My old Honda - NA1 NSX

[hkz286]

Unbelievable attention to detail. Absolutely amazing.

thanks bud means a lot

Wonderful attention to detail as usual. It seems that "restoring" these "old" cars is as much fun as modifying them.

It's a subjective topic but I think this car is too clean to have all the stickers littering the rear glass.

yeah it keeps me out of trouble

On the stickers, I would 100% be saying the same thing if it was someone else's car. Its a very personal decision to do what I did and aesthetically its a bit of an abomination, however it makes me happy.

Also I think it quite nice to lend some frivolity to a car that owners tend to take far too seriously. I love my car and enjoy refurbishing it, but I don't think its as special as some owners want you to believe.

[nsogiba]

Wonderful attention to detail as usual. It seems that "restoring" these "old" cars is as much fun as modifying them.

It's a subjective topic but I think this car is too clean to have all the stickers littering the rear glass.

[becausephilchow]

Unbelievable attention to detail. Absolutely amazing.

[hkz286]

This thing is sweet

cheers bud, its certainly getting there

Great thread - technical nitty-gritty, anal-retentive attention to detail, questionable spending habits, and some good old-fashioned innuendo to boot. All in an easy to binge-consume package.
10/10, would read again.

lol cheers dude. I try my best. A good build thread is so satisfying to read (I must of read hundreds at this point) I try and make the effort with this one to try and give something back.

Such good write-ups in here.

thanks chap

[190Evan]

Such good write-ups in here.

[sdistc]

Great thread - technical nitty-gritty, anal-retentive attention to detail, questionable spending habits, and some good old-fashioned innuendo to boot. All in an easy to binge-consume package.
10/10, would read again.

[hkz286]

I lose track of time when viewing this thread.

Excellent things here.

cheers bud

I keep coming in here expecting to see it on a rotisserie!

Good work mate

yeah the temptation is strong to go nuts on it but I really want to keep it as a running project. I have issues with mission creep lol

cheers bud

[Hayce]

I keep coming in here expecting to see it on a rotisserie!

Good work mate

[fortbrick]

I lose track of time when viewing this thread.

Excellent things here.

[hkz286]

Up next is a job I have putting off for quite some time. Mostly because it scared the bejesus out of me but also because it’s expensive, time consuming, messy and monotonous.

Ladies and gentlemen I present to you the NSX cooling system.






A baron, desolate wasteland of old rubber, rusty hose clips, seized bolts and harsh chemicals that one always ends up tasting at least a few litres of.

The main reason for replacement, is sooner or later, a hose will burst. As there are so many and no real rhyme or reason as to which one will go, it’s better to do them all. The radiators also have a tendency to leak after 25 years of service (what doesn’t?) specifically at the end tanks where the plastic is crimped to the aluminium parts.

In actuality, it was about as good as it gets when it comes to servicing 25 year old cooling systems. This further confirms that the car has been garaged all of its life, as there was very little in terms of rust on the bolts and hose clamps. Usually they are barely hanging on for dear life, but these were in perfectly serviceable condition. My radiator also wasn’t leaky and none of the hoses were swollen or showing signs of being ready to burst. Course by the time I realised this I had already re-mortgaged the house to Honda for this:




This my virtual automotive friends, is what is composed of keeping the car cool. 24 coolant hoses, 48 hose clips, 1 thermostat, a few o-rings, drain and bleed bolt crush washers. What’s not pictured is a new header tank, new radiator, 15 litres of coolant and 127 years it took to swap everything over.

The first port of call was to drain the system down. Never having drained a coolant system of this size I had to get a bucket large enough to house the coolant until I could dispose of it properly.
First of all you drain the radiator, the pipes that run the length of the car floor and then both banks of the engine block.

Now this part is of particular importance, you have to spend a few hours prepping to make the job as clean as possible, then you spread a few litres of coolant all over your garage floor, whilst your laying on it of course, making 100% sure that your overalls get soaked in it. Then you waste time cleaning up the mess. Then, cover the floor in coolant again, clean up again, and repeat until the system is dry. You know if you have done this step correctly as the garage floor will remain a unique combination of sticky and pelvis shattering slippery for a few months.

As the above takes a while, pictures are few and far between but I got a few:




The Block drain bolts were strange. There as you would expect, a bolt with a nipple on the end that you attached a hose to. You then crack the bolt, and all being well, the coolant flows out the engine, down your tube, and into whatever container you have waiting for it. One side went fine, although I was a little nervous as I was laying underneath and didn’t really want a repeat of the above, it was text book. The other side refused to drain. I had the hose attached, I cracked the bolt, and nothing. I undid the bolt further, to the point where it was almost out, and still nothing. Finally, having lost what little patience I had left, I just completely took it out. Still nothing. Well it was obviously blocked. Which meant that there wasn’t really a good way of draining this side, as it meant removing the plug and getting the hell out of the way, and hoping a few litres ended up in the drain bucket.


Upon removal, you can see where its clogged up with old coolant etc:




And after a proper clean:




In order to access these bolts, a heatshield/splash shield had to be removed. This is on the underneath of the car so exposed to everything, but was in surprisingly good condition. Just mucky.




After a good cleaning:





I figured I would start at the front of the car and work backwards, so off came the radiator hoses. These are basically stuck on, so will need carefully cutting off. You don’t really want to go to mental as the razor blade will score the soft aluminium that the coolant hoses are attached to and may cause problems down the line with sealing. I also took of the header tank at the same time:


Header tank off (proceeded by the airbox etc so I have some room) and a quick shot of how many hoses will need to be taken off and replaced 



Started with the front, as mentioned, so all the heater hoses etc were replaced with new clips:




Had to take the heater valve off to replace the hoses, so gave it a quick clean and replace some rusty washers etc:








After all that was in place, I started on the long hoses that run the length of the floor (radiator is in the front, engine is in the back).
All the hoses off and the ends cleaned of any corrosion, old coolant etc


Before:





After:





Collection of manky hoses is getting bigger:




You can see the need to replace the clips etc here:




New hoses on:





It helps if you use a good rubber grease (just a very small amount) to help the new hose on. Otherwise you will be swearing at it for days. Ask me how I know :S

So onto the more complicated end of the car, the rear. (tries not to snigger)

To start with I whipped the throttle body off. Interestingly, the throttle body comes with an insulator gasket to stop heat transfer between parts (okay, maybe a little fast and loose with the word interesting). I have found a few of these little touches that is usually provided by the aftermarket (such as the stiff bushings on the shifter assembly etc) which is rather amusing.




You can see some of the corrosion on the steel pipes with which the coolant hoses attach to. Again, this is nothing compared to some the of cars out there.




Having learnt my lesson from other hoses, that no matter how empty you believe the system is, there is always a small ocean of coolant waiting for you whenever you take the actual hose off.
These are particular large and wide hoses, and as such I tried my best to empty it first, considering there perched precariously atop the engine which probably wouldn’t appreciated a good bath in its own juices.

I slit a small hole in the lowest point of each hose, and slip my vacuum pump inside…giggaty.








Okay, so not quite a small lake, but having read this abortion of a build thread so far, you will understand my tendency toward the dramatic, and even so, it would have been a pain if it ended up all over the engine bay. You always forget how bad coolant is for pretty much everything but the cooling system. Stains like nothing else.


Starting the clean up of the steel hose ends.






Took of the thermostat cover and thermostat




More cleaning of hose ends:






For some reason, this bracket was out of place, tending to suggest the starter bolts have been out before:




So I put it back correctly:




The throttle body needed some attention, having cleaned it on the car, it wasn’t too bad but as you can see, there was plenty of crap on the back side of the throttle body butterfly:






After a good wash getting into all the crevices :P





The inlet manifold also need a good going over:

Before:



After:



Ewwww:




I also got a bung welded onto the thermostat cover, as the defi gauge sensor was reading a bit odd in the front compartment near the radiator. Presumably, because of the shear amount of airflow in that area. This should read a lot more accurately, bearing in mind its right out of the engine (after the thermostat is open of course)




I also cleaned up the flange face to make sure it was as flat as reasonably possible:


Before:




After:




Also one of the little steel brackets that is mounted on the throttle body was showing signs of rust. So I cleaned it back and coated it in zinc rich primer and paint to make sure it’s serviceable for another 25 years.






I didn’t actually get a picture of it painted :S its black anyways for those interested :P

So back to the beginning of the story, I went to put in the freshly cleaned engine drain bolts, and noticed the cross member had seen better days. This is a steel part so keeping it clean means a longer service life.


Before:




After:




New drain bolts in place with new crush washers:





Cleaned Heatshield back in place:




Next up was the stock oil cooler, there are 2 hoses on this that are notoriously difficult to get to. It was pretty tight to be fair but not impossible. Just takes time.
Took of the oil cooler itself:





The top is steel, and sometimes they get so rusty they start to leak. This is just surface and will clean up perfectly. Good thing too as a replacement is not cheap by any means.
More flange cleaning (I’m not going to touch that with a bargepole :P)




After a good cleaning:




New figure of 8 seal installed:




The bolts holding this in are special anti-corrosion bolts from Honda. This means you have to clean all the old sealant from the threads with a tap:




Because I’m a tool, I didn’t get a picture of it installed on the car :s too busy trying not to cock it up.

So with all the hoses replaced and most of the car back together, it was finally time to put the final parts on. Namely the header tank and radiator.

The stock header tank is actually a really well engineered piece of kit. Its plastic, however its really thick walled (the nsx coolant system runs at 1.1 bar, a tad higher than most) and has individual chambers to help separate the air. The problem is, it’s made in two pieces and then bonded together. This eventually starts to leak. It doesn’t matter if its 6 months old or 16 years. It can start at any time. This is why I didn’t buy an OEM one. Instead a dropped trou, bent over and thought of England whilst purchasing this beauty of a header tank. Made by a company called RF Yamamoto which makes exceedingly high quality parts for the NSX and s2000. Cheap, this was not.

There were a few changes I wanted to make though. The catch can part didn’t have the facility to drain it, so I got a bung welded on the bottom, and then drilled and tapped for a standard oil pan drain plug and washer. I also wanted to run wiggins clamps for the cam cover breathers.


Stock catch can arrangement:




After a good wash from the drilling and tapping:






Vs. the stock one:




I then measured the amount of coolant required in the tank to meet the the "min" and "max" marks so I can transfer them to the new header tank.



You can see all the surfaces are curved for better pressure distribution, like I said, a well-engineered part.


Finally, onto the radiator. As said above, it’s a consumable part, and also insanely expensive from Honda. So I went with a better engineered item and also a much cheaper part. It’s made by Koyo and in 10 years of modifying my own cars, I can honestly say this is the only one that didn’t need modifying in some way to fit. Everything went together perfectly.

The stock one with the fan and cowl removed. Looks a bit worse for wear but was functioning and no leaks:




The lower fan cowl bolts always break on these, they just rust until there is nothing left. This is probably because it’s so close to the road and exposed. These were pretty corroded but came out perfectly without snapping. It was a shock to say the least. Usually there hardly anything of these bolts left.




Onto flushing out the new radiator, just in case any manufacturing debris was left in there:




Cowl looking a bit grubby:




New stainless bolts for the radiator cowl. Im using stainless but coating them in some liquid gasket to prevent galvanic corrosion.




All cleaned and bolted up:




Gave the radiator area a good wash whilst I had the room:




Bleugh:




And fitted into place:




All the old stuff I’ve replaced:




Then onto vacuum check of the cooling system:




The hoses usually collapse under a vacuum (it’s not really a vacuum, just lower than atmospheric pressure):




Left like this for 40 mins just to be sure:



Didn’t move a mm:




Whoop whoop 


As a reward for my hardwork I decided to clean up the cover that goes over the hoses running along the floor:




Super gross:



So all finished, will drive the car around for a bit to make sure it’s bled properly. However I did go through the OEM bleeding procedure even though it was necessary with vacuum filling the coolant.

So all done and dusted. No leaks so far and all the levels go up and down to the marks I set so I am going to chalk this one up as a success 
If you’ve got this far, then

a)what is wrong with you?!

And

b) Here’s a pretty picture of the car after a good wash to get off the 6 months of dust, whilst it was hibernating over winter.

[hezimagine]

This thing is sweet

[hkz286]

If you already have lock wire pliers you're off to a good start......You can also check this out. It's basically just standard practices but the safetying bit starts on page 7-311.
https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/...AC43.13-1b.pdf

thanks for the advice, will read up before i do another one will post the results up here so you can see how bad i cocked it up :P

As an Australian I appreciate that you used one of the most colloquial Australian saying.

Your attention to detail in this is fantastic, I like that as you pull stuff apart you clean the misc parts along the way.

& as a turbo Subaru owner I can agree about heat killing everything I'm just about to fit gold heat proofing to my process west tmic.

yeah its a bit of a compulsion to be honest :S everything takes about 20x longer but I like to be able to reassemble things without gloves and not get dirty hands.....well that's the plan :S

All this effort, attention to detail, money, blood sweat and tears, AND IT IS STILL WORTH IT. #NSXLife

I'm glad you think so lol sometimes I'm not so sure :P


Next up was the crank pulley. As per a lot of Japanese cars of this era, the crank pulley tends to separate when the rubber harmonic damper dry rots and splits. If this happens, It can eat through the timing belt cover, and of course, the timing belt. Then we would be up poop creek without a means of propulsion. So, good practice is to change it before this happens.

I figured I would do the rest of the belts at the same time. Started removing the belts.



Then took the crank pulley off. You can see the oil and crap collects behind this over the years.



A butt load of time, cleaned off all the crap.



All the old parts laid out





new alternator and air con belts and Honda crank pulley.



The keen eye'd amongst you will notice these are Gates racing belts. I chose these as Gates are the best belt manufacturer. I use nothing else. I chose the racing versions because they say "Racing" on the box. No other reason......racing!.



looking at the air con belt tensioner next. This basically and bracket and pulley with a screw to raise and lower it. This in turn tensions the belt. I replaced the bearing on the pulley as it was only a few £ from a bearing manufacture. I also gave everything a proper cleaning.








I always try and use SKF bearings where I can. The stock one is an NTN bearing, but like I said. SKF is my go to manufacture for bearings.

All assembled and back together on the car.



New crank pulley next to the old one. The old one wasn't in bad condition to be fair but I don't know if it was ever changed in the past.



...and everything back together and working with the new belts etc





oooh there all pretty and blue.

[loekaaz]

All this effort, attention to detail, money, blood sweat and tears, AND IT IS STILL WORTH IT. #NSXLife

[AntB]

The main issue was wear on the bearings which I wasn’t happy with so had to get some from Australia for an eye watering price. But such is life.

As an Australian I appreciate that you used one of the most colloquial Australian saying.

Your attention to detail in this is fantastic, I like that as you pull stuff apart you clean the misc parts along the way.

& as a turbo Subaru owner I can agree about heat killing everything I'm just about to fit gold heat proofing to my process west tmic.

[DeltaAlpha9]

Christ don't I know it :P you can only learn so much from ECI technical notes and you tube tutorials :S

This was my first attempt and tried something fairly simple. Ill keep at it hopefully it should improve a little.

any tips? I'm never quite sure what to do with the ends once I'm done with the actual locking.

If you already have lock wire pliers you're off to a good start. Twisting by hand is a pain in the ass and usually ends up with twists that are all over the map because it varies with how far apart your hands are. The pigtails are the hardest part because it can make a tight hold sloppy if you don't get it right. I always use more wire than I need just so I don't come up short at the end then cut of the pigtail about an inch and a half long and double it back to the fastener with the right length so it's not touching the fastener head but also so it's not sticking out. I just tuck it under the tail. At school we had a teacher that would fail your project if he could catch his finger on a pigtail end or a cotter pin so that helped to learn fast. Also if your lockwire strand is loose when you're finishing it off you can twist the pigtail up but before doubling it back you move the pliers in kind of a conical shape to get the first twist to suck up tight to bolt hole and it makes a world of difference. It takes some practice but the pay off is worth it if you're worried about loose lock wire.

You can also check this out. It's basically just standard practices but the safetying bit starts on page 7-311.

https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Advisory_Circular/AC43.13-1b.pdf