sup fellas. i have a 1997 Prelude Base Automatic and she's leaking oil out of somewhere...and since i'm going to have her in the garage through the winter (brutal michigan winters not good for the prelude) i figure i'm going to go ahead and kind of rebuild the engine...

what i wanted to know from you guys is where should i start...what should i do...i want to replace all the gaskets (valve cover, oil pan, head?, manifolds?)?

since i'm going to go ahead and remove the engine from the car, should i go ahead and get really really in depth with the rebuild? should i replace piston rings and stuff? me and my brother are gonna handle the whole job and we're pretty decently mechanically inclined...

any advice? tips? hints? what should i expect? what should i buy? tools? parts? any kind of help would be greatly appreciated.

 

the first thing i would do if i were you is go to honda and buy the delearship prelude manual it is about $150+ but it is more in depth then the ones you get at auto zone. you shouldnt have to do any bottom end work unless you want. good luck keep use posted.

 

Helms manuals run around $70... not $150.

As far as a rebuild... unless your compression is fucked, I wouldn't tear into the motor and replace the piston rings and what not.

If you are going into the internals you might as well beef them up while you are at it. That's just me though...

 

well i say the first thing you should do is get underneath your car and see where the leak is coming from.

i had a leak before, and i thought it was from my oilpan. so i took my car to my dad friends shop thinking that i just needed the oilpan to be resealed.

well it turned out that i was leaking through the front seal near the timing belt. oil got onto the timing belt too. so they ended up resealing basically the whole block and changing most of the gaskets including head gasket. they changed all my belts including timing belt. and while they were at it they changed out my fuel filter and replaced my brake pads...haha so basically it was like a major tuneup.

the price ran up to $9xx. but since it was my dads friend he gave us a discount and only charged us $780. i got the sheet that tells all the stuff that was done, i'll get it scanned and up tomarrow, hope your's is just the oilpan...

 

It all depends on what kind of money you want to throw into it. Definitly buy a helms. If money is not an issue and you are going to get into it then I agree with Precision you might as well build your motor. Then b/c its already built when you save up more cash you can safely turbo. I wish I had the cash. Good luck man!

 

i don't plan on beefing it up. and i guess i'll stay away from messing around with the rings and such.

now i'm curious about this timing seal problem. if i do find that it's the timing area seal, how do i go about fixing that? if i buy an entire gasket kit (those full blown $150 ones), will it include a new seal? I do plan on going ahead and replacing the timing belt, water pump, and stuff. is there anything else i should go ahead and replace? i really want to perform as much preventative maintenance as I can while the engine is out and easy to work on. any more tips would be immensely appreciated. thanks.

 

Do you have any idea where it's leaking from?

Is it a slow leak?

Can you see it dripping down when the car is running?

Is there oil along the underside of the car?

Try to figure out which part of the motor it looks like it's leaking from.

Is it leaking from the timing belt cover?

Is it leaking from the flywheel cover?

Find the source of the leak, then go from there.

 

i can't find the leak for the life of me. it's somewhere near the middle i guess. it's hard to explain. i'm leaning towards it being the timing seal i guess. where do i begin?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Can’t Catch Me &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i can't find the leak for the life of me. it's somewhere near the middle i guess. it's hard to explain. i'm leaning towards it being the timing seal i guess. where do i begin?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Does it drip down when the car is running?

Is it in the middle/rear part of the engine?

Check near the oil cooler where the oil filter screws in,
there is an o-ring that goes bad there from time to time.

 

i wasnt talking about a helms manual. im talking about the actual tech manual made by honda. you get it from the dealership. its like 500 pages long.