Here's my car when I picked it up back in early September. Overall it's a very complete car, but it was showing it's age i various ways.
On the outside, the windshield was cracked, the wheels and paint are oxidized pretty heavily, the power antenna was malfunctioning, and the body has various minor dents. On the interior, the carpets and upholstery are pretty dirty, the cupholder is broken, and two of the power windows don't operate properly. The original radio is still present and working, however only one speaker still operates correctly. A couple of the inside doorhandles are broken too.
Overall it's a complete functional car, if it weren't for the crank bolt snapping off and allowing the engine to become out of time. Before writing off the head to damage and removing it for inspection, I opted to replace the bolt, crank pulley, timing belts, and seals on that side of the motor to see if she would run correctly. My retired mechanic neighbor suggested it, and so do other old timers I've talked to so I went for it.
Here's a good pic of the crank pulley. You can see how the crank became out of time with the timing belt. The crank pulley probably walked itself off soon after the crank bolt snapped. You can also see all the oil that had seeped it's way out of the motor over the years. I knew I had to replace all of the seals.
When drilling out the other half of the crank bolt, before I could ream out that last little bit, the drill caught on it and came out with the bit.
After cleaning all the chips from the crank, I double checked that the threads were ok by putting in the new bolt. Smooth as butta.
One of the first things I noticed after that was that the throttle body was ridiculously dirty. It was douched with some kind of grease. It was probably what the PO used to ease installation of the intake tube. Which I guess his efforts were all for naught as the thing ended up cracking anyway.
Once that was settled, I moved up to the belt side of the motor. After getting all the belts/seals installed on that side of the motor, the car didn't want to idle correctly. Here was one of the problems. The FITV was clogged with all kinds of gook. But even after I replaced it, it still didn't want to run right. It had another slight problem at the exhaust manifold.
Judging by the carbon and dirt that was staining cylinder 4's exhaust outlet, I could tell there was a leak there. The telltale sign was 2 of the fasteners on that side were loose. So I removed the manifold in preparation of installing an A4 header and new exhaust system all the way to the tailpipe. Everything was just rusted to bits. *Correction: I believe this is the later A6 manifold; the A4 is tubular steel*
I ground down most of the casting marks and sharp edges before spraying it with some VHT high heat paint.
At this point, I'd already replaced all of the sparkplugs, the o-rings that go under the rocker assembly, set the valves to spec, and changed the oil. I replaced the battery and fired it up, yet it still didn't want to idle correctly even after trying my best to reset the base idle.
I did a compression test and was not happy with the results. Cylinders 1, 2, and 4 were good, but 3 registered a big fat 0 on my guage. Looks like I'll be taking the head off soon to investigate the problem. Here's where I'm at as of last night.
I still need to order a gasket set. I'm going to wait on that until I know what all I'll need. I'll probably just get a remanufactured head as the guy over here by me is really good, but he wants $270 to rebuild a head and they're cheaper shipped on ebay.
Inbetween all of the aforementioned things, I was working on other things for a change of pace when I got stumped by something or ran across a stuck fastener. Namely I replaced 3 of the 4 engine mounts as they were all shot. Not shown is the front dogbone.
Driver's side replaced:
Passenger's side replaced:
I also noticed some rust starting to rear its head on the "framerails" in the trunk, so I ran a wire wheel over those and sprayed them down with some rust neutralizer and black paint over that.
I found a little under the hood underneath the battery tray too, so this was treated the same way.
I also gave the wheels some love. You can't tell from the very first pic in this series, but the were CAKED with brake dust. I don't think the PO ever really cleaned inbetween the spokes, so it was really hard to get it all out. After cleaning, they looked like this.
I wetsanded them and followed up with rubbing compound on my drill with a Mother's ball attachment and they looked 100% better.
I also replaced the door handles that needed attention. The drivers side front and passenger side rear window track rubber pieces were removed, cleaned, lubed, and reinstalled. They work much better now as well.
I've replaced the front door speakers. When I went to investigate the rears, it looks like the PO soldered on the original Honda speaker connections to the new speakers, but he did so in such a way that the unsheathed copper wiring is way to close to the body openings metal edges, so I'm just going to redo it. I need to replace the CHMSL housing anyway as it melted a bit for some reason and won't hold the bulb housing in place.
On the outside, the windshield was cracked, the wheels and paint are oxidized pretty heavily, the power antenna was malfunctioning, and the body has various minor dents. On the interior, the carpets and upholstery are pretty dirty, the cupholder is broken, and two of the power windows don't operate properly. The original radio is still present and working, however only one speaker still operates correctly. A couple of the inside doorhandles are broken too.
Overall it's a complete functional car, if it weren't for the crank bolt snapping off and allowing the engine to become out of time. Before writing off the head to damage and removing it for inspection, I opted to replace the bolt, crank pulley, timing belts, and seals on that side of the motor to see if she would run correctly. My retired mechanic neighbor suggested it, and so do other old timers I've talked to so I went for it.
Here's a good pic of the crank pulley. You can see how the crank became out of time with the timing belt. The crank pulley probably walked itself off soon after the crank bolt snapped. You can also see all the oil that had seeped it's way out of the motor over the years. I knew I had to replace all of the seals.
When drilling out the other half of the crank bolt, before I could ream out that last little bit, the drill caught on it and came out with the bit.
After cleaning all the chips from the crank, I double checked that the threads were ok by putting in the new bolt. Smooth as butta.
One of the first things I noticed after that was that the throttle body was ridiculously dirty. It was douched with some kind of grease. It was probably what the PO used to ease installation of the intake tube. Which I guess his efforts were all for naught as the thing ended up cracking anyway.
Once that was settled, I moved up to the belt side of the motor. After getting all the belts/seals installed on that side of the motor, the car didn't want to idle correctly. Here was one of the problems. The FITV was clogged with all kinds of gook. But even after I replaced it, it still didn't want to run right. It had another slight problem at the exhaust manifold.
Judging by the carbon and dirt that was staining cylinder 4's exhaust outlet, I could tell there was a leak there. The telltale sign was 2 of the fasteners on that side were loose. So I removed the manifold in preparation of installing an A4 header and new exhaust system all the way to the tailpipe. Everything was just rusted to bits. *Correction: I believe this is the later A6 manifold; the A4 is tubular steel*
I ground down most of the casting marks and sharp edges before spraying it with some VHT high heat paint.
At this point, I'd already replaced all of the sparkplugs, the o-rings that go under the rocker assembly, set the valves to spec, and changed the oil. I replaced the battery and fired it up, yet it still didn't want to idle correctly even after trying my best to reset the base idle.
I did a compression test and was not happy with the results. Cylinders 1, 2, and 4 were good, but 3 registered a big fat 0 on my guage. Looks like I'll be taking the head off soon to investigate the problem. Here's where I'm at as of last night.
I still need to order a gasket set. I'm going to wait on that until I know what all I'll need. I'll probably just get a remanufactured head as the guy over here by me is really good, but he wants $270 to rebuild a head and they're cheaper shipped on ebay.
Inbetween all of the aforementioned things, I was working on other things for a change of pace when I got stumped by something or ran across a stuck fastener. Namely I replaced 3 of the 4 engine mounts as they were all shot. Not shown is the front dogbone.
Driver's side replaced:
Passenger's side replaced:
I also noticed some rust starting to rear its head on the "framerails" in the trunk, so I ran a wire wheel over those and sprayed them down with some rust neutralizer and black paint over that.
I found a little under the hood underneath the battery tray too, so this was treated the same way.
I also gave the wheels some love. You can't tell from the very first pic in this series, but the were CAKED with brake dust. I don't think the PO ever really cleaned inbetween the spokes, so it was really hard to get it all out. After cleaning, they looked like this.
I wetsanded them and followed up with rubbing compound on my drill with a Mother's ball attachment and they looked 100% better.
I also replaced the door handles that needed attention. The drivers side front and passenger side rear window track rubber pieces were removed, cleaned, lubed, and reinstalled. They work much better now as well.
I've replaced the front door speakers. When I went to investigate the rears, it looks like the PO soldered on the original Honda speaker connections to the new speakers, but he did so in such a way that the unsheathed copper wiring is way to close to the body openings metal edges, so I'm just going to redo it. I need to replace the CHMSL housing anyway as it melted a bit for some reason and won't hold the bulb housing in place.
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