$2015 Challenge entry - 88 Accord LXi

volvoclearinghouse wrote: In reply to tuna55: I hope it's going to be rocking the whole time this time. The engine sounds really healthy- even better than the supposed "high compression" engine we got out of that Continental. Compression's kindof over-rated, anyway. We're down about 2 points, at least on paper, from that other engine, but that's probably only 10% in terms of power. And that's assuming that other engine had perfect compression, which it didn't. At least this one has new gaskets- and also about a 3% bump in displacement due to it being 60 over. I can't wait to mash the gas down the straight between Turn 9 and the Kink. Sorry for the threadjack.

Can you avoid spinning it in the straightaway this time?

Ba-zing!

I never had the balls to keep it on the floor through the kink with the speedo bouncing all over an optimistic 115 (I think we agreed it was really around 100).

Did you guys ever weld the diff? That's going to be necessary soon.

In reply to tuna55:

I take full responsibility for that spin. You don't know where your limits are until you push them.

I think I calculated the speed at about 107 given tire size and RPM. That's assuming no torque converter or tire slippage, and no tire growth, which would probably cancel out anyway.

I just round up and tell everyone I was doing 110 through the Kink.

We did not weld the diff. We added 3" of track using wheel spacers, we'll see if that helps. i t hink next race, assuming we have nothing major to fix, I'm going to lobby for a rear axle out of a bubble GM wagon. The width is about right, the bolt pattern's the same, limited slip was common, and we'd get a bit better ratio (3.07 IIRC, instead of the 2.75 the Ford rear has now).

GM 10-bolts aren't the stoutest things in the known universe, but the WER rear under the LTD now (no, it's not a 9", or an 8", or a Dana- it's some weird corporate rear Ford only used for a few years, with something like a 8.7" ring gear) actually has a worse reputation, not to mention terrible parts availability. The Gm rear opens up easy disc brake swap options, too.

Or we could, you know, install a Jag IRS.

Visors are checked off the list

Foam core board, with a layer of foam sheet on either side, stuffed into some old leftover vinyl. The budget hit is $8.

New budget:

$1055.72

New "real" (including tools and drinks and such) budget

$1173.12

Nice! There's tons of useful info in this thread!

XLR99 wrote: Nice! There's tons of useful info in this thread!

Thanks!

My new visors are sweet. It was pretty easy, other than the prerequisite of a wife with a decent sewing machine.

We have achieved A/C (and hatch struts)

It needed an expansion valve, and also got a new drier. I think the new refrigerant doesn't count towards the GRM budget because it had refrigerant in there already.

Hatch struts are expensive!!

New budget:

$1104.93

New "real" (including tools and drinks and such) budget

$1236.09

Yup. Hatch struts ARE expensive. But a whole lot cheaper than a trip to the emergency room for a concussion when the high wind lifts the hatch just enough that your stick falls out, causing the hatch to fall on your head, knocking you unconcious at 3am christmas eve in the middle of nowhere. Zionville nc to be exact, on slabtown road.

Dusterbd13 wrote: Yup. Hatch struts ARE expensive. But a whole lot cheaper than a trip to the emergency room for a concussion when the high wind lifts the hatch just enough that your stick falls out, causing the hatch to fall on your head, knocking you unconcious at 3am christmas eve in the middle of nowhere. Zionville nc to be exact, on slabtown road.

Aw crap, man. That sounds awful. How did you get from unconscious to the hospital? I was thinking more for the kids helping me load/unload stuff and whatnot. At any rate, we can agree that it was $27 well spent.

The drunk girlfriend i was driving home called the ambulance.

Expensive lesson.

I replace hatch struts on the wife's Subaru every other year because of this.

Best update to date.

$30 worth of used EGR parts (I bought the whole magic black box of unobtainable Accord specific vacuum computer stuff from another use on Facebook) fixed the EGR CEL. Then I got another one. This was for temperature. You see, I cracked one of the temperature sensors, and that also was causing a CEL, and also to run like the choke was on. $24.74 fixed that. Now it runs like a champ. Well, like a champ back in 1988.

Then the best part. Amazon had some goodies for me through gift cards from work, warehouse deals and open box stuff, I bought $41.65 worth of (four) speakers.

And my kids installed them.

Tunawife was out spending her share of my gift cards (She got $220 to Kohl's and I got $100 worth of car stuff from Amazon) and I was cooking dinner Saturday night and cooking lunch for Sunday ahead for guests. The kids wanted to play outside, and Tunakids #1 and #2 were disappointed that they were not going to be able to mess with the car with me like they wanted.

So I opened up the hatch, and pointed to the speakers, popped off the grates, and said "When you get these out, let me know and I'll get you the new ones. As a reminder, Tunakid #1 is seven and #2 is five.

I was inside, so I don't have pictures of everything, but I ended up using some pliers to squeeze the terminals so they were more snug, and the kids did the rest with their own tools. I still had some time left, so I cut the fabric off of the rear grates and re-installed, and then asked the kids to see if they could find the front speakers.

Tunakid #2 some help because the passenger side had a tiny speaker just sort of wedged in there that the PO obviously threw in a decade ago. I showed them how the new grates would go over the speakers and left again to stir dinner.

When I came back to the car, I brought a Doobie Brothers CD (The Doobies!

And we all rocked out to "Without you" (the live version is great!) while I set the equalizer and balance and whatnot.

A really great day for me. The car sounds great, too!

The car needed gas, and since I was running around basically with the choke on the whole time, it only got 22 mpg. I'll record this next tank with the goal of beating 30 mpg.

New budget:

$1201.32

New "real" (including tools and drinks and such) budget

$1332.48

Dude, that's awesome.

I love to see your kids involved with your projects. keep up the good work!

Correct me if I am wrong, but when you started The Truck, the Tuna kids had not been spawned yet, correct?

If the oldest is 7 now, that would mean I have been following your adventures for a long time. Maybe you should get a reality TV show!

Do you do much tunakid hauling in the Accord? What are your feelings dragging kids around in a car with much different safety features than the Leaf?

In reply to NOHOME:

I re-started in January 2013, but the truck was purchased in 2008 or so.

Tunawife has been trying to turn my build thread into cash, but we can't figure out a way to handle that. I pointed out that GRM bought the leaf springs for me, at like $600, and that was pretty good. Plus, a lot of good buds here.

mazdeuce wrote: Do you do much tunakid hauling in the Accord? What are your feelings dragging kids around in a car with much different safety features than the Leaf?

No, not much.

Yes, I have some worries. I am just minimizing their transport time in it. The chances of any serious accident is low anyway. It's definitely less safe, but it's within my boundaries of risk in the way that I am using it.

Good questions!

These cars crash pretty well for their age, but they still aren't modern cars by any means.

I had my recycling in the hatch over the weekend. When I finally brought it to the bin Sunday, it was wet on the bottom. Turns out the spare tire well, and most of the hatch floor, was covered with water. Oddly, none of the weatherstripping appeared to be wet on the inside.

Anyway, I drilled a 1/2" hole down there and Catywampus peed for five minutes straight. I threw away the padding which was now soaked and smelly. I saved like ten pounds with it wet!

Tail lights in the crx caused the same thing. Pulled them and used some conduit putty to seal around the studs. Solved the problem.

Dusterbd13 wrote: Tail lights in the crx caused the same thing. Pulled them and used some conduit putty to seal around the studs. Solved the problem.

I bet that you nailed it

its really common on neons. that's how I learned about it.

It's the tail light seals. Every one of these old Hondas suffers from it.

Pulled into work last week, :: tick tick tick clicka clicka clicka knocka knocka knocka KNOCKA KNOCKA KNOCKA ::

Apparently, the THREE bolts on the water pump pulley were not tight enough, and two of them decided to take a leave of absence.

Hey, no problem. I know people with tools. Let me just check the Honda part numbers to see what sort of bolt Honda uses.

M7-9.5

Got it? No? Let me type it again.

M7-9.5

So, I borrowed a few tools to tighten the one bolt like crazy, and went for a parts hunt.

Nice work, Honda. I did find a couple of M7 bolts in the Help! section of an auto parts store, but they were way too long.

That got me here:

Then I called the dealer. They were $3.62 for the pair. I don't think they hit my Challenge budget since I already had them when I bought the car, but they certainly hit the real budget, as do the $5 too-long bolts and the $0.20 of washers from Tractor Supply.

Oh, and these are the last two bolts that Honda had in their network. Sorry, other A20 guys who need water pump pulley bolts!

New budget:

$1201.32

New "real" (including tools and drinks and such) budget

$1341.30

Imagining the look of consternation on your face when you discovered the bolt spec has me chuckling.

So it's still losing brake fluid, but where?

The pedal is reasonably firm, but if you stand on it for a few minutes, it will go to the floor.

The master (and behind it, I pulled it off the booster) is dry

Calipers seem dry

Will check drums next, but in my history, wet drums act super wonky

No brake line has even the slightest hint of rust anywhere