I did reuse the original gasket. Believe it or not, all of our gaskets are like new. The intake manifold gasket is multi-layer steel with rubber coating. The coating was all still good.

Regardless, for the sake of proper science, I ordered a new one through Amazon. Supposed to get here on Thursday. Hoping to get before the dyno session.

 

Sorry for the late report. I made an unplanned trip to see my 94yo grandmother who isn't doing well and then had a business trip.

I managed to put the new gasket in and flash it to stock. Does not want to idle AT ALL. I'll mess with the tune again to see what I come up with, but it's not happy yet. Definitely wasn't a gasket issue.

 

Sorry to hear about your grandmother, hopefully things take a better turn.

I'm really interested to hear what Cat Cams has to say about it...

 

I'm not going to bother Cat Cams. I don't really care. In my mind, if someone is buying a camshaft and doesn't already have the ability to tune the ECU, they are doing things backwards. The Hondata is way, way more important and necessary than the camshaft, so it should be the first step for anyone that is going to modify a GD Fit.

 

Been a while since I posted an update. Been playing with other stuff over the winter, but time to resume the Fit project.

I was finally able to get the parking brake cable adapter brackets from FastBrakes...woohoo!!! They were a rusty mess, but a few days soaking in vinegar fixed that. I have them coated in oil now and waiting for a test fit. Once I know they work, I will prep and paint them.

Also have the front and rear brake pads. Went with Stoptech street pads. So, with those, I now have everything except the rear rotors. Want to mount the rear adapters and calipers to get a measurement before ordering the rotors. I've seen two different diameters mentioned, so I want to verify before ordering. I even have a larger master cylinder, ATE fluid, brake line flaring tool, and brake line nuts. Should be pretty much good to go on the brakes.

 

If you haven't replaced your MC yet, I'm about to swap out for a 15/16" MC as well and rather than cutting and re-flaring the factory lines there are adapters available, FYI: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/edd-262010

 

Holy Moly! That's awesome! Thanks for sharing. I scoured the Internet a year ago and could not find adapters that went in that direction. Had a friend at a speed shop try also.

I already bought the flaring tool and nuts, but I will happily mothball those and order the adapters. Much easier and reversible.

Thankfully, I had not started on the Fit project. Wednesday of last week I hit a deer in my Lincoln. It's now in the body shop with $5,000 worth of damage which pulled the Fit into daily use. Sucked hitting the deer and damaging my one car, but I'm glad the Fit was ready to go as a back up.

 

Ordered the Fittings from Summit. Didn't see them anywhere else. Unfortunately, there's $7.99 shipping and tax in my state. Made those two little pieces of metal about $20, but well worth it to keep from cutting a re-flaring the lines.
Will report back when I see if the fittings fit the M/C.

 

Well, I bought the brake line adapters and have them here. I'm trying to figure out how they could possibly work.

1. They bottom out on the collar before seating inside.
2. This style of brake line works by having the fitting snug the line up against the other piece, not by the fitting sealing to the piece. If I screw the current fitting/line to the adapter, there isn't a line feeding through the other end of the adapter to snug up to the M/C
3. The thread is cut too small and is sloppy/loose threading into the M/C

Maybe I could get it to work with some kind of bushing between the adapter and M/C, but I just don't trust that for brakes.

Back to the plan of cutting the line

 

Sorry to hear about the troubles. The adapters fit the Raybestos MC that I have. The threads are a touch undersized on mine as well, but snug up and stay solid when torqued. I plan on adding a dab of red Loctite before they're finally assembled as well. Unlike on your MC they do not bottom on the collars first either. I have ~1/32" left. You could face the MC bosses and reduce the thread depth... In saying all of this, I have yet to do the ultimate test and put fluid to mine. Hopefully after next weekend.

 

Talk about procrastination!!!

I haven't given up on the Fit...just had a change of plans. Wrecking my Lincoln had me driving the Fit as a daily. I realized how much I enjoy driving the Fit, so as soon as it was out of the body shop, I traded the Lincoln in on a pick up truck with the plan of dailying the Fit. Bought an F150 and set about personalizing it to my tastes. That soaked up my extra time for quite a while. Here's the new truck with mods complete...









Doesn't look like much, but it has quite a few changes including Bilstein suspension, bed liner, Raptor paddle steering wheel, bigger tires, a full race tune and tons of little touches.

 

I'm finally done messing with the truck, so it's back to the Fit.

First thing I'm tackling are the brakes. Working on them a little here and there. Here's where I'm at...




Just need to finish the job. Waiting on wife to cut and re-flair the master cylinder brake lines. I gave that job to her

Should be a decent set up when complete. Rear is 10.2" EBC USR rotors, RSX calipers, stoptech pads. Front is 11" EBC USR rotors, Integra Type R calipers, and TSX spec stoptech pads. All lines are hard or braided and fluid will be ATE Type200.

 

Right on! Should be a decent setup indeed. Hopefully the rear swap will give a noticeable difference in feel or distance control.

Fyi, if it isn't too late, I ended up installing those adapters shortly after the last post and successfully ran them leak free for ~30k miles. Red Loctite then torque striped, it went well! (My GD met its demise earlier this month due to a deer on the freeway )

 

OH NO! Sorry to hear about your Fit

Brake job is delayed while I wait on more parts. Ordered new rear hub/bearing, new front bearings, and a set of Trakmotive axles. Figure I might as well do it right while apart.

Also ordered a set of QuickJacks. Hoping I can get it high enough off the ground to drop the transmission out the bottom so I can install the Quaife differential and put in the new clutch.

Undecided if I'm going to pull the motor for a rods and piston upgrade and rebuild. I'd rather not spend the money, but I also don't want to have to do everything twice.

 

Thanks but it was for the best overall. The seats were becoming a pain after a few hours and the interior buzz plus overall lack of power was getting to me. So I ended up buying a Cayman S to replace it. Should be fine for a daily, right?

Oooooo I am jealous! Quickjacks and a LSD! Mine needed both. I seriously debated biting the LSD bullet when I did my clutch last October and elected not to for the cost, but good on you! Make sure to pick up a set of Blox or Spoon front subframe collars while you're at it. I did and they made a nicely noticeable difference in the front, felt much more connected. Also, fyi, it's 50/50 whether to follow the manual and leave the steering rack connected to the steering column when you drop the subframe or to take it out with the subframe as well. As easy as it is to disconnect it from the column, electrical connectors, and knock out the tie rod ends (especially if you're replacing them as well), this can be a time saver vs fighting the lack of clearance when getting the retaining bolts out and leaving it with the chassis. Regardless, you WILL want to fully drop the subframe and get it out of the way.

I would pass on the rods and pistons unless you're down on compression or due for a rebuild. The cost vs performance with the L15 just isn't worth it, in my opinion. That is, unless you were stuck in CA with strict SMOG regulations and an anti-swap mentality. Then, what other semi-legal options do you really have?

 

Thanks for all of that info!!! It is highly appreciated.

Rods and pistons would just be for supporting boost. I have a Top Fuel turbo kit to install as well and plan on turning up the boost until I reach the power I want. Not so much a target number as I just want it to run good. I've been spoiled most of my life with fast cars so, while I love the Fit, I'm also over it being slow. Heck, my pickup makes over 400whp and the Fit sits next to a 532whp Mustang in the garage. Not saying the Fit needs to go there, but I'd like it to be into the modern range. Thinking 200ish whp? Maybe a little more? I should have k-swapped it, but I like the idea of seeing what the L15 can do.

No smog here. I'm in GA and could put a 532ci hemi in it and no one would care.

Cayman S? Nice choice!!! For a lot of people, that would be an uncomfortable daily. For someone coming from a GD Fit, you probably just made everything that's good about the Fit 100x better and didn't lose any comfort. Maybe gained some with the better seats and seating position?

 

Aaahhh ok, that makes much more sense now. I'm intrigued to see the Mustang!

200-ish should be plenty. As you know, we can surprisingly hustle backroads and auto-x on 120 crank, so nearly doubling that would do wonders. I always wanted to K-swap mine, but the instrument cluster issue was a major bummer. Not that the factory gauges are anything phenomenal, I was just dead-set on keep them for a OEM look considering that it was still a daily driver. Perhaps I'll tackle a future project... It was still a fun little car.

Thanks! I have always wanted one from my time at Porsche in the mid 2000s and now was an excellent opportunity that I couldn't pass up on. The market on them won't get much, if any, lower and it's a tremendous car for the money at nearly any price. Sure, the M97 3.4L has it's share of engine issues but they can be mitigated and dealt with. It's apples to oranges vs the GD. Haha. Much better seats, vastly different seating position. In the GD, you're on top of the car, in the Cayman, you're down in the car. But it still offers solid visibility for a MR chassis. Definitely drive one if you haven't already!

 

200 whp seems a lot for an l15, but I’m just basing it on a decade old memory of gd3kamiwanab killing his around that number.

 

So much has changed since then. The L15b7 record is over 500 whp on an all stock motor. A built L15a1 should be plenty strong enough to hold the same power level. Problem is the rpm, airflow, etc necessary to reach those power levels. The SOHC head probably just can't get there with any amount of boost. But, I'd be shocked if it couldn't get half way there. Provided good rods and pistons. The stock stuff looks really weak.

FWIW, I do have an aftermarket camshaft to help a little bit with the rpm needs. Just have to decide if I want to go that route. My number one priority is to keep it as a daily driver. Which is why I, like idrivemyself, want to keep my factory dash and gauges. Funny enough, that's what stopped me on the k-swap. A call to Hasport had me really disappointed to hear they hadn't fixed that issue after all of these years.

 

Ran into more delays...

Went to install the drivers side rear caliper. Opened the box to find an "R" stamped into the caliper. Yup, my pair of calipers included two rights. Despite what anyone thinks...two rights apparently is wrong! That was 3 weeks ago.

Called Powerstop and was shocked by their customer service. In a good way! They offered to make it right (or left in this case), but were out of stock on the calipers. Fast forward to earlier this week when I received a new set of calipers from them! Sent them back the two rights. Thanks to Powerstop!

With that hurdle cleared, I finally decided to test fit wheels. Neither our 16x7 Rota RB or factory 15" sport wheels clear the front ITR front calipers. So, I got in touch with Tire Rack and should have a new set of wheels here later today. Pics to follow. Fingers crossed that they clear the calipers!