My Hoopty

[Dr_Snooz]

Sorry, they're long gone now.

[Dr_Snooz]

I had an exhaust manifold stud pull out of the head a few years ago and bring all the threads along with it. I ignored the steadily worsening exhaust leak until lately when it got too bad. Last week, I pulled the manifold and HeliCoiled the stud.

It turned out okay, but I realized how much I hate working on exhaust stuff because no matter what you do, all the exhaust pipe nuts gall and destroy the stud threads. That's if they don't snap the stud off altogether. I'd like to take the manifold to a shop and have the studs replaced, as well as have that stupid EGR pipe broken free. Sadly, because that stupid EGR pipe is not broken free, I'd have to take the coolant neck off the head to remove the manifold, and I don't want to. I just slathered the buggered studs with a thick coating of copper antiseize mixed with hope, bought new nuts and cinched them down. We'll see how it goes.

I noticed that all the usual exhaust nuts you can buy use some kind of deformed threads as the locking mechanism. This kind of thing:




That's great for locking the nuts to the stud. And even better for galling and stud failure. Instead of that jazz, I opted for serrated flange lock nuts.



I'll let you know if it all goes wrong. For now, the car is leak-free though.

[ShiRen]

Never had a problem with regular nuts on a header... Maybe torque them a couple times through their life, but I think I rather they fall off than mess up threads.

[Dr_Snooz]

Good to know. I've never tried them on the pipe studs. There are regular nuts on the exhaust manifold studs and I can't keep them on. Probably once a year one goes missing. I threw them out this time and used the flange locks there too. Should be fine, but you know if anything can go wrong with them, I'll be sure to learn about it.

[ShiRen]

I guess I should clarify, by regular nuts I mean at least with a flange, imo straight hex nuts are about useless for anything as they require at least 1 other washer to bite well enough. Afik the nuts on my exhaust are the same as the intake, which are a very high grade flange nut with no lock or serration

[Dr_Snooz]

Bloomin' car left me stranded last Saturday, 70 miles from home. That was on the return leg of a junkyard run up to San Jose (380 mi. round trip) to fetch me a coolant pipe, fender liners and an exhaust manifold. Fortunately, I had already diagnosed the problem the day before and knew exactly what had happened as soon as the engine died on the freeway. The distributor had failed.

I've had a rough idle and rough running for a long long time now. I noticed some strange tach hop on my way home one day last week and pulled out my voltmeter to investigate. The ICM was out of tolerance in 2 different ways and completely not functional in a 3rd. The pickup coil on the distributor was also out of spec. I was surprised that the car was still running, made a mental note to buy a new distributor, then with a confidence born of stupidity, jumped in the following morning for a 380 mi. journey. Maybe I was asking for it, but the junkyard waits for no man.

I was fortunate not to have to spend any time diagnosing, and also fortunate that the car died in the middle of a town. I was able to coast off the freeway into a comfortable parking space in a decent part of town near food and bathrooms. Nice. I could have stopped on top of a mountain pass with no cell signal. That would have sucked.

I was fortunate a third time to have the yard visit go about as good as it could. The parts came off without any trouble. No galled nuts. No busted knuckles. The weather was lovely. Everything flowed. Best of all, the parts were nearly perfect. The coolant pipe had no corrosion at all (miraculous since the system was filled with plain water). I was planning to replace the studs on the manifold, but they're perfect. Etc. I met a couple 3g enthusiasts who also pulled parts off the car while I was there. Nice guys, and I invited them to the board.

It was hard to make the call of shame to my brother-in-law though. His fleet of beater Toyota trucks (ranging from 16-40 yrs old) never break down and have pulled my broken or stuck junk home too many times for me to admit. I'm fortunate, however, that he thinks enough of me to come do it each time.

I'm fortunate still more to be able to buy a brand new distributor for a very reasonable price. Five years ago, you couldn't buy a new distributor, and ten years ago, a new one would have cost $600. Gulp. I have a WAI Global unit on the way. We'll see if it's any good.

[Oldblueaccord]

Bloomin' car left me stranded last Saturday, 70 miles from home. That was on the return leg of a junkyard run up to San Jose (380 mi. round trip) to fetch me a coolant pipe, fender liners and an exhaust manifold. Fortunately, I had already diagnosed the problem the day before and knew exactly what had happened as soon as the engine died on the freeway. The distributor had failed.

I've had a rough idle and rough running for a long long time now. I noticed some strange tach hop on my way home one day last week and pulled out my voltmeter to investigate. The ICM was out of tolerance in 2 different ways and completely not functional in a 3rd. The pickup coil on the distributor was also out of spec. I was surprised that the car was still running, made a mental note to buy a new distributor, then with a confidence born of stupidity, jumped in the following morning for a 380 mi. journey. Maybe I was asking for it, but the junkyard waits for no man.

I was fortunate not to have to spend any time diagnosing, and also fortunate that the car died in the middle of a town. I was able to coast off the freeway into a comfortable parking space in a decent part of town near food and bathrooms. Nice. I could have stopped on top of a mountain pass with no cell signal. That would have sucked.

I was fortunate a third time to have the yard visit go about as good as it could. The parts came off without any trouble. No galled nuts. No busted knuckles. The weather was lovely. Everything flowed. Best of all, the parts were nearly perfect. The coolant pipe had no corrosion at all (miraculous since the system was filled with plain water). I was planning to replace the studs on the manifold, but they're perfect. Etc. I met a couple 3g enthusiasts who also pulled parts off the car while I was there. Nice guys, and I invited them to the board.

It was hard to make the call of shame to my brother-in-law though. His fleet of beater Toyota trucks (ranging from 16-40 yrs old) never break down and have pulled my broken or stuck junk home too many times for me to admit. I'm fortunate, however, that he thinks enough of me to come do it each time.

I'm fortunate still more to be able to buy a brand new distributor for a very reasonable price. Five years ago, you couldn't buy a new distributor, and ten years ago, a new one would have cost $600. Gulp. I have a WAI Global unit on the way. We'll see if it's any good.

So it aint quite worth 10 grand is what your telling me? I had the bank write the check all ready!

[ShiRen]

You fuel injected guys need a better distributor, that old thing is a turd

[Dr_Snooz]

So it aint quite worth 10 grand is what your telling me? I had the bank write the check all ready!

To the contrary, a new distributor will make it worth $11k!

[Dr_Snooz]

You fuel injected guys need a better distributor, that old thing is a turd

I'm hoping that's what's on its way. We'll see. It could be shite and I'll have to build some Frankenstein thing with parts from my old distributor. You never know.

[ShiRen]

No I mean ditch the TEC entirely... But I don't see many options without going to obd1, and unfortunately the extra doodads tacked on the end for the angle sensors are not modular so you can't use a hitachi unit either.

[Dr_Snooz]

I bought a couple different distributors, and they were crap. I bought the parts I need for my old distributor, and they were also crap (thankfully Rock pays for return shipping). So it looks like EDIS conversion time. I went to the junkyard yesterday and spent a couple hours pulling the parts off a donor Escort. I checked the prices before I went to the register and realized that I could buy almost everything new from Rock Auto for less. I explained this to the cashier, who stared at me blankly and shrugged her shoulders. I also shrugged my shoulders, pulled the connectors and the one expensive part I needed and left everything else there. I deal with so many companies who have no interest in remaining solvent. I hope they all go under quickly.

Everything is on the way so we'll see if I can find a good way to mount the trigger wheel and crank sensor. Everything else is pretty straightforward.

[conozo]

What route are you going to go. Chipped OBD1 Honda ecm?

I have been familiarizing myself with the Speeduino ECU setup. I will switch to that whenever my ignition system fails completely.

[Dr_Snooz]

If I touch the ECM, then the CA smog nazis get real uptight, so that's a no-go. (They much prefer to have old worn out smog components that don't work anymore.) After I spent 8 years fighting with Linux, I don't have much interest in anything open source, so I got a Megajolt/E MK2 coming. I absolutely want to be able to call up a manufacturer and make him listen to me complain. I hope it's good.

Has anyone done the EDIS conversion on a 3g yet? If they have, then I want to see the How-To. If not, then I'll make a How-To.

[conozo]

I always forget about the California rules. If you weren't in California and you didn't want to go with speeduino then the microsquirt ECU would be a better option.

Will California care about your ignition not being stock or are you going make them just deal with it?

[ShiRen]

Im curious how the average tech would even know you have an aftermarket ecu on a car so old lol. If you can do a piggyback like a megajolt then I don't see how it would matter as long as it passes emissions, which it would probably do better with anyway. How do they even justify enforcing no ecu upgrades when ecu upgrades on older cars only improve efficiency?

InAccordance has most of the steps you need for the megajolt, he just has the big dumb and has left us waiting in suspense for an update on his project. I hope he sees this because I demand DCOE+EDIS content! I also have mine on the backburner, but I have all of the parts. One of the biggest hurdles is mounting the trigger wheel on the crank pulley, especially if you still have power steering. That aside, Mazda Protege crank triggers or Megasquirt are good crank trigger options. You should also run a shielded cable for the hall effect sensor. I found this a while back

[ottomatic]

I know you are taliking Cali rules. But here in Texas you get around such nonsense by registering you car as an antique (at least 25 years old).
No inspections and your registration is good for 5 years. Quote: "Vehicles registered as "Antiques" are exempt from annual inspection".
Mine has been registered as an antique since the year it was eligable.
They have stupid rules about how/where you drive it, but loopholes abound.

[Oldblueaccord]

Im curious how the average tech would even know you have an aftermarket ecu on a car so old lol. If you can do a piggyback like a megajolt then I don't see how it would matter as long as it passes emissions, which it would probably do better with anyway. How do they even justify enforcing no ecu upgrades when ecu upgrades on older cars only improve efficiency?

InAccordance has most of the steps you need for the megajolt, he just has the big dumb and has left us waiting in suspense for an update on his project. I hope he sees this because I demand DCOE+EDIS content! I also have mine on the backburner, but I have all of the parts. One of the biggest hurdles is mounting the trigger wheel on the crank pulley, especially if you still have power steering. That aside, Mazda Protege crank triggers or Megasquirt are good crank trigger options. You should also run a shielded cable for the hall effect sensor. I found this a while back

It never ran.... probably why you never heard anything back. I was going to send him a few Prox sensors to see if I could help but never heard much after that.

[ShiRen]

I know he didn't get it finished, iirc it "ran" but not well enough

[Dr_Snooz]

I always forget about the California rules. If you weren't in California and you didn't want to go with speeduino then the microsquirt ECU would be a better option.

It will probably come to that. The ECUs are getting old and tired generally. Who knows how much longer this one will last?

Will California care about your ignition not being stock or are you going make them just deal with it?

At this time they don't care. It's technically not an emissions control component.

Im curious how the average tech would even know you have an aftermarket ecu on a car so old lol.

In most cases, they don't know. But it's still illegal, and with the cops around here protecting the criminals and screwing the good folks, I don't need to give them a pretext. Also, my smog guy has been very helpful and I don't want to risk poisoning that well.

If you can do a piggyback like a megajolt then I don't see how it would matter as long as it passes emissions,

It doesn't matter.

which it would probably do better with anyway.

It would, and you're not the first person to make the argument that new spark and fuel controls are vastly superior to the old worn out crap that CA insists we keep on the road.

How do they even justify enforcing no ecu upgrades when ecu upgrades on older cars only improve efficiency?

Because they are hopelessly corrupt politicians and bureaucrats locked in a death pact and determined to march in this direction until the civil war starts. Against this group of criminals, all you your logical and reasonable arguments are useless. For them, certain destruction is always preferable to modest reform. If we could vote them out we would, but the elections are rigged and all the people with a vested interest is fixing it are fleeing the state as fast as they can. There's no fixing things now without a lot of people dying.

One of the biggest hurdles is mounting the trigger wheel on the crank pulley, especially if you still have power steering.

Yes. And I have no intention of giving up power steering

I know you are taliking Cali rules. But here in Texas you get around such nonsense by registering you car as an antique (at least 25 years old).

Every CA car used to become exempt automatically at 25 years old, but they fixed that a few years ago. Now, it doesn't matter that every possible upgrade is better, you HAVE to keep your old worn out, leaky smog systems on the road. The only real option left is to swap in an engine from a newer car with all the newer smog controls attached. That's why I want to do an RSX S-Type K20 swap. It's a lot of work and very costly, but well worth it if you intend to keep rolling.

I wonder if I transferred ownership to Texas and go the smog exemption and then transferred back, would the exemption also transfer back? Hmmmm.....

I think I'll start a separate thread for the EDIS conversion to make it easier to find.

[ShiRen]

Yes. And I have no intention of giving up power steering

I vote for yeeting the factory power steering and installing an electric pump or prius steering column

[Fixedit]

Hey Dr Snooz sorry to butt in but I have questions about the wilwood prop valve setup. How is it holding up? No leaks still? Also, where was it that you sourced the special coated brake tubing?

These darn 35 year old SEi prop valves are not only hard to find, but also just as much junk as the other trim level prop valves at this age. I’m going mad dealing with their leaks no matter what I do. It’s time I bring out the big guns lol

[ShiRen]

He ain't the only one with the prop valve. Great upgrade, it will get you the most of your brakes (mine is autocross tested, and boy do my dx front brakes not cut it, but the integra rears are fabulous). Absolute pain in the ass to install though, do not underestimate the difficulty of replumbing to a f/r split. I got my tubing on Amazon, it's stainless steel, not coated, actually was amazing because these cars use 3/16, so it was easy to bend, but hard enough to not kink at all.

[Fixedit]

Well, yours looks better than mine! Now if it’ll just stay dry and not be just as much as a nuisance as the one it replaced…

No idea how to fix the rotated photo…it does it automatically

[Dr_Snooz]

This damned thing.