hey all, i dont post here often, but ive been reading this board for close to a year, and others for longer. anyways, i finally got the opportunity to dig inside my cars motor over my christmas break and got to take care of a problem ive had forever in burning oil, like 1 qt. per 300 miles. my grandpa and i tore down the engine and changed the rings, i took my head into our local napa and let them change the valve seals (i didnt want to buy the tools to get them out, and didnt really want to risk messing my head up). anyways, i got to take a few pictures of the opperation.
it's now about 600 miles later and my car is running great, no more burning oil

 

Red X's for the last three pics. Sounds like a very cool grandpa you've got.. how difficult was the process, was this your first teardown?

 

what are those long rods next to the manifold gasket in the first pic?

 

headbolts

 

Look like head bolts to me.

 

I'll try to post the last 3 again in a minute. My grandpa is awesome, he basically told me everything i had to do to teardown my engine without even touching my helms manual. i really only had to use the book to look up torque specs with him. as far as the difficulty, it was a long challenging job. we got the head of the motor and took it into napa in like 4 or 5 hours. then taking the pistons out was maybe 2 hours (taking off the oilpan and bottom end stuff), an hour to clean them and a half an hour to re-ring them. 2 hours to put them in and secure the bottom end. then when we got the head back from napa it took about 3 hours to get it on and everything secured. took another hour for getting the timing takin care of and making sure it would run alright. we worked for more than 16 hours over the course of 4 days tho (waiting for the rings to come in and waiting for the head to get worked on) and took our time every step of the way.

edit: oh yeah,
those are headbolts, like everyone said before.


[Modified by Remmy, 9:50 PM 1/9/2003]


[Modified by Remmy, 9:54 PM 1/9/2003]

 

the last 3 (i hope they work now)

 

Did you replace the rod bearings too? How many miles did you have on the motor?

 

Please explain the Prestone antifreeze..and tell me you did not use that.

 

I kept the original bearings, the motor has 84k on it. the bearings were in good shape, hardly any signs of wear. i just had to be careful that each of the bearings stayed on the rod it came off of, oriented in the right direction, and back into the cylinder it came out of.

 

the prestone is just the container that held my radiator coolant when i drained it (it drained into a larger bucket, and i stored it in the empty prestone jug so that i wouldn't spill it when i was rolling around the garage). i reused the coolant from before the teardown, it was fine.

but out of curiosity, what do you have against prestone?

 

I wish i knew the thread about the coolant, but honda made their own coolant for a reason. Has special things in it to protect the stock radiators. Prevents corosion(sp?) too.

 

i did not know that, learn something new everyday
unfortunately, i spilled some of my coolant in the process and had to make up the difference with some peak antifreeze...we'll see if my radiator craps out anytime soon.

 

I would recommend getting some honda coolant in there. For the price, its well worth it.
Compared to the price of a new rad..

 

Yet another BG-33P GS-R. We need to start a club or something.

Replacing the crank on my GS-R next week... can't wait.

 

fantastic post

 

Good Job!!

Honda Coolant "Exclusive formula developed by Honda R&D. Specifically designed for use in aluminum engines. Uses high-tech organic corrosion inhibitors instead of more commonly used silicate corrosion inhibitors. Unlike silicates, HP Coolant's organic corrosion inhibitors won't gel and cause radiator plugging, they're more stable for a longer shelf life, and don't act as abrasives to mechanical water-pump seals to cause leaks."

That's the marketing scheme.

 

great post thank you

 

why not just throw some forger higer comp pistons or some ITR/CTR in while you were in there?

 

excellent post. im taking on this project tomorrow

 

haha, yeah, there is something special about the green ones

 

i thought about it, but at the time i didn't really have the money to do that...
but since ive been in there i wouldnt be affraid to swap my pistons out sometime later when i can afford it.

 

i would have suggested too maybe some headwork while it was out too like oversized valves, springs, retainers blah blah blah

 

im sure you've done your research already on this, but i found this guys documentary of pictures very helpful in undertaking the job. hope it helps.
http://techpage.h-fans.cz/preludka/galerie/page_01.htm

 

[QUOTE]Yet another BG-33P GS-R. We need to start a club or something. [QUOTE]


I think I have only seen one other Paradise Blue Green in my town. That looks like some serious wrenching. Nice job!