Merlin's 1993 BA8 Si - Because Race Car

[Scott560]

Looks like an automatic gearbox ECU to me ( https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/325900044422 ) , 2 screws and bracket match up...

[Vtecmec]

Yes, that's the auto box ECU.

[Merlin]

A wee update. Work on the car stalled out as the DVLA refused me a registration on two counts: the MOT tester had put the car down as a Honda Civic, and the DVLA claimed I had not provided enough evidence of the car's date of manufacture.

The car was back in the MOT place yesterday, and it passed again, this time as a Honda Prelude. The big issue was that the alternator on the F22 is goosed, so it ran out of electricity in the MOT testers bay. I had to take the battery out of my 5th gen and race up there to swap it over, after that it was fine.

I originally supplied the DVLA with the proof of purchase from BeForward and the export certificate, both of which show all the car's details, but this wasn't enough for the DVLA guy. They sated that the DVLA wants the first registration certificate, and of course this is not supplied with the car. All exports are deregistered before leading Japan. I found two Japanese companies that provide exported car information: https://carvx.jp and https://japancarhistorycheck.com/

For £20 carvx gave me a document that details all the basic car information, but also the car's auction history, showing all the previous auction sheets and photos. I can see what the car has looked like over the past few years as it has gone from auction house to auction house.

I have just paid £100 for japancarhistorycheck to provide a copy of the original registration certificate. I should have that by email sometime next week. This will allow me to finally get a registration. I have never had this issue with registering previous imports, maybe they have tightened up, or I unluckily got someone very pernickety.

[wurlycorner]

Interesting.
I looking into something similar for this, for the 1st Gen (not to do with registering it here - it's a UK delivered car from new) but to try and get it approved as ULEZ/Road Tax exempt a year earlier - annoyingly the registration date trips it into needing an extra year to wait, but it was manufactured way before that, so I can appeal and get it registered as and exempt (provided I can prove the manufacture date).

If it's a UK built car its really easy - free online form will get you a copy of the CofC.
https://www.honda.co.uk/cars/owners/cer ... rmity.html
Obviously that doesn't apply here, but I expect there is another process you can do, to get it from Honda Japan.
I did try to follow that up, but annoyingly the email address given for these type of enquires for Honda UK, bounced back. I need to try another route...

[Merlin]

The strip of the BB4 began over the holidays. So far, engine/gearbox are out and exhaust is off. It's the first time the exhaust has been off the car since it was made. Cheers to Vanzep for helping me get it out of the car, it's deffo a two man job.













Engine/gearbox wise, I don't think there is too much more to come off the BB4 apart from the pedals, shifter and shifter cables. It's a direct swap of the pedals from the manual BB4 to the auto BA8, everything just bolts into the BA8, including the master cylinder as the auto BA8 has a blanking plate on the firewall. Swapping over the shifter cables will be the hardest part IMO.

We took the gearbox off to have a look at the condition of the clutch, even through It's probably only done a few hundred miles, and it looks fine.

[wurlycorner]

Great pics of a lude paradise

[Merlin]

More stuff done at the weekend. We got the shifter cables out of the BB4, a much easier job than I was expecting!



We were going to change the timing and balance belt but could not see anything wrong with the the old belts, so didn't bother and put the covers back on

You can see the oil on the sump. We believe it is actually seeping through the sump itself, it is fairly corroded. I have a new baffled sump that I am about to get an oil temp sensor nut welded to, so that I can fit the sensor before fitting the sump.

[toadster]

Lo
Great work
Cheers for posting
Toadster

[Merlin]

I took last week off work to get things moving as fast as possible. Big shout to Vanzep for helping, keeping me safe and making me step away before breaking something But so far very little has been broken, the BA8 is in such good condition everything comes off very easily.

The week began with getting the F22 and auto box out of the BA8, together it's a massive lump! We managed to get it out without scratching up the inside of the engine bay.




The car yielded a great condition exhaust, so it's now on Venzep's car, sorting out his exhaust woes.




We noticed that the manual engine loom was not going to plug into the auto internal loom, these little buggers were different:




I have read some forum posts about using the auto engine loom and modifying it, but that was not appealing as I would need to run a VTEC wire, reverse light mod, and have vestigial auto box connectors. I decided to swap the front internal loom from the BB4 into the BA8 for a complete auto->manual swap. The dash needed to come out and all the blower and AC bits removed:




TBH it was not fun fiddling with the fuse box and junction boxes, but after an hour of pinching the looms came out. It was made easier by not having any pedal's in either of the cars, or blower or AC stuff. The automatic loom:



Along the way I did see some things I have never seen before, this interlock control module on the BA8 (it's going in the bin)



Also a JDM LED flare




A pic of all the manual stuff taken off the BB4:




We took the side skirts off and the condition of the sills are lovely.

[vanzep]

cleanest sills ive ever seen on a 4th gen