schwett

well i know for sure why my car wasn't starting now! all the theories about electronics, fuel, cam timing, etc etc were way off track (amazingly.) all my ring lands are shot. compression was <70psi on each cylinder. leakage was around 75% across the board.

let this serve as a warning to those of you running a little bit lean or having occasional detonation : it's going to cost over $4,000 to fix/rebuild this. ($900 to take the motor out, $900 for pistons, rings, rods, $900 to fix the block - sleeve, hone, etc, and at least $1000 to put it all back together.) on top of that, it'll probably down for over a month all in all. (could have been less if i hadn't tried to fix it myself, but then it would've cost more to take it apart too - i took the JRSC off myself to make it easier to get the engine apart.)

it could have been done for about $1000 less by just honing the block and running new stock pistons, which i would have done if i decided to go back to stock. i'm not running boost on stock h22 cast pistons ever again.






[Modified by schwett, 7:40 PM 4/16/2002]

BoostinDC2

ouch

schwett

that's what i said. it's also what i said when i attempted to lift the bottom end out of the trunk of my rental car intact, with the clutch and flywheel and internals and timing belt cover and various mount points attached. very heavy. lots of sharp edges. cars are so much fun.

Quaalude

i second that...ouch x 4

qwkteg125

i don't understand your last sentence:does this mean that the bad pistons in your pics are supposed to be forged ones? because they sure look like stock cast ones to me...

turboex

I think he means his not running boost on stock pistons at all any more

schwett

sorry, that was a mistake. i meant not running boost on stock (CAST) pistons again.

SilverLudeSi

Those are some scary pictures.

sgT

This is very typical. Every h22a(5g) i have seen does this under boost.
Not right away, but always within 6 months

SiR Kid

Stock honda pistons SUCK SUCK SUCK

I've seen SOOOOO many broken ringland pistons and pics....

I'm still got "piston pieces" all over my storage bay where I work on my car!

schwett

i just really wish one could use forged pistons in an unsleeved H22.

Rain_man

Sorry to hear that, but your motor will be back and better than ever now...

SIK IN DA HED

$900 to take the motor out? dude, you can pay someone to fly there... pay that person to take it out... and still have half the $900 left. it aint hard to do for someone who has done it before. my friend can do a motor swap in a day or two.

$900 to rebuild the motor? DAYM. i figured that would be part of the $1000 to put it all back together.

you should look for a better shop to do this job. they are overpriced.

Markaccord95

how much boost for how long now?


ill be pissed if mine does that, that makes me just want to run less and less boost.

schwett

6psi for 6-9 months. was running lean for the first month or two (on 94-96 octane) until i got bigger injectors.

AutoboTxEK

ouch...i think a little bondo can fix that j/k...sorry to hear that

TurboSedan

That is bad news for sure man. Sorry to hear that. Good luck with your rebuild!

schwett

well, maybe someone can recommend such a shop, in the sf bay area? i talked to many places, and they were all pretty close... a rough wag of about 15 hours of labor at $70-90/hr. we are talking about assembling the bottom end, putting on the head, tranny, atts, all the accessories, putting the thing in the car, etc etc etc. EVERYTHING is apart.

in fact, the only shop i really trust around here thought it was a lot more than 15 hours.

the $900 is golden eagle - boring, sleeving, decking, honing.

Xerxes

lets see.. if you really need to remove the engine and get it resleeved then yeah, this will probably cost you a bit, BUT
1) you should be able to remove the engine yourself; this is NOT hard.
2) If you give golden eagle your pistons and rods, they will hone it and put it back together and the total cost of all that will be a lot less than $1900.
call golden eagle up and find out exactly what their prices are, i'm pretty sure it should be much less than 1900!

can someone explain why you can't run aftermarket pistons with stock h22 sleeves?

-Xerxes

dustin

they aren't iron sleeves, they're fiber coated aluminum. forged pistons eat the fiber, and you get aluminum on aluminum...not good.

sgT

Still NOBODY can answer WHY forged aluminum pistons wear away the liner.

dustin

Yeah, no conclusive evidence. If anyone wants to give it a shot... hehe.

I know you can't really hone them... and personally I'd hone any block that I re-ring... So maybe that's a factor.

Dustin

01geeser

you should really take out the motor urself. then take the head off the block and send the block off to GEM. its a good learning experience, after that ur gonna think you can do anything. 900 bucks is ridiculous.
took me 2 days my first time doing a motor swap, but now i can do within 8 hours tops including complications.

schwett

when i was asking this before, there were a few people who had learned the hard way... not sure who anymore, but i considered it fairly conclusive.

but you *CAN* hone them. there's a procedure in the helms and everything... honda also sells +1 pistons. i just didn't want to put cast honda pistons back in.

schwett

it's already out... 8hrs of labor $$$. i'll be taking it apart (the clutch, fly, crank pulley, timing belt, cover, crank, pistons, etc are all still on), but putting it back is way beyond me. i don't even have a jack. (besides the one in the spare tire, lol)

i just don't understand how everyone on this board can swap a motor in a day, and every shop i called thought it was 2 days to put it in and a day at least to take it out.

would you guys recommend that i have GE reassemble the bottom end? they don't seem too excited to do that, but it minimizes the number of people doing the complex stuff i guess...


[Modified by schwett, 2:04 PM 4/18/2002]