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A friend of mine has had this car for about the last 10 years up to September 2013, but he's not really enthusiastic about spending money or effort working on his car in general. He does the oil changes roughly on time, albeit always with Dino oil, and he stopped using premium gas probably 7 years ago. When the water pump went bad a few years ago I offered to do the job for him, but at the time he opted to skip replacing the tensioner, skip the balance shaft belt, though luckily he at least understood the critical nature of the timing belt. How I ended up buying it: When it went into limp mode ~last August we tried the shotgun troubleshooting method, starting with a fuel filter, then actually got the Helms guide and started some real troubleshooting. After pulling codes and extensive reading, followed by chasing connectors around the tightest engine bay I've ever worked in, it was determined the CKP/TDC sensor was bad. I laid it out for him what was required, essentially another timing belt job, and he decided he would simply trade it and accept the trade as offered. I made him the offer of $1500 as long as I could make payments, and it worked out in the end. Since then, I've replaced the bad sensor and timing belt, also of course the balance shaft belt that had 141,000 miles; I also replaced the auto tensioner, but I replaced it with the same type rather than the Kaizen Speed tensioner. While doing this, I skipped taking the camshafts out, skipped replacing the cam seals, skipped the cam plug, etc. even though I had all these pieces. I reassembled it, but the dipstick wasn't fully seated, and the single bolt that holds the dipstick in actually drove in between some metal bits. Because of the bad oil reading, I added too much oil and one of the many seals behind the timing cover broke loose and began to leak. I was leaving trails of oil droplets so thick Hansel and Gretel could've followed me, so now I had a project car I was ~$1200 into at that point and had to go back into it in order to use it at all. This is why my list of Honda parts I've already bought is super long and roughly $400, because if it can leak oil, I've already bought it and plan on replacing it. Pros: VTEC  Three tires are decent, one could stand to be replaced kind of soon. Alignment is good AC works well Sunroof is a plus. The catalytic converter was <1 year old when I bought it, as was the battery, and the starter had been replaced with a reman even more recently. The biggest pro of it all, I'm now as familiar with the H22 as I was with the SBC in my old '86 Suburban, and can work on it even in the dark (this is how I finished the timing belt years ago.) Cons: Auto. Apparently these autos are time bombs. AS I bought it, leaked from almost every part that can leak. The whole engine bay has a ~3mm coating of oil and road dust. It's got some dings, on both sides: one fender, the opposing quarter panel. The color is Crystal Blue Metallic, which is very hard to match. What I've done as of today: Stripped down the engine to get at the drat seals. Replaced cooling hoses and o-rings that adorn the connecting pipe across the back of the block. Cleaned and plastigaged the cam bearing surfaces. Pulled the EGR runner plugs, ran two cans of carb cleaner through the runners, replaced the plugs. Snapped off a bolt in the head and then had to remove the head to have the bolt drilled out. Disassembled the head after the drilling, cleaned up valves with grinder and brass wire wheel. Measured valves to see suitability for re-use: Exhaust are amazingly fit, intake are a little burned Pulled oil pump this week, can't get the drat front crank seal out of it. I keep having visions of pulling the hook pick into my thumb with much force and needing yet another tetanus shot. To do list: Need to replace all the intake valves and get new seats cut. Without guides, this will be roughly $325. With guides adds another $8/guide. When I asked the machine shop up front about cutting new seats for intake but not exhaust he basically said no. I think I offended him. Rear main seal needs replacing, and I have it, but I would prefer to get this roadworthy sooner rather than later. My DD needs maintenance which has been falling by the wayside as I dump money into this project. Front shocks/struts (?) are a little spongy. This is related to the rear main seal, as these also require both lower ball joints to be separated. I don't really know where this thread is going, but I did want to put it all down in one place. I wouldn't mind performance enhancements, but I really don't want to lump that in with this raft of maintenance. If I've missed anything I should also look into please let me know, I hope the wall of meandering text isn't too unwieldy. Edit: BTW, this is the main Youtube user who has really made me feel much more comfortable just diving into engines, and he's actually on a different platform, yet still his videos are just so information dense that you can't help but learn from him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYnUbm1mUj4 Oddhair fucked around with this message at 07:42 on Jul 12, 2014 |
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Jul 12, 2014 07:25
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You are brave. I can't imagine the amount of money I would have to be offered to bring a car like this into my life (On top of be given a car like this for free). I hope it ends up becoming beneficial to you.
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Jul 12, 2014 07:59
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I LOVE Jafro! Any chance you'll share pictures of your work? I'd be interested to see what you're doing
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Jul 13, 2014 02:13
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Of course I will post some pics! Sadly my phone (Galaxy S) is now 4 years old and its camera lens is scratched all up, so the quality ranges from fair to lovely. I also mostly work on this car by myself, so I don't end up taking pictures during any process. The EGR runners might have been interesting to document, it's unreal how much carbon just runs out of them with a little carb cleaner. I'll see what I have at this point and post them here a this evening. Edit: Budget Monty posted:You are brave. I can't imagine the amount of money I would have to be offered to bring a car like this into my life (On top of be given a car like this for free). I hope it ends up becoming beneficial to you. I saw this and meant to respond, not sure how I forgot. Thanks for the praise, but I'm probably more foolish. It's a bit of a risk, but I'm single and childless, and I don't need it day to day. It's much more risky for me to work on my own ride. Like when I replaced all the shocks and struts in my VW I had to take one side completely apart like three times before I realized if I wanted to keep the axle shafts in the hubs I really, really had to buy that little oval bit to spread the strut collar open just a little. $15 to metalnerd and LOTS of movements that ought to have hurt my back later the struts came out with axle shafts still torqued in place. This thing is kind of giving me cold feet. If I'm to be responsible, then there's no point in putting this head together with anything less than a whole new set of intake valves and seats cut fresh to fit them. That being said, my will to throw another $325-$450 just at the head is not very high. What if I gently caress up the head irreparably sometime after the valves and valve job are bought, but before I get to drive the drat thing? I can keep the valves, springs, retainers, keepers, etc. but I'm still out most of that last dollar figure in labor, especially if I need guides as well. Oddhair fucked around with this message at 01:22 on Jul 19, 2014 |
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Jul 14, 2014 15:01
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Alright, sorry, work has been just insane and in the evening I'm a little out of motivation to keep doing stuff. Here are some of the scant few pics I've taken. The lovely overcast ones with the head in place and lots of open land behind the Prelude were from the old office, the sunnier pics or any without the head are from the new office. Wide shot of the 'lude, huge gently caress off dent in the fender:  Wide shot of both the rides. The VW has 102,000 miles, I do as much of my maintenance as I can, and I'm the original owner. The hope with having a second ride is that I can do my clutch without it possibly leaving my only ride down for several days, so I keep getting antsy about turning around and starting to put the Prelude back together.  Here's the heavily varnished guts; my friend used dino oil and paid someone else to change it most times. While I spent some time after taking possession of the car referring to his lax maintenance, it wasn't as lax as many people are with their cars. Oil got changed, seals and o-rings were just ignored until the oil cooler o-ring started leaking. The outside of the block and head I have no good images of exactly how dirty they were, but let's just say before I wipe with a rag, I scrape lightly with a long flathead screwdriver...  Here's the view behind the timing cover, it's not supposed to be oily yet somehow none of it got on either belt. I did clean it up some, but this is about where I got frightened. The goal was to replace the cam seals and cam cap, but when I started to do this work the timing belt was still in place. I thought I could turn the cam bolts and the timing belt would keep the cams stationary, but instead I skipped three teeth on the exhaust cam. With what I know now, none of the valves were in any danger with such a miniscule errant movement, but it still stymied my attempts to simply remove the pulleys and replace the seals plus the cam cap behind the VTEC spool valve. It was ~40ºF and windy, I wanted to finish, etc.  We moved office April 1, it was horrific. As part of my previous maintenance, I hadn't seated the dipstick well. To exacerbate this, the bolt seemed to drive in and give resistance, but wasn't in place. Later I checked the oil, but I knew I had only added 4 quarts, and a change is 4.8, so when it didn't read as having any on the dipstick, I figured I'd just add the remaining quart, which would put me at most 0.2 quarts over. Not sure exactly how this all progressed, but the engine started shaking and leaking oil from roughly the rear driver's side of the block. This is what prompted this much larger stack of maintenance activities, as the leak persisted no matter how much oil was in the engine, and it was bad. This shows the cams still in place, but with the caps out:  Later, while checking oil clearances with Plastigauge, I made a simple mental arithmetic error converting 19 Ft Lbs to Inch Lbs, ended up snapping off a cam cap bolt in the head. Now the head's out, the bolt's been drilled out, the oil pan and oil pump are off, valves and rocker arms are out of the head. It really needs a cleaning, new valves and valve seats for intake, and then to have all 16 valves lapped back in and the new seals installed. Valve guides seem tentatively good, though mainly I got lazy and didn't feel like spending an afternoon with the bore gauges and mics. Hopefully they're good, not looking forward to spending too much more money just getting this thing roadworthy. 
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Jul 19, 2014 01:03
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Good luck. I'm not a big fwd coupe guy but that generation Prelude is my second favorite Honda styling exercise after the NSX.
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Jul 19, 2014 01:51
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I'd go ahead and do the valve guides, personally. The H22 is prone to burning oil. Nice car though. Friend used to have a 2001 SH in the same color, nearly identical except for the manual transmission. He parked it around 130k when it started smoking like Cheech and Chong. I bugged him to sell it to me for a couple of years before he decided to give it to his dad. And you're right, paint matching is a complete bitch with that color. He wrecked his once, and the moment he got it back it was obvious what panels had been replaced/repainted.
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Jul 21, 2014 12:43
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Love these cars. My dad one for a very short time love the look of that gen of prelude
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Jul 21, 2014 16:31
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I think this probably the only example of a modern car that deliberately had "retro-80s" styling. It looks like a refined version of the 3rd Gen Prelude, not that I am complaining because like all Hondas from the late-80s to early 90s it's an excellent looking car.
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Jul 21, 2014 22:45
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blk posted:Good luck. I'm not a big fwd coupe guy but that generation Prelude is my second favorite Honda styling exercise after the NSX. Englishman alone posted:Love these cars. My dad one for a very short time love the look of that gen of prelude animeliker posted:I think this probably the only example of a modern car that deliberately had "retro-80s" styling. It looks like a refined version of the 3rd Gen Prelude, not that I am complaining because like all Hondas from the late-80s to early 90s it's an excellent looking car. some texas redneck posted:I'd go ahead and do the valve guides, personally. The H22 is prone to burning oil. Thanks a lot, everybody. I almost gave in to the urge to just put the old valves back in with new seals this weekend, but instead I ordered a set of Brian Crower BC3030 valves (intake only) so I can get the valve job. The old exhaust valves look much nicer than intake, though I'll still probably be lapping them in to freshen up the surface on the valves themselves, if the shop doesn't. While I will have all new seats, I'm still on the fence on the guides, mainly because I haven't done the thorough measuring I need to do to decide. I haven't done much else, just knocked new seals into the oil pump, it's ready to go back on. Edit: Oh poo poo it's party time. Head, old valves, new valves and new seals all dropped off. The machinist wants to assemble the head for me and do a leak down test, so I have to take him the springs and friends later. I was planning on assembling it myself, but honestly I won't complain too much about getting a head back ready to slap back on the block. I might have this running within the next 2-3 weeks, I'm so stoked! Also, I wasn't getting consistent results on my bore gauges, so I went ahead and asked for all new guides. They don't usually drive old ones out and new ones in, instead opting to drill the old ones out and insert sleeves, centered to the seat. When this thing goes back together I'm wanting it to have the best possible chances of going another 140,000 miles. 
Oddhair fucked around with this message at 03:07 on Aug 1, 2014 |
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Jul 28, 2014 03:38
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I went today to drop off the valve springs, and the shop had already cleaned the head up and ground the exhaust valves. I'll have it back next Friday, and even at this early stage it looks basically like a brand new head. (Edit: I can spell, reel gud.) Oddhair fucked around with this message at 23:50 on Dec 26, 2014 |
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Aug 2, 2014 10:41
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Is it just me or did everyone at one point when they were a small child (guess if your in your 20s that is) see one of these cars and immediatley want one? That body style was just so cool looking
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Aug 4, 2014 23:40
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AcidRonin posted:Is it just me or did everyone at one point when they were a small child (guess if your in your 20s that is) see one of these cars and immediatley want one? That body style was just so cool looking I'm 31 so the 91 was the pinnacle for me. Pop up headlights and a slanted front. Oh my.
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Aug 5, 2014 00:19
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AcidRonin posted:Is it just me or did everyone at one point when they were a small child (guess if your in your 20s that is) see one of these cars and immediatley want one? That body style was just so cool looking You aren't the only one. I've grown up to be more of a European car guy but I had a soft spot for this style of Prelude when I was 13 or so-I'm 26 now. I always thought this generation was one of the best looking Hondas. OP, glad you're fixing this one up-it sounds like it needs a ton of work but at least it isn't riced to hell on top of the neglect.
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Aug 5, 2014 00:57
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savesthedayrocks posted:I'm 31 so the 91 was the pinnacle for me. Pop up headlights and a slanted front. Oh my. Ugh no. Personal opinion but yeah these body style Preludes were the bees knees. If it was RWD it would have been an E30-killer. And probably a 240-killer.
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Aug 5, 2014 01:08
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zundfolge posted:You aren't the only one. I've grown up to be more of a European car guy but I had a soft spot for this style of Prelude when I was 13 or so-I'm 26 now. I always thought this generation was one of the best looking Hondas. OP, glad you're fixing this one up-it sounds like it needs a ton of work but at least it isn't riced to hell on top of the neglect. It didn't need the ton of work, not really, though some was essential. If I hadn't over-oiled it slightly, it was running and working, but with a couple of slow leaks I really should have fixed while I was in there. Over the weekend I didn't feel like messing with it, but I started on a checklist of what I can do before I get the head back versus after the head is in my hands. Holy poo poo is it a long list, though mostly because I included torque specs and basic notes on which things have to come after other things. Much of this is from memory, though I also have the helms guide to refer to; needed to refer to half the chapters to get this info assembled: code:
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Aug 5, 2014 02:58
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Got my head back and boy does it look nice! Cleaned, machined and reassembled. $143 with free shipping for the valves, $370 for the cleaning, all new seats and guides and re-assembly. I was riding around with it on my passenger floorboard, but every time I looked over at it I started chortling like Jabba the Hutt, so I had to go drop it off with the car. 
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Aug 10, 2014 04:20
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I got to do some work on my machine today! I got all the rocker arms and lost motion assemblies installed, plus the oil pump after it got dark. (Note to self: never try installing the oil pump in the dark ever again!): 
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Aug 17, 2014 08:04
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I've always loved these cars. I almost bought one, but picked up an 05 S2000 instead.
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Aug 18, 2014 00:32
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AcidRonin posted:Is it just me or did everyone at one point when they were a small child (guess if your in your 20s that is) see one of these cars and immediatley want one? That body style was just so cool looking I'm 28, and still vividly remember sitting in one at NAIAS when they first came out and thinking it was the coolest car ever. It was a 5-speed SH model and I'm pretty sure my dad had to drag me out of it. The next couple years he pretty much had to do the same with an SVT Contour and Celica GT-S. Young me had awesome taste in cars.
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Aug 18, 2014 04:21
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I loved my Honda prelude (also a 2000) and cherished it until a woman driving an explorer ran a red light and t-boned me. Despite being hit on the drivers side at 45mph I walked away from the accident but the damage was too severe to revive the car. I still regularly check craigslist and ebay motors for a type-sh 5 speed.
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Aug 18, 2014 04:38
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I didn't get any more pics, but today I torqued the head onto the block, then I had to take a break, as it's beastly hot in Houston lately. If I had the heater hose I cut off when disassembling (and the other heater hose I'm going to need to order) then ostensibly I could have finished this weekend, hoping to wrap almost all of it up next weekend. I never got Tim Allen's comedy, but while affixing my shiny "new" cylinder head I was overcome with the urge to grunt and growl. I'll grab some more pics tomorrow, and see how much I can slap onto the engine during the week in preparation for having the last few pieces I need. Edit, love the juxtaposition of super clean and filthy (though not as much as I'd love a completely clean engine and bay):  After torquing this down I almost had heat stroke, I think, so I called it a day. Now it's almost 18:00 so I'll be back at it again. Oddhair fucked around with this message at 23:42 on Aug 18, 2014 |
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Aug 18, 2014 07:09
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There's a very real possibility I'll be driving the Prelude this weekend! I got the exhaust manifold bolted up to all of its connectors, the water pump is in place Currently I'm being stymied by an o-ring, one I know I bought. I have a receipt, but can't find the drat thing, and since it goes under the center cam cap it stops me from attaching the cams, the disty, the timing belt, etc. (We'll gloss over how its price doubled since the first purchase three months ago.)  Aside from that, it's just the molded heater hoses that I'm ordering from Honda today, but those weren't holding up as much work as that tiny o-ring. If they arrive Saturday, then I can drive it this weekend, assuming I do all the necessary work, of course.
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Aug 22, 2014 15:11
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Wow, just wanted to say you've done a great job so far. I love the look of the rear end on this generation Prelude.
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Aug 22, 2014 19:27
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Slow and Serious posted:Wow, just wanted to say you've done a great job so far. I love the look of the rear end on this generation Prelude. An acquaintance of mine was supposedly involved in the current Camaro refresh. I joked that the new taillights look like they came off a Prelude. She was not impressed.
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Aug 27, 2014 00:19
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Slow and Serious posted:Wow, just wanted to say you've done a great job so far. I love the look of the rear end on this generation Prelude. Thanks a lot, I didn't think to make a project thread until after I had almost all the pieces, so hopefully there will be a huge rush now, like the end of a Neal Stephenson novel. Especially since I just added the 'stop the presses' o-ring, and after work, weather permitting, I'm going to see how much stuff I can get done today. I'm expecting to at least get the cams nailed down, the disty, the tensioner assemblies, the oil pan, and possibly even the timing belt. SouthLAnd posted:An acquaintance of mine was supposedly involved in the current Camaro refresh. I joked that the new taillights look like they came off a Prelude. She was not impressed. I see these constantly, yet I had to go look it up. They really do look like they came off the Prelude, now I won't be able to un-see this. Edit:  I didn't get anywhere near enough done, but simultaneously I did get a fair amount of work done. Cams all bolted in, distributor attached (though somehow I misplaced one of the screws for the disty... not sure how that happened) Coil attached, one of the molded heater hoses is in place, and the tensioners for the timing and balance shaft belts are all set as well. After it got dark, I also spent some more indoor time with the Dremel and some wire wheels, blasting varnish off the inside of the intake runners. Oddhair fucked around with this message at 19:41 on Aug 28, 2014 |
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Aug 27, 2014 21:18
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I've been lazy as poo poo, but today that's changing. I messed up at least one of the cam seals' lips, and since they sat installed with kinked lips for so long I both can't pull them out, nor do I trust them. Got replacements, but I have to uninstall both sets of cam caps fully, since they're held down collectively by those big flat oil carrying plates. I hate backtracking, but it's only like one rather broad step backwards. I will get pics, new phone takes much better pics than my old phone.
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Sep 20, 2014 12:51
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I am a fan of every generation of Prelude. I am 39 now, but I can remember the 4th gen being my favorite. When the 5th gen came out I saw pictures and initially did not like it. The look grew on me and I eventually owned a 97 non-sh for 5 years and absolutely loved it. A 6 speed would have made it perfect as it always felt like the engine was screaming at highway speeds (even though it could take it). Lately I've been thinking I want another, maybe a 3rd gen since I always thought they looked like little Italian sports cars. I have some Tanabe Sustec springs in my garage that lower the car by 1". If you're interested I would sell them cheap. I think I also have some brake pads that never got installed.
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Sep 20, 2014 22:24
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Third Generation 90-91 are the best, and best looking and can be tuned to amazing levels. Swooped hood, forward leaning engine, low and wide, clean lines. And the bubble canopy w/ 360 vision; it shared the same canopy design with the NSX. You're aware of everything visually. Can't say the same for other gens. Shoooot, it's why I've owned four of them over the years. Handles better than almost every car I've driven. Saucy Slit fucked around with this message at 23:18 on Oct 11, 2014 |
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Oct 11, 2014 23:16
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I love the 5th gen ones. All that unmolested sheet metal on the sides during a period where lots of cars had annoying bump strips and cladding. Its a lovely car that holds up even today.
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Oct 12, 2014 06:36
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Saucy Slit posted:And the bubble canopy w/ 360 vision; it shared the same canopy design with the NSX. You're aware of everything visually. Can't say the same for other gens. Very true, as were most early 90's Hondas. The 5th gen has a low hood and huge windshield but big blind spots from the c pillars. I'd like another 5th gen but it's hard to find one that doesn't burn oil since the h22a1 had weak cylinder walls. Mine was burning a quart/1k miles at 120k on the odo.
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Oct 12, 2014 13:59
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I haven't been working on the 'lude, mainly out of end-project fear, fears like "what if I have to take it all apart again", etc. All that changed with the spate of good weather last weekend and the fact that my boss bought a 1980 Commutacar:  He also bought like $1000 worth of deep cycle marine batteries, but I didn't get pictures of the awesome battery connects. On my car, I finally got the timing belt on last Sunday, and then today I got a bunch more stuff finished: • Timing belt and balance shaft belt completed, crank pulley not yet torqued down yet. • Lower and middle timing covers. • Got the oil pan on finally, it's a lot of effort! • Re-attached the exhaust pipe to the header, the block, but not the catalytic converter just yet. If I try, I could have this thing going this weekend, that could be fun.
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Dec 6, 2014 03:47
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Alright, sorry for a lack of updates, but this thing has suddenly gotten really exciting: After the timing belt and its assorted pieces, I only really needed the rocker arm cover in place to have the engine sealed up for oil. The only challenge was adjusting the rocker arm-to-valve clearance, something I viewed as a mere footnote, though a necessary one. Come time to actually do this work, I learn that the valve adjustment screws and their jam nuts become glued together with gum over time. When I loosened them prior to cam removal, I simply loosened the nuts and they in turn loosened the screws. So I got stuck trying to get these screws to turn within their nuts, with only a flathead screw head to deliver torque. Along the way I learned I could back the screws all the way up and they'd bind against the rocker arm, and all the jam nuts were worked loose. Upon trying to turn some of the screws I learned my mistake: I still couldn't deliver any torque via flathead screw head, so a few of the screws were jammed tight. One of the exhaust valve adjusters for #4 was especially stuck, so I thought I'd use another jam nut, twist the two against each other, and the screw couldn't help but turn. When I removed the jam nut from the farthest exhaust valve adjuster towards the passenger side, I dropped it down into the oil passage in that corner of the block...  Luckily I could tell by the shape of the head and block, as well as the rather spacious nature of the lower half of the H22 block, that the nut had landed in the oil pan, and would pose no threat to the block short of a rollover condition. I was about to post a thread over at PreludeOnline asking for help with these awful rocker arms, then I thought to call my local, gregarious machinist. Not only did he invite me right over to talk about my odd rocker arm troubles, he had a spare H22A4 head sitting idle in his shop, with no cams and all the rocker arms tied up and easy to get at. He gave me a spare couple of jam nuts and adjusting screws, and commented he doesn't usually have a spare H22 head. I took the spare nuts back and tried my jam nut idea, and it went swimmingly...except I landed in a Catch-22: I could jam the two nuts against each other, and then use the topmost to get the adjusting screw turning, but then the two jam nuts were slightly out of true, making the act of holding the lower nut stationary to loosen the top nut rather tough, I just couldn't get enough open wrench on that lower nut. I could back the screw out all the way to free the top nut, but that left me back in the position the second nut was supposed to ameliorate. Today I had an hour lunch and beautiful weather, so I jumped back onto the car, starting with the intake runners, since I was now contemplating removing the cam cps so I could lift the rocker arm high enough to really get a grip on the lower nut (and dreading needin to step back to the timing belt if anything got out of sync). Somehow I ended up futzing with the rocker arm and I got past this frustrating wall, loosening the only stuck screw left and also getting the jam nut back off without dropping it! I followed up by adjusting the valve clearance on all four cylinders but I ran out of time to affix the rocker arm cover. It turns out I also left the fuel rail below the intake runners, so I'd have needed to backtrack on those tasks anyway. After work, I RTVed the rocker arm cover in place, torqued its nuts and the spark plug wire cover's bolts into place (after the plug wires, of course) and attached the two wires to the alternator, those ones that run over the rocker arm cover. Based on all this effort and typing, I'm proud to say this: The Prelude's engine is sealed and ready for oil.  Now it's just a matter of a few little details: adding oil of course, buttoning up the exhaust, attaching the intake and all its various components, re-attaching the center brace for the engine, torquing the crank pulley down, then tightening the belt-driven stuff. Once the intake is in, there are several tiny coolant hoses that need replacing (and I have them) and once I can crank it over I can refill coolant, and then it oughta be driveable! Here's the images I have from after work: my improvised tool for holding the valve clearance adjusting screws while tightening the nuts, and then my engine top all buttoned up and waiting for enough time to elapse (for the RTV to cure) and then for me to add oil: http://imgur.com/a/oJmMQ Oddhair fucked around with this message at 05:53 on Dec 17, 2014 |
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Dec 17, 2014 04:37
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Next time you need to turn something threaded but you don't want to mangle the threads, take a spare nut and cut through one side of it (dremel or hacksaw), like a C. Then lock a vise grip on it and turn the threaded whatever. Basically gives the vise grip something to destroy besides your precious threads. Won't work for really nasty stuff like frozen manifold studs but for moderately stuck stuff like you're dealing with it works great. Fun project, like everyone else I've always liked those Preludes.
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Dec 17, 2014 20:07
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LloydDobler posted:Next time you need to turn something threaded but you don't want to mangle the threads, take a spare nut and cut through one side of it (dremel or hacksaw), like a C. Then lock a vise grip on it and turn the threaded whatever. Basically gives the vise grip something to destroy besides your precious threads. That is a really neat idea, I can see how it would work
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Dec 18, 2014 15:28
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LloydDobler posted:Next time you need to turn something threaded but you don't want to mangle the threads, take a spare nut and cut through one side of it (dremel or hacksaw), like a C. Then lock a vise grip on it and turn the threaded whatever. Basically gives the vise grip something to destroy besides your precious threads.  This is amazing.
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Dec 19, 2014 00:02
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LloydDobler posted:Next time you need to turn something threaded but you don't want to mangle the threads, take a spare nut and cut through one side of it (dremel or hacksaw), like a C. Then lock a vise grip on it and turn the threaded whatever. Basically gives the vise grip something to destroy besides your precious threads. That is a great tip, and while at the junkyard today I grabbed a couple of spare valve tappet adjuster jam nuts for future use. I don't think Also, today I spent like 7+ hours on the 'lude and while it's not finished, Prelude ran and I drove it around like madman, right up until it blew oil out of [I'm assuming] the VTEC solenoid when I tried to goose it into VTEC. I hadn't replaced the gasket between the solenoid plate and the rest of the VTEC spool valve assembly, I guess now I need to do that as well. Edit2: The coolant leak is really bothering me. It was near the center of the engine, on the back side of the block, but the most worrisome part is it leaked pretty rapidly while I was filling it, so not like a loose hose clamp. I'm a little worried I damaged the end of that aluminum connecting pipe that runs between the water pump and the thermostat housing. I replaced both the o-rings on this pipe, and even got a little pouch of that hose grease to make sure that it inserted smoothly at both ends. Also, the intake was completely out of the way when I put that pipe in, so I had very clear line of sight to where it should go. I was just driving it around getting a feel for the engine, used tiptronic to hold it in gear, then accelerated past 5000 RPM and it blipped into VTEC, an orange light popped on briefly near the upper left of the instrument cluster, and it blipped back out of VTEC, whether because of engine management or because of me backing off the throttle right then. Oddhair fucked around with this message at 01:02 on Dec 26, 2014 |
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Dec 25, 2014 06:20
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Okay, I got it back up on ramps last night and it turns out there is no oil leak, I had left the thermostat bleed bolt loose, and some coolant sprayed up and out of it. What I though was an oil leak (in the dark) and attendant smoke was just coolant and steam. The leak is just the driver's side of that connecting pipe, I'm going to try removing/loosening the bolt that holds it in place and see if maybe it just needs to slide a little towards the water pump. It's got a new o-ring, and I used that hose grease on these o-rings, I'm pretty confident I didn't damage the pipe. So far every time I've started it it's run fine with no warning lights, and no oil has leaked out of it. I'm really hopeful that after this coolant leak is fixed I have a fully-operational spare car, it's really seeming that way. If I need to dive back in I'm pulling the axle shafts and repacking them, that half shaft is all up in my grille when I'm underneath it, and the tranny needs to be dropped and the rear main seal replaced. Also, front shocks seemed a little spongy once when I was driving it before all this recent work. Removing them and removing the axle shafts both have a fair bit of overlap. Well, off to beat the 100% chance of rain for Houston today!
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Dec 27, 2014 16:13
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Alright, I got the coolant leak fixed. Turns out the o-ring on the driver's side of that pipe got rolled back over the second lip on the pipe and then when I tightened it down it just sat all this time with a small kink that's now permanent. Sorry for no pictures, but I immediately slapped the good one from the thermo housing end of the pipe back in there with like half a packet of the hose grease. The kinked up one I put right back in as well on the other end, along with (tasteful) gobs of RTV in the o-ring groove to fill the gaps. Apparently my thermostat is/was sticking, when I drove it the top hose got all pressurized and the cap was cool, and the bottom hose was cool as well, while the coolant gauge soared. It seems to have gotten stuck in that feedback loop it starts in to heat up some coolant and equalize the engine temp. The thermostat can't be installed backwards due to the shape of the housing (though this would cause what I'm seeing, it's not physically feasible). In addition, when I remove the oil fill cap I get a really nice "lololololololololololo" exhaust warble and gust of blow-by gasses right out the rocker arm cover. I think my visions of an engine with too tight of a top end and no bottom end work at all being a blow-by machine were quite close. I must say, getting the coolant connecting pipe off the back of the block is a huge hassle on this engine/chassis combination. Many of the other cars that had B18s, F20s, H22s, H22As, H22A1s, etc. might have some room to maneuver (manouevre?) but on this chassis the intermediate drive shaft is about an inch from the back of the block and right in the best position to prevent you from delivering torque or directional force. For instance, once the hose clamp on the hose from the oil chiller to the connecting pipe is loose, pushing the hose off is very tough. I resorted to a screwdriver like 18" long to gradually press the opposing sides of the hose off the nipple, and then getting it back on required its own adjustments, including being required to pull the connecting pipe back out towards the passenger side due to the hose binding up on the end of the pipe. I'm going to scoop up a thermostat as soon as I can (been traveling for work) and swap it back in and re-bleed the system. It should run alright then, and I'm looking into catch cans to make sure I'm not burning a bunch of oil, what with all the blow-by. Oddhair fucked around with this message at 09:29 on Jan 8, 2015 |
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Jan 8, 2015 09:11
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Any idea what that light was? A common Honda mod way back in the day was to run a wire from the VTEC solenoid circuit to a bulb, and insert the bulb into an unused indicator spot on the cluster; the light would come on as soon as VTEC engaged. It sounds like that's what you're seeing; they used the same cluster (aside from the speedometer) pretty much worldwide, so there's indicators on the dash that aren't used in any USDM model (and don't have a bulb inserted). Actually, the missing indicators are common on any car sold in more than one market; my Altima, for example, had an indicator on the dash for the rear window defroster, which wasn't used in the USDM models (except for the 1st generation). I did try putting a bulb in it for shits and giggles, but it didn't do anything. And my Saturn has an upshift indicator on the dash that only appeared on the USDM M/T models; the Canadian models didn't get it (and AFAIK, Saturn was only sold in North America). The later H22 is pretty notorious for eating rings, which causes plenty of blowby and oil burning. Same reason a friend parked his 00 or 01 Type SH for a couple of years. I got to drive it plenty long before then, usually while he was out of town (he'd have me house-sit his place, and toss me the keys to the car and just tell me not to break it). It started burning oil pretty badly around 100k. New rings and a cylinder hone fix it, but I'm not sure why they turn into Exxon Valdez McSmokey so easily compared to other Hondas.
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Jan 8, 2015 09:44
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