Hey y’all. My name is Ty Hinz. I’ve been a lurker for years here but never made a thread because I rarely transfer pictures from my phone to my computer. I wanted to share what I've done so far to my 2006 TSX that I've turned into my track car recently. I'll keep the modifications posted at the top of the thread and periodically add pictures of the work I've done. Granted, not everything has been photographed, and a lot of these pics are just taken from my ig stories. If you want to see how it looks now and see more updates before I upload them here, my instagram is @tyhcl9. Here’s what it looks like as I’m writing this (Dec. 2022)
2006 Acura TSX 6MT
Engine:
CT Ice Box intake
Weapon R header
Js racing 70RR stainless single exit
Serge bo reflash (temporary)
Hasport 62a front & rear engine mount
Ingalls engine torque damper
Made 210whp/160tq at UMS Tuning
Transmission:
Exedy stage 1 clutch
Exedy dc5 chromoly flywheel
Em2 CMC
Hybrid racing heavy duty detent springs
Hybrid racing heavy duty shift selector spring
Hybrid racing solid shifter base bushings
Hybrid racing shifter cable bushings
APG6 aluminum case from 7g accord
2005-2006 RSX Type S gear set
Synchrotech carbon synchros
M-Factory Helical LSD
Suspension:
Fortune auto 500 series coilovers 12k Front / 8k Rear
Skunk2 front upper control arms
Fastline/PCI spherical compliance bushings
Fastline/PCI spherical LCA trailing bushings
SuperPro poly shock mount bushings
J's Racing front roll center adjusters
K-tuned front roll center adjusters
Hardrace spherical rear upper control arms
Hardrace spherical rear lateral camber arms
Hardrace spherical rear lateral toe arms
Progress 24mm rear sway bar for TL
Brakes:
Stoptech cryo plain brake rotors
Stoptech stainless braided brake lines
GLOC R10 front pads
GLOC R8 rear pads
Interior:
Momo Daytona evo bucket seat
PCI seat bracket drivers side
Momo steering wheel hub adapter
Momo Volanti steering wheel
Spoon shift knob
Teamtech motorsports rampac 6pt camlok harness
Action Fabrication 4-pt roll bar
Exterior:
Mugen window visors
Euro R headlights, front bumper, lip, & grill
Northwind composites carbon fiber sunroof delete
May 2019 Picked up the car from its second owner in the summer of 2019 for $4600. The seller was going to give it to his daughter but she didn't want to learn how to drive manual, so my score.
It was missing chrome on the grill, had a cracked foglight housing, faded headlights and scratched paint, but it ran strong and I could tell it was mechanically maintained well, which was the most important part because I knew from the jump that I'd want to take this car out on track eventually.
December 2019
I was using the car as a daily and it was my first manual car, so I killed the original clutch after having the car for around 15k miles. Paid a local guy to change it out for the exedy stage 1 clutch & dc5 flywheel and it felt great.
In the same month, on Christmas Eve, I managed to hit another car in the parking lot of my old apartment complex. Ironically, I was distracted because I was looking at a nice PWP TSX that had just pulled in, and I was turning the opposite direction that I was looking. Pretty dumb mistake but I wasn't too bent out of shape because I wanted to change the front end anyway.
February 2020 Still using the car as a daily, my motor mounts failed. Keeping my future plans in mind, I replaced them with Hasport 62a front and rear mounts. I went with Hasport for a few reasons: they're local, the mounts are billet instead of cast like innovative, and I liked how they have a lifetime warranty on the bushings, so you can upgrade stiffness down the road. I asked the owner why they don't have an option for the passenger side mount, and he explained that the front and rear mounts essentially eliminate enough movement by themselves that it makes the passenger mount unnecessary.
May 2020 Starting to get more stuff for the car, and a deal came up to fix the front end that I couldn't pass on. My brother and I drove out to Southern California from our home in Phoenix to pick up a paint matched PFL Euro-R front clip from HMO. Surprisingly enough, it fit in our grandpa's Lexus GX that we borrowed for the journey.
August 2020 Was at about 186k miles when I decided to do a valve adjustment to see the condition of the head. I was very surprised to see how good it looked.
August 2020 (cont)
Purchased a J's Racing 70rr stainless single exit back in April or May and it arrived in late August. Please excuse the messy bedroom, I was still living with my parents at the time so everything was stored in my room.
September 2020
Things are starting to ramp up as I've set my sights on a track day in January '21. I noticed my clutch was squeaky and decided to inspect it. Found out that the guy who changed my clutch the year prior had also noticed a squeaky clutch pedal, which was linked to a crack in the mounting bracket. He "welded" it, which only held for about a year. I purchased a new pedal from Honda and went to the machine shop where I worked to make some make-shift washers to support the bracket and hopefully avoid another crack. I'm writing this in December 2022 and nothing's happened (yet). Part number for the OEM pedal is included below.
November 2020 I was on my way home from school one day and all of a sudden I couldn't get into any gear. I was lucky only a mile from home and already driving, so I was able to coast home and figure out what happened. Turned out there's a black plastic sleeve that is crimped into a metal coupler on our shift cables. This little sleeve popped out of the coupler and my shift cables were just twisting all over the place with no tension without it. I temporarily wrapped it in aluminum tape and shoved it back in the coupler and hoped it would stay.
December 2020 Parts from Black Friday sales started rolling in around early December. Getting closer to the first track day. Got my Fortune Auto coilovers, Skunk2 front upper control arms, and all the Hardrace spherical rear arms.
January 2021
The month of the first track day is here and it's time to install everything. I had done this before with my white automatic 04 TSX, but it went much faster with the help of my friend CJ, who also has a track TSX.
The back of the steering knuckle has a bump on the casting that will hit the bottom of the Skunk2 control arm under load. So much so that it can actually knock the front camber out of alignment. I shaved the back of the knuckle down with an angle grinder but it later proved to be not enough as I had to attack the control arm itself.
Before the track day I managed to find some OEM shift cables locally when there was a shortage, and was able to fix that problem I had earlier. I also took that opportunity to install the Hybrid Racing spherical shifter cable bushings, heavy duty detent springs and shift selector springs, and their solid shifter base bushings.
My first track day was at Arizona Motorsports Park in west Phoenix, AZ. It literally shares a fence with Luke Air Force Base (where F16's and F22's are taking off daily) and yet the track has a 96db sound restriction because of the residential neighborhoods across the street (which were built after the track had been there). I ran the counter-clockwise configuration and it was a lot of fun. I had no prior track experience, but my instructor was awesome; he had previously driven an Integra for time attack which has a very similar suspension geometry so he was able to show me how to drive the car on the limit immediately. I ran with an organization called NASA, or National Auto Sport Association, and it flowed amazingly. I started in HPDE 1 with an instructor for the entire day and was able to get signed off to HPDE 2 at the end of the day, where no instructor is necessary.
The car had 2-year old 300tw tires, OEM brake pads, OEM fluid, and OEM lines. Because of that, the brakes were absolute toast by the end of the day. Nonetheless, I finally understood what the track guys were talking about when they said its the most fun you can have with your clothes on. I was hooked. Here's a few pics from the day:
Got a daily so I can feel more comfortable tracking the CL9. Here's my 2012 TSX Sport Wagon with the tech package. It had 147k miles when I got it (currently has 165k as of 12/2022), was a SoCal car its whole life before moving here with its previous owner, and is a super comfortable daily. I got it ceramic coated soon after which was a mistake since it isn't garaged, but it looked good at the time. But this thread is about the blue car so I'll just show one picture.
Prepping for another weekend with NASA-AZ, this time at INDE Motorsports Ranch down in Wilcox, AZ. I needed to address my lack of braking and my old tires from the last event. I got some cryo-treated centric blank rotors for the front, GLOC R8 front pads, and Motul RBF660 brake fluid to remedy my braking issue (I still used the OEM rear brake pads & rotors at this point). For the tires, I decided to go with the Falken RT615K+ mostly due to budget constraints, and put them on my brother's Ray's Gramlights 57dr that he let me borrow (indefinitely). I drove down there on the old Yokohama S-Drives from the last event and had my cousin follow me down there with my TSX wagon loaded with wheels and tools. I also managed to get my brother to drive his S2000 down there with me. Some pics of the "Honda Camp" and the track.
May 2021 Nothing changed on the car since the last event, but here are some pics from the next track day I attended. This one was a learning experience. New track for me - Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park, East Track (otherwise known as, "East"). This track is cool because its short, has a relatively good layout for having no elevation change, and it runs directly adjacent to the I-10 freeway, so we often have spectators in the form of truckers and broken down cars on the side of the highway. I was pushing hard at this track and suffered the consequences when I went off. I knocked my camber out of alignment, caused some new play in the outer tie rod ends, and broke a subframe middle mount. Luckily, May is usually the last month of track activities here in Arizona as it gets too hot to be outside from June-September, and I have some more parts to install. Here are some pics from the track day and the damage:
June 2021
I put my car on jack stands in June and started tearing down the front suspension, starting with the upper control arms. I knew from my friend CJ's feedback regarding his control arms that I had to shave those more than what I had done initially. I decided to just take the rest of the suspension & axles out of the car and committed to letting it sit for the summer so I could do all the work myself. Enjoy my zip-tie rig to keep the axles from sagging initially, lol.
September 2021
The rest of the summer I just worked and bought car parts. I wanted to get everything checked off the front suspension that I could, so I got:
-New OEM wheel bearings
-ARP extended lug studs
-J's Racing Roll Center Adjusters
-Superpro polyurethane shock mount bushings
The install was a test of my patience as I messed up a couple times along the way. I started pressing in one of the hubs into the spindle before I had put the retaining ring on the wheel bearing, so I had to stop and wait until I could find a way to stretch the snap ring around the hub, because I knew the inner race of the new wheel bearing would stay attached if I had tried pressing the hub back out. Then, when installing the roll center adjusters, I thought I'd be able to get everything together without taking the boot off the ball joint, but I was wrong. I tore the boot when installing the purple ring around the bottom and had to use some stretchable tape to stop some of the leaking. New boots wouldn't be there in time.
Crunch time. I wanted to get more, but things were out of stock and backordered. I installed a progress 24mm rear sway bar, but I bought it secondhand and it was purchased for a TL, so I had to cut off an unused exhaust hanger. Not sure if its the same with the version for the TSX.
How she sat when the RCA's were first installed... looks great but not practical with my spring...
After I finally got everything installed and the car on the ground, I took it for a spin to the car wash before I got it aligned. On my way back home, I decided to take a longer route than the normal 1.5 minute drive. As I was sitting at a stop light waiting to turn left where I would normally go straight, traffic was moving and I saw someone approaching the intersection on an electric unicycle. A car started to turn in front of him, hesitated, and then went, and he panicked and bailed off the unicycle, sending it barreling toward my car. It hit, and I was in such disbelief that I didn't even get a picture of his drivers license. Insurance didn't do anything for me either. Oh well... I want a Spoon bumper anyway lol.
The next track event was coming up at AMP - the same track I went to for my first time with the noise restriction. I had the bright idea of trying to install the J's exhaust and attempting to pass sound at the track. I installed the header without breaking a sweat, but the exhaust took a little bit of work - cutting off the unused hanger, fiddling with the donut gasket, and trying different hanger bushings. I ended up scrapping that idea and waiting until I could properly fit the exhaust as it was interfering with the exhaust. At least I still got the header installed; I just ran it with the test pipe and the stock exhaust.
showing the interference between the exhaust and sway bar preventing me from using OEM exhaust...
Day 1 at AMP went sorta well. I got a decent feel for the changes, which was a lot at once. I spun a few times coming off the main straight due to lift-off oversteer that was induced by the new sway bar, but that was cool because it showed me that I can get a little more rotation mid-corner by lifting or tapping the brakes. I fried the stock rear brake pads at the end of the day and the "screamer" tabs were doing exactly that - screaming at me the entire drive home. Picked up some generic autozone brake pads and called it a fix for the weekend. Day 2 went much better with a new personal best lap time, and nothing broken.
About a week after the track day I finally got around to installing the J's racing exhaust. All I really had to do was cut off a little more of that unused hanger, wrap it in some heat tape so it wouldn't rattle against the sway bar, and get a longer hanger bushing for the hanger by all the suspension. I'd post a sound clip but .mp4 isn't allowed here I guess. You can hear it on my ig @tyhcl9 or my youtube @tylerhinz212 if you're curious.
Placed an order for the Fastline/PCI compliance bushings a while back and they were stuck at the machine shop, so I didn't get them in time for the track day at AMP, but they finally arrived in early November. I also reached out to someone local to me about making a custom roll bar for my car and he gave me a quote that was cheaper than buying the autopower one, so I decided to avoid that trip to California and stay local. With that in mind, I didn't want to be in my stock leather seats anymore and I started to get more "racecar" parts. Picked up a used Momo Daytona Safari bucket seat, got an awesome deal on a cf sunroof delete from a great dude in SoCal who had sold his TSX, picked up a new helmet and gloves from We Don't Lift Racing, a PCI fixed seat mount from Heeltoe, and finally chilled out on buying stuff because Christmas was coming up.
I relaxed on buying things but not working on the car. I still wanted to prep for the roll bar since the only date I had was "early 2022" for the install. I started small, just taking out the rear plastics, removing the tint for the fishbowl look, and prepping to remove the carpet. I didn't even think I would get to the sound deadening. Then, I was working on it one weekend and my friend CJ came by while he was working in the area, and decided we were removing my sunroof right then and there. I had the plug after all, so why not? We took the headliner out, removed the side curtain air bags, and got the sunroof out. I actually managed to sell it to someone in need of one, so win-win.
Next, I installed the Fastline/PCI spherical compliance and trailing bushings into my LCA's. I was bored and wanted to see how they compared to OEM, so I took some measurements. There was a weird step on both of the O.D.'s of the trailing bushings which I couldn't find an explanation for. They were .002in smaller than OEM at the largest part of the diameter, and I was able to press them in over half-way with the force of my hand, so I've been keeping a close eye on them.
Around Christmas/New Years I decided to install the sunroof plug. Instructions for install were on the website and they were pretty straightforward. Only things I would've done differently is I would've shaved the corners of the plug a little more as it is pretty tight in there, and I should've clear coated it before installing. I started mocking it up right before Christmas.
mocking up the sunroof plug and my seating position
Between Christmas and New years, I got the plug completely sealed in the car. I used aluminum angle bracket and marine adhesive to secure it from the inside, and used black RTV silicone to seal the top. I laid out some tape to try and make it look as OEM as possible. Could've done better, but it looks good from far.
First thing I did in January was install the Mugen visors I had purchased a while back. Install was pretty quick on these. I thought about wrapping or painting the chrome trim, but decided against it because the chrome has kinda grown on me. My brother had also gotten me a Momo steering wheel for Christmas, so I started mocking up my seating position. After that, I started stripping the sound deadening to prep more for the roll bar. At this point I had a firm date and knew it wouldn't be ready for the first track day of the year, but that was fine because I really just cared about having it for Chuckwalla in February. I used a combination of dry ice and isopropyl alcohol to remove the sound deadening and it was messy. If I were to redo it, I'd leave out the alcohol as it really wasn't necessary.
sound deadening 90% stripped with dry ice. Still gotta get the stuff that's vertical.
Then, my harness showed up from Teamtech Motorsports. I really like this one especially because of the padding on the crotch area, lol. I got a Braum universal harness bar just so I could pass tech inspection at the January track day, but knew I'd eventually sell it. I installed the harness bar myself, but took it to We Don't Lift Racing to install the harness just to be safe. They re-did the harness bar installation because I had it bolted to the sliding brackets where the upper seat belt anchor is, which wouldn't have passed tech. Happy to have them looking out for me.
harness bar install courtesy of We Don't Lift Racing
At this point I was COMPLETELY broke, and still had to spend more money on the roll bar installation which was coming up, and the track day at Chuckwalla. I took advantage of a program with NASA-AZ where they let you work as a track official - doing grid, flagging a corner, timing & scoring, etc. - and was able to work Saturday and drive Sunday for free. It was a good track day Sunday; the first time I ever drove a car with a bucket seat and harness and it took some getting used to. I initially felt disconnected from the car because I was so used to my body moving against the chassis, and suddenly I was moving with it. I ended up feeling much more connected with the car. I had a nasty spin which saw me run over a bush off track and rip out my O2 sensor, breaking the defouler in the process. Nonetheless, it was a great day.
After that track day, I took the car to UMS Tuning to get a dyno reading for time attack classing. The car made 210whp and 160lbft torque. Not too shabby for 200k miles, basic bolt-on's and a cheap reflash. Shortly after that, I dropped the car off with a local guy, Joe with Action Fabrication, for the roll bar.
February was a busy month. Started off by getting the roll bar welded in by Action Fabrication out in Mesa, AZ. I was super happy with the way it came out. Fully tig welded 1.5 DOM, and really good quality for $600. Here's some shots of it when I first took it home:
I can't remember exactly when, but around this same time, I also won a transmission in a raffle on instagram. I went out to Mesa again to pick it up with my friends, because my friend happened to win the motor that the transmission was attached to. We took it back to his house and immediately tore it apart with the help of my friend CJ. I was shocked to see it had a brand new 4th gear, full carbon synchro kit, M-Factory LSD, and 4.7 final drive. It was essentially the same setup as a euro-r trans with a beefier LSD.
the gear set, forks, diff, and final drive that'll be going into the new trans build
Once that fun was over, I started prepping more for Chuckwalla. I needed to prevent rust on the roll bar somehow and I needed to prevent the carbon sunroof plug from fading and looking like crap. I picked up some grey Steel-It for the roll bar and some clear coat spray for the sunroof plug (I forgot what brand). I ended up getting overspray from both literally all over the car, which has made me stop caring about the paint for the most part, which is really sad because I love that paint color.
I ended the month with the track day at Chuckwalla. The car and I survived the 4 hour drive to Central City, CA from Phoenix, AZ - something I'll hopefully never have to do again. Chuckwalla is a magical place. So much fun was had there. The first day was a learning experience as it was the first relatively high-speed track I've been to. I ended up going off at the downhill "corkscrew" when I tried following my friend Kevin's racing line, which ended up destroying his brand new Mugen front lip. That only convinced him to do the FD2 conversion, though. The rest of the weekend was really fun with no drama. Drove back to Phoenix with the car in the same condition it left in, so that's a win in my book.
March wasn't very eventful, but I went to Wild Horse Pass East track again. I PB'd went off a couple times, gave my cousin a ride-along, and had some more fun times. My brother had bad luck with his J's Racing 70rr on his S2000 - the tip literally just fell off while he was on track. Of course he didn't notice until the session was over, and by that point he had burned a hole in his rear bumper.
This same month, my brother and I finally moved out of our parents into our own house. Well, he put the down payment down by selling his low-mileage S2000 that hadn't seen the track. I just pay him rent. The house needed fixing up and it was summer time by this point anyway, so I put the car cover on and relaxed with the mods for the summer, for the most part.
May 2022
I know I said I relaxed, but I was still always hunting for an aluminum transmission case from a 7th gen accord. I finally found one on eBay and immediately hopped on it. Here's how it showed up:
Summer is starting to come to an end and that means track season is about to start, and I have almost everything I need to put together a badass transmission. I decided to try and get everything together before going to a brand new track in Arizona, the Podium Club at Atessa. Since time was an issue, I decided I would use the bearings that were in the k20z1 case that I won. All I needed to get was the seals for the transmission, and I wanted to clean it too. I decided to get the case vapor honed and I'm happy I did.
I ordered the seal kit online, something like $30 plus shipping. Less than a week later, I get a package from the company I ordered from, but it's way too heavy to just be seals. I opened it up and to my surprise, all the bearings I needed were right there, brand new. I was shocked, and decided I'd order the diff bearings on Amazon in case the ones on the differential were bad. I ended up not using them. I took everything to my good friend CJ's house to get it all put together and shimmed so I could avoid any future issues. I don't know where I'd be with this build without the friends I've made from the track - they've been so helpful.
Nice build! I just rebuilt my Euro R transmission also with the synchro tech carbon. I was noticing you’re running the hybrid racing shifter bushings and detents. I was thinking of getting those too, do you feel like they are worth it?
Nice build! I just rebuilt my Euro R transmission also with the synchro tech carbon. I was noticing you’re running the hybrid racing shifter bushings and detents. I was thinking of getting those too, do you feel like they are worth it?
Thank you! I think they’re worth it personally. Not sure how their new design performs but I’m sure they’re still good if not better. Make sure you get the shift selector springs in addition to the detent springs; it makes a huge difference compared to stock. Might not be as noticeable if you already have a short shifter though.
Once the transmission was sealed up I took it to my house and planned on waiting for help before starting the swap. I had to replace a leaky clutch line so when I started taking things apart for that, I just said screw it and started the swap myself. I followed this method from another tsxclub member and it worked flawlessly. I borrowed an engine hoist from my friend, fit it in the back of my TSX wagon, and went to work.
Oily mess from the failed clutch line. shift cables are off.
When I rigged everything up to pull the trans, I noticed the top mount was pretty busted, so I had to change that out. After a good amount of wiggling the trans back and forth, I was able to get it out from the top.
At this point, I started swapping some parts over from the stock trans to the new one, like the slave, shift selector, all the sensors, etc. I noticed my throw-out bearing had a broken tab on it, so I had to make a quick trip to my Honda dealership for a new one. A couple of my friends came over and kept the progress going while I was out. I didn't get any pictures of the install, unfortunately, but it went smooth with their help. Of course, not everything can go according to plan - I was doing a bolt check the next day and discovered that my J's racing RCA's had both failed after just 6 or 7 track days, and probably less than 4,000 total miles. I decided to order K-Tuned replacements since they were in stock, but if those fail, I'll be going back to OEM ball joints.
replacement K-Tuned roll center adjusters installed
Put everything back on the car and while I was torqueing the shitty socket head cap screws on the skunk2 front upper control arms, one of the bolts snapped. Quick trip to Ace Hardware for some flanged hex head bolts and I was on my way. Bleeding the coolant system took probably 4 hours - I felt really bad for my next-door neighbor since I have that loud J's racing exhaust. The first drive was an awesome experience. The new gears, the LSD - everything just worked perfectly. This is how the car should've come from the factory. I drove the car for 100 or so miles, then jacked it up and changed the transmission fluid to flush any debris or contaminants out. I used 50/50 Honda MTF and Amsoil Synchromesh and it's performed very well. I changed the fluid at night so I waited until the morning to take it for a drive, but when I woke up I saw a puddle of transmission fluid underneath my car. I couldn't find any leaks, but I still went and got a new crush washer just in case. Cleaned everything up and dropped the car and noticed another puddle. I jacked the car up and didn't see any leaks from the trans. This went on for about an hour before I realized there was a bunch of transmission fluid stuck inside the subframe from when I drained it before. That was annoying, but I was just happy it wasn't serious.
Finding a nice puddle of transmission fluid on the ground a day after the swap
October 2022
The track day at Podium Club was phenomenal. I went 4-off first session into the mud which sucked, but I had brand new tires waiting to throw on so I wasn't upset. I progressed all weekend and learned the track, but always sucked at the esses and the last corner. All was well until the last session on the last day, when a G35 over-steered into the dirt, then swung back around and t-boned my friend's newly fd2-converted Civic SI at 80mph.
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