thegreatdanes Aerodeck restoration project

[A18A]

that motor came out really clean (Y)

[thegreatdane]

Alright since I'm bored I've brought back almost all the ancient pictures in this thread. Enjoy!
Note that because the pictures are now dropbox hosted they might time out and fail to show if your internet is too slow. Try to reload the page a few times in that case.

[Dr_Snooz]

Thank you!

[A18A]

happy as to see all the pics back, just had to go through the whole thread again. no more integra radiator?

[thegreatdane]

Good!

No, I don't plan on putting in the Integra aluminium radiator except maybe as a last resort. These aluminum radiators are garbage for corrosion (and cooling, however that's not too big a concern in Denmark most of the time) compared to the OEM radiator, so when the Integra one starts leaking after 5 years I would have to modify a new aluminium one all over again with new top posts. Also the Integra radiator's lack of thermo switch port is a nuisance requiring either yet another modification to the aluminium radiator or that an inline adapter is put in the coolant hose. The problem I'm facing now though is that I re-positioned the bottom radiator supports on the frame preventing the OEM radiator from being carried by its' bottom posts and instead being supported directly on the bottom tank. Which is a bit of a squeeze that hopefully I can get to work. Hence the aluminium radiator as a last resort.

I'm also not going to be installing my custom front cross member as I would like to avoid the vibrations it would transmit to the frame. The original cross member is suspended in rubber bushings to prevent that and that is a good design (as long as the bushings are not shot).

Today I regret many of the modifications I did on the car, especially around the engine bay as it makes everything so much more difficult to finish as opposed to being able to just bolt all the OEM parts back on. Besides that I generally appreciate the preservation of the original designs much more than I did then. But I can't change that (easily) now so I'm finishing what I started instead.

[thegreatdane]

I needed a new OEM downpipe for the car but didn't realize that the B20A downpipe is different from the A20 two-runner downpipe as I had chucked the OEM B20A2 downpipe years ago. Believing they were the same I had initially bought one listed for an A20.

Here is the flange of the OEM A20 downpipe:



The widest measurement is 145mm. On the B20A this is 155mm. The smaller measurement of 70mm is the same for A20 and B20. Now, you can easily open up the bolt holes on the A20 flange so that you can bolt up the A20 downpipe to the B20A exhaust manifold and the rest of the downpipe then fits the same. In fact this is exactly what someone had done on the prelude B20 I had and I thought I would then do the same. However, as I received the two flange seal rings that I had ordered going by the part number from the B20 Accord parts list I saw that these seal rings were significantly larger diameter than would fit in the downpipe I had received; ø60,5mm ID vs ø50,5mm ID. This of course means that the flow passages of the B20A manifold pairs quite poorly with the A20 downpipe if you choose to mount it anyway and it would appear that the downpipe runners are larger diameter on the B20A. Therefore I've been on the hunt for the correct B20A downpipe for a while. They are not produced by any aftermarket suppliers nor am I certain it ever has been, as most seem to have had it mixed up with the A20 downpipe. I had one on order through Honda from UK, but is must have been a phantom entry in their system as it ended up not existing after all.

A friendly Belgian Honda parts hoarder recently contacted me regarding the exhaust. I am far away from the car at the moment and without any way of measuring the B20 exhaust manifold so I gave him a sketch of what I though the downpipe might look like based on the flange seal ring size and bolt spacings:



And, voila! He found this new original gem for me:





I will also be getting a hard to find new original Aerodeck rear muffler as well as new original tail pipe finishers. I am contemplating drilling a small drain hole in the rear muffler and painting it so hopefully it wont corrode either from inside or outside. The exhaust heat shielding that used to be on the car has disintegrated, and it is impossible to find these shields. I might have to make some new ones out of aluminium sheet although I'd prefer the original ones.

Wohdog is shipping me the face-lift plastic inner fenders so I will be able to get the fenders mounted along with a bunch of other bits and pieces. My engine mounts are causing me some issues so he's getting me a manual B20A rear transmission bracket.

When I cleaned the engine with HCl I appear to have shorted out the alternator stator windings, so I've gotten a new alternator as well as some ignition tune up parts. I suspect that either fouled fuel injectors or ignition components are the cause of the engine running so terribly at the time I had it started.

[thegreatdane]

So the engine is still running poorly. It's not firing on cylinders 2 and 3 although ignition and fuel is good so it would appear there is no compression. I suspect that the piston rings have become stuck after sitting for so many years. I will try to soak the combustion chambers to hopefully un-stick the rings. I'd rather not end up having to pull the pistons..

[thegreatdane]

The non firing cylinders were an easy fix. ...I had the spark plug wires swapped haha.

Was working on finalizing the engine bay wiring. Added a junction box for the alternator positive since there's no fusebox in the engine bay. Also a breaker switch for the ground connection in case the battery cables are shorted in an accident or in case of wear on the sheathing. The cold advance solenoid and some other vacuum stuff had to be wired as well. The ignition coil is relocated which required extended wires. All in all the engine bay has been a pain in the ass to finish. Still have to make a bracket to better secure the air filter box.




Got the new pipes and finishers:




B20A rear transmission mount brackets. Left: Shortened PJ5 (prelude) bracket. Middle: PH3 (Accord). Right: PJ5 (prelude). Only the Prelude bracket makes the engine sit level. This goes against what people typically report. The rear rubber mount therefore appears to exist in more than one height. The rubber mount installed now is a new mount from rockauto. I also have an auto A20 rubber mount sitting which measures about 10mm shorter than the installed one.
The only problem at the moment is that the A20 dogbone is too long. So the dogbone bracket on the transmission appears to be different between prelude and accord.

[carotman]

I know the front mount exists in different heights but didn't know for the rear. Good info there.

[thegreatdane]

11 years later... It's road legal!

Had the wheels aligned the other day and yesterday it passed inspection.

[epic1400cs]

Excellent! Congratulations!!!

[thegreatdane]

Thank you Yasu!

It will be a little while before I can actually put license plates on it since it is an imported car and the import tax takes time to process.

[carotman]

Congrats!

[A18A]

ssweet! you must be stoked. one of the few of us who have (pretty much) completed a long-term build haha

[A18A]

is it done yet?