Those small m6 bolts I always go hand tight and 1/3 of a turn with a small ratchet and thats it. 22ft/lb is crazy. I wouldn't attribute it to the parts but Im not sure how a bolt that would usually twist apart there broke off that much of the cam cap.

 

Those were actually M8x10mm, there are M6x10mm that go into the M8x50mm bolts in the center to hold the spark plug wire cover. There are other M6 bolts to hold the cam holder plate down too, those are 7.2 ft-lbs.

I can’t rule out an issue with those outer bolts, so they won’t be used again, just oem bolts, not worth the risk.

I hand tightened the bolts, they went in smoothly, the cam cap cracking like that when I was slowly tightening it before 20 ft-lbs really makes me think it should have been half of that at least. I barely used any pressure, I was seriously in shock.

From what I can find, both the Haynes and Acura Service Manual show these bolts in diagrams, but not torque specs, like they assume you’ll never touch them. All the other cam cap bolts have a torque spec and sequence shown.

 

Ok, I misinterpreted. So thats where a Junk2 bolt was installed for the valvecover hardware kit? As mentioned previously in the thread, most stuff from skunk2 is garbage and it looks like thats part of the problem.

Since that bolt just holds the valve cover down and has no impact on the cam alignment, Id get that cap pulled and take it to someone who is very comfortable welding aluminum and have it welded back together. Get them to clean the threads up and helicoil if they cant clean the original threads, throw OEM studs in and roll with it. Otherwise youre pulling the head and getting another cam cap and then align honing everything

 

thanks for the tips! I also see what the auto shop techs say. Yeah, it just holds the valve cover on, which barely uses any torque.

 

The spec on the 10mm bolt is 8.6 lb/ft. Some older specs show 7.2 lb/ft.

The spec on the 12mm ones is 18 lb/ft, although I know Honda has had a few different specs ranging from 18 to 20 over the years depending on which FSM you look at. People were snapping these ones at 20 lb/ft so some recommend down to 17 lb/ft.

Honda used to use the black heat treated bolts for all of the 12mm type, but later switched to having coated bolts for the 12mm which were reported to be weaker. The center 4 12mm bolts with integrated shoulder to the 10mm stud for the valve cover have always been black heat treated because they need that extra strength in the 10mm shoulder.

GoldenEraParts sells a replacement bolt kit for the main bolts, but that small valve cover support bolt I think is only from Honda.

It's a shame that the cam cap also busted out. Swapping a cam cap is an option. Technically when you swap a cam cap you should line bore out the centers but hardly anyone has the tooling to do this, and it would require pulling the head and sending to a machine shop. Many people get away without doing this, you just have to check clearances with the new cap are in spec. Mitutoyo makes a great line bore measurement kit if you want to try to DIY, although the tools will run you about $500.

If you try to have it repaired/welded, it may warp the existing cam cap, so its not great news either way.

**** news sir!

 

^^ thank you for the information!! I do look to have a machine shop nearby that specializes in heads, we’ll see what works out the best. My spare b18c5 head is shipping tomorrow, good for backup, if it’s not needed I’ll resell it.

 

exhaust arrived!





should be under 93db under load, no rasp or bothersome drone, but still noticeable.

 

Super happy with the quality so far, fully expect to love the sound too.

B-Pipe:


Connection to cat:


Resonator:



Connection to the muffler:



Gaskets and hardware:


I'll get some revving and driving videos after installing it, time to break out the gopro. After I get the stripped cam cap bolt fixed, this is going on right away!

 

Enjoyed perusing this thread!

Thank you for taking the time.

 

Repaired:

 

Thanks for sharing. Enjoyed the thread

 

Teggy's back on the road!

Was in good company while getting reparied:






It has that fresh valve cover smell now:


Everything feels and sounds normal, but I'm not going above 4K RPMs until the Hondabond fully cures, don't want to push my luck.

Exhaust is going on soon, I'm thinking while I have the exhuast out, that's a good time to install the short shifter too.

 

wasting no time, up she goes!

working under jack stands isn't my favorite thing in the world, but the car is level and stable, I also just placed my two jacks at both ends just for extra saftey.


so pretty:

 

Looks like installing the exhaust won't be a simple bolt-on affair.

Previously I noticed part of the b-pipe was welded, but didn't realize it was at least partly due to modifying the cat. The bolts on the cat might have broke off and instead of needing to take out some nuts, there are shallow bolts there that I can't get a socket around due to a welding bead around the pipe blocking it.

I'll probably visit an exhuast shop for this one.

 

got a nice and unique looking oil cap from Hybrid Racing, black anodized, has a handle you can leave up or down, it doesn't hit the hood when up.

 

I was curious if my car was throwing any codes and if it was set to pass a smog check. There are so many OBD2 scanning tools out there, but they are all relatively inexpensive, so I gave one made by Innova a chance, and it seems to work well. This one is a bluetooth dongle that plugs into the obd2 port and uses a phone app.

When I ran into an issue with my cam cap, I disconnected the battery and pulled the spark plugs so it wouldn't get accidently started until fixed. Leaving it with the battery disconnected for that long reset all the SMOG related monitors. After I drove home from the shop the only one left to set was the evap one. That one took three days to set just driving it once per day.

No codes and all the smog monitors indicate pass:






nice little tool.

 

Exhaust is on!

My local exhaust shop that has been around for decades made quick work of getting those cat bolts off, probably would have taken me days, haha. Everything fit perfectly, the tech was impressed with the fitment and quality.




The sound is perfect, deep, no rasp, not loud, you can hear it until vtec cracks, then it's mostly all engine induction noise.

I'm going to try and get a good sound video tomorrow using a go-pro pointing to the tach with an external mic mounted on the rear bumper. We'll see if I can get some good sound. I did take this clip with my phone sitting on the passenger seat:


Next priority is alignment, not exactly sure how I'll setup the car, anyone got tips for this platform? I was thinking -2 front and -1.8 rear for camber, and 1/32" front with 3/32" rear for toe, for a mountain road setup.

 

The b-pipe to cat connection is all cleaned up now. Metric bolts again, same pipe size from cat and back, super clean welds, and large unobstructed bolt heads.



I held onto the OEM muffler which was in great shape, I'll likely resell since I feel bad throwing away a rare part, but since the b-pipe was modified, that went to the recycling bin.

 

Tried a few times to capture good audio, either the mic was too close to the exhuast or I'm picking up too much road noise, but here's the best ones, use headphones:

Low speed:

Flogging it:

 

Love the single exit exhuast on the integra, there's 4x as many on my Audi about the same size, but that car is big.



My two garaged babies, got the Audi out of storage for the weekend. At some point I'll switch them every few months, but with more to do on the Integra, the Audi just stayed the weekend for some TLC.

 

different mic, different location. still background noise, but the exhuast sound is much louder this time.

redlining

shift before vtec

rev

 

Washed and wiped down with a glossy detail spray, she's glowing this morning:


Haven't found time to drop off for an alignment yet, want to get that done before I start other projects. Also want to figure out a way to leave the car partly worked on so I don't need to finish things up in one day, and can work a little on the car each day. That would be way more enjoyable, and I won't need to shy away from things that could take an unknown time, e.g. like getting those bolts off the cat. Parking is an issue for me, but maybe I can jack it up while just taking one parking spot in the garage.

 

The Skunk2 adjustable rear upper control arms, aka rear camber kit, was beautiful looking, but I think I installed it incorrectly as it was extremely squeaky. I think I should have completely disassembled it and lubed it up before installing. I see other polyurethane bushing products instruct this, but some Skunk2 products don't seem to come with any instructions, paper, pdf, video or otherwise. Also all the folks installing these exact control arms on youtube either don't mention it or don't do it too. I would guess all experienced techs know this and do it without thinking or mentioning it to their customers.

I really don't need polyurethane bushings and if I wanted a track car, I would go spherical, so instead of battling with polyurethane, which if you manage to get them quiet, it's only temporary, I decided to go with rubber and see how it goes. I picked up a set of Hardrace's version this week and just installed them. I must be getting better at this as it took under an hour. 😅

I choose the black version to match everything:



I'm happy to report no more squeaking from the rear. Now all I can hear squeaks from is the driver's seat 🤣. I don't notice much of a difference in deflection either, the little deflection it has is fine for a canyon carver in my humble opinion. Also more comfortable driving around town and on the freeway.

 

the best mods to date! haha. forgot about the Japanese black squash car air fresheners, these used to be stocked up at all the local Japanese tuner shops in the late 90's.




alignment is scheduled next week. can't wait to get this car dialed in. then after that I have been collecting goodies for the shifter, going to get the full workup.

 

It's cool to see someone driving their old Honda. I'm glad that exhaust fit well. I have a B18C swapped 95 hatch and I've tried 4 different exhausts, none of them fit perfect. eBay, HKS, Apexi, maybe I'll try the Revel next.