Toms 1999 VTi 4WS LHD

89 UKDM BA4 4WS (resto job!) · Post by **wurlycorner** » Sun Dec 30, 2018 12:31 am

Yep, I think the figures you have above are for the H22A2 or H22A5 - the H22A's are higher compression (not sure the actual figures off-hand).

Some nice goodies delivered there

Everyone who uses H-Tune seems to be pleased with them.

Great way to spend boxing day

Post by **tom023** » Sun Dec 30, 2018 8:31 am

The engine came out without much fuss.

Once I had it out I could inspect exactly where the oil leak was coming from. Apart from the rocker cover gasket its also been leaking from the vtec solenoid gasket so I need to order one of those aswell (I dont think it comes in my complete gasket kit).

I've always had a problem with emissions since I bought the car. The original cat had been drilled/knocked out without me knowing upon purchasing and I found out at the MOT station

To fix that just enough to get an MOT I fitted in a spare Alfa Romeo 2.0 cat and it passed with flying colours. Being lazy I left it in and in last years MOT it barely scraped though. The car has always smelt a little fuelly aswell. To fix this I'll be changing the lambda sensor, coolant temperature sensor and just giving it a complete tune-up in general.
Here are the coked up exhaust ports:

After stripping the block I gave it a good clean and it came up pretty good, I might give it a light dust of silver heatproof paint:

This is as far as I got last night. I pulled the block apart to inspect the main crank bearings only to find they were in really good shape! No scoring and all of them still had their "dusty" coating on them. Big end bearings were a different matter though...

Happy New Year everyone, progress will continue next year

89 UKDM BA4 4WS (resto job!) · Post by **wurlycorner** » Sun Dec 30, 2018 11:14 am

Great progress.

Have to say, it's not a particularly dirty/oily looking engine to start with, so hopefully shouldn't give you any grief sorting the couple of odd leaks it does have.
That wear on the big ends is a bit surprising. How many miles are on it?

Post by **tom023** » Wed Jan 09, 2019 10:59 am

wurlycorner wrote: ↑
Sun Dec 30, 2018 11:14 am
Great progress.

Have to say, it's not a particularly dirty/oily looking engine to start with, so hopefully shouldn't give you any grief sorting the couple of odd leaks it does have.
That wear on the big ends is a bit surprising. How many miles are on it?

Sorry its taken a year

to get back to you Wurly, I read your post, typed up half a reply and then got distracted.
I'm pleased with the state of the engine in general, and yes the leaks seem to all stem from the top and run all the way down so it should not be too hard to sort out. The engine has 165000 miles on it.

I'm now waiting on an order from Htune that should arrive at the beginning of Febuary to start putting everything back together.

Post by **tom023** » Mon Feb 25, 2019 4:30 pm

So over this past month I have slowly been rebuilding the Prelude. Here are some pics of the process.
Picked up the head from the machine shop after having a de-coke and slight skim:

Cleaning up, painting and polishing general parts that started looking their age:

Rebuilding the intake manifold with new gaskets and seals, I cleaned out all valves including EGR aswell:

Rebuilding the P/S pump:

Rebuilding the block using Kings Racing and standard connecting rod and main bearings, new gaskets and seals, Honda liquid gasket...etc

New timing belt kit while we were at it, although the old one was only 20000miles old! By this point the head is back on with a new gasket and cylinder head bolts:

While the engine was out I washed down the engine bay. It doesn't look like much here but it was filthy before:

I repainted the valve cover in VHT wrinkle red paint. I cannot reccommend it enough, great quality stuff. To start off I sand blasted all of the previous heat proof red off of it and degreased the valve cover. Then on a hot day I painted the cover following the instructions on the can step by step. I finished it off carefully warming the cover as a whole with a heat gun, this really helps the paint wrinkle up. The only thing I can reccommend is that the paint needs to go on really thick, I wish that I had used the whole can. The thicker the coat of paint applied, the more paint there is to wrinkle and give it that OEM look.
Another very good trick is to put vaseline on the DOHC VTEC letters before painting, that way you can peel it off with a razor blade after and do not need to sand for hours to get the paint off before giving the letters that "brushed metal" look.

Finished product

Post by **tom023** » Mon Feb 25, 2019 4:41 pm

Today I check and adjusted the valve clearance, ignition timing and idle speed. Now she is running sweet and smooth.
I also prepped the car for its ITV (MOT in spain) but can't take it to test due to the engine management light coming on. When setting the idle speed I was holding the engine at 3000rpm and the light came on, using diagnostics I got a code back stating that the knock sensor was at fault, or that it had an open/short circuit. After deleting the fault and bringing the engine speed up again, the fault comes back. The strange thing is that I fitted a new aftermarket knock sensor, it's plugged in and not left loose in the block. The only thing I can think of it that this new sensor is faulty, it is a real bummer though as I was hoping to drive the car tomorrow.

Post by **tom023** » Tue Feb 26, 2019 1:07 pm

So I carried out some simple diagnostics on the knock sensor today. I did a continuity test from the ECU end of the KS cable to ground to check for a short circuit, and also tested from the same point to the KS multiplug and came back with continuity, showing that there is nothing wrong with the wiring harness.
After that I plugged the KS back in but left it unscrewed from the block, I had to remove the oil filter and reposition the wiring harness but got there in the end. With the KS unscrewed but still plugged in I started the engine up and the same fault occured when revving to 3000rpm. This tells me that there is no knock or fault with the engine as the sensor wasn't plugged in to pick it up. The ECU must expect to recieve data from the KS as of ~3000rpm and when it doesn't it throws the error code. I even held the engine slightly above 3k rpm while someone tapped the KS with a spanner, still no reading on my diagnostic equipment from the sensor.
I've called up the parts supplier and they are sending out another sensor. I'm hoping this fixes the problem.

Post by **NafemanNathan** » Tue Feb 26, 2019 1:21 pm

Amazing work Tom!

I can't wait to get stuck into my engine build!

Shame about the knock sensor. Good job you know what you're doing though

Post by **norks27** » Tue Feb 26, 2019 5:19 pm

tom023 wrote: ↑
Sun Dec 30, 2018 8:31 am
Finished product
Image

Damn fine work there

Post by **tom023** » Thu Feb 28, 2019 1:34 pm

Bad news.
I've fitted the new sensor and the problem still occurs. I am now at a loss. I got continuity through the harness to the ECM so no problem there. The chances of 2 new knock sensors being bad is near impossible, unless the brand didn't spec the sensor correctly for the prelude. but then from what I have read these KS are pretty universal and fit various '90s Hondas.
Just to be clear, the error code is 23 (Knock sensor circuit malfunction). The engine does not audibly knock and I believe another error code appears if the KS detects knock/pinking that the ECM can't adjust to.

HELP?

Lude Generation