Hey all, I recently was given my mom's 1992 Prelude Si which is in mint condition. The car is immaculate and being a Subaru guy I wanted to get into this car quite a bit. Not looking to do a race build or anything, but down the road it could happen. Right now the car stands with an H23A1 with an auto transmission, so that is kind've a disappointment, but the car is still really nice and has nostalgia in it being my mom's old car - it has about 110k original miles. Sooo...

I get it home and the car idles rough (to the point it's shaking the dash) and I notice transmission oil beginning to drip out from under the undercover. Sensing that timing and a transmission case seal/gasket repair is in order, I pull the motor (which is where I am currently). In doing so I am deleting a number of things that I want gone from the bay: cruise control (don't use it), A/C (doesn't work anyway despite a new unit installed), EVAP can, stock resonator (got a great replacement), and a little bit here and there. So now that I'm at this point, I really could use some feedback on where to go. What I really would appreciate is somebody - or more - who could really guide me through this thing. I'm totally unfamiliar with Hondas and really could use the help. So here are my questions:

1) I am searching for a case gasket for the transmission as I assume it is the parting faces that are leaking. So far no visible sign of where the leak comes from, but the undercarriage of where the engine and tranny mount up is completely mucked up with moisture/fluid/dirt so it is hard to tell. No leaking coming from the axle inputs, so I am assuming - because it is supposed to be a sealed unit - that it is coming from the parting face. But I cannot seem to find a gasket anywhere, is the engine/tranny not sealed with a gasket? Furthermore, is there a leaking point with these transmissions that I'm missing?

2) While removing stuff, I watched a number of videos on stuff that was safe to remove (minus violating state emissions laws). When pulling items that were written up as safe, I came across this little guy:



I have looked up and down and have not found anything on whether or not this is good to pull. I see there is a sensor/solenoid attached to it, so I'm wondering if this is going to be an issue. Feedback would be great.

So far I'll leave it at that. I haven't had much luck in many Honda/Honda Prelude forums, so I'm hoping for a response seeing that the community is thriving here. If you've gotten this far, thanks for reading and hope you respond!

 

Nice to hear of someone with an older Prelude that is in nice shape, love old Hondas. I have recently gone the other way lol, I've owned 6 Hondas and just bought my first Subaru last year. Anyway...

Transmission Leak:
I hope you are on the right track in thinking the leak is coming from the mating case halves because it's alot of work to remove the transmission, disassemble it and properly reseal. I would be willing to bet that your leak is a more common one but don't hold me to it. The more common problem is a rear main crank seal, the round metal/rubber oil seal that seals the oil in from the pan and lower crankcase as the crankshaft needs to rotate and protrude from the block. It involves removing the transmission still so it's not super simple but it is once you get that far. With the engine removed its a little harder to identify leaks as you can't run it but id look into that first.

Honda tends to not use a gasket whenever they can, (Some oil pans, generally the motors with aluminum ones, oil pump housings and transmission case halves are typically sealed with a gasket sealer rather than a gasket called "Hondabond". It's great stuff. Look into the leak more and try to determine the true source, if it is the mating trans case halves then buy some Hondabond and have fun making your own seal!

The picture you posted, I have come across this thing before, it was on a '94 Accord EX automatic with the F22b1 SOHC VTEC motor. AS I REMEMBER...lol it is an air intake control solenoid, its a little electric solenoid that switches the flow of vacuum to something engine air intake related (Resonator maybe?). I'm not sure what exactly. I think I found it online here on majestichonda's parts catalog, they are calling it a " Valve Assembly, In Control Solenoid" #10 in the pic below. You shouldn't have any trouble removing it, at worse a CEL that could be remedied.


1994 Honda ACCORD SEDAN Resonator Chamber (B) 36352-PT2-003

Let us know what else comes up and happy wrenching

 

Thanks for your time and advice, it's nice to get something back after reaching out for so long. At the present I'm doing the timing and have re-gasketed the oil pan. Last is the transmission leak, see photo:



Now, I have gaskets for two parting faces. Parting face 1 (in photo) is the largest where the transmission and engine meet, but unless I'm wrong, it doesn't appear that there is fluid that would leak from this location - yet there is a lot of moisture at the bottom of these two faces. Parting face 2 is pretty dry. I'm going to lean that this is the culprit and must re-gasket it. Now, this is an automatic. From what you say its pretty bad to do? I'm really just hoping to pull that cover off, throw a new gasket on, and seal her back up. But I'm guessing its not that easy? Anything you can warn me about, maybe a write-up, etc.? Once I get this done I'll be able to put the motor back in and button her up. Let me know.

Thanks.

 

do you know when timing belt is changed last time?

 

Records say that it was changed around 97k. But it was not from a reputable mechanic and from what I've seen I don't believe it was changed at all. Is the timing belts supposed to have that much slop? Or is that the stretching I'm looking at (haven't installed the new belts yet.

 

When it was changed? Water pump and tensioners should be changed also with the belt. Perhaps you should new timing side there as well

 

I would second that the oil leak is probably from the rear main seal of the engine, not the transmission.

With unknown mileage, and the engine out of the car, I would also do a timing belt service and water pump. Easy to do, and then you have a concrete knowledge of when it was done.

Also, valve cover gasket with spark plug tube seals, cam plug, distributor shaft o-ring, and plugs and wires would all be good ideas to check out or replace.

 

Looks like either an axle seal or a engine rear main seal by the looks of your pic there. For as old as the car is, the amount of oil you have there is fairly typical believe it or not, but look into axle and rear main seals. Also could have just been the oil pan leaking and the passing wind from driving, blowing it back onto the trans, it doesn't look like a transmission case halves leak.

 

it's entirely possible to add some hondabond to the area it's leaking after cleaning the area real good and to stop the leak after letting it cure for atleast 4 hours