Leppy's 94 Camo LS-VTEC Hatch

Post YOUR Hatchback here
 Reply

By MG6
- Tue Jun 17, 2014 5:55 am #346515 ouch! I know the sound feeling itty only header and no exhaust. Sounds crazy but it will keep eyes beaming at your direction instantly!

take a photo of the $hitty exhaust you took out as I like to see how it was connected.
User avatar

By Leppy
- Tue Jun 17, 2014 2:10 pm #346524
MG6 wrote:ouch! I know the sound feeling itty only header and no exhaust. Sounds crazy but it will keep eyes beaming at your direction instantly!

take a photo of the $hitty exhaust you took out as I like to see how it was connected.


Yeah I'll get some shots of it before it get's scrapped.
User avatar

By Leppy
- Fri Jun 27, 2014 2:50 am #346784 Thanks to a forum member, I have stock tail lights, and all missing/broken interior panels are now intact! Yes, I now have a FULL unbroken interior lol.

Also, sitting on my garage floor under the car, waiting on two new springbolts that will be picked up tomorrow, is a brand new 2.5 inch Thrush glasspack resonator to replace the 2 inch one that fell off, and a flanged extension pipe that will bolt it onto the header, which is installed.

Also, I got my horn working again! Bought a twin blaster horn setup and was able to rewire the Grant GT steering wheel horn button through the fuse box properly.

Next steps after I get the exhaust welded and bolted up, is to work on more military style cosmetics. Probably gonna fill the fog light holes in the bumper with... i'm thinking fog lights lol. Gonna work at getting a roof rack fitted. And i'm gonna try to redo the rear cargo space to make it functional, rather than an unorganized mess.

And probably redo the valve cover to something other than industrial orange.
User avatar

By Leppy
- Fri Jul 04, 2014 3:16 am #346964 Got the exhaust all hooked up the other day, and it was doing great! nice deep tone, good rumble, no leaks...

... until today when one of the spring bolts I picked up NEW snapped in half during my drive. No luck this week with me lol. Gonna put a different bolt on tomorrow.

One of these day's I'll be able to get a good pic of it and maybe a quick vid once the exhaust is fixed.
User avatar

By Leppy
- Mon Jul 07, 2014 8:51 pm #347048 Well, bad luck with the hatch.

After replacing the bolt on the exhaust, the car stalled out and wouldn't restart. Long story short, the bolt holding the cam gear to the camshaft on the exhaust side was loose and backed out over time, which when I tilted the car to put fix the exhaust, made the key fly out of the gear/shaft. The exhaust camshaft spun 180*s out from the intake camshaft. Pulled the shafts out and apart and put everything back together and got it mechanically timed. Car starts and idles, but wont rev. I want to do a compression test, but i'm already positive valves are bent.

So, it's time to pull the head off and tear it apart to rebuild.
User avatar

By Leppy
- Fri Oct 10, 2014 1:11 am #349070 Started pulling it apart now that I had some free time (fall break!)

Image

Image

Image

Image

Fearing the exhaust valves were toast, and possible piston damage, I pulled the head off. So after I got the head off, I took a look. Pistons were perfectly fine.

Image

And so where the valves. Everything was still pretty much perfect. So I started digging around, and pulled the camgear and shaft apart, and noticed this:

Image

and the key I used to replace the one that fell out was toast too. SO on the bright side, I don't need pistons or valves. But now I have to get a head gasket kit, and a new set of cam gears and keys. The shafts were undamaged, so after I get that on, it should be great.
User avatar

By Leppy
- Fri Oct 10, 2014 8:16 pm #349083 Ran to the junkyard today and found an unmolested B20A sitting in an older model prelude. Grabbed both gears, keys, and bolts. So now once my head gasket kit comes in, I'll be able to put it all back together.
User avatar

By Leppy
- Sat Oct 11, 2014 11:58 pm #349095 New ARP moly grease and gasket should all be here by Wednesday... The wait is killing me, I miss driving it!
User avatar

By Leppy
- Sun Oct 12, 2014 4:24 am #349107 So I did a little research, and apparently the B20A engines from the older preludes are not 100% B-series compatible. The gears are larger. But the B20A's can take B-series gears with belt/pump modifications, so I know the keys are the right size.

So what I'll probably do is test fit the keys, and if they do work, I'll smooth out the inside of the cam gear and bolt it back on. The problem I had is the replacement key I used was too small and it allowed the cam gear to rotate separately from the shaft, which is what caused it to idle fine unless I gave it some revs, then it bogged down hard.

I have a very semi-educated strong feeling that with a proper sized key installed it will be just fine, even with the scratches. So reassembly will commence this week as planned, but I will reused the B16 gears, since I know they are the right size.
User avatar

By Leppy
- Sun Oct 19, 2014 2:18 pm #349254 So I started getting this back together, and ran into a couple snags. Primary one being that when I went to reinstall the timing belt, I discovered that the tensioner spring went on vacation and never returned. So I had to source a new one, which is on it's way.

That's all that's keeping me from bolting everything back on fully and cranking it up. Also, stripping the horrible industrial orange paint off of the valve cover and will probably respray it OD green.
User avatar

By Leppy
- Sun Oct 26, 2014 12:17 am #349410 Got it up and running!

Image

And while I was at it, I resprayed the valve cover to match the car.

Image

Stripped the orange off, which took tremendous effort considering it was engine enamel high temp paint...

Image

Image

I don't have pics of it installed, since I was just too excited that it cranked up and ran... I'll get some when I top off the coolant after driving it a little.

Next up, is new motor mounts. The custom ones the previous owner made sit the engine WAY too low, and I can see the headers under the front bumper.
User avatar

By Leppy
- Sun Oct 26, 2014 4:17 am #349414 New mounts ordered.

By Axix23
- Thu Oct 30, 2014 11:54 pm #349529 Vc looks good man!
 Reply
Return to Your Ride - Hatchback