is Tom Blaney's Honda parts website still around?

[tom91ita]

i was looking for ideas on making some brake ducts for my 1st gen si and i remembered that he had some decent ones for the later gen.

but everytime i try to go to the website i had saved, it comes back as a dead end,

is there another site or is he not active webwise anymore?

tia, tom

[raffaelli]

I was wondering the same thing. It seems to have stopped work sometime in the past week or so.

[Tom Blaney]

I'm still here, just going through the misery of converting to Optimum Online from a local DSL. I'm unable to receive email and the website is sporatic at best until next Friday. Thanks for the patience, and just give me a phone call at 845-258-4844 or you can try to send me email at [email protected] temporarly.

[tom91ita]

no rush since i was looking for ideas to translate to the 85 crx si.

i wasn't sure if the link i had saved was out of date and when i tried variations of it and searched, they came up with a similar response.

thanks for the update.

[ITC Racer]

I am also interested if someone finds something that can bolt or be easily modified to fit a first gen CRX.

I have also been wondering if we can get most of the bang of ducts running to the front of the car just by putting a 90 degree bend in a piece of more ridid metal tubing that pulls air from under the car. I understand we will lose the high pressure (think ram air) effect but will this get similar results??

[Tom Blaney]

To really have any effect on brake heat control, you really need to focus the airflow directly onto the rotor/caliper/center hub combination. It would be great if doing some basic sheet metal bending would be even a little effctive, but I don't think it will, especially how tight the area is in the fender well is between the tire wall and the frame/spring area.

The ducts require a lot of patience to make and it just wasn't worth the effort to do them for what you could charge, but if you want to spend the time and are a capable welder it is a doable project. I'll be glad to share some build tips with you if you care.

My website is back up and running and the email address should be working. If not send me an IM.

Tom Blaney
http://raceshop.sbmsinc.com
[email protected]

[ITC Racer]

I have run brake ducts and when I switched to wider tires this year, my already limited turning radius would be non-existant with how I was running the ducts. I did make sure they ended behind the strut (85 CRX) and pointed as close as possible (~1-2" away) from the center opening in the rotor.

I am wondering if I can take some 3" round tubing- was thinking like AEM intake tubing- that ends as close to the center of the rotor but bends at a 90 and perhaps is only 8" long. This could be positioned to draw air in from under the car and maybe eliminate my turning radius issue.

Would this be enough air to cool decently??

[Tom Blaney]

It won't get a lot of air because of the chin spoiler, but any little bit helps. The only caution I would have with it is that if you do an off, or start bouncing curbs it would be real easy to break it loose, and then your gifted with a black flag and or DNF.

If you have anyway to run the 3" hose near the holes in the radiator support (on the ITA CRX there were a few) you would at least have positive pressure and you could flatten the hose a little where it crosses under the front rail so you would have more gain with less risk of losing the pipe.