New member with an old JDM car.

[Kiwi303]

Hi Y'all

A few weeks back I picked up a cheap ($305) car with no WOF or Rego, needing some rust work and other repairs to bring it up to road legal status. Got the auction on Buy online and sell with NZ's #1 auction & classifieds site | Trade Me (http://www.trademe.co.nz) on Tuesday, thursday morning saw me on the roadside with a backpack and my thumb out hitching a ride down the 750km to nearly the far end of the island. By 2am Friday morning I was being dropped off outside an all-night truckers hotel in Dunedin and after a few hours sleep and a trip to the credit union I to a bus out to the suburbs and handed over a wad of cash.

That was my acquisition of a JDM model CA2 Accord. I drove that up home, illegally, with no WOF and an expired registration. Two weeks of on and off work with rust converter phospho stuff, bog, primer and paint and it was all ready to go to the local garage for a WOF. I spent less than a hundred on the rust repair, it was all surface stuff, and now I have a nice legal car with WOF and after a trip to town to the post office to pay up the fees, it's registered too.


So about the car.

CA2 Accord EX-S,
1985, First registered in Japan 1985, Registered as used import in 1994 in NZ.
5 NZ owners including me, the first NZ owner only shows as 1 month, so likely the importing dealer. then 13 years, 4 years, 7 months and me.
247,xxx Kms travelled.
4 door sedan with spoiler on the boot lid.
1.8 L twin side draft carb DOHC B18A engine.
Auto 'box.

The wheels are aftermarket rims, or at least i THINK they are. they're dual pattern 4x100 and 4x114.3, surely stock would only have the single pattern.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7379/8836244944_58f21d7ede_b.jpg

I just wanted a cheap car to get to and from a job, since I got back from working in China with no car back here home in New Zealand. but while I have it, I will be doing it up as and when I find the money and inclination. First up would be a set of new shocks, followed by suspension bushings and so on. I found the KYB part numbers in the suspension subforum already, which is why I joined, to be able to datamine the forum knowledge base.

Meanwhile I'm job hunting now I have transport.


Previously I have owned a '88 Prelude 2.0si 4WS. Blew it's head gasket and puked coolant from thrashing it round the hill roads.

[Dr_Snooz]

We've all limped cars home under dubious legal circumstances, but we don't go blabbing about it on the web! LOL

Welcome to the board!

[Kiwi303]

Blabbing about it on the web :D well that's the nice thing about a traffic misdemeanor vs a criminal felony under NZ law :D A misdemeanor is only punishable if they actually catch you in the commission of the act, so admitting you drove an unregistered and unwarranted car from the place of purchase to your home isn't criminally liable.

Cops reading about it might pay a bit more attention and pull you over to check the cars status if they know you and see you drive past, but they can't do anything about what has already happened. :D If they had caught me in the act, well, BIG fines and licence demerit points. All life is a calculated risk, eat that yummy cream doughnut and have a coronary, or that healthy bran muffin and drool in a wheelchair for another 20 odd years of senility.

On the other hand, blabbing about murder, theft, rape or other felonies IS retroactively arrestable. Blab about dropping some poor schmuck over the side of the boat with concrete boots on and a cop reads it, then before you know it someones at the door with a set of handcuffs with your name on them.

How does it stand under US law?



Thanks for the welcome :D

[Dr_Snooz]

How does it stand under US law?

Well, I'm no lawyer, but basically if the cop gets ahold of you, he does whatever he wants to you, then plants something on you and drags you off to jail forever.

[AccordB20A]

saw your post on NZHondas. will be a good little runabout once completed.

[Kiwi303]

Yep, it's a pretty decent tarseal road runabout now I've hit the rust and WOFed it, but driving up the gravel road to the house here it wallows, floats and sways. Dead giveaway signs of munted worn shocks. I hate to think how much longer the braking distance would be over new if those shocks can't keep wheel travel damped down and the wheel firm on the road...

[AccordB20A]

these things handle like boats anyways. even with new shocks the rear ends gunna be swaying around like no tomorrow. unless you replace ALL the bushings which is what im looking into

[Kiwi303]

And here I was thinking that double wishbone front AND rear was supposed to make them fairly good handlers :P

Bushings and all the rest will be on the list. the suspension forum here has much more info than NZHondas does, NZH is more interested in the more modern cars, CLs and the like, CAs are a little too old :D so, a specialist forum for OLD cars seems just the ticket :D

[AccordB20A]

yeah these are way different in their suspension to the other hondas. i may have a spare set of koni shocks for sale at some stage in the near future maybe.

[accord86hue]

I am happy to see another b18a accord, its so rare now even on this forum i think. In my hometown, i find only two 1986 carbed accords, mine and the other, but its usdm i think not jdm like mine.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

[AccordB20A]

i have a b18a sitting in the shed. but it has a b20a head and fuel injection (Y)

[Kiwi303]

Seems the B18a only came on the EX packages, EX, EX-S EX-i and the like, and they aren't as common as the LX and the rest.

I was thinking of swapping an EFI intake on and turboing it some day down the road after I get a more modern daily driver and the CA2 can become a toy car. But the B18a seems to be a unique intake manifold, wrong port spacings to swap B20 or A20 or the newer non-a B series motor intakes onto. So I guess it will stay stock even after I get a newer car.

[AccordB20A]

needa chuck a b20a head onto it to make it EFI

[Kiwi303]

With the fuss of swapping a head and running a EFI harness, it's just as easy to swap a EFI motor in. I've seen B16's on NZH for reasonable prices, I guess the sellers were dropping in B18CRs or H22s for a bit more power but a B16 VTEC is a power jump over a B18a, yet still low enough an increase to not pass the 20% increase that requires a cert. But Later down the road, a better base for a turbo build that would require a cert.

[AccordB20A]

you will needa cert cause of the engine mount kit you would need to fit such an engine

[Hauntd ca3]

better off doing the b20a head idea.
no cert required.
if you were cheeky, could whack in b20a crank and rods and end up with a b20 but still have the b18a stamp on the block.
no cert required,.
and the 160 hp b16a is more than the 20% increase in power.

[Kiwi303]

I didn't realise the New B series were THAT different from the Old -a B series, B18a and B20a, I knew there were differences, but not that they would have to have certed mounts.

Just what are the Old B and New B differences? I was thinking they would be like the Nissan L16/L18/L20 and the Z20/Z22 families, taller deck, cooling holes in the deck moved for different water jacket flow designs, but whens all said and done, pretty close exteriors. The Nissan L's and Z's use the same mounts, I thought the old and new Honda B's would also use the same mounts...


So much for that Idea. I know my Nissans, but I'm pretty clueless on Hondas. I'm a Nissan Fanboi, RB and SR any day :P through my 280ZX is prepped for a 302 Cleveland.