2nd Owner | 1988 LX 4-Door | 400,000 Mile A20A1 | Lizzy

[Jared Roussin]

I've been a bit of a lurker over the past year and a half of ownership, so I figured I would introduce Lizzy to the forum for those interested.

So it begins, I have a Suburban that's draining my wallet on gas, and a Crx that refuses to run. It's time for a gas-saving, reliable, classic, Japanese car from the 80s/90s that has pop-up headlights.
Stroll in a Craigslist listing offering Lizzy up for 600$







Super clean, never been in a wreck, 378K on the dash, original motor.
It had sat for 2 years before it was listed for sale.
The original owner was a lawyer here in town, and daily drove the thing for years, taking religious care of his engine.
There's dealer papers in the trunk showing maintenance schedules, all the way back to 88 when he bought it off of the showroom floor.
He loved the thing and didn't want to get rid of it when the coolant fan switch didn't kick on and he overheated the engine..
After it sitting in his driveway, his wife essentially said to fix it or get rid of it, and we all know what route he chose. (He now drives a super nice, modern-day Porsche GT3 btw.)
So in comes me. Negotiated him down to 450$ with the promise of restoring his baby and letting him see it again someday.

I could tell right away from the cracked radiator, and lack of compression that this thing had a bad head gasket. With the miles it had on it though, I decided to just pull the whole motor and give it a rebuild.



This is when a "bad head gasket" turned into a huge ordeal.
There was a little bit more damage than I thought...




Part 1 of idk

[Jared Roussin]

I now knew that everything needed machining. I also knew that this would become my first engine I've ever built. The deepest I had ever gone on an engine up until this point was head-gaskets and engine replacements.
Got a good recommendation for a local place here in town, and after waiting 3 months, he finally got everything done. (He also had a really cool shop imo)
First steps were to get this head back in order. I had the shop assemble the head for me as I would of 100% messed it up, and I didn't have the tools or time to do it myself.






Head came out looking super fresh.
I wound up tanking both the block, head, and also my oil pan. I figured it would be easier to clean outside the car, disassembled, than inside the car and assembled.
For the bottom end, I also had him find me pistons. We ordered from about 4 different places that he trusted, and every single one of them came back not having any in-stock.
It took about a month to find ANY pistons that would work.
After searching everywhere, we finally found some pistons on eBay, in Mexico.
The only issue is that they were .5 over-bore..
At this point, I couldn't wait anymore because my Suburban's break-lines rotted away on me, and I wasn't going to put any more money into a 240k mile Chevy. Even if it did keep me safe while I was homeless!
So we bored the block and got fresh pistons.

[Jared Roussin]

Re-assembly of the A20 was going pretty smooth.
There was one hookup while assembling the bottom end where it didn't want to rotate smoothly.
Swapped the rod caps out on two different pistons and it turned like butter.
Also put all new accessories on block (used old PS pump, Alt, and Starter), new belts, new gaskets.





At this point, half of the hard work was done.
I had a little bit of help on assembly from some local Honda friends of mine, but I knew assembling the top half, getting the motor in, and getting it started, was going to be all on me.
The second-half of assembly was a lot less nerve-wracking, and went very smoothly.



(Half of these photos I dug up from old Instagram stories)

I also took the time to clean as much as I could of the engine and accessories. The biggest piece was the transmission.
Items used:
- Brake Cleaner/Carb Cleaner
- Steel Wool
- Wire Wheel
- Toothbrush
- Garden-hose

[Jared Roussin]

From here, everything started turning into a time-crunch. So I didn't get to clean as much as I'd like.
I'm a big "Mechanics first, aesthetics second" kind of guy. I'd much rather have a shitbox that purrs like a cat, vs a gorgeous driveway ornament..
But now, the engine was all assembled and ready to go in.




This was going to be the hard part, because I only had straps and an engine jack to do it with.
No second pair of eyes.
No leveler, or second pair of hands.
No muscles on my scrawny arms to adjust much.
But after a lot of cursing and working overnight, it got back in!




From here, it was just a matter of hooking everything up.. And somehow remembering how everything came out from 6 months previously...
Thank god the diagram was on the hood. My oem manual had a completely different diagram for the 88 Accord.



After hooking up the carb right, I ran into a bad fuel issue.
I praise the Honda gods for the drain bolt on my fuel tank, otherwise I would not be where I am today.
If I had to drop the tank, I wouldn't of have been able to eat due to lack of funds. Financially speaking I hadn't been working for about 4 months at this point, most of which was spent waiting on the mechanic's shop.
I was already skipping meals, and I went 80 hours once without eating (Dear lord, sh!tty wallmart chicken noodle soup tastes incredible after not eating for that long)

I was still having big issues with fuel not coming from the carb, it took me a few days of diagnosing to figure out what the problem was.
Thanks to the help of people here on the forums, I was able to figure it out. One of the main helpers was Snooz, big shoutout to him for coming in clutch!
He gave me the knowledge I needed to get everything running again, and some motivation to keep going!
The 2 (and a half, at this point) year old gas that had been sitting, clogged up all of the carb jets.
I did my best to clean them, but they didn't want to work worth anything.
Purchased a reman'd kit after borrowing money from my mom (who I'm not on good terms with and hadn't spoken to in 7 months at that point in time) and hoped it would work.

Slapped the reman'd carb on there and it started right up like I woke it from a nap or something.
After 2.5 years of it sitting, my cursing and pulling my hair out, selling my truck to fund the project and rent, starving, going broke, and mentally marching on and never giving up.. She ran!
I immediately headed to the gas station to pump it up, and damn, did it feel good to see that thing in the light for the first time..

[Jinnai]

I didn't know they made a dark gray interior! I only knew about cream, burgundy, and light blue. I'm gonna need to do the same thing eventually. Did you disconnect it from the trans or take it out with it?

[Jared Roussin]

(Sorry for the bad orientations. They're orientated right on my computer, not sure why the forum's rotating them on me..)

From here, I drove it home, and immediately noticed how weak my brakes were. I had to drive carefully to job interviews, and those first few weeks of work.
After getting hired and immediately let go due to "overstaffing" and hired again, I saved up as much as I could and got both a new Brake booster, and master cylinder.

The old one was finished..



Immediately fixed the problem, I never did get to bleed them right just doing it by myself (a year and a half later, they're still a bit squishy. Actually planning on bleeding them this weekend with a buddy 9/19/2020)

One more month after that, and disaster struck....
Last photo taken before it was struck:



After this car being on the road, unmolested, for just over 30 years, a deer jumps out at me on my way home from work...
Destroyed the headlight assembly. Completely obliterated and removed the corner light. Smashed in the fender. Dented the hood. Lowered the bumper an inch on the right side. Ripped the door-trim off of the driver-side door. And got blood and hair everywhere.

I was very fortunate it didn't go into the windshield, and only did the damage it did do..

I immediately got a replacement light for it.
It wasn't the right color, or shape/size, but was close enough it would work.

(Only photo I could find was taken at night, sorry about that..)


It eventually made its way to 380K miles, right before my spedo cable broke, and my odometer sat like that for a good few months before I could replace the cable.


I eventually got the cable replaced a few months later, and adjusted the odometer accordingly to what I calculated to be the actual miles..

Eventually found a replacement headlight assembly of matching color and shape.
And smacked the fender back out.
AND found new side-trim for the door.

And this is how it is today..

[Jared Roussin]

My current plans are to just get this thing back to 100%

That means to finally replace the radiator that killed it years ago (Currently just patched the crack at the top and hot-wired the fans to always spin)
That means to replace the EGR tubes (Welded mine shut because they stripped coming off. So to get both manifolds off of the engine, it had to be cut)
That means to replace all of the vacuum lines because it likes to idle high, unless it's been driving for 3500rpm for 30+ minutes on a long road trip. (I also think the idle has to do with the egr being deleted)
That means to replace the damaged body panels and have it professionally repainted. (I'm learning I'm absolute trash at bodywork. Kudos to my body guys out there, I have mad respect for you)
That means to finally fix the driver's window so it goes down again, and fix the passenger so it's the same speed as the rear windows (Currently slow af, never messed with windows before, but I don't think it will be that difficult)
That means to get the sunroof working again so I can fix this damned leaky gasket that likes to drip onto my passenger seat (Currently driving around with plastic on my roof like a knobhead)
But it means I'm going to do it right, and get this car back to 100% for the previous owner.

So this is Lizzy, hope you enjoyed reading my write up, thank you for coming to my Ted Talk, I look forward to sharing with you my progress as I go!

As of 9/19/2020 the car is 164 miles away from 400K. So ready for it to cross. #HighMileageClub anyone?

Thank you again to Snooz for helping me get this bad boy on the road, and the forums for helping me in my research!

Be Happy, Healthy, and Safe out there everyone.

[Jared Roussin]

I replaced the whole cable from the trans to the instrument cluster. The previous owner actually knew this was going to be an issue and left an old-new stock cable replacement in the trunk! I just pulled the cluster out, undid the cable, then pulled it through the firewall. Hardest part is feeding it back into the cluster after all is said and done. Just need patience, needle-nose pliers, a flashlight, and remember where the old one came out so you can put the right grommet back in the firewall!

[Oldblueaccord]

great write up!

Thanks for taking the time to do it.