Honda-86

[TheGoodGuy]

Project/b] Honda-86

Objective/b] Create a naturally aspirated, moderately modified street suspension with good to great handling Honda Prelude.

Project Scope/b] 2 years maybe less.

Introduction and discussion/b]

I have been meaning to start a thread about this car for some time now. For those of you who don't know I recently acquired a 98 Honda Prelude, 5 speed manual. I decided to turn this car into a light project car, far from the attention to detail as shared here while I did "Project Delilah." The idea here is not to get to attached since this isn't the platform I wish to do my second official detailed build on, its just a daily driver and a student car. As the name implies I am aiming to keep the spirit of this project similar to that of the GT-86, BRZ, RX-8, and S2000 (I do realize they are all RWD) where the focus isn't primarily on high horse power but great handling and all round fun drivers car. I intend on keeping the engine as stock as possible to keep cost down and also I feel it has sufficient torque and responsiveness for my goals. The H22A is a really nice reliable engine despite it's lack of love among most Honda enthusiast. IMO.

Background/b]

This car was purchased for $1700 US, it normally sells for $4000 US and while I felt I had gotten a steal at that time of purchase little did I know I would have my work cut out for me on a crazy enough busy schedule. As you will see after one thing it was the next and I felt the Mexican guy I bought it from probably had a good laugh at my expense. It's a love hate relationship. All work on this project has been done by myself and on occasion I seek help from one or two friends who are also knowledgeable in Honda's (My Antigua buddies. lol).

Goals/b]

1. Restore the engine to reliable stock condition (i.e. no leaks, idle issues etc.)

2. Clean the engine bay, no wire tucks as time does not permit but a very clean engine bay as best as I can.

3. Suspension work, it is a DD so I dk how much I am willing to sacrifice just yet for suspension, the car also has to be practical so its not gonna be slammed or hella flush.. but a decent compromise will be made.

4. Polish OEM rims, aiming for a clean stock look nothing that will break the bank

5. PLX OBDII gauge to monitor engine vitals, I am constantly concerned about all kinda stuff when on road trips, I would like to know whats going on with the engine health and also PLX allows me to keep everything neat and clean with everything in one tiny gauge.

6. Possibly a deep dish suede steering wheel, I would not normally advocate removing the stock steering wheel with air bags on a daily driver but the car was already in a wreck and has no air bags already. Since I prefer not to spend the money on re-installing the air bags.. I think a suede steering would be cool since I love the feel of suede.. this would include a cruise control relocation.

7. Replace some irreparable panels and try to get it resprayed in it current green color.

Let the Project Information and Build commence....

This is a photo of my car in its natural habitat... on jack stands!


Edit: Please excuse any light grammatical errors or typo's as I will not be too concerned with correct them, and most post will be typed and posted in one shot with little review.

[TheGoodGuy]

Okay... The story begins.

You buy an old Honda, not being fully aware of whether or not the H22 was an interference engine or not and sketchy maintenance records of the previous owner... what do you do? That's right, replace the timing belt and water pump.

That's exactly what I did, and after closing the timing belt area of the engine and starting the car, I decided to change the spark plugs and lead wires while at it. It was then I got my first surprise, moisture on the spark plugs, more specifically water. DAMN! It would later follow with a oil change, and upon further inspection a white milky appearance when checking the dip stick. Yeap, Head gasket was going/gone.. and at worst my cylinder head was probably warped.

Then commenced the removal of the cylinder head, and I was pissed...



I really didn't have time for this, and to make matters worst I was just in the engine changing the timing belt. It actually took me an entire semester to get some tools and proper time to remove the cylinder head and purchase the new gasket. I was already in 1700 US plus new timing belt ...ignition stuff. etc. I was broke and it was approaching winter.



My lazy attempt to not have to do the timing again, more less not having to remove the crank pulley again.

Luckily the head wasn't warped at all after inspection with a straight edge and flash light and a lot of hope. The problem was an aftermarket head gasket, which began to strip of its coating which I guess creates a seal. Closed back the engine a semester later and she was good to go... for now.

[TheGoodGuy]

Later pulling the codes, I realized the knock sensor was broken and I guess that resulted in pulled timing. I was too broke to afford a new knock sensor for 80 bucks there about. I drove the car for about a year later with the check engine light after replacing the head gasket. That eventually resulted in me destroying my catalytic converter I believe. It made a rattling sound, and I didn't care. lol... Shoot.. i'm a student, i'm suppose to have a shitty car.

More problems started cropping up, surging idle when cold. A strong vibration when in VTEC. WTF (F= Flipmode squard.. not the F bomb ).

Anyways...the time came to do some maintenance and I finally bought the knock sensor, new cat, and to address the surging idle, the forums stated to clean your idle control valve.

Don't have any pics for this but I bought:

[*]OEM Honda knock sensor

[*]Magnaflow catalytic converter, not sure what state I would end up and want to pass emissions so no test pipe.

[*]Carburetor cleaner to clean the ICV.

Reults:

[*]Check engine light was gone

[*]Loud rattling sound while driving and moving out was gone

[*]WTF... Idle surging got worst and even surged while the engine was hot.

Further research lead me to check on the fast idle thermo valve this time. Picture curtsy someones photo bucket and prelude zone respectively.

FITV


ICV


and after adjusting the FITV (can be found if googled) the idling settled down. But still surged within a lower RPM range. I replaced the ICV and still, the problem continued. I was stomped for a bit.

Did some research, common sense said vacuum leak, I dismissed it, forums suggested EGR ports or EGR valve may be clogged with carbon. Considered it, but looked like tomuch work, so I also dismissed it out of lazyness and continued to drive the car as is for a while.

[TheGoodGuy]

Little time after this.. I felt as if my clutch was slipping when hot. After a long drive the car would feel like an automatic with issues from a dead stop and then all of sudden gain back all its power. The gain back power and only when its hot part had me like hmm..maybe it isn't the clutch...but then again.. maybe it is.

Soo... I purchased a clutch.. OEM speck. I didn't want to venture into the ebay clutches and I wasn't keen on doing this twice.





It took way longer than I thought and with zero help. Lol... What a day. It finally got finished and I closed it back up, whilst removing the transmission I notice some of the bolts were just sitting there from the transmission to the block. In other words the threading was stripped. Sighs... not trying to be a drama queen.. but key bolts on this black had stripped threading. Two of the engine mounts to the block bolts, and now the transmission. Some bolts on the transmission was relocated in spots that was missing bolts all together.

The positive here is after reassembly, the car no longer vibrated in VTEC. It was supper smooth. I have yet to repair the threading, recently acquired a tap and die set, drill, and a few repair threading kits for the various sizes. That has been placed on the to do list. Although I may need to acquire a 90 degree drill adapter for tight spaces. Any work will be documented here.

[TheGoodGuy]

Sooo.... now that all of this has been done... lets recap:

[*]Head Gasket Issue resolved with approximately 180 PSI in each cylinder (Honda manual says 185 PSI not back at 180 PSI for 168 0000 miles and counting)

[*]Timing belt and water pump worries no longer a thought.

[*]Shack Shack sound under car... catalytic conver and knock sensor resolved.

[*]No more slipping clutch feel and no more vibration in VTEC.

[*]That leaves... surging idle, which developed into a random cylinder misfire.

So.. here we are, Random misfires, surging idle, and jerky ride at low speeds due to fluctuating idle. Not to mention having to turn off the car at drive through so I can be heard over the speaker system.

At this point, I am tired of being lazy... I ruled out the ignition system as the cause of the misfires bcuz just last year I replaced the plugs with NGK's, new NGK blue leads, and new generic rotor for the distributor. But I cross checked them anyways, while doing the compression (the red box = compression kit) to just rule them out as suspects.



I was leaning towards the misfire issue being between the injectors and the fuel filter. The surging idle I found out on that same day to be a leak in the gasket between the IM and cylinder head by spraying everywhere with around the IM with carb cleaner and then hearing a momentary deep in the idle when the fluid blocked the vacuum leak.

The realization that I would have to remove the IM anyways, and most of my current issues was centered around the IM, I decided to completely rebuild and clean the IM and injectors, also replacing the fuel filter with an OEM. The pictures follow.



Here we go...



This was after initial cleaning


The next day I decided to remove the port plugs for the EGR ports. On high mileage preludes these a prone to fill up with carbon and cause misfiring issues. Initially used a slide hammer to pull em out and then got fed up and used a nail remover on a hammer to do the rest.


Whilst outside cleaning the ports, my neighbor saw me and decided to come help to wash down the IM, it got even cleaner.. The solution was something he had, I can get the name but now I cant remember. It works pretty well. Initially I used brake cleaner to clean the aluminum and that works brilliantly well. lol


For the sake of comparison


This is what the OEM replacement port plugs look like. You just tap them back into place


This is the IM being re-installed with the new EGR port plugs and cleaned EGR valve. Notice how the rest of the engine bay looks miserable compared to the clean IM.


Before the IM installation I decided to rebuild the injectors. Their was this kit that I got on ebay with replacement seals and injector filter, each injector has its own filter, I did not know that till now.

This is the injector filter


Me rebuilding them


Even with the IM off the fuel filter was a pain to remove. With it on its impossible from the top. The IM was off and I only succeeded removing it from the bottom of the car using a socket extension and crows feet. I believe thats how it is described in the repair manual as well.

The crowsfeet, goes into the socket/extension.


The fuel coming out of the tank end of the fuel filter


I don't have a picture of the completed re-install, but to conclude the car idles with no misfires and smooth idle. When warm I am at about +-550 RPM. A far cry from the fluctuating idle of 1500 to 2500 RPM. I am not sure what resolved the misfires but it's between the EGR ports, fuel filter, and possibly clogged injector filters.

This brings everyone up to speed with the project. The rest of the post will consist of future developments. I now have a rear main seal leak and a front seal leak. I am going to have to replace them eventually. I also plan to reseal the bottom pan and the hug housing thing at the front thats part of the oil pump. I don't wish to mess with the bearings, so I am just gonna check if they are torqued to speck. The engine has no knocking issues and I figure... If it ain't broken don't fix it. Plus its a Honda. lol

[TheGoodGuy]

There has been a lot of lil seals etc. that has been changed from the beginning till now. To post about them would have been a bit exhausting. However, I will be keeping full detail on post from this point onward.

[berkey]

good work man

[scientist]

So..........neptune?

[manjidrift]

nice work man

[TheGoodGuy]

Neptune? lol.... You gonna make me google something thats probably gonna cost me money.