mward
10-08-2010, 12:13 PM
Hello everyone. I've been reading this forum for years, ever since I got my 1989 Honda Accord. I went through a bad spot in my life and the bank took my beloved Subaru back and a friend of mine gave me this car as she had a new one and was moving. The information on this forum is invaluable.
It's an A20A3 motored Accord LXI 2 dr, runs absolutely great, 30+ mpg, 260,000 and change on the odometer. It's a bit rough on the outside and inside. Passenger side window doesn't work, AC doesn't work, cruise doesn't work, the stereo was stolen at one point and the dash is missing a big chunk so my current stereo I kept in place by stuffing a trash bag in next to it. But she was FREE and runs awesome. I drive her to races all over the midwest almost every weekend.
The head was redone about 100k ago but the lower half is original, near as I can tell. It started leaking oil and changed the valve cover gasket and ignored the rest. Then it started barfing oil and I'm like WTF so I read all these threads and you guys say replace ... well, everything except stuff inside the engine, so I've started. I thought it was the front main leaking but turns out I'm pretty sure it's the oil pump. Seals and gaskets are on the way. Got everything apart and think (hope) I preserved the position of the crank and cam so I can just put it back together. It's at TDC right now. I'm pretty worried about getting everything back together okay. I've got big hands/arms and the cramped workspace is giving me fits. I feel like I'm doing brain surgery through someone's ear.
So far on the list of things to take care of:
Front main seal
Camshaft seal.
valve cover gasket
distributor o-ring
timing belt
tensioner
oil pump gaskets/seals
water pump
replace timing belt guides (the last guy who did the timing belt left the front one off). >:|
Any tips you guys can throw out would be greatly appreciated. Stuff along the lines of "Hey, don't forget to turn the deframulator 1/4 turn to the left when putting it back in or you'll be hating life" are the kinds of things I am looking for. I was a mechanic before I went to college 20 years ago... holy crap it doesn't seem that long - anyhow, so can get the job done but the little 'makes life easier' tweaks are appreciated. I'd love to get another 250k out of this car.
Thanks!
Marcus
I was going to attach a pic of the car but the board says I have to have 5 posts first, so I'll attach a pic in 5 posts.
It's an A20A3 motored Accord LXI 2 dr, runs absolutely great, 30+ mpg, 260,000 and change on the odometer. It's a bit rough on the outside and inside. Passenger side window doesn't work, AC doesn't work, cruise doesn't work, the stereo was stolen at one point and the dash is missing a big chunk so my current stereo I kept in place by stuffing a trash bag in next to it. But she was FREE and runs awesome. I drive her to races all over the midwest almost every weekend.
The head was redone about 100k ago but the lower half is original, near as I can tell. It started leaking oil and changed the valve cover gasket and ignored the rest. Then it started barfing oil and I'm like WTF so I read all these threads and you guys say replace ... well, everything except stuff inside the engine, so I've started. I thought it was the front main leaking but turns out I'm pretty sure it's the oil pump. Seals and gaskets are on the way. Got everything apart and think (hope) I preserved the position of the crank and cam so I can just put it back together. It's at TDC right now. I'm pretty worried about getting everything back together okay. I've got big hands/arms and the cramped workspace is giving me fits. I feel like I'm doing brain surgery through someone's ear.
So far on the list of things to take care of:
Front main seal
Camshaft seal.
valve cover gasket
distributor o-ring
timing belt
tensioner
oil pump gaskets/seals
water pump
replace timing belt guides (the last guy who did the timing belt left the front one off). >:|
Any tips you guys can throw out would be greatly appreciated. Stuff along the lines of "Hey, don't forget to turn the deframulator 1/4 turn to the left when putting it back in or you'll be hating life" are the kinds of things I am looking for. I was a mechanic before I went to college 20 years ago... holy crap it doesn't seem that long - anyhow, so can get the job done but the little 'makes life easier' tweaks are appreciated. I'd love to get another 250k out of this car.
Thanks!
Marcus
I was going to attach a pic of the car but the board says I have to have 5 posts first, so I'll attach a pic in 5 posts.