Lude Generation

Sometimes I scare myself with the things I do. The head work was done simply because it was sitting next to me on a TV tray, and I was bored because the valves hand't arrived. I have to keep busy!

Hopefully some day when my car is finished I'll stand a better chance on the Prelude of the month contest. I was nominated last month, but I would feel like a fraud if I had of won before the car was finished.

K30DPC wrote:Are those valves any better over OEM ones? and why not 6000 series? And one more. Is it standard size or +1mm?

My initial plan was to take the valves out of my existing H22A4 head and swap them over to the Type-S. I thought better of it when I considered those valves have been mated to those seats now since at least October '98, and have been in service for 200000kms. I don't have any question about their longevity, but rather their ability to seal in different seats, in a completely different head. OEM valves are rather expensive from the dealer, and since I am on a limited budget, I decided, after reading just about every review I could find, on Ferrea.

From Ferrea's site:

"5000 Series Hi Performance Valves
The 5000 Series Hi Performance Valves have become the alternative for performance engine builders that use our competitors “street” or “performance valve”. These valves are machined in our CNC centers allowing tight tolerances and cost effective design.

They feature a one-piece forging made from stainless steel, a special heat treatment process, hard chrome stems, and hard tip. Most applications are available in an undercut stem and dished head, while other applications are available in straight stem and flat head."

"6000 Series Competition Valves
The 6000 Series Competition Valves are designed to provide excellent reliability in an environment of high spring pressures and roller cams, at a budget price. They have higher fatigue resistance and tensile strengths than our competitor’s best offerings.

To manufacture the valves we use our exclusive two-step slow forging process using EV8 stainless steel on both intake and exhaust valves.We provide a special heat-treatment and stress relieving process, along with hard chrome stems and friction-welded hard tips. We finish with a swirl polished head. The valves feature flow improvements to deliver the power needed for today’s sophisticated racing engines."


My plans for this car are OEM+, with as much horsepower as Honda intended them to have. I'll be happy with 220hp with stock or stockish parts. If I get a little more than that I'm happy. I don't plan on racing this car, or driving it hard, or een driving it on a daily basis. That being said, after reading Ferrea's literature, I felt the 5000 series would be sufficient for my plans. The 6000 to me seemed to be a bit of overkill.

I made a silly mistake when I picked the valves up. I didn't open all 16 boxes and check them all. As a result, I found two exhaust valves that are defective. Now I have to go back to the store and have them exchanged.

I went with the standard sizes for my valves.

2nd time I've read through this thread. Some great tips on rust removal and interesting to see your work polishing the exhaust ports as well. You managed any more work on it recently? Be interesting to know the current state of your car now.

I haven't been able to do much on the car itself because this winter has been absolutely brutal. Plus I have had some long work hours recently. When you're not working, you have all the time in the world, but no money. When you are working, you have the money, but no time. =/

I was thinking about delegating some tasks, simply because I don't have the time to do all the work myself anymore. I'll probably farm out the engine bay paint and the LSD installation, because of the special tools involved, and the likelyhood of something going wrong with the paint.

I recently started working on the head again, and looking at some suspension solutions. The Explicit traction bar is starting to appeal to me more because of the added clearance around the header, and the fact that it is one less part to blast, prep and restore. Its also very expensive to buy. I think though, I might just go for it.

The '96 has been keeping me busy as well. I have a CEL for the cat working below its threshold or some nonsense, and my fuel economy has taken a dump. 4-500km per tank. This winter hasn't been kind to the rust on the body, and the roads where I work are like an artillery range. As a result, I am almost certain from the quick glances underneath the car, the rear swaybar has completely snapped. I can see an end dangling, with no endlink or attachment point for an end link visible, so I have to assume it broke near the end. I am hoping for a warmer, dry day to do a good survey of the '96 to see where I stand with it. If the rust has gotten too bad, I may just scrap it and look for another shell.

So much going on lately. Nothing really new to take pictures of, but soon hopefully I'll have more interesting updates.

Hah, I know the feeling about the work/time balance. I became self-employed last year so started doing all the jobs on my car I've been meaning to do for years and had almost no time to do in my last job as I worked insane hours all the time.

Rust is always a worry on these cars as they are getting older, I really need to attack the corrosion on my 4WS unit and rear swaybar, among a few other bits. Having it rust right through and snap must be "interesting!"

When I found the sway bar on the '96 broke, I set out on a quest to find the elusive Progress sway bar to replace it. After chasing down dead leads for a couple of weeks, I found one on ebay!



The only problem is it doesn't come with any mounting hardware. =/


I think I will end up putting this on the '99, and going with a ST swaybar on the '96, since they are still plentiful.


Work has been ridiculous lately, so not much work has been done on the car.


Stay tuned.

I've never seen one with optional droplink pickups before

That's what makes the Progress bar so unique. Its adjustable!

So it should stiffen the back end up by moving the droplinks further back? Are you going to get beefier droplinks if you opt for that position?

I have searched high and low for a progress bar. No one on preludepower will ship it to the UK.

Muchos jealousness.

Great read, and I wish I could do 10% of those jobs.