaning most of the oil is stored within the oil pan. A pickup for the oil pump is located in the oil pan and sucks the oil up to lubricate critical areas within the engine. This system is used because it is simple and cheap to manufacture and is more than sufficient to meet the needs of the commuter consumer. However, in motorsports the car and engine are going to be subjected to high g-forces for an extended period of time which the wet sump system may not be able to cope with. For example, in a long continuous high g turn, the oil will slosh to one side of the pan away from the oil pick up. No oil gets sucked up and starves the engine which leads to excessive wear and catastrophic engine failure in a pretty short period of time.
The best method to prevent oil starvation is to go with a dry sump system. This is used in pretty much all the top racing series cars such as Formula 1, NASCAR, Indy, and American Le Mans. There is an oil pan, but it has a very limited capacity, and the sump pump basically sucks all the oil out as fast as possible and stores it in an oil reservoir that is external to the engine. Oil pressure is maintained by feeding the oil from this external oil tank back into the engine, so the engine is never wanting for oil. An added benefit of this system is since the oil pan is very low profile, the engine can be lowered to lower the cars center of gravity. Unfortunately, these systems are very expensive.
Most weekend warriors can’t justify a dry sump system especially if you are just a track day junkie who doesn’t really have a prepped car. But there are a couple lower cost alternatives. One, is to get or make a baffled oil pan. This will limit how much the oil able to slosh around and hopefully keep it where the pump can suck it up into the engine. Simply put, a baffled oil pan will have chambers that make it easy for the oil to travel toward the oil pick up but difficult for it to get sloshed the other way.
Truth be told, I picked up the UNIT2 Fab oil pan a month after I purchased the car (May 2021) and I never got around to installing it until just the other day (February 2022). The reason it took me so long to install it is because after reading FSM (factory service manual) for how to remove the oil pan, it became apparent that it was a much larger undertaking than I was originally planning on.
I have done baffled oil pans on all my cars that see any amount of track time and I have installed my share of pans before. B series, K series, even other makes! None have even come close to being as difficult as it is on the FK8 platform.
Because of the level of difficulty, I procrastinated… for a long time. Originally, I had told myself that I would install it before my first track weekend (September 2021). That weekend came and went, and I still hadn’t installed the pan. My next three-day track weekend was October 2021 and that didn’t leave enough time for me to see getting it done. I can only work on the car on my days off (Wednesday and Thursdays) and with only 3 weeks before I needed to be on track, I felt there wouldn’t be enough time in case something went wrong, and I had to order parts. My third track weekend was set for December 2021, but because I work in retail, I don’t have much free time in November (due to thanksgiving).
I had somehow managed to justify putting off one of the most important things I could have done for my car’s reliability. Sure, there are plenty of people that do WAAAAAAY more track days than I do, and their cars are still fine without having a baffled oil pan. Yes, technically you’re correct. The one thing we can’t see until the motor is torn apart is just how much cylinder damage, piston scoring, or ring damage is done. These effects will not become apparent till the car starts to get up into the 100k mile range, which none of the track guys are close to hitting in their FK8’s.
The beautiful piece below is made by UNIT2 fab. UNIT2 fab has been making a name for themselves over the past 3-4 years. They have teamed up with many race teams/programs and have had great results. Some racers have even shared personal data from engine monitoring sensors to prove how much better UNIT2 fab pans are compared to other big name JDM companies.
UNIT2 fab offers three different versions of protection for the K20C1.
- Drop in baffle (you weld it in yourself)
- OEM pan upgrade (where they install the drop in baffle in a new oil pan)
- Complete pan upgrade (installed baffle in new OEM pan, ported polished oil filter housing passages, and the option for temp sensor bung.
I chose the whole enchilada. Below is what it looks like out of the box.
Up close of the baffle itself.
Up close of the ported and polished oil filter housing passages. (There will be side by side comparisons further along in the article)
It’s difficult to see but there are “trap-doors” on the vertical sides of the baffle. These allow for the oil to gather where the sump is, but not let it escape.
And you can see below the temp sensor bung welded on.
Next, Spoon Sports Rigid Collars. Now I know what you’re thinking and no, there aren’t exactly needed…But, Since I must drop the front subframe to get the oil pan out, I figured I should just kill two birds with one stone and knock these out at the same time. It’s not often that you will need to drop the sub frame, plus, it’s also a very tedious process too.
That’s sort of the mentality I have for a lot of parts on this car. This car is very inconvenient, involved, and cumbersome to work on and because of this, it’s often easier to upgrade multiple things at once since it is so involved to gain access to certain parts/areas.
Some may argue that the rigid collars don’t actually do anything, but to those who think that way, I can guarantee they haven’t installed them on their own car. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what they do, but once you install them on your car it’s immediately noticeable. The steering wheel feels more directly linked to the wheels, there is much less feedback in the steering wheel from bumps in the road, and when the car goes over bumps, or dots in the road it has a much more refined feeling.
Think what you like, but for 170 bucks from RHDjapan.com it’s not a very large investment and as you’ll read below the install process isn’t really that hard either. Also, please don’t buy the knock off ones. Not all things are created equal and that’s all I’m going to say about that.
To drop the sub frame there are 8 bolts that fasten it to the chassis, but below you’ll notice that there are 12 collars. This is because at 4 locations on the sub frame you will use a collar on the top and bottom of it and the other 4 locations only need one collar. I will note this down below where I have pictured each location.
Get the car jacked up. Thanks to Ever, Quick jacks have made life a lot easier.
Below I will type out the factory instructions with screen shots from the FSM for how to lower/remove the front sub frame.
- Steering joint disconnect (inside the cabin, under dash, behind brake pedal)
- Remove engine undercover
- Drain engine oil
- Remove exhaust front pipe (the one that goes under the oil pan and over the steering)
- Remove the Rear Motor Mount.
- Remove drive belt (I just took it off the A/C pulley and left it on all other pulleys)
- Unbolt A/C compressor (but do not discharge or disconnect any lines)
- Disconnect EPS (electronic power steering) sub harness (I didn’t do this step, but I was careful not to apply too much tension to the wires and plug)
- Disconnect front suspension stroke sensor sub harness. (I didn’t do this either. Same as above)
- Remove flywheel inspection cover.
- Remove CKP sensor cover. (I didn’t do this)
Once all that is disconnected or removed you can now go on to loosening the X8 bolts that hold the sub frame to the chassis of the car.
Now, below I will try and talk you through it showing you my pictures.
Start off by going inside the cabin and locating the steering column. The plastic cover will pop off with slight force.
Once the plastic is removed you will see the steering joint that the 10mm bolt needs to be removed from.
It’s sort of hard to see but, I put a Sharpee marker line on the joint and the lower part of the column so when I go to put it back together, I will be able to line the steering wheel up just as it was before I disconnected it.
Make sure to completely remove the bolt or the column will not disconnect when lowering the sub frame.
The upper part of the steering column is telescopic (or collapses into itself) This means that you can push up on it allowing for more space when you are ready to join them back together
Remove the metal and plastic under valance.
Set them aside, you won’t be needing those pieces for a while.
You will now have access to every bolt you will need to remove or loosen.
Remove the front pipe and rear motor mount. It’s easiest to remove the bolt on the front and rear of the front pipe and unhook the exhaust hanger. Leave the front pipe sitting in place still, while you unbolt and remove the rear motor mount. Once the rear motor mount is removed you can move the engine forward to allow the front pipe to easily twist out.
Remove the flywheel inspection cover.
Remove the X4 17mm bolts that go into the trans through the oil pan.
The A/C compressor will need to be unbolted. It is held in with X4 12mm long bolts, two of which bolt directly to the oil pan. But, you will need to remove all four to allow the compressor to completely move out of the way so the oil pan can be dropped down. You DO NOT need to discharge the system, leave everything connected still and just allow the compressor to hang.
Before you remove the compressor, you will need to release the tension on the serpentine belt. This is tough to access but can be done form the top of the engine. Take a 17mm wrench and place it on the auto tensioner, then use the cheater method (exhibited below) to extend your leverage and pull the wrench towards the front of the car (clockwise). This temporarily releases tension on the belt enough for you to slide it from one of the pulleys. You do not have to completely remove the belt just take it off the A/C compressor. (this makes it easy, so you do not need to remember the way the belt goes on each pulley and it’s hard to fit your hand down in there too.)
It’s a tight squeeze getting to the auto tensioner, but it is possible. When you have a wrench on the auto tensioner pulley you are going to pull it towards the front of the car to release the tension from the belt and slide it off the A/C pulley.
Remove all oil pan bolts. There are x2 hidden behind the flywheel cover. Pull the turbo oil drain hose off the oil pan.
Take note on the picture below. There are only x4 places to pry from. DO NOT pry anywhere else because you run the risk of scaring the mating surface for the oil pan which could potentially cause leaks.
Before removing the OEM pan, Ever is going to wrap the new pan with heat reflective gold tape. Unfortunately, on the K20C1 the exhaust runs right under the oil pan (just like B/D/H series engines) This means there is a very hot exhaust pipe that is in close proximity to the oil pan and because the car is turbo there will be a lot more heat going through that exhaust pipe.
The gold tape will help mitigate that heat transfer to the oil pan, therefore helping to keep the oil temps a little more under control. With a FK8 you’ll take any sort of help you can get to prevent overheating.
Ever says to do all the small tricky parts first.
Then do the larger pieces making sure to overlap them over the smaller pieces. This will help prevent the smaller ones from unsticking over time.
I even chose to put some where the oil filter goes. In my opinion the oil filter will eventually heat up enough and act as a large heatsink and the oil pan will absorb all that heat.
I may have gone a bit overboard, but it eases my mind a little more knowing there is that slight added protection.
Here is the comparison of the two pans.
Below you can see the difference between the OEM oil filter housing passage and the UNIT2 fab ported and polished one.
Below is what it looks like without the oil pan. The oil pick up is made of plastic so be careful when install the new pan to not break the plastic.
You are going to need to remove all old gasket material and completely wipe clean the whole mating surface area.
To do this I prefer to use a plastic razor blade. That way you don’t run the risk of damaging the mating surfaces.
Now that you have cleaned all surface area on the bottom of the block and completely removed all old gasket material. You now need to prep the new pan for install.
I personally make sure that I use a heaping amount of brake cleaner from a bunch of different angles to ensure the new pan is totally clean and free of any sort of dirt, dust, or debris.
Now you can take Hondabond and apply it all around the oil pan. Reference the pan you removed to see everywhere you need to apply the Hondabond. Use your finger to thinly spread the Hondabond around the pan. Make sure you quickly install the new pan; you will only have 5-10 minutes before the Hondabond will start to cure.
Refence the picture from the FSM above that shows the sequence to tighten the oil pan bolts. They will only need to be torqued to 9 LB/FT. no more otherwise you risk snapping the bolts.
I don’t have any pictures of the next few steps just because it all must happen so quick. But one word of warning if you are installing a baffled pan. It is very difficult to get back on because the baffle hits the plastic sump. The trick to this was to really let the subframe hang low and have a helper twist the engine to allow for enough clearance.
Below you can vaguely see how I have two jacks supporting the subframe. You can choose to support it however you want.
Below are two better pictures of jack placement.
Now that the pan is all bolted back in, we can move on to installing the Spoon rigid collars. The rigid collars come with decent instructions, and they were even in English! Just follow the pictures and you’ll be fine.
Below you can also see how much the subframe has dropped from the chassis. This will allow for easy access to slide the collars in.
Honestly, if I wasn’t installing an oil pan at the same time, I would say that installing the rigid collars is sort of easy. It just requires removing a lot and that is the tedious part.
In the picture below you can clearly see the suspension stroke harness plug. It’s directly above the jack just below the belt. You can see how mine is getting taught on the front side. This is one reason why you might want to simply unplug it before you drop the sub frame. There is a reason that Honda suggests in the FSM that you should disconnect them on both sides.
Below is the front most part of the subframe. There is one rigid collar per side for this location. (Upper right of the picture) I didn’t take pictures of the rigid collar because it was too tight of a space to take pictures once they were installed. This location will take 2 collars per side (one on top of the subframe and one underneath it)
Below you can see the other three locations with the rigid collars installed. The pictures are the driver’s side (left side) they will go in the exact same location on the passenger side (right side)
The location pictured below will only require one collar per side.
The location below will also only need one collar per side.
Lastly, the fourth and final location for the driver’s side will require two collars. One on top of the sub frame as you can see pictured below and one under the subframe. I just can’t take a picture of it and hold it on to the underside of the sub frame at the same time.
One issue I ran into was the holes not lining up on the bracket below. Embarrassingly, I’ll admit I had no idea what those type of bolts is called, and I possess no tool that would fit them. After doing some research, I was able to come across the name of them. They are called “external torx” or “e torx” for short and more specifically the size you’ll need to loosen them up is “E24”
Before you go to bolt the subframe back to the chassis, make sure you loosen both E torx bolts on both sides (driver/passenger). This will allow enough movement in the brackets and subframe to allow you to fully torque to subframe into place. Once fully torqued back into place, you can now re tighten the X4 E torx bolts on both sides of the car.
Now that the oil pan, and subframe are all reinstalled. DON’T FORGET to put oil back in the engine. Below is what I choose, you can use whatever you like.
I chose to not install the Spoon Sports Rigid Collars on the rear of the car simply because I will do it another time. I have heard/read that the rear is slightly harder because of the gas tank filler hose and there possibly being some binding there. I didn’t want the stress of having to do both front and rear ones and since the front one was already needing to be dropped, I opted to do the front.
Hopefully this post was informative and was able to help you better understand the process of dropping the sub frame and installing an oil pan. I know that this can seem overwhelming, but honestly you need to put a baffle in your car if you are going to be tacking it on track. Just order the parts, re read my post a few times, take a deep breath and start knocking it out. Just make sure that the FK8 isn’t your only mode of transportation. This way you will not be under any sort of pressure to finish the project in one day (while it is totally possible) Sometimes walking away for a few hours or days when you get frustrated helps to reset your mind. When you return you will often find that you can easily overcome the obstacle you were initially frustrated of stuck on.
Coming up next week will be Part two and it will be all about the Giro Disc install, new pads, and titanium shims. As always thank you for finding interest in what in my writings. I genuinely hope that you are learning from it and that you are finding the confidence and motivation to work on your own car. After all, it’s not rocket science and most of what I’m doing is simply unbolting one thing and swapping it for another.
If you have any question, comments, concerns, or just want to pat me on the back.. Feel free to reach out: Billy@functiontheory.com, @Functiontheory on the gram, or just simply comment on the post below. I appreciate the interactions.
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