Raf99 : 1993 Accord EX

[Raf99]

Should be done... ( never understand how these should come out haha)


Go Hondoo




Done...


(New, old, hole. This is the bearing cap side). Had to think about this for a while. but I get it now.... "racing bearings".


Clean as a whistle...






Scraped off all of the old glue. Anyone have any ideas on how to pound the new one in without the tool ?


Ahh yes. this thing. I got the block from someone else back in the day. It was just a spare block that I could "work on". Prior owner hack-sawed the block for a turbo manifold.
Looked worse than this prior....it had hack-saw blade marks throughout...

[Raf99]

Do I need a tool to do this?






Still soaking, beating, torching these two bolts. Just need one of them out. Waiting for more T50 bits to arrive.

[Raf99]

Meh, I beat it in using a roll of duct tape.









Will touch up the paint and bob's your uncle.

[Raf99]

Sooo in the end my issue was a ring issue. When I tried to take the rings off the old pistons the top ring was stuck. Where the (assumed) detonation was happening it compressed the piston top down and the ring was stuck.
Quite the ... damage. I'm still not 100% sure what would cause this. IE: Maybe a meth kit would of prevented this with the mix / HP setup. Maybe it's normal for pushing 400+HP for 10 years. A/F was always in check as per the map.



Anywho... on with the show. This shot put a smile on the face when I first seen it.


We are doing new pistons, rings, wrist pins, clips, and rod bearings. First time, but it's super easy once you get use to putting the clips in.








Old

[SSMAccord]

Excellent progress. That old piston seems to be suffering from long term detonation.

[Raf99]

I know the tuner always said "anymore and we need meth". So I'm guessing he had ignition turned up and was maxing everything out already, I'm really not sure. May stop in to see him today.

[Rilas]

Raf that is definitely long term damage due to detonation. Due to the limitations of our ECU's and Honda's having shitty knock sensors in general. It's hard to tune them for knock as that may have been inaudible knock and was just enough to slowly damage the forged pistons in there. If they had been cast they definitely would have broken.

Aside from upgrade the car to an entirely different ECU platform and rewiring part of the car, there is this solution for knocking. I was looking at it years ago. But now with the supercharger and the water/meth setup I'm thinking about this again. Your post just brought it up that much faster.

This will detect knock and retard the timing and then automatically add it back slowly until it's back where it should be. This would have prevented your pistons from looking like they currently do and you might have netted another 10 years out of the motor. The cost isn't that bad either if I remember right.

http://www.jandssafeguard.com/NewUni...alVersion.html

[Raf99]

Ahhh it's a 3rd part knock sensor, cool. Thanks.

[Raf99]

Time consuming process, that's for sure. But fun to learn and do.

So the specs for the top two rings are 0.020 for turbo and 0.023 for "racing" turbo. The rings that were on the old pistons were 0.025. From what I've read and learned the more open the better, no harm done.
I only have a 0.025 and a 0.022 feeler gauge. So as long as the 0.022 fits without issues and 0.025 is snug... I should be good. I did the top rings last night and will re-check them all today. There's about 0.05 worth of material to remove from the rings.

[G. Wiffington]

Nice to see you pulled this apart. For the Rear Main, I always just use the older seal & flip it over & tap it in the same way you used the roll of duct tape.

What fuel were you using previously? Looks like some crazy detonation for sure, for the top of the piston to look like that. Maybe try backing down the timing in the map. I have found success with lower timing.

Nice measure on the rings. I did my tops 0.021 & bottoms 0.024 for my Evo Wiseco Pistons with the H22 Rods on the F22. The looser the better so when the rings expand they can't but ends which is the usual cause of broken ring lands.

[Raf99]

Nice to see you pulled this apart. For the Rear Main, I always just use the older seal & flip it over & tap it in the same way you used the roll of duct tape.

What fuel were you using previously? Looks like some crazy detonation for sure, for the top of the piston to look like that. Maybe try backing down the timing in the map. I have found success with lower timing.

Nice measure on the rings. I did my tops 0.021 & bottoms 0.024 for my Evo Wiseco Pistons with the H22 Rods on the F22. The looser the better so when the rings expand they can't but ends which is the usual cause of broken ring lands.

Thanks for checking in. Fuel was always 91/93 octane (supreme) and I know the tuner always noted I should get meth (cool things down). No idea how to tune yet, so "backing down the timing" means nothing to me. I have a basic idea... it's the ignition timing and you are moving it forward or back to burn longer / affect the TDC / spark blah blah. And I've seen tuners / videos where they try increasing the timing for more power and get no-where, so they drop it back down. I don't even know how to make more HP on the current hardware I have (which is sad haha). I always assumed you simply adjusting the "trim" ....... so ya at this point more reading required. And there's tons! of FAQ and knowledge bases / videos out there, I just haven't found the time.


Was trying this cheap piston installer tool. What a piece of garbage. Could not! get it to work. Tried multiple days, pistons, etc. Hangs up on the oil rings, which have more than enough space to get in there (0.015-). So i ordered a different one...

[Raf99]

This piece of garbage does not work.... grrr. Tried for days and different ways but nope....



Bought this. 1st try, no problem!

[Raf99]

Rod cap bolts torqued. Oil bridge / cradle bolts torqued.



Need a oil pickup gasket. Ordered.




Need ARP assembly lube. Ordered.

[Raf99]

Almost art. Turned out better than the last time I had it out....

[Raf99]

While I don't have the money for a whole skunk2 head setup (cams, springs, retainers, seats?) I am starting to think at the minimum I should throw in a set of supertech springs. The current springs are how old? Haha.. so are the other parts but they are solid pieces of steel.

What ya'all think?

PS - the head always had a "chatter" to it. But all looks fine. Lash in spec. Tred to show it in a prior video/ post. So
either cams or I dunno. Never affected performance.