After having gotten back the white Prelude back after not knowing if I'd see it again (search my post history for the full story on that), now I need to figure out what to do from here.
The goal is to turn the black car into a solid and complete street car. I've already redone the interior. I left its engine bay is empty / stripped. I need to prep it to receive the engine and transmission from the white car. Maybe later I'll turn the white car into a crazy stripped down hooning type project.
The logistical problem is some of the subframe and suspension parts I need to swap will result in both vehicles being on jack stands for an extended time. I could do both in the driveway, or one in the driveway and one in the garage (but which one). Despite having two garage doors separated by an annoying column, you can really only use one bay or the other but not both.
I want to pressure wash the underside of both cars. In addition to moving the engine and transmission from the white car to the black car, I need to swap the front-front subframe because it's notched to clear the exhaust header. I have a second-from-the-front (steering rack / behind the engine) subframe part on my workbench that I also want to swap into the black car (and I need to rebuild that steering rack first). Finally the white car has all new suspension bushings and presumably good shocks but a bad front wheel bearing. I.e. if I can get all the good stuff onto one car it'll be peachy, but there's a lot of mixing and matching to do.
My preferred way of doing things would be take everything off both cars and methodically rebuild. The downside to that is turning the whole area into something straight out of a Peter Aschwanden illustration while rendering the frames immovable for the duration. Or I could carefully transfer over each part and put the cars back together between operations (BO-ring) (and also potentially having to take things back off to clean/repaint them later).
The other wrinkle is I was currently in the middle of rebuilding the original engine from the black car. I had gotten as far as assembling the short block when I realized the oil control rings had jumped the grooves and scored two cylinders. The block was FUBAR (F'd Up Beyond All Recognition) but the pistons were only FUBAR (F'd Up But All Right). I immediately stripped and cleaned my backup block.
Now that I've got the white car back, with its H23A VTEC engine (200HP), there doesn't seem to be much reason to finish rebuilding this non-VTEC H23A1 engine (160HP). But I'm debating whether to at least put the longblock together. (And unfortunately it won't work as a spare for the "better" engine: smaller main bearing diameter, lower compression pistons.)
The white car is a parts car. Take it apart somewhere that it's not blocking anything important. Take what you need out of it to finish...finish...FINISH...FINISH!!! the black car. When the black car is FINISHED!!! see whether you can screw together a running, driving car. If so, do it. If not, sell the remains to somebody with stars in their eyes, or a wrecking yard, or somebody with a crashed or rusty donor.
You are not going to end up with two good cars. You don't need two Preludes. One good one will be enough. Focus on the one decent one, and finish it. Let the scrap lay where it will.
My rule of projects is "do what you have to do so that the cars always can roll."
If I make a car unrollable, it immediate becomes priority 1 to make it do so ASAP.
This rule has kept even my parts cars largely out of my way. Even if you have to spend a little bit more to make sure they still do the rolling thing, that's what I prefer. With 4th gen preludes they can be found very cheap and part outs fairly common I'd be surprised if it was too expensive to keep them on all four wheels
Since the white (parts) car came with a 200HP H23A-VTEC engine, if I'm just building one car I no longer need the 160HP non-VTEC H23A1 from the black car. That engine is in pieces right now; I had been rebuilding it, but ran into a problem (my screw up) that required tearing it all back down and prepping my spare H23A1 block. That's where I was on it when the white car with the better engine came back to me.
I have about $600 all-told into H23A1 rebuild, between valve springs, pistons, gaskets, spare block+head, etc. I haven't bought the valves yet. The remaining block I was going to build is at the service limit on every measurement. All of these parts I mention, with the exception of gaskets, actually aren't directly compatible with either my H23A-VTEC nor with a 3rd H22A4 engine I also own but have yet to tear into.
I have a friend who is also rebuilding an H23A1 engine. He said he'd be willing to take any parts off my hands, but I don't think he can pay me for them. If I gave him all of my H23A1-specific parts, I'd still have plenty of spares left over for the H23A and more space (on my table and in my schedule) to rebuild the H22A4.
I'm torn between whether I want to just finish the H23A1 build, or take my friend up on his offer and use it as an opportunity to clear my plate and get onto more important things. Taking the L on the financial investment I have in the rebuild parts feels irresponsible, but doesn't bother me emotionally (I don't expect to get back what I put in).
What I do feel attached to is I had these plans for these parts, I had this cool painted valve cover (that only fits the H23A1), and I want to know if the rebuilt engine would have worked (even though I don't need it now). (It'd only be the 3rd engine I've fully rebuilt in 15 years, first Honda engine.)
So I think what I need to do is let it go and move on and I'm looking for confirmation of that. Or tell me I'm crazy; I should just slap those parts together and put the engine up for sale for $500?
In reply to DennisDoesEverything :
Doing a great favor for friends and car buds will pay you back way more than a few hundred on parts.
Focus on the white car.
Very few people can plan and successfully execute multiple projects at one time; you have multiple projects. Finish stripping your parts car, get it gone then move on to the car that is intended to be a runner
OR
continue to overthink it and post back here in 27 months with the same dilemma and we will give you the same advice as well as pointing out you gone in circles.
Tom1200 said:
Very few people can plan and successfully execute multiple projects at one time; you have multiple projects. Finish stripping your parts car, get it gone then move on to the car that is intended to be a runner
OR
continue to overthink it and post back here in 27 months with the same dilemma and we will give you the same advice as well as pointing out you gone in circles.
No circles here; I made an agreement with my friend to sell him my redundant engine rebuild parts so I can focus on the intended runner.
Now, "spirals" - that I can't rule out.
Next step: rebuild the ABS unit. I think I have a lead on the part numbers for the O-rings.
