Looks to me that there was scoring in every cylinder before the failure. Perhaps the new bolts were not installed soon enough on this engine.

 

Is there any way of testing how much damage the engine has sustained before the oil bolt upgrade? Would a simple compression test suffice? Or would one need a visual inspection?

I feel a bit of a fool for not worring about this before my warranty ran out. But I'll probably check it anyway.

With the first cars dropping out of warranty, I leave it as a warning for other owners...

 

My guess is the only good way to look for cylinder scoring in to use a 'boro-scope', that is a lighted fiber optical device to look through the plug holes. I don't think compression will give a true indication in all cases.

 

Chris, how can I tell which cylinder is which in the pictures? Until I read this post, I didn't realize that Danny posted pictures of each cylinder.

Some thread. Thanks for the heads up!

 

Now that I have had time to reflect on this and gain some experience with the oil jets, I think there is another real possibility for this failure.

This car had just had the new bolts installed, and it turns out that the only one that is very difficult is the jet for the #1 cylinder. If the mechanic that did the work failed to properly seat the jet or torque the new bolt on #1 the results would be exactly what we see. A catastrophic seizure that could easily lead to a rod failure.

It would simply take a close examination of the #1 oil jet to see if that is the case, but it is a logical explanation. The questionable competence of so many mechanics at US dealers may be one reason AHM does not want to do this.. you would probably see a number of #1 failures!

 

The pics are amazing.

The exact same thing happened to my engine except #2 conrod snapped.
Scoring on all bores once again.

In Australia Honda refuse to acknowledge the oil bolt recall as well.

I have been fighting Honda for 5 months now to replace my engine under warranty and they still refuse. They claim I overreved the engine.

 

dhess, keep everyone posted on your progress.
danny thanks for posting everything here.

 

Hi all,
well add one more #1 cylinder failure to the list. Long story short, I brought the car from the US to Greece. The car developed the problem (metallic tapping noise 1 month ago). I was hoping it was only the piston/ rod I would have to replace but #1 cylinder is scored. The mechanic said it was due to the oil bolts (my car is a 2001 model with the old oil bolts). So I am trying to get the short block but I am having some difficulties locating it. In the US the part number is 10002-PCX-A05. Do you guys know the corresponding number in Europe? Do the short blocks in Europe differ?

Thx
Yiannis

 

Sorry to hear about your engine Yiannis, but every failure makes my case stronger.

Honda Australia have been given an ultimatum to replace my car with a new one by my legal team. If they don't I will take great pleasure in tearing them a second asshole in court.

PS I think the part number should be the same. Their are only 2 F20C engines.

F20C1 for the whole world.
F20C2 for Japan.

 

... nope ... F20C for japan, F20C1 for low octane countries, F20C2 for the remainder...