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I'm working on my car faster than I'm updating here so I bring you a brief interlude of my favorite S. I'm getting pretty stoked for firing this thing up
Back to my build; I called the machine shop and asked about the height of my head and how it is right at the service limit (4.132 in.), and if I should be concerned. He reassured me that I would be fine and quoted a compression figure lower than Slowcrash's estimate, but figured the spec in the book was a safe operating figure. Yeah, I didn't even scream at him about how I had asked for nothing or .001 to be milled. Yeah.
I'm just hoping it runs smoother and I can trick my mind into believing it has a little more power.
Oh, yeah, and that it doesn't blow up, there's always that.
Last edited by saving4one; 11-15-2020 at 09:33 AM.
Last Wednesday, I put the header and heat shields back on.
Everything was going well until I dropped another bolt down into the unknown, and it never hit the floor. This time it was the bolt for the heat shield that is closest to the firewall, the one that you only need to loosen because the heat shield hooks onto it. Of course I threaded it out too far and dropped it. It was not in the same heat shield from my earlier dropped bolt, and after about 15 minutes of probing around with a magnet tool I found it in between one of the joining plates and piping where two header pipes merge. Aha!
The next night I cleaned the inside of the runners and fuel injector bosses? on my intake in preparation to bolt it to the head.
Then after my childrens were off to bed I had my wife run the fuel line and a couple of hoses in between the intake runners while I held the manifold up. Then I set the manifold down on the two studs and went to grab the nuts, when I realized, hey wait a minute, WTF? The studs were on the bottom row of bolt holes on the head instead of the top where they belong. All the pictures I posted and no one (including me) noticed! The machine shop got me again, dammit. Then out of anger I grabbed a pair of vice grips and like a fool removed the studs. Yes, I do know how to use two nuts (one as a jam nut) to remove studs and put them in, but I totally spaced that trick because I was thinking about the machine shop having my head for over two months and they re-installed those studs in the wrong location and they milled .006 off my head.... Ok, I wasn't really that pissed, I think I was just upset with myself for being so hasty, and screwing up some of the threads on those studs, and that I could not proceed anymore in my re-assembly for that night. At least I didn't damage the flange/mating area of my head. I took the studs into work the next day and ran a die over them and a thread saver file thingy and called it good. I would have bought two new studs from my local Honda dealership in Yreka, if they had stocked them, but of course they didn't. So, unlike the header nuts that they also didn't stock, I wasn't going to drive to Medford to get some new studs.
Last edited by saving4one; 10-27-2016 at 12:03 AM.
Since you're in California, I take it that you only have 91 and probably have very limited if any access to 93... I hope that isn't a problem.
I hope it isn't a problem either. Like Slowcrash commented, I'm hoping that the stock ecu won't have a problem with a slightly higher compression ratio. It is to my understanding that the .008 service limit still pertains to stock tolerances and head gasket, in which case I would think the recommended 91 octane would still be sufficient. When I was living in NY I could get 93 and 94 octane which was what I always used, now I usually fill the S up in Oregon with 92 and it is cheaper than CA 91. The OR border is 30 miles from my house.
That Friday evening I put the studs back in their proper locations and my wife again helped me get the intake on the studs. I must say putting the intake back on was a lot quicker than taking it off. I have to give a lot of thanks to my wife, who stayed up top while I worked from underneath the car to make sure all the brackets, hoses and lines were routed correctly. She easily cut the time involved in half, I think she was enjoying the puzzle-like quality of it all, and no one wants me to get my S back together more than she does.
I stayed up after she went to bed and kept at it as far as I could without having my fuel injectors, smiling the whole time because I couldn't believe the intake manifold was almost completely done. Removing it had been the biggest pain and every time I looked at the mess of hoses and stuff that lurked underneath it while my head was away I couldn't help but think it was going to be just as big of a pain putting it all back together. But there it was and the rat's nest of stuff under it looked to be all in order.
Another good part was all of the empty plastic bags and broken down cardboard boxes that had kept my parts clean and arranged for these long couple of months. It just solidified the thought of how close I was to getting my S running again.
One thing I forgot to write about is what is going on with my fuel injectors. I originally sent them out to be cleaned a week or so after my head was at the machine shop. RC Engineering cleaned, flow tested, and fitted all new o-rings and then sent them back to me in a weeks time. When I opened the box there was a notification saying to install the injectors immediately, which at the time I thought 'That's alright I'll be getting my head back any day now.' Of course those of you that have been reading this know that I didn't get my head back until two months later. I contacted RC Engineering in late September to tell them what was going on with my head and they said they recommend installing them immediately because the longer they sit around not functioning they might not work at all. Their CSR told me that I could check them myself when I went to install them by putting power to them and listening for the clicking if they were working. I asked her if I could just send them back (after I got my head back) and they could re-check them for me. And that's exactly what they did (great customer service)! So that brings us to today, and I picked my injectors up at the post office when I got out of work. So I might be up a little late tonight, I wont get it running but I should get all the fuel rail/intake/harness stuff done.
Last edited by saving4one; 08-06-2017 at 06:58 PM.
Reason: stupid wrong noun
10-20-2016, 08:43 AM
Ok, I wasn't really that pissed, I think I was just upset with myself for being so hasty, and screwing up some of the threads on those studs, and that I could not proceed anymore in my re-assembly for that night. At least I didn't damage the flange/mating area of my head. I took the studs into work the next day and ran a die over them and a thread saver file thingy and called it good. I would have bought two new studs from my local Honda dealership in Yreka, if they had stocked them, but of course they didn't. So, unlike the header nuts that they also didn't stock, I wasn't going to drive to Medford to get some new studs.
I wont get it running but I should get all the fuel rail/intake/harness stuff done.
only intake box and battery left
It's about time!!