Engine Service Finished

After much postponing, I went to do the oil change. It was one of the jobs I liked the least, mainly because I don't like greasy stuff on my hands. But I hate wearing gloves. But let's get on with the details...

First I swapped the rectifier with the new one just arrived from the UK. Plugged the battery in, started the engine and tested the voltage. The Digidash still reads less than 12v when I turn on the lights... So the problem is not with the rectifier. I'll have to research what other components may be causing this. At least I now have a spare for a part that usually fails.

While the engine was warming up the oil, jacked up the car so that the pan would fit under the engine. Having the car up a bit, the Digidash was reading 22º for the oil temp. Should be more but having the temp reader on the end of a pipe is known to not be the best solution. When I untightened the drain plug, after turning the engine off, it SURE was hotter!

All oil drained, removed the oil filter. And made a mess of my garage floor. Forgot to put some newspapers under the car and the filter contained oil that was then spilled. Cleaned the mess, placed the newspapers and then closed the drain and moved the old oil from the pan to 2L Coke bottles. I now need to find a place that can take them to be recycled. There was almost no deposit on the pan, just 3 or 4 "flakes", almost like bits of paint. I hope this means I have a strong gearbox! To reach the filter, removing my side panel wasn't enough. Had to unbolt and take off the nosecone too.

Unpacked the new filter, smeared the seal with the new oil and fitted it. Then used a funnel to feed the remaining oil into the engine. I wanted to follow Andy's (from AB Performance) instructions but ended up just putting the whole 4L of oil inside the engine. It should be good as the Haynes manual said the engine would take 3,7L if I changed the filter.

I didn't recall the PSI figures when the engine was running. So I cranked with no spark and relieved a bit the filter. PSI rose to 7, I thought it should be enough. Added the spark and cranked the engine. It fired into life at around 40PSI... Ups :)

Left the car on stands because next task will be to fix the wobbly front wheel, that will imply removing the wheel. After that I should really take it to a track. Even without fixing the electric issues and the battery charging...

More driving around!

After pressing the small nipples of the spark plugs on the bench and using a wrench on the plugs, the nipples came off. 5 minutes for 4 sparks. Fit them on the car and went for a ride. Actually, lapped around the garage for a bit over one hour. The wife drove a bit too. Took her around, drove the kid and also the mother-in-law. Great afternoon.

On this photo it is clearly visible that the full lock on the steering makes the tires hit the headlights that, fortunately, are not fully tightened.

Another photo and a video.

Used 2nd gear for the first time. By the end of the hour, the brake peddle was sticking midway and would brake a lot further down. Wonder if it was tired from braking a lot or some other problem.
Water temp rose to 99º. Turned the fan on (minimum) and it went down to a stable 84º. Couldn't use max speed because the rectifier is really broken. With dip beam the battery does not charge. Running lights and fan at max speed and the battery warning light would light up!
When I stopped the car, no liquids dripping on the floor! Great!

Next I have to replace the oil and the oil filter... And take care of the wobbly front wheel!

Servicing The Engine (Part I)

After a month, I'm back at the car. The idea was to service the engine and maybe take care of the issue with the front left wheel.

Spent loads of time removing the spark plugs, setting the spacing on the new ones and trying to fit them. In the end had to remove the new ones from the engine because they have a "fat thing" where the leads connect to and the leads don't fit. Probably those things can be removed but I applied some strength with pliers and failed. Before applying more force, decided to look online, so left the car with no spark plugs.

The old plugs are NGK CR9EH and the new ones are the upgraded NGK CR9EIX Iridium ones. The old plugs all had the dark colour from the photo. From the guide on the Haynes manual, it means probably too rich, idle screw problems or blocked air filter. Probably all... Otherwise it can be oil on the chambers and that is more problematic. But since the engine does not seem to lose oil, I guess it is not that.

Then swapped the air filter. Removed an original Honda and placed a HiFlo equivalent. Quick and easy job.

Next time I hope to fit the spark plugs so that I can start the engine to heat up the oil a bit. Then get the car on stands to remove the oil and replace the filter. Being realistic, the front wheel will be another session.

Finished (?!?) and a Drive

Well... All the parts I had are now fit to the car. It is actually finished. After 4 years and 2 months, what I thought would take less than a year is done!
Of course, I still need to fix the stuff I did wrong, service the engine, fit some needed mods... But... I have nothing more inside boxes. All is fitted to the car...

Today's session was to fix the tonneau. It was just a slow process of putting masking tape, marking a hole, drill, rivet the button in place, fix the tonneau, mark another hole, repeat. It took me a couple of hours. The buttons are a bit loose because the pop-rivet pliers could not hold the rivet correctly inside the button. Just as I was getting to the end of it (2 rivets to go) I noticed Steve from Aries had packed a bit of tube along with the buttons and rivets for this job. Putting the bit of tube over the rivet shaft allowed the gun to fix the rivet correctly in place and break the rivet cleanly. The last two are fixed as all should. Maybe one day I'll drill the others out and rivet them again properly. Maybe not... But another praise to Steve, he thought of these things and his attention to detail still amazes me.

Once the tonneau was fixed in place I decided I'll not cover the car again. So I took out the remaining bubble-wrap I had on the roll bar to avoid scratching. Vacuum cleaned the interior of the car and the dirt on the fiberglass body (that would not go out with a cloth due to static electricity).

Now I should take care of lights, no? Well... Let's fit the battery. This time I used the proper nuts and bolts that came with the battery instead of the temp ones I was using and were getting rusty. And sanded the terminals on the car loom. I wonder if the problem with the car was bad connections to the battery due to rust and incorrect bolts... Turned the key and... First time!

OK... Lapped the garage over 10 times. Like a kid. With a new toy. :)

After these laps I identified or confirmed a couple of problems to tackle.

With no lights or running lights, the battery gives 13v to 14v, which means the alternator is charging it. On low beam the battery drops to 12v. I'm not sure if it charges at all at 12v (with the engine idling). I'm unsure if this is a problem or not...

Brakes do need bleeding, although not much. For effective braking, I need to pump once to get the peddle hard and then it works correctly.

The front wheel, driver's side, wobbles a bit. It needs tightening...

The headlights are not tightly bolted and so they move. Which probably is good because when I turn the steering completely to one side, the outer wheel hits the headlamp and moves it inside. When I finished my laps seemed the car was looking to something on the tip of its nose. Must find a way to reduce the turning radius of that steering.

I want a spring on the accelerator peddle to give me more feel and help the cable return.

Some 10 minutes after I turned the car off, the radiator leaked a bit. I'm not sure if this was because I didn't leave the fans working a bit after I turned the car off.

Next session will be engine service and tightening the front wheel.

Failed Drive

Today the garage was being washed. I got a borrowed spot on a different floor so that I could move the car there and get my spot washed. Unfortunately I didn't manage to start the car up. The battery gave up before the engine sprung to life. It was almost working but almost was not enough.

I've charged the battery to try again on the weekend. Could be because I tried to get it going with the hood on and it is not getting enough air (never had used it with the hood on). Can also be because I finished all the electrics and something is draining more battery (a bad earth?). And there is also the fact that the engine is really overdue to have a service. It contains oil that is 5 years old, the spark plugs are probably older, the filters are the ones that came with the engine...

Took the chance that had the battery in and tested the lights. Not that bad...

• Emergency lights -Only blinks the lights on the left side;
• Direction lights - When I signal left the right side lights turn on, when I signal right the left side lights go, so I wired the lever the wrong way. Easy fix...;
• Driving/Low beam/High beam lights - OK;
• Rear plate light - OK, turns on when driving lights are lit;
• Brakes - Not sure if right side lit up, left works;
• Rear presence lights - OK on both sides, when Driving or Low Beam (not sure which) turns on;
• Fog light - Did not light up and neither did the dash indicator. Forgot to try if it would work with high beam on, in case I mixed wires. Can also be a dead bulb. Can't be a fuse, I checked them recently.

I need to get back at working on the car. Would like to take it for a track day in late November...

The Other Arch And Electrics

Based on prior experience, today I tackled the other arch. What took 2h30m for the right side took only 1h15m for the left side. I was amazed! And it looks a lot better! Well, on the pictures both sides look nice, but "on the flesh" it is different.

Next step was to finish the electrics. Spent some time considering the best way to pass the cables from inside the arches to the boot. Final decision was to drill a hole, with the 12mm drillbit, on the rear panel, hidden by the arch. Put some rubber pipe to "line" the hole, avoiding chaffing the hires. Then get the wires through the hole.

All wires crimped and connected. Just needs testing, which I couldn't do since the battery was not fitted. Next session will be lights testing and to fit the buttons for the boot cover.

One Arch In, One To Go

My session started with a dying light. Four years ago when I bought my lamp, I also bought a spare bulb "just in case it blows and causes the end of a work session". It took some time, but turned out to be a wise move :)

The process of fixing the arch was not simple. Drilled on the arch two holes on the front-facing side and one on the rear facing side. Positioned the arch and marked the car where to drill to match the holes on the arch. Took extra care to centre the wheel correctly. Marked, drilled, bolted slightly in place, marked the inner of the arch where other holes should go, took the arch out, drilled it, masked the car, bolted the arch back, marked the masking tape, took the arch out, drilled the car, bolted it all back in... Through this process, had to do a couple of extra holes: one because behind the rear end there was a rail and I would not be able to fit the bolt. The other because of a marking error, hole should be 3mm to the side...

Then the hard task started... When I was trying to bolt permanently the arch, it would not fit nicely near the top chassis rail. There was a gap between the arch and the side of the car. Had to undo most bolts, file down the arch a bit to make it sit better and tried bolting all back in. The self-tapping bolt that holds that seems to be too short for the gap and the "stress" the part is in... I will either have to get a longer bolt, undo it all and file a bit more or just forget about it.

Lots of lessons learnt for when I get to do the other side. And yes, the light wires were not crimped nor connected. Next week or so...