My 86 Prelude Thread

[Hazwan]

Yes I have a Prelude. I already told some of you guys but heres some background story: My uncle offered me a free car months back and me being me, I said yes without knowing wtf the car was and little did I know its a friggen 2g Prelude - something I always wanted for years! Fast forward a few months he had it delivered to me and actually paid for the tow and stuff (thank you sir ) so I ended up with a totally free car! The catch is the motor is blown. And its an automatic. But hey its free?!

He gave the car to this guy years back and they drove it till it died and he had the car checked by a mechanic and they said theres water in the engine oil. Not sure how it got there in the first place, probably driven through flood or maybe blown headgasket since they said it ran rough before it died? He didn't want to fix it and ended up with the car in the storage for years before he offered me it since he knew I love old Hondas so much

I'll get more pics and I'll see whats up with the engine tomorrow. I'm gonna get a mechanic friend of mine to help since I'm basically clueless with building a motor LOL.

Enough talking, PICS TIME!











Yes I promised a bunch of pics from 342432 different angles so yeah excuse the amount of pics. Wait till I get to tear the car down LOL

[Hazwan]

Moar!





Yes that would be rust. Is that bad?

[2ndGenGuy]

Looks like a clean ride! Not sure what's up with that rust. Can't tell, but is there any on the cam surfaces? Might wanna pull that engine and tear it down and look at things before you try starting it. Or at least drop the oil pan or something.

Also JDM PARTS:

http://www.preludepower.com/forums/s...d.php?t=331514

[Hazwan]

AHHHH too many JDM ness!!

[Hazwan]

So I've got the head off





I could see a spot where the headgasket is blown I think? That explains the milkshake and how he described the car running rough and eventually died.


Is this bad?




Other than that spot, all cylinders are fairly clean and even the factory cross hatch is still there but then I'm clueless about building an engine LOL.

I don't know exactly whats wrong with the engine. I swear he told me he had a mechanic pulled the head off and found there are some rust on the pistons/cylinders. But then the exhaust nuts and head bolts are really tight still so I assume they never had it off before?

I'm guessing the headgasket blew and thats all? Unless I'm missing something else hahah!

[cygnus x-1]

If the oil got water in it you need to pull the crank and check the bearings. It's a good bet the bearings are shot. If the crank journals are ok and the cylinders aren't out of spec, you could just do the rings and bearings on the bottom end. The head might be ok if the cam and rockers aren't abnormally worn. Really it's sort of a crap shoot with something that's been sitting around a long time like that.

If it were me, I would probably go with a full engine rebuild. Or if you just want a beater engine to drive around slap on a new head gasket and run it until it dies.

C|

[Hazwan]

Man I would rather not do that right now. I'm not 100% fit enough to do any heavy work to be honest. I'm lucky that I could pull the head myself even!

But yeah I just want the car to drive right now I would be happy if it lasts for more than 10k haha. Planning to either get a B20A soon or maybe build another ET with performance upgrades! Oh and manual swap too hah!

[Rendon LX-i]

i say if your not looking foward in rebuilding it slap a hg in and do a oil flush. meaning run fresh oil without starting (priming) drop oil then inspect to see if there is fine shaving an so forth. you might just get lucky.

[Hazwan]

OMG GUISE IT LIVES! I didn't bother dropping the pan, just slapped a new headgasket, get the head machined, replaced some misc seals and gasket while I'm at it, new timing belt, done!





I did not get PICS of everything back on but I'll post some tomorrow along with vids! This is actually my first time doing a major engine work lmao and it won't be possible if it wasn't for my buddies help and CAH (Y) And 2ndGenGuy too (Y) Did I mention that i was struggling to get the timing belt on? And them have them 2 tooth off and the motor won't even run and would backfire instantly LOL what a noob.

Anyway now I do have an issue with it not wanting to idle. Getting the rpm up won't do it anyway, in fact it would only stay alive if I keep playing with the gas pedal. What could be the issue here? I'm gonna pull the carbs off again and clean them again as well as checking all the adjustments once again. AND replacing my fuel filter lol but I did bypass the filter earlier and still no change. And yes I did drain the old gas off. Poured few gallons of fresh gas into the tank so I don't think bad gas is the issue here. I have new plugs, thats about it. I reused the old dizzy cap, rotor and wires. But I'm getting strong spark so I can't be too sure ahh

[Dr_Snooz]

If the bad gas was in the carbs, it will have left varnish.

[Hazwan]

It idles now but only if the chokes are closed so I'm thinking it has to be running so lean that it needs the choke so it would run somewhat rich? Exhaust doesn't smell rich either even with the chokes are closed. It would die as soon as the chokes are open.

VIDZ of poolude idling



Any idea why it would die if I get the chokes to open? None of the vacuum lines are hooked up since whoever took the intake off before didn't bother labelling shit and they took everything out (N) And yes I did plug all the vacuum lines. I'm thinking theres a vacuum leak somewhere since it would run only when the choke is closed. I'd rather not mess with the carb settings yet.

I need to get new alternator/water pump belt as it was screeching like mad. And a couple cans of carb cleaner to check for vac leaks and probably would shoot the carbs with it just in case.



Somebody help me with non-USDM carb vacuum diagram?


Drained the oil after running for about 10 minutes. They look alright aside from it being black because I reused some old oil that I have in storage. But no metal shavings or any weird looking debris or even any milkshake left so I'm good


Gonna repaint the vc


Transmission has a nasty clunk when shifted from P to R and N to D. Theres fresh fluid in it but I think a full flush would help? Not sure if I could afford a manual swap right now (N)

It drives alright at least in my yard lol my garden hose wouldn't reach where the car is sitting.

[Hazwan]

Managed to track down some vacuum leaks at the base gasket/coupler thing connected to carbs to the manifold. Pulled the carbs once again and found some shitty o-rings that I replaced and cleaned the carbs once again just to be sure. Some of the jets have some crap and dirt around them





It idles better now except it would run rough when the chokes are fully open. I found some leak at the top caps thinggy on the carbs. The o-rings are hardened up, I'll see if replacing that would help.





Managed to burn my arm because I couldn't read. You know when they said never open the radiator cap when its hot, they really mean it LOL I've been doing this for years and never had any issues. I would just loosen the cap with a bunch of rags to relieve the pressure and I would fully open the cap once all the pressure was release but this time nope, loosened up BOOM HOT BOILING COOLANT ALL OVER THE PLACE. That hurts lol

Now all that left is to fix the belt squealing issue from the alternator. Not sure if the alternator even works. I have new a belt and all the pulleys are clean. They were rusty from sitting around in the trunk but I'm gonna have it tested tomorrow then I might be able to get the car inspected and stuff by next week then focus on other misc bits and pieces. And selling the Accord probably :\

[2ndGenGuy]

Dude, you are a magician at getting shit running quickly and cheaply. It's ingenuity at it's finest, I say. Congrats on your accomplishments so far!

[Hazwan]

Oh the joys of bring back piece of shit back to life.. I just found out that my oil turned into milkshake again and it can't be the old stuff since I had the oil drained the other day and it was as clear as it can be with no traces of coolant whatsoever. And the squealing alternator is back even when the alternator checked out okay and I even replaced the bearings and brushes while I'm at it and checked everything just to be sure and they all seemed okay. I'll see if changing the oil and do another flush would help else I'd say fuck it.

[79cord]

Exciting to see the car, even if a little late, sorry to here things didn't go to plan, but you certainly got some excitement with the premature run.
Don't let any early failures disappoint you too badly, an absurdly cheap old car has every right to give trouble & adventures until its finally sorted.

Had a ride in the friends '85 Prelude 2 weeks ago after he braved up to invest lots of money getting power steering rebuilt, driveshafts, ball-joints & brakes & it overheated on our way somewhere too. Probably just from a small radiator hose leak we spotted when we stopped to investigate, thinking we might have to bypass thermo-fan switch to ensure fans worked. I'll admit I was also worried about water-pump after seeing rusty water & remembering my integras impeller blades completely rusted off!, though Radiator had been replaced a few years ago & some sealant visible 'round pump so presume that was looked at too.
Hasn't given that trouble since.. though he's still wandering about state of distributor & possible a carburetor rebuild too.
It's certainly a nice comfortable car with good visibility, absurdly light power steering & a classy image, (his light gold with light grey interior) & I'm jealous enough of the nicely positioned 5-speed g/shift to contemplate the serious floor cutting/welding required to achieve it in integra (fitting short 'quick-shift g/stick would be no match for the Prelude setup).
Am I right that's a pre-facelift frt bumper, not quite as wedgey as the later ones?

[Strangeduck]

Well, oil in water is probably a cracked block. What happens is people get a blown headgasket, engine burns off the water in the cyclinder and gets hot and then block cracks and then they get water in the pan and blame the head gasket. Common mistake. Suck to hear that after all the work you put into it.

I wish i would have seen this earlier, by what you described with the radiator having that much pressure is sign that you still probably had a head gasket issue or cracked head.

[Strangeduck]

The rough idle makes me think cracked head or gasket too, fouling out one of the plugs. You could always try unhooking one spark plug wire off at a time to see if it doesnt change the idle. that would at least let you know if it is one cylinder causing the issue and not something else. Did the machine shop test the head for cracks?

[cygnus x-1]

It's also possible the block needs to be resurfaced.

C|

[Hazwan]

Idle was good since I've fixed most of the vacuum leaks and it could actually idle even with the chokes fully open. Drained the oil and refilled with fresh new oil, ran for about 3 minutes then back to white again. My buddy came by and agreed that this isn't a leftover from the old oil and he too agreed that its a good idea to pull the head again and have the machine shop to check the head again.

I'm also getting this gurgling and whistling noise when the engine is off even after running for less than 5 minutes with the temperature under 1/4. And that excessive pressure that burned myself the other day. That gurgling noise was there ever since the first time I had it started too, I thought it was just the air bubbles since I can't really get it running well enough (carb issues) to properly bleed the cooling system.

I was wondering if running the engine this long with those air bubbles has caused it to overheat and blew the gasket again? The highest temp I get was 1/2 but then the air bubbles might have thrown the sensor off?

If it was cracked head/block then the oil should turn milky right away but the first time I flushed the oil after running for about 5 minutes it was as clear as it can be with no traces of coolant?

[Hazwan]

Definitely not leftover stuff from the old oil (N)


Getting the head out today and have everything checked including the block. Kinda hard to do it myself now working with just one hand lolol so I gotta wait for my buddy to help me undo the exhaust bolts

While waiting for him to show up.. I found this:




Wat.

Oh gotta love how I've got my priorities straight >< Damn it get the engine running first!

[Dr_Snooz]

I was going to say that this is the reason I won't do a partial engine build, but my last engine build was a partial (bottom end only) so ignore me. I probably would have done some vacuum gauge and leak down tests before tearing down again, but it's a little late for that, I guess.

If you're going to ditch this build, then do it quick before you get too much invested and can't go back and it ends up being a gigantic money pit.

Good luck, Haz.

[Hazwan]

Had the head back from a different machine shop yesterday. The head was warped and I honestly have no idea if the head was warped before I put it back together the last time or it warped after I ran it too hot from having all the bubbles in the cooling system but seeing how the first guy left some corrosion near the coolant passage on the head, I would say they probably screwed it up the first time. Second guy did it right this time and confirmed the head was warped hah!

Installed the head last night with the help of my buddy and the car was running this morning. I also had the radiator flushed and leak tested so its pretty much brand new. Ran the car for 5 mins, drained the oil and saw some white stuff again ha! Refilled with fresh oil, ran for another 5 mins, checked the dipstick, its all good except for some slight white stuff on it. Oil cap has a bunch of milkshake oil though, I assume it would be caused by the moisture in the engine or the PCV isn't hooked up properly?

Took the car for a drive around the neighborhood, stalled once while in gear. I still gotta get the carb rebuild kit since its not 100% right yet but it idles alright. Checked the oil again and its slightly cloudy but not as bad as before. It was foamy white milkshake like vs now being slightly cloudy. I will do another flush and hopefully it would clear up this time!

Temperature is fine now it would barely went over 1/2 and cooling fans are working as it should. Cycled on/off a couple of times while I let it idle for a few mins.

Pics and vids tomorrow!

[Tdurr]

good stuff haz. glad u got that figured out. now more pics and vids.

[A18A]

nao for an excessive amount of panel work

[Dr_Snooz]

Nice! Give that other machine shop guy a slap upside the head for making you do another teardown.