Engine swap

[jjmartin349571]

Cheers guys. I was thinking this over when I was in bed last night, I think best bet is to turn it over without the plugs in at some point. that way there's no compression so any water in there won't screw the crank shaft over. I think the only test though is actually going to be when she gets fired up the first time, until then I can only speculate!! As Linas said, I'm going to add some oil to each cylinder whilst the engine is standing, it should prevent any corrosion. The H22A has FRM liners though, and I've been told these don't corrode?? :huh:

 

[Doc]

There would be no need to disconnect the ignition coil, without the plugs in the engine a circuit's not created (the plugs earth on the engine block). The coil is permanently charged even when the key is just on ignition point 2 without the engine running so it wont be any different to normal. The engine wont be running it will just be turning on the starter motor for a few seconds.

If you're not getting the engine running soon then a few drops of oil in each cylinder would help limit any rust build up on the rings. But it might smoke a little the 1st time you start it.

 

[skhell]

There would be no need to disconnect the ignition coil, without the plugs in the engine a circuit's not created (the plugs earth on the engine block). The coil is permanently charged even when the key is just on ignition point 2 without the engine running so it wont be any different to normal. The engine wont be running it will just be turning on the starter motor for a few seconds.

The problem of having no circuit, the high charge created by the coil could "bounce" back and damage it. Even with out the engine not running, a very high voltage will be created. (I guess)

 

[luvmyaccord]

FRM liners are brilliant. Short of 'forged' items you can't really get much better.

But as the others have said mate, turn her over with no plugs, and see if any mist or water vapour comes out.

 

[jjmartin349571]

Right, current priority is to get the car rolling, so I can flatbed it up to my house in order to work on it daily. So today I started refitting the drive shafts (again!), and doing up the ball joints which I wasn't really looking forward too. They were spinning like anything last time I tried to do them up, however I was advised to wire brush the threads, apply some WD-40, and then do them up and undo them a few times whilst the steering knuckle is detached. Worked like a charm on the tie rod ends, and the lower ball joint on the left side was no problem once I used a jack to put the suspension under to load. I've done everything up to the proper torque settings, so should be good for now. However, there's always a problem :lol: the right hand lower ball joint thread is mashed where the cotter pin should thread through Can't remember how I did this, although I imagine it involved a fit of anger and a hammer whilst trying to undo the ball joints... So now I'm going to have to completely remove the right knuckle so I can change the ball joint. Will probably do the left side as well whilst I'm at it, seems pointless to do one. So close :lol: Still, was encouraging to see the correct amount of wheels on one side, after months of the car looking like a wreck. Will try and work on it more regularly from now on, if I get myself in gear I could probably pull this together soon and I'm dying to drive this car again!

 

[luvmyaccord]

Well that sucks!!!

I really wish you were closer to me so i could come over and give you a hand. But sounds like you're having fun playing with the car though, and after all, a project car should be nothing if not a laugh and a learning experiance.

 

[jjmartin349571]

Cheers mate, it is a shame you're not closer as it's always more fun working on a car with someone - it'd probably be a good laugh watching me systematically break things :lol: But yeah, part of the reason it's taking a while is because I've never done any of this before, so pretty much every job I do on this car involves learning something new :lol: The ESM is amazing though, it walks you through every job and has really bailed me out in places, and the forum is fantastic too as between everyone here we have quite a knowledge base

I really do think everyone should have a project car they can strip and rebuild, the skills I've learned will be great for maintaining my other cars and saving on garage costs. I'd never have touched anything to do with the steering knuckles before now, but I'd quite happily go and take apart and reassemble the ones on the Prelude or Golf now

Really looking forward to getting the Accord running again though at any rate, I've had so many ideas for how I want to take it forward after I've rebuilt it and it's really exciting!

 

[luvmyaccord]

Really do follow this thread with massive interest. It's always great to see someone doing things themselves, and learning along the way!!!

I've already got my eye on a Porsche 944 as a project, and i'm a little worried that i'll mess it up, so as i've said before, my full respect goes to you for doing this on your own!!!!!

 

[jjmartin349571]

I've already got my eye on a Porsche 944 as a project, and i'm a little worried that i'll mess it up, so as i've said before, my full respect goes to you for doing this on your own!!!!!

I'd say go for it mate! You've got 2 daily drivers so it's not like you'd have any rush to complete it, without that pressure it means you can just take your time and enjoy the work

Speaking of which, I started removing the steering knuckle tonight. Was nice and straight forward:

1 bolt to release the ABS sensor, some swearing and scraped knuckles in order to release the sensor from the knuckle. Then followed the wire up and remove 2 brackets each secured by one bolt in order to free the sensor and loom from the knuckle. Then undid the 2 bolts holding the brake line to the knuckle before removing the 2 bolts holding the brake calliper to the hub. Then I hung the brake calliper securely from the chassis removed the spindle nut (again) before undoing all 3 ball joints. I need to borrow a ball joint separator to get them off though completely though, so will try and sort that tomorrow. The lower ball joint was already undone from before however, so I had a bash at removing the drive shaft - the manual said I'd need to bang it out of the knuckle with a plastic hammer, however by grasping the knuckle and pushing the end of the driveshaft I got it out by hand :lol:

The fruit of my labour

At any rate I'm happy I understand how the control arms and steering knuckle go together and work now, another thing learnt. Just got to release the 2 remaining ball joints and I can get the knuckle to my mate's garage for him to press out the old joint and put a new one in. The new one turned up today from Euro Car Parts:

Not bad for £9.50!! at that price I'm tempted to replace the whole lot whilst I've got the chance seeing as the car is on 116,000 miles now. I'm quite tempted to remove the control arms and hammerite them too, tidy things up. Great service from Euro Car Parts by the way - I chose the free delivery, and it still turned up next day they've also got a 25% off selected parts promo currently, I looked up cam followers for my golf and it came in at about £37 which is a bargain for 8!!

Anyhow, really enjoying working on the car again my girlfriend just got a new job with a decent pay rise too, so we're moving to a house with a garage and drive in the next few months which should definitely spur the project on. Plus we'll be moving to the county we both work in so we won't be spending a fortune on commuting anymore, which means more to spend on the cars!! Roll on H22A goodness!! :lol:

 

[skhell]

Good to see the progress in the project.
Keep posting pictures, we like pictures

 

[luvmyaccord]

, some swearing and scraped knuckles in order to release the sensor from the knuckle.

This bit really made me laugh!!! Been there dude!

 

[jjmartin349571]

Went to release the upper ball joint today, long story short the tool I bought from Halfrauds wasn't up to scratch and now I need a new upper ball joint too Kind of my fault as well though, I should've seen it was going to happen with the design of the thing

On the plus side I roped my little bro into helping measure up the spoiler, got to say it's a pretty good fit, especially considering it's meant for a 4th gen Prelude! I quite like it, what do you guys think? It's not flush in the pics as the studs meant it sits above the boot by about a half inch, so try and imagine it flush and painted in the same colour :lol: Also try to ignore the dent on the rear wing, the handle of a wheelie bin did that

Got lots of other aesthetic ideas for the car, can't wait to start pulling everything together properly

First thing's first though - go back tomorrow and remove the upper control arm Will bring the walnut trim home for some experimenting though so not all chores

 

[luvmyaccord]

Good luck on the joints dude!!!!

The spoiler looks quite good. Are you leaving it white? :lol:

 

[jjmartin349571]

Cheers mate, I'm hoping it shouldn't be too much hassle to sort out, it's just more work than I wanted to do :lol:

Yeah will get it painted in the colour of my car, would look a bit weird in white lol - It's actually painted in aircraft primer at the moment

 

[jjmartin349571]

Was back working on the car's suspension today. I needed to remove the upper control arm, so first thing was to remove the damper. It was a nice simple job, I undid the damper fork so it was free from the lower control arm, then undid the 5 nuts on top of the arch. After that the damper could just be manoeuvred out from behind the steering knuckle.

This gives you access to the two bolts holding the upper control arm onto the chassis.

I removed the ABS sensor wire bracket from the control arm then took my breaker bar to them and they came out without any trouble, so I now had the steering knuckle out albeit still attached to the upper control arm plus a massive void in my wheel arch :lol:

A nice whack with a mallet and the upper ball joint came out the knuckle here you can see how much I mullered the ball joint thread using a ball joint tool

The tool wasn't deep enough to be centred on the thread and bent it... Oh well, could be worse I guess!

I'm dropping the knuckle off along with a new ball joint at my mate's garage tomorrow, so they'll get that swapped out for me sometime this week. I've found a whole new upper control arm for £35, so will be ordering that as it'll probably work out cheaper than a replacement ball joint and labour (even at mates rates!). Hopefully start putting it together shortly

Other main thing on the list is sorting out a passenger side engine mount, as the engine has sagged enough to damage the front mount now will be getting the stud from a Prelude side mount as a temporary measure, but will have to look at getting a custom mount fabbed up soon! After that it's bolting up the ancillaries then sorting out the wiring loom. Gradually getting there!

 

[jjmartin349571]

Fitted my powerflow exhaust today it's not perfect, but it only cost £25 so I'm not complaining :lol:

It's a little wonkey on the left currently as I have no hangers on that side, will get that sorted at some point. Think I need longer hangers too as it currently touches the bumper. Other than that though I really like it

 

[shab_the_man]

Looking sweet bro. Loving this thread. Do get a video up once its up and running.

 

[jjmartin349571]

Cheers Shabz Yeah I definitely will do once I finally get it running, really looking forward to hearing it fire up for the first time!!

I've put the front end back together, then gave the car a wash as it hasn't been cleaned in a year and a quarter or so. The amount of grime that came off that thing was unreal, it had really built up

A couple of photos:

Really love this car, and enjoying the work on it. Hope that feeling stays :lol: My job for tomorrow is to man up and fit the spoiler. I'm terrified of drilling the boot though, I only get one shot! Need to pull the dash and start fitting the new wiring loom too, another fun job Might have a bash at polishing the headlight lenses as well, they look horrible and cloudy currently.

 

[luvmyaccord]

Mate this thread is AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Many many many man points for doing all this work mate! You should be stupidly proud of what you've accomplished!

When are you thinking that the first start up of the car will be happning then?

 

[jjmartin349571]

Just realised I never replied to you Si :lol: Sorry mate! Not sure when I'm going to be firing her up sadly, as the rubbish weather and dark nights mean I haven't had a chance to work on her in some time now Me and the gf are hoping to move home over the next few months, to somewhere closer to my work (I do 30 miles each way every day currently) and with a big drive and internal garage so I can get back to work on the cars - it's just waiting for the right place to come up that's holding me back really. Plus having too many projects... The Accord needs the engine swap finished, the Golf needs the bodywork sorting and the bike carb build completing, the Prelude needs the suspension refurbed and I've been collecting all sorts of odd bits to fit to it Plus I have an Accord GSi on the way by the looks of things... I should probably focus on one thing at a time really, but I never do

Going back to my 6th gen - I've recently refitted the upper wishbone on the driver's side, and now any time the suspension is compressed on that corner it creaks, what have I done wrong?! :unsure: Does anyone know what might cause this? I did a bit of a bodge job when it came to poking the wire through the hole in the suspension turret to hold the wishbone in place as I did it up, could this have caused it?

 

[skhell]

Just realised I never replied to you Si :lol: Sorry mate! Not sure when I'm going to be firing her up sadly, as the rubbish weather and dark nights mean I haven't had a chance to work on her in some time now Me and the gf are hoping to move home over the next few months, to somewhere closer to my work (I do 30 miles each way every day currently) and with a big drive and internal garage so I can get back to work on the cars - it's just waiting for the right place to come up that's holding me back really. Plus having too many projects... The Accord needs the engine swap finished, the Golf needs the bodywork sorting and the bike carb build completing, the Prelude needs the suspension refurbed and I've been collecting all sorts of odd bits to fit to it Plus I have an Accord GSi on the way by the looks of things... I should probably focus on one thing at a time really, but I never do

Good to know the project is still alive

Going back to my 6th gen - I've recently refitted the upper wishbone on the driver's side, and now any time the suspension is compressed on that corner it creaks, what have I done wrong?! :unsure: Does anyone know what might cause this? I did a bit of a bodge job when it came to poking the wire through the hole in the suspension turret to hold the wishbone in place as I did it up, could this have caused it?

Two things might have gone wrong:
1 - Did you tighten the front upper arm with the car in its normal, position, with the wheel on the ground? You should tight those nuts/bolts with the suspension in the normal position, otherwise you will put extra stress on the bushings, making them to worn out sooner, and maybe make those noises...

2 - Did you use Honda parts or OEM replacement? If you did not used quality parts, you might have an inferior quality ball-joint, which could cause some creak. This actually happened to me on mine old Citroen AX when I replaced the balljoint. A few days after I replaced it, it started to creak a lot every time the suspension moved up or down h34r:

 

[93 accord]

You main focus is this car

Heard of a work light and a coat

Only joking, hope you get a opportunity to spanner this car soon, I personally would like to see it finished!

 

[Daveybee]

if i had joined the forum earlier i could have told you an easy way to get the top ball joint out.

here it is anyway:if you look at where the ball joint sits into the hole,theres 2 flat pieces which you take 2 heavy hammers ,1 in left hand and 1 in the right.
whack the 2 flat pieces at the same time and the ball joint will come out easy.
use a bit of oil too.

as another poster mentioned above ,dont get cheap replacement parts such as delphi ,they wont last 3 months,ive been there.

 

[jjmartin349571]

Well I've been at my new house since June, and rather than getting this sorted I have taken on other projects instead, and I have pretty much wasted the summer!! My bad. I'm slowly sorting my list of other cars though, basically I need to get my 6th gen Accord into the Garage but my Golf and 2 Preludes are in the way :lol: The Golf can be driven but it's trapped between 2 Preludes that need work. I'm slowly picking away at them, and as soon as everything drives I'll be bringing the 6th gen over

Anyway, I'm expecting delivery of my new engine this weekend. My current H22A is OBDI whereas my Accord is OBDII. This presents some major ball aches in all honesty. I was going to use pin outs to splice the looms, however luckily for me I've sourced a JDM H22A from a 5th Gen Prelude (I think :huh: ), which should be OBDII With an LSD gear box to boot this should be a much better contender for the Accord! I have a spare JDM ECU for a 5th gen 'lude as well, so hopefully this should be a bit more plug and play than H22A number 1

At any rate, I'm getting on with the ludes currently, but I'll get some pics of the new engine up once it arrives. I'm quite keen to actually check the gearbox code and figure out what car the engine is from too :lol:

 

[jewel]

loads of work going on here, hopefully the new engine will help! Looking forward to updates!

 

[shab_the_man]

Any updates Josh?

 

[jjmartin349571]

Any updates Josh?

No :lol:

Still waiting on my OBDII H22A engine to arrive, then got to flat bed the Accord over to my house. But before I can take delivery of the Accord, I need to sink a bit of cash into the Golf and 2 Preludes :lol: I'm actually drawing up a spreadsheet of costs so I can budget it out and forecast when things will be ready by as I write this post (the accountant in me coming out on a rainy Sunday :lol: ). As soon as the other cars are drivable I'll be getting my Accord over and in the garage. It's currently looking like December/January time, provided I have no unexpected expenses in the mean time. That's a big 'if' :lol: once it's here though I have a heated, carpeted workspace so I won't have any excuse for not getting things done

I genuinely really want to get back into this car though. The SE Exec is such a comfy car to live with, and very practical to boot. I'm looking forward to the day I won't be getting into a rough and ready VW every morning!

 

[93 accord]

I know how you feel, its more of Project fleet manager lol. In the end it come down to the fact that you dont have time to go to work :lol:

 

[shab_the_man]

Josh you have like the best car collection on the forum mate, plus your lifestyle is cool just working on cars 24/7. Just love it and if i'm ever down your end of the woods i'll be sure to pop in. However i'll make sure i bring my overalls so we can work on your cars