Beretta 2017 Autocross Spec D-prepared

[Koots]

Here is a pic I found of the car, after I installed the lowering springs and GR2's:



There it is, in all it's Japanese glory

It was rough looking, but was very fun to drive.

[Amateur]

I had a 2" drop, lightweight BMW 14" wheels, front and rear sway bars, custom set alignment and a bunch of other stuff...mostly things that got me put into the higher classes of competition...definitely not the place for a 1.6L SOHC Civic with a 4spd automatic

Wow, you really did some work on that thing! I love how it's such an unassuming car...no one ever suspects the civic...As beautiful as that car must have handled, I'm sure that engine/tranny combo really held you back on the upper tiers. I guess you like a good challenge:


Pretty sure I'm going with a solid sway up front to help balance the chassis. At highway speeds, the hollow one just isn't cutting it; it feels jittery up there so I want to stabilize it at speed and give the car a more neutral bias.

[3X00-Modified]

I don't think there was a hollow front bar available...

[Amateur]

I don't think there was a hollow front bar available...

Oh dear God!...you're telling me it's a solid one up front for Base Berettas; It's so bad, I was convinced that it had to be hollow.

I haven't gotten around to looking at it but I assumed it was a hollow one because it's a base. I mean my brother has a '98 intrigue and that thing has a hollow front sway bar. Either way, Need a swaybar that knows what it's doing stat!

[Koots]

I had a 2" drop, lightweight BMW 14" wheels, front and rear sway bars, custom set alignment and a bunch of other stuff...mostly things that got me put into the higher classes of competition...definitely not the place for a 1.6L SOHC Civic with a 4spd automatic

Wow, you really did some work on that thing! I love how it's such an unassuming car...no one ever suspects the civic...As beautiful as that car must have handled, I'm sure that engine/tranny combo really held you back on the upper tiers. I guess you like a good challenge:


Pretty sure I'm going with a solid sway up front to help balance the chassis. At highway speeds, the hollow one just isn't cutting it; it feels jittery up there so I want to stabilize it at speed and give the car a more neutral bias.

LOL It was a great handling car, but it had a tremendous aftermarket, so of course I could dial it in how I wanted. I never really messed with modifying a vehicle and this was my first attempt. I wasted some money and would do it a bit different now, I definitely would have upgraded the drivetrain earlier, back when I was actually trying to compete, and I also would have spent money on the Koni yellows before I went with GR2s...instead of the other way around.

The engine was a serious drawback, but I got it where I wanted it, but still keeping it fairly stock or stock like. I wouldn't hesitate to put a DOHC/5=speed combo in another.......

.....BUT! I would rather turn my boring Corsica into a Honda killer. Either powerful V6, all motor 2.3L or mild turbo 2.2. Except Im gonna have to be very creative to make up for the lack of aftermarket support in other ways. I think it will be a far superior sleeper than that Civic ever was (which still could embarrass most ricers on command)

[3X00-Modified]

I don't think there was a hollow front bar available...

Oh dear God!...you're telling me it's a solid one up front for Base Berettas; It's so bad, I was convinced that it had to be hollow.

I haven't gotten around to looking at it but I assumed it was a hollow one because it's a base. I mean my brother has a '98 intrigue and that thing has a hollow front sway bar. Either way, Need a swaybar that knows what it's doing stat!

No its not hollow, it's just tiny... its probably a 20mm bar, or 22 tops.. The GT's came with 30mm front bars. Or its try to find a FE7 setup that is direct acting and find the brackets for the struts, unless your's have them on it.

[Koots]

Ah yes a roller fulcrum, much better. Well Koots from what I read all aluminum rockers have about the same lifespan.

I've decided to jump into a set of SS rockers instead, to avoid the aluminum issue. These have a lifetime warranty too:

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/350521566350?ssP ... 1438.l2649\

They say they will fit under a centerbolt valve cover, so they shouldn't be too hard to fit under the 2.2 cover.

Once I'm done all the mods I will report back to you.

I do advise to grab a header and remake the exhaust on yours. The stock manifold is tiny and looks like crap. A header shouldn't be anymore than $150 shipped to your door and maybe even less for you folks in the states.

[Money pit Beretta]

I hope they last Koots. They do look nice.

[Koots]

I hear they will definitely retain their shape and ratio better than aluminum, but I also read that cheaper stainless can be more brittle, which means it will be perfect until it finally snaps. This sounds like it's only an issue with flat tappet, stiff springs and high RPM race motors, so I'm not worried about it. The aluminum seem to fail just over extended use, but seem to be fine for stock springs or softer valve springs, like in OHC engines. I'm gonna be using the stock valve springs, new pushrods and adjustable studs. The most I would upgrade is to slightly stiffer springs to push 6500RPM if I go with an aftermarket cam.

[Amateur]

I hear they will definitely retain their shape and ratio better than aluminum, but I also read that cheaper stainless can be more brittle, which means it will be perfect until it finally snaps. This sounds like it's only an issue with flat tappet, stiff springs and high RPM race motors, so I'm not worried about it. The aluminum seem to fail just over extended use, but seem to be fine for stock springs or softer valve springs, like in OHC engines. I'm gonna be using the stock valve springs, new pushrods and adjustable studs. The most I would upgrade is to slightly stiffer springs to push 6500RPM if I go with an aftermarket cam.

wait your car has a cut off before 6500? I know on mine, it's at 6500 where the fuel cut off happens.
I'm going to buy those aluminum rockers for my car. I know they last around 20k before going all wonky and out of shape, but that comes out to a set a year. The only reason why i want them is since it's aluminum, the inertial mass is lower than other rockers. I've given myself two months starting today to save so I can either rebuild the engine or put a remanufactured one in. I want the car to last me another 10 years.
It had a few rough starts with one instance, it didn't want to hold idle speed and died.
Now I figured it's nothing internal since I'm not burning any fluids, and i'm not losing power so the cylinder head is good. I figure the glitch in the matrix lies in the ignition system, either the crank position sensor, the ignition coils and a fresh set of spark plug wires couldn't hurt. Can't be the plugs because i put new ones in 10,000 miles ago and they where gapped correctly (the old one's looked good on top of that).
I mean this engine is not hard to figure out:

Here's a lego analogy of a normal engine on any ordinary car:



This is the Beretta base engine:

[Koots]

wait your car has a cut off before 6500? I know on mine, it's at 6500 where the fuel cut off happens.
I'm going to buy those aluminum rockers for my car. I know they last around 20k before going all wonky and out of shape, but that comes out to a set a year. The only reason why i want them is since it's aluminum, the inertial mass is lower than other rockers. I've given myself two months starting today to save so I can either rebuild the engine or put a remanufactured one in. I want the car to last me another 10 years.
It had a few rough starts with one instance, it didn't want to hold idle speed and died.
Now I figured it's nothing internal since I'm not burning any fluids, and i'm not losing power so the cylinder head is good. I figure the glitch in the matrix lies in the ignition system, either the crank position sensor, the ignition coils and a fresh set of spark plug wires couldn't hurt. Can't be the plugs because i put new ones in 10,000 miles ago and they where gapped correctly (the old one's looked good on top of that).
I mean this engine is not hard to figure out:

Here's a lego analogy of a normal engine on any ordinary car:



This is the Beretta base engine:

LOL

My car doesn't have a cut-off but I hear that valve float, plus small profile cam, makes going over 6500RPM useless. Once I get a new cam and upgrade the springs than I will shoot for more RPM. I'll find out soon enough if this is even possible on an auto and with an un-tuneable ECU.

I would look into cleaning out the throttle body. They can benefit from a good cleaning every 6 months, plus a spray of lubricant to make sure it's all moving properly

[Amateur]

^^^got that right, a high revving ohv makes no sense; awww cute....Look at that ohv that thinks it's a DOHC...

So I noticed that I'm in a trophy spot for the Chicago Region, running in 4th place overall in class for the season. Hopefully I can finish strong to keep it! If my car can pull it off, we're celebrating, Break out the Royal Purple!

[Koots]

^^^got that right, a high revving ohv makes no sense; awww cute....Look at that ohv that thinks it's a DOHC...

True, but I was reading about extra work I could do to my head and the thought of new valve guides, springs/retainer/etc, and +1mm valves. Apparently you can get away with them with that without much modification. Bigger valves, roller rockers, headwork, cam and compression bump (10:1) would make for one fierce 2.2, but you'd still be able to outrun it with your average 2.3 DOHC

I just like messing with the engine no one else wants too. See my K5 with a 6.2 diesel

So I noticed that I'm in a trophy spot for the Chicago Region, running in 4th place overall in class for the season. Hopefully I can finish strong to keep it! If my car can pull it off, we're celebrating, Break out the Royal Purple!

That is awesome! keep up the good work! Imagine what it would do with a hot quad-4 though

[Amateur]

So The whole motor dying at idle is over with. Turns out a fresh set of spark plug wires did the trick. On that though, My motor only runs rough in the mornings when I first turn it on. The culprit, Mr. headgasket. It's a slow leak of antifreeze to the cylinder chamber but all the signs are there. White exhaust smoke as it burns the antifreeze; Checked my spark plugs and there's a build up of light chalky stuff. Added to my to do list.

[Amateur]

Looks like some detonation happened that fragged cylinder 4 real good and annihilated the spark plug for it. Other than that, everything looks really good and surprisingly clean inside. The engine runs silky smooth despite explosionfest. Remember, these engines never die. This should hold me over until I drop in a better one later.