Merlin's H22a8 '99 5th Gen

toadster · Post by **toadster** » Wed Feb 08, 2023 8:02 pm

Lo

Looking very nice

Love the alloys

Cheers

Toadster

JDM-BB4 · Post by **JDM-BB4** » Mon Feb 20, 2023 1:17 pm

Nice work on the new 5th gen Merlin.

Plenty of changes on here since I last had a nosey around.

Post by **Merlin** » Thu Apr 13, 2023 12:19 pm

My car is almost back together, I'll do a bigger update next week once it is running.

Just a few pics of one of the new parts that has been installed. I managed to get a new OEM crank pulley from Japan for £155 delivered, it's the first time I have ever held a new crank pulley.

You'll notice all the puppy training pads under the car, they are there to help mop up the coolant explosion I had when changing the water pump

89 UKDM BA4 4WS (resto job!) · Post by **wurlycorner** » Thu Apr 13, 2023 2:58 pm

Sexy stuff (for a 5th gen...)

Post by **Merlin** » Thu May 25, 2023 10:39 am

The car is essentially together now, although I have a small issue of a noise coming from the engine. Have tried a few things, but nothing has sorted it. Will be redoing the value clearances at the weekend.

In the meantime, this just turned up, Innovative Mounts traction bar and front mount. I wanted the front mount, as at the moment I don't want full poly mounts, plus when you go to do the clutch it's advantageous to have 3 engine mounts attached.

Post by **vanzep** » Thu May 25, 2023 5:13 pm

car looks great - bit worrying about the noise coming from the head - hope that valve adjustment to lower end of tolerance will sort it out.
if not then RACE ENGINE

Scott560 · Post by **Scott560** » Thu May 25, 2023 5:32 pm

I found the workshop manuals method of 'light resistance dragging' to be far too slack/variable, sounded terrible. When I last re-redid the clearances, I went from using my method with the larger manual clearances to my method with the lower clearances and there have been no issues. Perhaps my cheap gauges are crap... I wouldn't say there is any difference between the higher end and lower end of the manuals spec for clearances - the method seems much more important to me.

in short - my method involves no dragging. Put the feeler in, then using the valve adjustment tool, twist the shank with finger/thumb only until you feel the resistances of the screw adjuster change. It is very consistent and repeatable angle/tolerance unlike the bind/drag method. Pulling out the feeler gauge afterwards is definitely more than light drag at this stage, but it seemed the only way to quieten down the top end. Car has performed well ever since.

Sorry for the thread hijack - good work otherwise!

Post by **vanzep** » Thu May 25, 2023 6:28 pm

Thanks Scott - will give it a go - i also need to redo my vc on BB1 as it sounds worse than before i did it.
Good to know that others have had same issue.

Post by **Merlin** » Mon May 29, 2023 11:07 am

After what feels like an age, the car is running, although not back on the floor at the moment. Anyway, a recap of what has been going on.

As the car has been sitting for many years, I wanted to give it a new timing belt and H23 manual tensioner conversion. I had a big issue in getting the lower timing belt cover off, in the end we had to resort to removing the fork of the bottom of the coilover and undo the radius rod bolts, just so I could move the radius rod out of the way to get the lower cover out. I can't remember ever having so much issue with the lower timing belt cover. The timing belt I took off was a brand new Honda OEM belt, but since it was coming off and I had bought a new one, plus its age, it was obviously changed.

With all of that side of the engine off, I fitted:

H23 manual timing belt conversion
Gates H22 timing belt & balance shaft belt
Continental power steering and aircon belts
Honda balance shaft retaining clip
Quinton Hazell water pump
Replaced the power steering pump with one from my last H22a8 (original one whined)
Honda OEM crank pulley
Honda OEM crank pulley bolts & woodruff key
New valve cover seal kit
NGK Iridium spark plugs
Used Magnecor 8 mm Performance blue ignition cables from my last H22a8

We fitted all the parts, put everything back together and did the valve clearances. Once we started the engine, we could hear something was not right, a slapping sound from the head. Straight away (once the engine had cooled) we redid the valve clearances. It didn't work, the noise was still there, so my attention turned to making sure air, fuel and spark were all OK.

The dizzy cap looked OK, swapped the ignition leads back to OEM, changed the now on reflection suspiciously cheap NGK Iridium spark plugs bought from eBay to Bosch Iridium from Eurocarparts. Air going in was OK, fitted a refurbed K&N flat panel filter, intake was clear, and throttle body looked fine. Air getting out was fine too, there was a thought that some small animal had set up home in the exhaust while the car was sat idle, but everything was clear. I knew the fuel was very old, so I drained the tank, fitting a new drain bolt and crush washer while I was there, to see that the old fuel stank and was pi$$-coloured.

None of these fixed the engine noise. Vanzep and I decided that we needed to go back and do the valve clearances again with a different method, pretty much as Scott (above) described. I have done the valve clearances on all of my engines, multiple times, including the race engine for my BB4, but have never had this issue before. Anyway, this time I redid the clearances extremely tight. The service manual says there needs to be some drag from the feeler gauge, but IMO the term "drag" is a bit open-ended. I put 0.006 inch on the intake and 0.007 inch on the exhaust, so tight that you can't get the next size up gauge to fit in there. We triple checked all valve clearances with the correct spec gauge and then the next size up, catching a few out of spec adjustments and fixing them before putting it all back together. It worked, the engine is now very quiet.

While the car is still jacked up, we changed the gearbox fluid using Honda MTF and fitted a Spoon magnetic gearbox sump plug

I now have an issue with one of my ATR calipers, I fitted a new big pot and seal to one of them, I mustn't of done a good job as it was leaking fluid. They are quite old calipers, so decided to just buy a refurbed set. I got a pair of APEC refurbed calipers for £250, which I thought was very reasonable. Although there is an odd thing, we think that of the calipers is for the Honda Legend and the other for the ATR. Both calipers are stamped "L", and while the bleed nipples are in the correct place, the big/small pot are the opposite way round on what is the driver's side caliper (likely the one from the Legend). Not a big deal for me as I don't think what pot leads is going to be an issue, interesting nonetheless and still cheap.

Shiny! Although I am about to paint them black, but nice new pots and seals

Scott560 · Post by **Scott560** » Mon May 29, 2023 9:39 pm

Glad it's not just me that didn't get on with the honda method for adjustments. I also had to remove the lower rod thing to get the lower cover off, complete PITA. Pretty sure I did my neck in whilst doing it too.

Keep your h22 tensioner fitment pieces, someone might need them in the future!

Does sound like you have a legend caliper. I had my ATR ones fitted upside down for ages as I had misread a previous post and later realised that the legend ones are trailing, but ATR are leading fitment like the prelude OE fitment. It never caused an issue as far as I could tell. Technically they should have squealed, but in reality just bleeding them was a bit awkward. They are fitted the right way up now however...

All good work, keep the posts coming!