January 2015-Present - Engine rebuild - I bought the car off my mother, who bought it new. It's consumed a lot of oil throughout most of its life. I'd started hearing bearing noise so I figured it's time to overhaul it and fix it for good.
Lots of carbon buildup on intake ports, exhaust ports, valves, pistons.
Cylinders were in pretty good shape though
As this project went on, it turned into a bit of a restoration too. Here's one of the parts I did black plastic restoration on. Top is done, bottom section isn't.
And sealed afterwards with 303 Aerospace Protectant
Short block after machine shop ringed the pistons, pressed in seals, and did a deck/hone job.
Cylinder head after machine shop finished it, looks pristine with the acid wash and bead blast they gave it
Gave them the two halves of the intake manifold too, the bottom part was impossible for me to get all the sludge out myself.
Exhaust manifold heat shield after sanding the significant amounts of rust
Painted
Before and after of the faded and acid burned battery tray insert
Cylinder head bolted and torqued as per Honda's specifications: 29 lb-ft plus 180° turn.
Timing done
Balance shaft seal retainer. Only a couple of bucks for the kit from Honda, I figured why not.
Just a fraction of the tons of parts I've cleaned rust off to paint/clearcoat
My brother's low-tech paint station
Engine, ready to be dropped in
Engine bay, cleaned to my satisfaction
Engine has since been dropped in and is sitting pretty in all its mounts. A few more things to bolt up, and waiting on some parts from Majestic. I'll take a picture once everything's bolted up.
When the machine shop pressed in the cam seal, the inner lip rolled and the spring popped out of the seal. Thanks to the RTV they lined it with, removing it was an in-law of a *****.
Finished the product. I'm pretty proud of it.
Google Sheets spreadsheet with rebuild cost breakdown