My old Honda - NA1 NSX

[hkz286]

A while ago I was moving my car out of the garage to take for a quick spin, and found a very small puddle of oil right underneath the sump.

It had been sitting for a 1 or 2 months so I knew it wasn’t terminal, but still, it’s a bit disconcerting to find right before you go for a drive.

So I pop it up on axle stands and climb underneath (I have probably spent more hours underneath her, than in her…….ooh err.) I found what I thought was the problem, the oil seemed to be dripping from the sump plug. Easy fix, torque it up and away I go (after a bit of a clean-up).

This keeps happening, leave the car for a while and a very small puddle is found underneath the sump. So, again, jack it up and have a look. This time I traced the oil right up to the top of the engine at the Vtec solenoids. These have rubber seals that sit between the solenoid and the head and after a long time they do what all rubber seals do and start to leak. The oil had been leaking down the banks of the engine and down onto the sump plug :S

So out they came. The below is a before and after one of them got a good cleaning.






More Honda parts:




Chasing some threads to be safe (they are notorious for seizing bolts and snapping off)




Everything apart ready for inspection (look at me sounding like I know what I'm doing :P):




One of them must have been leaking for a good while as there was some oxidation on the gasket surface.




So out came a very fine grade of wet and dry and some light oil as a lubricant. This was done on a very flat surface (this is important) and the wet and dry was taped down. You can then run the surface over the paper in varying directions to remove the oxidation and maintain a flat surface 




And after a while:


All nice and clean again.


Ready to assemble with all new bolts, washers and gaskets:




Gave both cylinder banks a really good clean:






And then all back together.






In order to get at one of the Vtec solenoids, certain parts had to be removed for access. One of these is an electronic box that contains the map sensor etc

Well when I took it out, this is what I was greeted with. Ewwww…..

25 years of dirt and grime.






So popped the cover off and gave it a good wash:




After:






Super gross internals:




More grossness:




And after a good wash:







All went back together and so far, no leaks

[hkz286]

I love how not only do you refresh the little seals and everything, you also do the electronics. I wish I had your knowledge/we were best friends so you could do all this for me too on a project car, hahaha.

what I've done so far is really basic stuff bud anyone with half a brain cell can do it so I'm sure your leaps and bounds ahead of me already :P

best place to start is youtube videos and DIY forum guides I've found it can be daunting at first and even I put off jobs that I think are going to be difficult but once your elbow deep in it, it makes more sense

[becausephilchow]

I love how not only do you refresh the little seals and everything, you also do the electronics. I wish I had your knowledge/we were best friends so you could do all this for me too on a project car, hahaha.

[hkz286]

Very thorough project! I love your car and am glad to see you're giving it the attention it deserves!

Grey attention to detail. The story from the outset was really enjoyable.


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Thanks chaps

Unfortunately not the most exciting update. Just a quick review of some small maintenance updates really.

Because of the PCV system the throttle body and various orifices within it for idle control etc get really quite dirty. It’s a good idea to everything a good thorough clean if you can.

First up is the PCV valve. You can see how bad it is here:



My photography is just awful and I forgot to take a picture of it clean, but you’ll have to trust me that I did it :P


Throttle body dirt here:




Add a little bit of blurred intake cleaner:




And after:




Also gave the intake pipe a good clean as well:




Next up was to change the brake fluid to some rather tasty blue ATE fluid:



Also noticed one of the bleed nipples was missing from the calipers, so that got replaced:


Before:

.

After:



Next up was a majorly pointless job. I’ve found that with stainless exhaust tips that you can make your car look really well maintained if you just clean it up. If you do it once, with some decent metal polish and elbow grease, it will literally a few minutes to bring the shine back every time you clean it. It’s a messy and time consuming job the first time, but every time after that it’s a piece of cake.


Before:




After:




Now, bar the obvious reason, this was pointless in the fact the exhaust tips are slash cut with the overhang at the top (12 o’clock position) so gets no sunlight, which means it looks no different unless you’re looking :P

Anyways, onto the headlights. When the headlights pop up, they rest against a rubber bump stop. These, like everything else, degrade with time. So they got renewed:


Old and busted:




New and shiny:



Finally was the fan controller relay. Those who have read this far (god help you poor souls) should know that the cars PCB suffer from solder crack and capacitor failure. This means that you get lots of strange behaviour from which ever component it’s controlling. This particular one controls the radiator and engine bay fan.


So out it came and took it apart:




Capacitor swap:





Then Re-solder and a PCB lacquer over the top:

[kittenpuncher]

Grey attention to detail. The story from the outset was really enjoyable.


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[19birel]

Very thorough project! I love your car and am glad to see you're giving it the attention it deserves!

[hkz286]

Next on the Loooooong list of stuff I want to do is to do with the clutch hydraulic system. Essentially every single NSX you come across will have a weepy clutch master cylinder. It’s nothing more than a misting of oil but it’s usually present and one of the first things I checked when my car arrived.

The system is comprised of a few main parts. The master cylinder (on the pedal) the slave cylinder (on the gearbox) and a flexible line that links the two. On this system there is what is known as a clutch damper. This is designed to dampen vibrations in the hydraulic fluid which would be felt in the pedal. On the NSX-R (type R) this was replaced by a solid block without the damper (as well as a different clutch pedal). These are readily available to buy and wouldn’t be expensive if I lived in Japan. However with Import tax, duty, postage etc it ends up costing quite a large amount when the actual part price is relatively little.

My plan was to basically bypass this damper unit with a custom line from the slave cylinder to hard line that goes to the master cylinder. This eliminates a fair few joints in the clutch system and generally simplifies things. Also there a so many decent hydraulic hose companies near where I live which would mean I could spend money on parts and not filling the pockets of the government (fight the power etc)


So started with master cylinder.




A bit manky but after a tear down, the bore was fine, so a rebuild kit was ordered from Japan.




It’s obvious the fluid hadn’t been changed in a good while:




New parts from Honda (new bulkhead gasket, master cylinder boot etc):




After a jolly good clean:




new copper washer for the feed:





And everything back together:




And installed with new clamps and line:




New slave cylinder:





In order to get to the slave cylinder, you need to remove the gear linkage and its various covers etc:

Covers off:



Manky and gross after being on the car for 25 years:





After a good wash:




New slave cylinder ready to go on with all new bolts and washers (the boot was in good condition so kept it)


All the bolts I take off usually get replaced. A lot of owners get everything from Honda but for nuts and bolts, it’s pointless. Unless it’s something special and can’t be easily spec’d or found, I always get replacements from a local engineering supplier. I

t sometimes can be tricky deciphering the bolt markings from other countries as they use different standards, but once you get the hang of it, it’s not difficult. The main points are the bolt strength rating, the coating, and the material type (excluding obvious things like does it fit etc). You may think that’s it’s a lot of work to go to just to save some pennies, but to give you some perspective, I replaced all the nuts, bolts and split pins on this job for less than half of what it would cost to buy 1 m6 bolt from honda:



There are bolts on the car that have a special coating on top of the metal plating, usually to stop galvanic corrosion of steel on aluminium. Those I would always buy from Honda. But the above demonstrates how expensive small components can be from a main dealer. 1 bolt from Honda = 20 or 30 from a nut and bolt supplier :P

New slave cylinder in place (sorry for the crap photos, but I’m usually lying on my back, on the floor when taking them) with new grease in the pivot fork.



New clutch damper bypass line in place with a new custom bracket:





Photo of stock setup and damper (credit for the Photo goes to KAZ on the NSXCB)



I know the line I used looks like it could do with some angled fittings. The NSX use some really weird metric fittings for its clutch hardline systems and no supplier I could find had any 45 or 90 degree fittings in the size I needed. This setup, with the bracket holding it in place, isn’t under any strain, so there is no danger from kinks etc.

After a complete bleed, the system is working nicely and the clutch feel is sooo much better without the damper. A new pedal from a TypeR would finish it off nicely but such things will have to wait until the maintenance is up to date.

[hkz286]

Such a clean NSX e and even cleaner works, I love it!

Looks so good with the Regas, you need a set of bronze TE and you have my favourite wheels for this beauty

yeah TE's would be my next choice in wheels

thanks for the kind words

[DawsonLiri]

Such a clean NSX e and even cleaner works, I love it!

Looks so good with the Regas, you need a set of bronze TE and you have my favourite wheels for this beauty

[hkz286]

I love when this thread gets an update! also love you attention to detail.
That's two of my dream cars right there

Thanks bud

yeah our dream cars for sure! Didn't start here, we both started with 1000cc Nissan Micras over a decade ago and worked our way up was worth the wait.

So good! Love those seats!

cheers bud means a lot

[becausephilchow]

So good! Love those seats!

[valimihairo]

I love when this thread gets an update! also love you attention to detail.
That's two of my dream cars right there

[hkz286]

Got damn. I love a build with exquisite attention to detail.

Both of your cars look amazing!

Thanks a lot

Lol I wish, that's my brothers car

[lamsv]

Got damn. I love a build with exquisite attention to detail.

Both of your cars look amazing!

[hkz286]

So good!

Thanks bud