Toms 1999 VTi 4WS LHD

[wurlycorner]

Great work on the oil seals work, great dedication, sorry to hear it's not sorted the leak you had though - these things can be a right pain

I'm not a massive fan of the rear mount. Does make the engine very secure, but does increase vibration.

[tom023]

I think the new rocker gasket is leaking. There's a possibility that it's running down the wiring harness and running behind the cambelt covers. That's the first place I'll look.
I fitted the RPC flywheel the other day as I had to replace the right hand side inner drive shaft rubber.
There is not a lot of difference tbh, the rpms pick up slighty quicker than before, and the car struggles on idle the first few seconds I switch the AC on.
Here's some pics:


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[thusee]

great work here good luck with finding the leak!

[sol-lude]

some awesome pics on this and yeah good luck with the leak...seems to be a common Honda thing...

[tom023]

Thanks guys.

some awesome pics on this and yeah good luck with the leak...seems to be a common Honda thing...

sol-lude was it you who was asking about the lightened flywheel?
It's a mod that I recommend doing at the same time that you do the clutch. It doesn't make night and day difference but you do notice it. Save the man hours and kill 2 birds with 1 stone.

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[sol-lude]

Thanks guys.

some awesome pics on this and yeah good luck with the leak...seems to be a common Honda thing...

sol-lude was it you who was asking about the lightened flywheel?
It's a mod that I recommend doing at the same time that you do the clutch. It doesn't make night and day difference but you do notice it. Save the man hours and kill 2 birds with 1 stone.

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Hmmm don't think it was me there is a newer guy recently joined called so-lude I think. Might have been him. Lightened flywheel and stage 2 clutch definitely on my list.

[tom023]

I'm coming close to starting the refurb project on the Lude (sep-oct time) so I'm starting to source parts now.

Plan:
Respray and fit Motegi body kit & spoiler
respray wheels
paint interior fake wood bits, probably gun metal grey or similar.
remove engine to clearly see exactly where the oil leak is coming from, replace, clean, paint any parts/seals needed while I am at it. Give the engine bay a good clean aswell.
full service...etc
Build a 2.5inch catback using magnaflow bits
fit atr front brake setup (already refurbed) + ds2500 pads, new rear discs/pads too. Motul 600 fluid.
fit the energy suspension bush kit (I need to source the missing pair of bushes out of my kit first) and clean/paint any suspension components that need it.
Purchase and fit an upgraded rear anti-roll bar (I've messaged h-tune to see if they can supply a Tanabe one)

I do find myself in a bit of a dilemma though. I was looking at fitting mfactory's lsd aswell but I haven't been able to save as much as I would like this summer. How good is it? It would go in my M2P4 box. Do I need to buy the Mfactory Diff bearings aswell?
I'm interested in one to get rid of the understeer that preludes seem to suffer with. I already have meisterR road coilovers and good set of sticky summer tyres. Even with these, on the mountain roads around where I live I find the front wants to wash away on really tight bends.

so yeah, if you're bored enough to have already read all this rant, any advice on stuff to do while I'm at it or suggestions on bits I may have over looked will be appreciated!
Have a good weekend guys and girls.

[wurlycorner]

rattymcclelland
merlin
are the after market diff experts on here I think

[tom023]

First off merry christmas everyone! Hope you are all full of xmas day leftovers today.

After xmas dinner today (I had it with the in-laws yesterday) I decided to start the engine rebuild. All that has been done today was oil leak detection, coolant leak detection and a compression test.

I've had an annoying oil leak since I have had the car and it seemed to be coming from behind the cambelt covers (that's why i pulled them off and changed all oil pump area seals and gaskets a while back), however it didn't stop the leak so today i have removed the covers looking for the leak yet again. It was bone dry inside and I have found that it is coming from the back of the rocker cover gasket which is a pain as I changed this following correct procedure. The oil was travelling down the wiring harness and spreading around the back of the engine.

The Lude has also developed a water leak coming off of the body of the water pump. Under a test pressure of 1.1bar it is slowly dripping from the bleed hole, showing the the inside of the water pump is f***ed. I need to call up parts tomorrow as this should still be under guarantee.


Before removing the engine I wanted to do a compression test to check general health and I am please to say that I got some healthy numbers back:
cylinder 1: 240 psi
cylinder 2: 240 psi
cylinder 3: 250 psi
cylinder 4: 235 psi
The only problem is the sevice manual states that they should be around 185 psi. High numbers could possibly be carbon build-up in the combustion chamber but the numbers seem a bit too high for that. I'm guessing the workshop compression testing equipment is faulty.


My H-tune goodies arrived finally! It took a while due to lack of stock on some washer jets that I ended up cancelling, but apart from that I can't fault their service and would buy from H-tune again. The Blox gear knob is very heavy, it's hard to comprehend how something that small can be so heavy!

[tom023]

After doing a bit of digging on the interwebs I've found jdm engines and the h22a8 seem to run between 230 - 260 psi, with one guy stating his freshly rebuilt engine put out 260 psi across the board. I'm chuffed with mine putting out such consistent and "high" numbers with 165000miles on the clock!
Dad's pleased his compression tester isn't a dud.