Lude Generation

Gentlemen, as you guys have been such a fabulous source of information given freely and quickly I am going to attempt to give back, as it were, and share my problem (and the cure) to the whole idle/hunting idle problem I've had since buying the Prelude.
To be frank, I had been using a guy who I thought I could trust but, after meeting a car-nut who works down the road from me (he owns a GTR and a 3.5 Accord) he put me in touch with a Honda mechanic who moonlights on selected client cars.
He's given the car a thorough going over and we prioritised getting the engine sorted asap. The idle thing had been driving me crackers from day one and the first guy who attempted to fix it ( by constantly adjusting the idle screw) just couldn't fix it. To cap it all he just kept fobbing me off with baloney the sort of which made me absolutely frustrated. Anyway, I've given that dimwit the boot and put all my faith in the new guy to get it sorted.
As you know Gents, I'm not the most mechanically minded person on this forum and am nowhere in your league with regard to knowledge but I hope this tale can be read by others suffering the same problem, and I hope, may provide clues and solutions for them to sort their idling issues out.
I've got lots of pictures (and although I've read the guide in the 'how to' section, I hope I do it right.
First of all - here's the shopping list of parts I have needed to clear up my idling problem - photos to follow.

H22A Knock sensor
Water pump pipe
Oil filter housing and cooler
Thermostat housing
Top head water pipe
Oil cooler hose
Bypass hose
Top head water pipe seal
Oil cooler O ring
Water pump pipe O rings
Bypass pipe adaptor bung
Fuel filter
Knock sensor connector
Water pump pipe stopper
Vehicle speed sensor

These were all parts badly corroded/bodge fitted or blocked solid with rust. My new mechanic reckons it's been a combination of crappy coolant and bodging for a while that has caused an escalating series of events, one event triggering yet another.

( I've taken all these out as I was doing it wrongly. The photos are now lower down.

I do hope I've done the loading thing properly as I think it shows how important it is to keep the system clear of rust. Thast's what's been causing the effects to my car with the knock on effect of all these other things going wrong as well.

At the moment I'm running the car with a special kind of 'organic cleaner' as the coolant as he wants to completely clear the system of any other debris and accumulated crud he hasn't been able to dislodge through washing the cooling system.

I tell you guys, the transformation is remarkable. The idle speed is solid and stable at about 650 when I'm at the lights and the surging has gone completely. It feels great, nice and smooth and pulls like a bloody train. I'm really thrilled.

Anyway, Sunday is pork product smuggling run to Singapore to stock up so I'll be able to take her out for a real good blast.

Apologies for the length of this and hope it all makes sense. I hope a newbie out there sees this kind of post-mortem and keep my fingers crossed that it may help someone else.

Speak to you all again after my Sunday blast to Singapore! I'll let you know how she went.

Sorry, just to add that I apologise for not labelling what the parts are. These are the parts taken off and replaced that the mechanic gave me back to prove the work he's done. He did tell me what they but I'm afraid I've forgotten which bit was which. If any of you Prelude gurus can edit the photos to 'name the part' then please, be my guest. Thanks.

Great news that it's sorted and well done for reporting back.
Yep, the cooling system is crucial to idle speed on Honda's and as you say, neglect the system (eg run it without anti-freeze in it) at your peril!

Pics aren't showing in the post above, you need to edit the post, highlight each link and then press the "Img" button above the text window. That will put "[ img]link sits here[ /img]" around the link and make it show correctly.

Hi wurlycorner and thanks for the advice on the pics. I've done what you said but something is not right. I now have 'blue/green' boxes showing with no pictures. When I click on the 'box', the screen goes black with a white box in the centre and it appears to be loading but nothing is happening. Arrgghhhhhhh! What have I done wrong mate?

I think the pics are too big. ( or so a mate just told me). It's nearly the end of the working day for me so I've already made them smaller in Picassa. I'll upload the new ones to Photobucket tomorrow and you should be able to see my horror show on Wednesday. Apologies for my technical stupidity...

Fingers crossed your bouncing idle is just the IACV. You can test by removing the intake and putting your finger over one of the two holes. Like so:

[youtube]wwm0-tlsNHk[/youtube]

The top hole is IACV and the bottom hole goes to the FITV. When you plug the IACV hole with your finger the revs should drop. If they do not you have a problem with your IACV. Covering the FITV should not do anything as it should be closed when the engine is hot. IF it is the IACV your need to take it off the front of the intake manifold and clean the mesh filter.

OK, before I go to my meeting I'll try the smaller version of one to test it.

Hey no worries there. Size shouldn't be an issue here just had a quick look (if I quote your original post I can see the text) and I think it's the wrong links that's been copied in? Currently they end in ".jpg.html" which isn't right I don't think. The link you want to copy and paste into the text is the one shown in the "img" box in photobucket. If you paste that into the text directly, you don't need to press the img button (the link contains that code already)

OK, before I go to my meeting I'll try the smaller version of one to test it.


Edit [Merlin] - add [IMG] tags round that link and it works

Thanks so much - that works when you click the link. Sorry, got to go to this meeting now. I'll redo it tomorrow. Many apologies for all this faffing about.