B18C1

Down the line I want to change out my pistons and rods with the engine still in the bay. I already know the procedure but I have a few questions.
1) How long should it take for me to pull the head?
2) how difficult is it to hone out the cylinders? I've never done it before, whats the best way to to it?
3) whats the best way to sheild the crank from any metal flakes that may come out from the honing?
4) what size rings/pistons should I look for with the stock cylinders ? Do I need to file them down?
5) do i really need a ring grip tool to slide the piston in the cylinder or can i push the pistons back in by hand?


I'm pretty much looking at this as a weekend project and am looking for advice. I'm dropping my compression to 9.2:1 for the turbo. California 91 octane isn't cutting it for my setup.

 

1.) depends on you
2.) difficult, dont do it yourself.
3.) you need to drop the crank to do the honing... so....
4.) get 20 over rings and pistons... not 25.
5.) yes you need it.

 

I would recommend dropping the entire drivetrain out to do all the work.

The decision to hone the bores or overbore is left up to some checks and measures: bore diameter, bore appearance, bore taper, out-of-roundness, and piston ring end gap (with new rings). If either of these is beyond the specified limit, then you should go with a factory-recommended .25mm overbore. In such a case, new .25mm over- rings will be included with the pistons.

I can give you a pictorial listing of the tools needed whenever I get a little bit of time. Just IM me some time.

 

1) How long should it take for me to pull the head?

That depend on your skill, experience, tools availability, and how sober you are at the time

2) how difficult is it to hone out the cylinders? I've never done it before, whats the best way to to it?

Honing stone on a electrical drill for about 15 - 30 sec each cylinder.
Unless you are talking about cylinder boring, which is machine shop only.

3) whats the best way to sheild the crank from any metal flakes that may come out from the honing?

Old t shirts on the bottom of each cylinder.

4) what size rings/pistons should I look for with the stock cylinders ? Do I need to file them down?

Stock, unless you have to bore to oversize, and no if you are using OEM honda rings.
Always check that the gap is within spec. Helm is your best friend.

5) do i really need a ring grip tool to slide the piston in the cylinder or can i push the pistons back in by hand?

Yes, or you risk high possibility of ring breakage.

I'm pretty much looking at this as a weekend project and am looking for advice.

Since you never did this before, I would consider this a week long project.
You have neglect to consider that you may need:

Overboring the cylinder if your bore is oval'd or tapper'd out of spec.
That will require you to remove the block and send to the machine shop.
The machine shop time it takes to swap the pistons on the rod.
Again, thats not something you can handily do at home.

Try to find a friend with experience to do this with you the first time.
Why learn from potentially expansive mistakes when someelse already have

 

ok well i dont expect to have to overboar with an 80k motor, but we'll take a look once the head is off, and I have a few friends that can help and possibly to do the honing.
Ive done lots of work to my car before, just never any bottom end work. It took me about 12 hours to put on my Greddy turbo if that kind of tells you my pace.
I'll continue to do my reasearch. This probobly wont kick off until January or so.

 

Be careful about assumptions. Most of the time you can get away with it on an undamaged rebuild, but there are times when those assumptions won't hold.

 

A 80k motor that has previously been boosted will most likely need to be bored.

 

B18C1

1) How long should it take for me to pull the head?

3-4 hours.

2) how difficult is it to hone out the cylinders? I've never done it before, whats the best way to to it?

make 10-12 QUICK passes down the cylinder walls, it has to be quick with a bog honing stone in order to get the cross hatch hone pattern. any less than 60 deg on hatch pattern will cause oil to get "stuck" in the walls, any more will cause the oil to run down quicker.

3) whats the best way to sheild the crank from any metal flakes that may come out from the honing?

do as normally and clean them off later, you can hose it off with warm water...a t-shirt will get in the way and catch on to the honing stone.....bad ideas....

4) what size rings/pistons should I look for with the stock cylinders ? Do I need to file them down?

yes, you need to file them down, there are a few tricks of doing it as well..the edges needs to be squared, and there shall not be any rough edges, to where the rings will get stuck in expanding out of the piston ring groove
I always set ring gap at .018

Also, you need to staggered the rings within the piston.

5) do i really need a ring grip tool to slide the piston in the cylinder or can i push the pistons back in by hand?

YES, there is nop way to slide the piston in without a ring compressor....THERE IS NO WAY


I am in socal and I'll be glad to show you how to do it....I did a short block assembly in a 6-8 hopurs, triple checking everything, I had to drop a crank as well....once you get it down, ,it's pretty easy....

but not for a beginner

stan


[Modified by Flamenco-NA, 2:42 AM 10/11/2002]

 

I'm gonna need to do this soon.

 

Good info guys. Stan, I am really interested in watching you work. We can talk a bit more later, but I gotta run to work!