Conozo's Daily Driver Adventures

[Oldblueaccord]

Great updates!

I dont drive my car in the rain either I dont want to find out how bad it leaks!

[ShiRen]

Really funny, my rusty piece of crap does not leak at all.

Where's the water come from? Glass, cowl, sunroof?

[Oldblueaccord]

Mines got some holes in the back like where the jack is stored etc. I started noticing the jack was getting rusty and water in the spare tire well. The front the door seals seem to leak. there is a shot in my newest video. The water leaked down on the passenger side and one of the brake lines that run inside is rusty now.

[ShiRen]

I saw you had the carpet pulled back, I figured it was the cowl. My door seals are pretty torn up, but mostly the back edges. Wish I could get new ones. Pretty sure my car doesn't leak. There's some pin holes in the floor pan, but I'm pretty sure it's just a continuation of the rocker rust from road salt. I've never found any wet spots except when the doors don't fully shut. Trunk seems ok, but I try not to open it when it's wet or it'll dump water inside

Had a 99 accord as my first car and I noticed it was getting rusty under the windshield seal, haven't noticed any on this one, but I've seen a lot of Honda's with a lot of rot that you would only ever see if you took the windshield out though. Maybe it's from a bad replacement, but I think mines factory

[conozo]

Have a couple issues now that need dealt with. Leaking a lot of coolant and oil. Today i worked on it a bit and found that the coolant pipe connection to the back of the water pump is leaking there. The coolant pipe is in pretty bad shape, the donor car i got it from when doing to FI swap looked like it never had its coolant changed therefore it was all rusty in the coolant passageways. I want to get rid of this coolant pipe because even if i get a replacement i will have the issue again in a couple years. Looking for a permanent solution. My idea is to get a 35mm fitting to connect a radiator hose size and thread it into that area where the coolant pipe fits into.

2nd issue, longstanding issue for years. The massive oil leaks. I have a lot of blowby and crankcase pressure because the dipstick gets blown out if i insert it all the way. A couple years ago i did take the engine apart because i though it was stuck piston rings but when they were not stuck. I refreshed the head with new valve stem seals while i was in there. One thing i did not do was measure the piston ring on cylinder 3 which is a little low on the psi. Didn't know how to check the rings by measuring at the time. I am wondering if when my engine was "rebuilt" years ago piston #3 rings are not the same as the other pistons and therefore dont match what my cylinder bore is. Thats my guess, engine runs fine, has lots of power even though cyl #3 has 15 less psi than the others.
I will say that when i put that piston back in, i was able to do so without a ring compressor tool. Recently i tried to put a piston back in a lawnmower engine and i could not do it without that tool so i feel those rings are just too small therefore allowing blowby.

[ShiRen]

Oh god, yeah it should be nearly impossible to get the piston in without a compressor. I wonder if blowby would go down if you unplugged that cylinder

[conozo]

Car was down for about a week but its back up and running. Waited for parts and it was too cold for several days in a row, 15 to 20 degrees as a high.



-Removed the metal coolant pipe, scraped and sanded the outside with a fresh coat of paint. New o-ring installed.
-Replaced a few coolant lines that had pin holes in them or would have leaked if i put them back on.
-Removed one CV shaft to disassemble to replace a ripped boot. Repacked with new grease
-Removed the lower control arms to replace the bushings with poly bushings.
-Had front brake rotors resurfaced to get rid of pulsation, re-greased all slide pins
-Oil and filter change
-DIY string alignment

Definitely drives better with the new poly bushings. After replacing the rubber bushings 2 years ago and having them fail worse than the original 33 year old bushings, I am only using and recommending poly bushings from now on.

As for the coolant line, i wanted to replace with with a AN fitting and get rid of it completely as this will be the last time i can make a repair to it. I did consider buying a new coolant pipe from a newer accord and welding sections together so its the right shape. This will be a job to tackle when i fix the piston ring problem later when the engine is out of the car. I would like to get rid of some of the coolant lines, I'm not sure where they all go but there are some weird routes that seem to go in circles, not sure what the purpose of why its like this, I'm guessing to allow flow to the water pump even when the thermostat is closed. I'll have to look at how newer cars are setup.

[ShiRen]

I replaced my coolant pipe earlier this spring... I made the mistake of painting it with hammered metallic paint 😂 it always looks wet!

How old were the rubber bushings you replaced? I have the poly lca bushings but I didn't install them because the lcas were brand new. Wondering if it'd be worth putting them in especially since I race my car.

[Oldblueaccord]

Car was down for about a week but its back up and running. Waited for parts and it was too cold for several days in a row, 15 to 20 degrees as a high.



-Removed the metal coolant pipe, scraped and sanded the outside with a fresh coat of paint. New o-ring installed.
-Replaced a few coolant lines that had pin holes in them or would have leaked if i put them back on.
-Removed one CV shaft to disassemble to replace a ripped boot. Repacked with new grease
-Removed the lower control arms to replace the bushings with poly bushings.
-Had front brake rotors resurfaced to get rid of pulsation, re-greased all slide pins
-Oil and filter change
-DIY string alignment

Definitely drives better with the new poly bushings. After replacing the rubber bushings 2 years ago and having them fail worse than the original 33 year old bushings, I am only using and recommending poly bushings from now on.

As for the coolant line, i wanted to replace with with a AN fitting and get rid of it completely as this will be the last time i can make a repair to it. I did consider buying a new coolant pipe from a newer accord and welding sections together so its the right shape. This will be a job to tackle when i fix the piston ring problem later when the engine is out of the car. I would like to get rid of some of the coolant lines, I'm not sure where they all go but there are some weird routes that seem to go in circles, not sure what the purpose of why its like this, I'm guessing to allow flow to the water pump even when the thermostat is closed. I'll have to look at how newer cars are setup.

Yeah going forward the coolant pipe not available is going to be a problem if you want to keep an A20 going. Looks like you fixed it as best you could.

[conozo]

I was really just using the paint on the pipe to fill in some of the deeper pits so the hoses and orings would seal better.

The bushings were moog and made in Japan, about 2 years old. I'm guessing I got new old stock so the rubber was already old when i put them on. They were ripped and sagging so much it was almost metal on metal, looked very bad visually. Sorry I don't have a picture.

[conozo]

Coolant leak is back. I think its leaking between the water pump housing and the engine block. The weep hole is clean as well as all the other coolant hoses and pipe i fixed. I'll get to it soon enough.

Other news - getting serious about diy wheel alignment. Made this string alignment kit from a bunch of extra wall TV mount brackets i had. Need to finish the other side so i can do all four at the same time and need something to hold the steering wheel in place - not sure how to do that yet.

Pics below are just a test, when i acually do it, the tires are on two clear plastic page protectors with WD-40 between them so the wheels turn easily.

[ShiRen]

I do my alignments myself and I actually don't have any issue with all the wheels on the concrete, but plastic bags aren't too bad of an idea. I'll say it's harder than expected to get the wheel perfectly straight, probably because there's slop in the rack, but also be cognizant of the track angle of the car, the alignment of the front and rear wheels, it can change the 0 in the rear toe. I used a 15' piece of extruded aluminum to measure the difference in track width fron and rear and changed the rear toe until the measurement was about the same left and right

[conozo]

The battle for alignment continues with a new shocking discovery.

Both rear wheels have considerable slop in the 3 and 9 o'clock position which would effect toe. I have narrowed it down to that long knuckle bolt is worn into a smaller diameter or the sleeve it passes through in the knuckle is worn larger. The bolt measures at 11.71mm in diameter. I have attached a video showing the slop in everything. Not sure what to do about this or how this happens. Its not like i can just get a new knuckle or bolt, its a disk setup in the back too.

https://youtube.com/shorts/UFhW5oZSWWM?feature=share
https://youtu.be/EsZQ29Zo1Jk"]https://youtu.be/EsZQ29Zo1Jk"]https://youtu.be/EsZQ29Zo1Jk
https://youtube.com/shorts/jovWpN9hsI4?feature=share

[ShiRen]

Reem and sleeve the hole in the knuckle, it doesn't even need to be full length as long as it's supported on both ends and most of the way through.

I've noticed this on my right rear, but I didn't have the bolt properly torqued. Honestly, I'm not even sure that the hole was drilled exactly to the size of the bolt

[conozo]

Makes sense - now how does one go about doing that? I did think about adding threads in there (time serts) and get a more standard honda oem bolt to go in from both ends but not sure if a time sert would hold up with suspension components like that.

[ShiRen]

The control arm bushings have a metal sleeve in them that is pretty much tight on the bolt, you could use two of those sleeves, reem the knuckle to the OD of the sleeves, press them in the knuckle, and have a tight fit in all of the parts.

Or impact the shit out of the bolt and see if the slop goes away, at least by hand, because again I think that's how they came. Rear toe seems like an after thought, though many cars are completely unadjustable. However after adding adjustable arms, yeah it probably needs to be addressed

[conozo]

My brother inlaw suggested just reaming out the whole thing to accept a 1/2inch bolt. Hardest part of that would be to find a 1/2 bolt that doesnt have threads the entire way and is that length and grade 10.9

[ShiRen]

That's a big step up in size I think, it'd require different bushings. If you were using spherical joints, sure

[Oldblueaccord]

The battle for alignment continues with a new shocking discovery.

Both rear wheels have considerable slop in the 3 and 9 o'clock position which would effect toe. I have narrowed it down to that long knuckle bolt is worn into a smaller diameter or the sleeve it passes through in the knuckle is worn larger. The bolt measures at 11.71mm in diameter. I have attached a video showing the slop in everything. Not sure what to do about this or how this happens. Its not like i can just get a new knuckle or bolt, its a disk setup in the back too.

https://youtube.com/shorts/UFhW5oZSWWM?feature=share
https://youtu.be/EsZQ29Zo1Jk"]https://youtu.be/EsZQ29Zo1Jk"]https://youtu.be/EsZQ29Zo1Jk
https://youtube.com/shorts/jovWpN9hsI4?feature=share

Im gonna do some xtra shakes on my car after watching that.

Looks like you need new arms/knuckle.

[ShiRen]

I'd like to see his knuckle... Hell I'd like to see mine again. When I had mine apart nothing looked concerning, holes are round. Also if that hole was worn the bolt would probably be mangled. It's also like 4" long so like it'd take a hell of a lot to wear that out. Bushings are one thing, but he just put those adjustable arms in and im assuming the bushing in the other arm is new

[conozo]

Sorry I was gone for a half of year. I had a huge project I was undertaking. We had purchased a 1989 Toyota Dolphin RV and I tore it down the to frame and rebuilt it. I had never rebuilt a camper and it was the biggest most complicated project i have ever done in my life. Its rebuilding a car, a house, making it strong and lightweight, with fiberglass repair so boat research as well. Just has everything. It turned out great and was finished just before our vacation at 1:00 in the morning which we then left at 3:00 in the morning as well. I'll post pictures soon.
So thats where i have been. The honda/accord has been doing ok, its in rough shape but it did not give me any troubles daily driving this year at all which was good because I didn't have time to do anything else but work on the camper. I wanted to do some body work in the second half of the summer but the camper took an extra 1 1/2 months than what i was expecting. I may be driving the camper for a bit while i put the honda under the knife repairing some rust soon.

I now own three vehicles and a popup camper
1988 Jayco Cardinal Popup
2003 Honda Odyssey (280,000 miles)
1989 Toyota Dolphin RV (100,000 miles)
1988 Honda Accord (260,000 miles)
Average drive-able vehicle age - 31 years old

Crazy to think about, driving my cars around town not only feel old but from a different era. For example i can drive around at night and pass only a few cars without LED headlights, yet i own two cars that have the same sealed beam headlights. Two of my cars have crank windows and manual locks. The van can play MP3 CDs which is the most advanced thing i got. Thats ok, i really dont want all the tech stuff anyways.

[Oldblueaccord]

Oddly I just bought a 2003 Sprinter Van last week. I just got it started it had been sitting for years. its dead empty in the back and Im looking at ideas to customize it.

[ShiRen]

The newest thing I own is a 2009 Kawasaki klr 650, and it is of course carbureted. Didn't have a fuel injected vehicle for a while until getting a free, low mileage, 07 Ford Explorer Sport Trac with the V8 and 4x4... And guess what, the trans is going to shit the bed any day now and set me back a few grand. It's a little nice having a vehicle that can haul my bikes, has heated seats, and just drives really nice and is really easy, but that also means I drive it way too much and it's definitely not the greatest on gas.

But with the 87 Accord, 07 Sport Trac, 09 klr, a 72 Suzuki ts185, and an 02 Kawasaki kdx220 the average age of my fleet is still 29 and that's just a hair older than I am lol.