I hope to do whatever is needed to make it last, at this point I am not 100% sure of what has been damaged until I can get the crank exposed.

I will go with an ap2 oil pump, there is lots of speculation that the ap2 oiling system was improved over the ap1 setup. As for facts I don't have any really, but there has been lots of discussions about it that I think it is likely worthwhile. Billman250 has put one on his car, perhaps he has more specs on it. If I'm going to be in there messing around I might as well put in a new pump. No sense in firing up the engine just to find a bad pump afterwards, a few extra bucks will give me some peace of mind. Thanks for the continued discusion/info, much appreciated.

 

Why would I want to remove a fine piece of Honda airflow engineering?


Maybe an accusump would fit where the airco compressor would be.....

 

Only for better sound, and perhaps a better chance at hydrolock as well!

 

a bit of an update. I've pulled three rod caps on cylinders 2,3,4 and the bearings and crank look perfect, a tiny bit of smearing on one bearing but no copper showing through, definitely no chunking going on that would spit out all the metal I've seen in the pan. I still have to pull the number one rod but it would be hard to imagine it throwing off all that metal.

I have no metal on the oil pick up screen. I pulled the vtec solenoid and there is some metal on the vtec solenoid screen but it is very fine metal, same colour as the stuff in the oil pan - bi-coloured silver and copper but it is very very fine, finer than sand.

I will be home tonight so I can take some pictures, but there isn't much to see thus far. I'm going to pull the oil pump and it will give me more access to the number one rod and I will pull it off as well next.

 

To have Debris on the vtec screen does that mean the oil filter was going into bypass?

 

I'm not sure what direction the oil takes on route to the solenoid it may be possible that the oil filter was in by-pass. I still have the oil filter on the engine.

 

the mains could be spun

 

The filter is the last thing the oil touches before it goes back to the pan. Any metal will make at least one pass through the engine. The vtec screen is a common place to find metal, but it's usually a fine paste from normal engine wear.

 

yup, if the rod bearing of number one isn't totally destroyed then it is the main bearings for sure. If that is the case then I guess that goes against the common thought that rod bearings are the first to go ahead of the mains.

To replace the main bearings I assume the engine should be pulled out ?, any confirmation of that would be appreciated, thanks.

 

yeah the stuff on the solenoid was very fine, much finer than the pieces in the pan. Thanks for confirming the oil flow info.