gsrob

Well, it's been forever since my primary means of transportation was powered by a b-series engine and even longer since I posted on Honda-tech... My wife and I have always owned at least one Honda/Acura at a given time and since we've been married she's had a 2010 Honda CR-V and now a 2015 Honda CR-V. A couple of years ago I sadly parted ways with my '94 GSR that I owned for 10 years and put over 275k miles on (with an engine rebuild, a theft and recovery, and a semi-truck merging into me) after spotting a 2002 Audi A6 6-Speed that I couldn't pass up at the time. While I don't regret selling the Integra these days since we now have a 6 week old baby, I do regret the countless hours of time I spent on the A6 rebuilding the front suspension, removing the front end of the car to do a timing belt on the 2.7T engine, replacing just about every seal, wear item, and neglect that the previous owners never took care of and still not being able to stay ahead of the maintenance without worrying about the 'next big ticket item' that I'd be replacing or spending hours on. At least I can credit the Audi with stocking my garage with every metric tool known to man, a new compressor, impact wrenches, jacks, jack stands, etc...

Regardless, I decided to sell the A6 about a month ago and did so much quicker than expected. That left us with one car and me spending obscene amounts of time searching for a decent CR-V before I had to go back to work. After a couple weeks of running into worn out, neglected and very high mile CR-Vs with even higher price tags, one popped up that I couldn't pass up; it was even located 45 minutes from me, only had 2 owners, and clocked in just over 120k. The 2nd owner only had the car for 8 months and put about 20k on it going back and forth to Richmond, VA. The 2nd owner was also considerate enough to have the timing belt, water pump, and valve adjustment done, a new Alpine head unit, Infinity Speakers, and dynamat sound dampener installed throughout the entire floorboard and door panels. A bit of background regarding CR-V prices in the area... I found many with over 200k and their owners asking $3500 or more with spotty maintenance histories and questionable bodies. The gentleman I purchased the car from was asking $2300 (KBB fair market value) and I gladly paid his asking price.

So far, I replaced the radiator that had a slight leak in the plastic tank on top with a Denso OE part, ordered some Grabber AT2s and had them installed and a four wheel alignment completed. As can be seen on all of the original paperwork, price tag and custom install options that were still with the car in the glove box, the original owner ordered Bosch fog lamps from Honda, an aluminum skid plate, a roof rack, and mud flaps all the way around. I've got a mid pipe on order to replace a rusted out piece that must have been repaired with a substandard pipe a while back and all new exhaust hardware to re-install everything. After that, the only other thing that requires my attention the rear right axle seal seems to leak a bit on the rear differential and the dampener that Honda put above the differential is loose in the case and needs to be fixed or replaced at some point. I feel very fortunate to have found such a clean vehicle, especially with such a disappointing variety of CR-Vs out there for sale right now!

MikesRJ

Congratulations and welcome back. Now go adjust your valves, if for nothing more than piece of mind. Intakes to 0.005" and exhausts to 0.008". I wouldn't leave it to chance.

BigBerz

Perfect advice and indeed welcome back! Some spacers will look great. What size grabbers did you go with?

Berz out.

Skillachie

Looks good

JoshTheJerk

That is too clean. I hate you. Sell your skid plate. haha

gsrob

Thanks for the kind comments! Grabbers are 205/75/15s... I'm pretty sure that's the largest size that I can go with no rubbing or other mods on stock wheels without spacers.... I can't say enough great things about the tirerack... I literally ordered the tires at 6pm the night before I received them with no upcharge and standard ground shipping.

I wasn't aware that the B20Z had valve adjustment issues. I haven't pulled off the valve cover but they sound not too loose and not too tight, minimal valve train noise. I'll have to do a search regarding common issues.

Also, I love the skid plate! I looked all over for a replacement in the event something went wrong but can't find them anywhere since they are discontinued. Like I said in my original post, I found way more CR-V than I was looking for and am very fortunate to have found this one!

MikesRJ

Valve issues, and specifically not adjusting them at 15-30k intervals, is probably the number 1 issue on those engines with the P75 head. A B20 NOT making any noise is reason for major concern. The valves tighten over time causing the valve to not have enough time on the valve seat to release its heat, and they eventually burn, crack, or split.

http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/cr-v_info.html

MikesRJ

Another good page from the above mentioned website. All Gen-1 CR-V owners to read and heed;

CR-V Information

gsrob

Thanks for the info page, very helpful!

I just replaced the mid pipe/resonator that goes between the cat and the muffler yesterday since it was rusted out at the back hanger and leaking exhaust and noise.... Someone did a shoddy repair on it a while back. It took four hours to cut the studs off the cat (because the nuts were rusted to them) and redrill the hardened steel studs out of the cat itself.... I went through a $45 set of the most expensive drill bits from Lowes and finally got it drilled out to a little over 3/8" on each corner to accommodate the new SS nuts and bolts... I wish I had a drill press! I literally melted, snapped, or destroyed in some fashion every one of the tungsten tipped Dewalt drill bits.... It purrs quietly now though with everything installed and a little bit of honda-bond between the cat and midpipe on the gasket.

Next up is the valve adjustment.... Those other posts scare the crap out of me.

MikesRJ

As well that should scare you! IMO, valve lash is the number one killer of Gen-1 CR-V heads out there. All because Honda didn't want to tell the North American consumer they had a 15K miles, $100+, maintenance item to pay for. For someone like me who puts 30-50K on a vehicle each year, I do a valve adjustment almost every four months. But I learned the hard way. I'm interested to hear what you find when you do the valve adjustment. Keep us posted.