godslayer

So is it just me or do these things strip easier than a broke female college student with a cocaine habit?

I'm coming up on 100,000 miles on the '00 Prelude and in keeping up with the service schedule I went and adjusted the valve lash. All exhaust valves were measured in spec (.007"-.008") while only 2 intake valves were within (.006"-.007"). The remaining 6 intake valves all measured .008" of lash so I brought them down to .006" using my handy Alltrade 10mm valve lash wrench. Extra care was taken to make sure I kept the timing belt clean & free of oil droppings. I spin the crank a couple more times to double & triple check my clearances before I decided it's time to put it back together. I hand tighten all the acorn nuts then set my torque wrench to 7lb/ft (89lb/in) and start going in sequence to pull down the cover evenly. On the final lap around the nuts I hit the 7lb limit on the first 7 nuts.....on the 8th one there was no snap. F*ck. I tried to remove the nut but it is NOT coming off. I then go back over the previous 7 and two more wont come off the stud....they just spin.

Anyone have experience with this issue on their Prelude (or H22)? I've never ran into this before on the few motorcycles I've done in my lifetime. I'm going to try to get the cover off again tonight to see what happened myself but I'd like to know if this has happened to someone else was it A) the stud stripped or B) the threads in the head stripped? And if you did have this problem, how did you go about getting the nut off of the stud?

Thanks for any input!


Frank

mugen22

Happened to me right before the Type R Expo of course!! In my case, the "acorn" nut and stud were both stripped so I had to cut/dremel the nut off. While I had the valve cover back off, I installed all new studs and a new valve cover gasket so that I wouldn't be worried about it. The studs are not cheap, but it was worth the piece of mind, especially with a track day coming up!

The other thing that I have heard of is the stud unthreading from the head. If that is the case, you just loosen them up until the valve cover comes loose and then take it back apart. I have not heard of the studs stripping in the head, but I am sure somebody out there has done it! Very unlikely in your case though.

Hope that helps,
Brian.

godslayer

I went out to my car at lunch and was able to spin two of the nuts off and looking at the stud indicates that they were cross threaded but I find it hard to believe. I spun them all on by hand until they were snug and then hit them lightly with the torque wrench. Whatever the case the top threads on the studs are trashed. I still cant get the last one off, the one that caused all this pain, and I'm not sure what's going on. I took a wide flat head screw driver and put a very light force under the bolt and the cover does NOT budge. If I do the same thing on the other side of the engine, where the bolt is removed, it starts to lift like it should. I dont know if somehow the nut stripped the threads on this last stud just right where the threads are jammed and I can't spin it off? I dont think that stud is broken....the slight force I was using should have lifted the cover at least a little if it was broke.

I'll need to find either a nut breaker or a cordless dremel and show this last nut who's boss.

8 new studs (5 long, 3 short) and acorn nuts go for between $100-$120 up here. Majestic Honda has them for $80 shipped but it'll take 4-5 days, or more with the holiday, to get them to me.

Did you know the dealer only wanted $200 to do a valve adjustment originally? I should have just freakin paid them what they wanted.

mugen22

Pretty much exactly what happened to me. The acorn nut and stud both stripped. No matter how much upward pressure I put on the nut, it would not spin free! I recommend getting an OEM grommet to replace the one that MAY get chewed up when cutting the nut off.

The dealer would have charged you extra if they needed to replace the studs. They may have looked out for it and let you know allowing them to only do the job once, but they definitely would have charged you more than just the $200 for the valve adjustment.

FYI, King Motorsports is an OEM Honda parts dealer. It may be worth giving them a quick call to see what their lead time would be on the studs. They won't be as cheap as Majestic, but you won't have to pay for shipping. My guess is if you call now, you'll have them tomorrow at the same time! In addition, their labor rate is way less than Honda, so check with them before your next trip to the dealership!!

Good luck,
Brian.

godslayer

Yeah, but they already had the cover off when they did my timing belt. I hated myself for not having the time to do that job myself but I was super busy at work and I'd already been putting it off for a few months. In hindsight I wish I would have just told them to adjust the valves too...knowing what I know now it would have been cheaper.

Thanks,

Frank