This is where we showcase our builds here at Famspec (formerly blacklistedcrv.com) including our 2003 Manual CRV Turbo Build and our 2004 Honda Element Manual Supercharged Build and Both the ASPEC and AWD RSX drag car builds.
Comeback for more!
My (Matt's) 2003 CRV 5 speed Project.
Right now I mostly only have videos but I will give you the breakdown.
The plan:
10 second street tire, full interior CRV.
K24A1 Sleeved block with Manley rods and Wiseco pistons 11:0:1
k20z1 Ported head, Fererra 600 valves, Titanium Valve springs and retainers Drag cartel 3.2 cams
Borg warner EFR series Turbo on MRP manifold.
Translab built AWD transmission, 6th gear cuff, Gear X gearset, final drive and transfer case parts.
Drag Cartel Billet T-case. Driveshaft shop front and rear axles plus custom driveshaft.
Gear X rear LSD, Famspec Performance racing clutch packs and experimental upgraded dual pump system.
more to come.
Youtube Here: Famspec Performance
First picture is the CRV on Godspeed lowering springs with Stoptech Brakes and 18" Volk wheels. Other pictures are on 18 12+ SI HPF wheels and the factory fender flares I plan to install this winter.
UPDATE 9/20/23
Got tired of it sitting in the shop and putting miles on my Nismo 370Z so I fixed the engine issues it had. The VTC gear was stuck and it needed new timing components. I went ahead and send the flares to my friend Elmer to get painted and went to the wrecking yard and pulled all the plastic trim to get color matched at the same time. I have purchased the new wheels, Installed Coil overs, camber correction parts, Powerflex control arm bushings, new ball joints, tie rods and ends and had it aligned. Once the parts get back from painting I will be doing the flares and wheels and re installing the big brake kit.
I am also starting to address the issue of weight and come up with a plan to shed about 500lbs.
2005 Honda Element Manual Supercharged:
In 2021 My good friend (at the time) Marcus and I were sorting out the parts needed for an AWD RSX build. He sent me a link to a cheap manual Honda Element that had some issues and was the victim of catalytic converter theft in Portland Oregon. We decided to to go take a look at it and there was basically nothing redeeming about it. It had a 2nd and 3rd gear grind, a broken driveshaft, a cut catalytic converter, the front suspension was so far gone that is clunked and creaked if it ran over a marshmallow and it had a CEL for a bad knock sensor. But, the price was right so we decided to snap it up with the intention of parting it out.
After sitting for a few months Marcus's son needed a car to drive for a while and was interested in the Element so we thought hey why not, nice safe vehicle for a teenager. So we replaced... well everything suspension wise and got it an alignment. But, A teenagers attention sure does change fast and he decided he wanted his heap of shit Dodge back because it was "socially acceptable" and that was the end of that and she went back on the shelf waiting for the inevitable.
Things changed when we happened upon a 2007 SC with full interior and some other goodies in a wrecking yard an a plan began to form. Why not build the Element to help promote Famspec products and make it the sister build to the CRV. We already had a 07 TSX engine with a Jackson Racing Supercharger (JRSC) sitting around that was going to go into the CRV just for fun until the turbo stuff was ready.
Anyone know knows me (Matt) knows that when I take interest in a project I tend to go a bit overboard. After a while I became the only one interested in the project so I took it as my own and that is when it all spiraled semi out of control. It was not enough to just swap the interior.. I also wanted to make it all work properly, Sound deaden everything, Amp every speaker, Put in an upgraded sub but in the factory housing, and customize everything. Oh, and it must all work like factory. Sounds easy right? Well try putting an 08 SC Interior into an 05 base. You would think it would all just go in right? Well lets list the issues:
- SC Ebrake assembly and cables do not work with the AWD trailing arms
- Non SC vehicles do not have the mounting places for the SC console or the Ebrake assembly
- SC seats have the seatbelts in the seat not in the door like the 05 so the wiring needs to be re-routed
- SRS wiring is totally different
- SC seats Have passenger sensors, heated seats, and side airbags
- The SC had been in an accident so the SRS in the belts had to be rebuilt to work properly.
- Because the SC seats have the seatbelts in the seats and the seats are considerably heavier the seat mounting positions needed to be reinforced
- Clips for interior panels are in different spots in a few places
- If you are missing any pieces (center console lid) you are going to pass through the ass to get a new one.
- The center console is like 20 pieces and trying to get it to sit properly and not vibrate after making your own mounts is not fun.
- It takes an ass-ton of sound deadening to cover the floor and the doors and insulate everything.
- When using the SC seats, there is no longer any room under the seats to mount an amplifier let alone the 3 I want to install.
- The parts that are "black" are not so much black as they are a dark dark dark grey and no black paint actually matches..
- And every bolt and screw and bracket in my Element was rusty or corroded and had to be wire brushed and coated with something or replaced. (but no rust on chassis itself? TF?)
SO yeah... it was a bit of a chore just to get the interior in and all the electronics for the interior to work and I still have yet to sort out my steering wheel. Am I trying to make my Element an SC? No, I am just not a fan of the Spartan non SC interior in Honda Elements. Had we not come upon a full interior I would never have gone this far.
Engine swap and performance upgrades.
As I mentioned before I was going to put a 07 TSX engine with an Extra JRSC we had laying around and let me clarify on that. The Silver 02 ASpec RSX Marcus bought had almost 200K on the clock and the Supercharger needed to be rebuilt. We opted for an upgrade for an Magnum Powers MPX upgrade on another JRSC we had that had lower miles.
So the intention was to just rebuild the snout and slap the supercharger on.. But me being me that did not happen. I started by porting the housing, inlet and throttle body respectively and re-polishing the inside. The next step was to have the rotors re-coated (Teflon) and then have Magnum Powers Superchargers rebuild and assemble the whole unit and upgrade to a MercRacing 3.2 Pulley to up the boost from 7 PSI to 9 PSI with a TSX crank pulley for an easy 300 WHP. Why not more? because the harder you push a supercharger the more heat soak you have to deal with. I could have added an aftercooler sure but its a street Element and what good would a gob of un-reliable heat soaked power do for me. When it came to the tensioner there is really only one good one the market right now and that is the Mercracing one BUT, it doesn't allow you to run PS in the factory location and whatnot so it really was not an option. So I had the Jackson Racing one rebuilt with Smooth Flow Pulleys Billet pulleys and upgraded bearings. The JRSC pully is a totally bitch, and making changing the belt in the car a total bitch so to help with that and because when you are putting a bastard setup together and you have to find the right belt size I got replacement accessories.. All of them, Alternator, AC compressor, water Pump, and power steering pump and it took me ordering about six different belts on Amazon before I found the right size. You have to make sure you have enough room to allow to belt stretch that can be taken out by tightening the tensioner. You have to find that perfect length to allow for that.
Not much was done to the engine, I removed the valve cover and the pan to check everything, Replaced the plugs with one range colder plugs and replaced the timing chain tensioner with a new factory unit just to make sure. I also took off the head strainer and the Vtec Solenoid and cleaned them out and replaced the gaskets. Because the Supercharger came off an 02-04 RSX and the TSX engine uses and RBC style intake manifold that has the coolant passage as part of the intake manifold I was required to use an "RBC" adapter and I went with TracTuff because he makes solutions for things like this and they are of the BEST quality. A few other things were required, I had to use a CRV water pipe because the element one would not work and The wiring harness had to me modified to support the Injector Dynamics Injector plugs, plus because I was using an RSX throttle body the location of some of the plugs changed. I re-routed the harness, and wrapped it in a few spots to make it look cleaner and out of the way.
The fuel system was a simple affair. Part of the reason I went with 300HP goal was because I would not have to modify the fuel system by much. I could have used smaller injectors and the stock rail but chose to use an aftermarket rail and make my own feed line. I used a Kmotor Line adapter and a Ktuned fuel filter for extra protection. There is no return line for right now as I intend to use the factory fuel pressure regulator that is in the pump itself. There is a fuel pressure gauge on the rail to make sure I am getting proper pressure.
Engine management was a bit of a slope for me. My CRV runs Kpro V3... and in my genius I assumed the Element would be no different. So I went ahead and slapped a Kpro in there on a 02 RSX ECU and.... it doesn't work.. Hmm... try some more.. different map.. and... Nadda...
Curious.. did some research and it turns out... That the Element has a totally different ECU, Pinout, and electronics than a standard CRV or RSX... it uses 05 style wiring, but also needs the ECU internals to be modified to work with the Honda Element. Contacted Hondata.. they are out of stock on adapters.. Poop.
Came across another solution, An Element ECU modified with Ktuner would work. No adapter and the ECU will actually bolt in as the tabs on the Element ECU are different from an RSX ECU so there is no way to mount it properly.
Problem.. They were 2 months out on these boards and now I'm stuck with an Element in my driveway I cannot start! yay... Update on this coming in November.
Transmission and Driveline:
Naturally I wanted to repair the grinding 3-4 problem on the transmission but decided I did not want to stop there. I had a blown up 6 speed RSX transmission so I swapped in the 6th gear assembly and found out that most videos about adding 6th gear on an Element were giving shitty advice. and this was a whole new rabbit hole I dived into. You have to have multiple parts for the transmission and the forks AND modify the 5 speed selector (not the shifter) so you can get into 6th and reverse. You can read more about this in our Honda AWD Mechanical Reference I also decided to modify a 06 SI factory LSD to fit into the AWD transmission as well for a bit more traction.
As for the rear diff the obvious choice was our Fastrac upgrade kit and our soon to be release upgraded clutches and relief switch.
Exterior:
The body and paint on this Element was crap.. Total ugly crap. I did manage to pull the rear bumper from the Honda Element SC I found at the wrecking yard and did find the body panels I needed to replace. I also got an aftermarket rear wing, Headlights and some other upgrades yet to be revealed. The Element will be painted during the winter of 2023.
Suspension:
Basically everything is new, its going to be on Lowering springs for a nicer ride. The wheels are going to be 18" but undecided yet. The axles and driveshaft are going to be upgraded by my friends at the Driveshaft Shop
Update 8/16/23
The Interior is almost complete with the audio setup and the SC interior. I opted for a factory wrapped Honda Pilot steering wheel as it uses the same airbag as the element but has a slightly smaller diameter as I find the Element steering wheel to be a bit too big. I wrapped the plastics in 3M high gloss carbon fiber to match the console wrap and finished off with a red H emblem. I also upgraded the whole stereo system, did full sound deadening, and modified the stereo inputs. There is now a 2TB hard drive to hold movies and videos as well as 2 ports in the center console, one for phone input and one just for charging. There is also an upgrade to the factory dash cig lighter that now has another USB charging along with a type C charger.
2008 Honda Element Turbo Project:
We purchased a blue, 2008 Honda Element 5 speed with a bad clutch off Facebook Marketplace for 2500 in 2023 that was dubbed a "rust bucket" by the owner. When I went to go look at it i noticed the rust was in odd places but not in the usual places like the control arm mounts and whatnot.
When I got it to the shop it sat for about 5 months before I finally decided to tear the engine out of it and see what the issue was and that was when i discovered that just about ever aspect of the suspension, brakes, and whatnot was rusted to total shit.