And then I was ready for Japfest. After queuing for hours and hours to get in it was actually a really good day, with a good mix of car stands, traders, miniskirts, track and drift action
I also picked up a shiny refurbished OEM gearknob from brenscivic at the CTR stand. I fitted this in the car-park at Castle Combe [smilie=karls_thumb.gif]
I'd just dropped off my passengers home and was heading back to my house along the motorway (probably too fast and in too low a gear and at too high revs) when a really loud rattling/clanging noise started suddenly. It sounded as if some sort of heatshield had come loose and was banging in the fan or fan belt, but louder than that if you know what I mean. I pulled off the motorway, coasted up to a garage and called the RAC. The man that arrived with the low-loader started it up and then stopped it straightaway and said those dreaded words "BIG-END GONE". I got a lift home with the car and then looked into my options. Out of the options I considered, the cheapest was getting a second-hand engine off fleabay and fitting that. Most expensive was getting a specialist to take out my engine and rebuild it to OEM spec.
After speaking to my mate who's a mechanic he said he would rebuild it for me in his garage if I sourced all the parts for him. He would be putting a lotta love into this and I could see he was looking forward to the challenge and wanted to do it properly, fixing and tidying up bits as we went. I could give him a bit of a hand as well and learn a bit about the engine in the process. This was the only option for me as I didn't fancy the time and expense of fitting a second-hand engine only to potentially see it self-destruct two weeks later. I can't really afford any more power so modifying the engine for more powers wasn't an option, and I want to keep this car for a very long time so the OEM rebuild made sense.
Anyway, after getting the engine out and stripping it down It was clear that one of the conrod big-end bearings had spun, and mullered the crankshaft :bad-words:
A new crankshaft from Honda is silly money (£894) so I managed to get a really good, as new looking one from integrastellar that he'd just taken out of a DC5 along with a Conrod as mine was a bit mullered too.
With the stamps on the crankshaft and the engine case, we worked out what colour bearings were needed
Then double-checked the workings, then got someone else to work it out again, then triple checked it, then made sure it was right.
All new Honda bearings and a new oil pump and oil-pump tensioner were ordered along with a whole load of bolts and gaskets and bits n bobs like hondabond and oil-filters etc. Basically everything that it says needs replacing in the workshop manual, and anything that didn't look 100% was replaced with new parts. This included the piston rings as when we checked the compression it was at the lower end of tolerances. New conrod bolts, new lost motion compensating springs (whatever the flip they are!! :scratch: ), new girdle bolts, new thrust washers. Some bits I ordered from Honda locally, some from Tegiwa, and some from Autofair [soo cheap! :shocked!: ] in the states. We got a local machine shop to fit the piston rings and clean up the head and bottom end as there was a load of mangled bearing everywhere. They also did the lightest skim on the head just to make sure it was perfectly flat and straight.
I also got a new plastic VTec cover that fits the RBC from matt_555 on here as he was selling it as surplus to requirements - I never did like that dirty fuel rail in the engine bay lol!
Then came the easy bit, lol! Putting it all back together, and painting it in VHT engine enamel/wrinkle red where needed- I left all this to Stu and stayed out of it.
We changed out the old fuel filter for a fresh new Honda one because we could, and it seemed like a good idea....
We also thought that now was the time to put a couple of extra safety measures in place to try and reduce the chance of something similar happening in the future. I got the Tegiwa weld-in baffles for the sump and got a local fabrication company where my mate works to weld them in. I got some MFactory magnetic drain plugs for the sump and the gearbox for good measure. I also ordered a Stack oil pressure gauge, and a T-piece from Demon Tweeks. This should enable the oil pressure gauge to run off the same place as the oil-pressure switch, but in the end it didn't work out:
The T-piece was made of aluminium and the thread sheared off under hardly any torque, so we re-tapped the pressure switch thread and went back to the drawing board. I got a sandwich plate from Hond-R which is a much better solution and a whole lot more solid:
My mate Stu fitted the gauge neatly into the centre console so it still looks standard on the inside
Then we were ready to fit the engine........