The Rotten Banana- Over a decade in the making

[Titus]

Nuts and bolts

One of the things I ordered early on was a timing belt and water pump kit. Given the engine had 80k miles on it, I figured it was just about due. Once I got around to removing the timing belt cover, I found a fairly new Gates timing belt was on the car. Given this, I ended up flipping the TB kit to a friend for a small loss (which I have recorded in my cost log).

But whats important is nuts and bolts. When I was removing the timing belt cover, I noticed that several of the bolts had pretty rusty heads. I ended up soaking them all over night in rust remover and they looked as good as new. The problem though was that about half of them had very poor zinc plating (a few seemed to have none at all on the head) and this was clearly what allowed them to rust. Re-installing them as is was just asking for a repeat of the rust build-up. Replacing them seemed costly at over $3 a bolt plus shipping for over a dozen of them. I considered having them powder coated when I send off the valve covers, but that seemed like overkill. I even briefly considered a zinc coating kit from Eastwood, but as i researched the kit I found myself reading about bolt treatments on a Harley forum. There I discovered the idea of painting them with fingernail polish. Durable, comes with a brush the right size for painting bolt heads, and easy to touch up if it gets scratched. A quick raiding of my daughter's nail polish collection and 30 minutes later, they were all painted black.



From there we go to Accessory bolts. One thing you will find is that most junkyards sell the accessories separate from the engine. I didn't even realize this until a few days after the engine was in the garage. I addressed this and sourced an Alternator and AC Compressor, but then I found I didn't have the bolts to attach them. I needed to order a weird gasket only sold by Honda anyway, so I ordered the 2 Alternator bolts and 4 compressor bolts. About 15 seconds after they were installed, I realized how much time and money in shipping charges my lack of thinking ahead was costing me, as now I needed to order a belt. Belt arrived and went on easy.

[Titus]

Tonight I finished stripping the engine bay and I got one side clean.

[SpeedWorks]

this is so awesome. i've been looking at the honda v6 swap lately for a future project and this kinda pushed my decision. the bodywork on this car is great, so now there will be plenty of muscle to back up the looks.

[Titus]

this is so awesome. i've been looking at the honda v6 swap lately for a future project and this kinda pushed my decision. the bodywork on this car is great, so now there will be plenty of muscle to back up the looks.

Thanks.. PM me when you are getting ready to order. I may be able to provide some advice and I will get you in to the owners group I admin.

[jux]

That's a clean bay! Looks like great progress so far.

[Tkblazer]

Man I just looked up how much those engines cost and it's crazy how cheap they are

[— Agent☣Orange —]

How much?

[Titus]

How much?

I got the 2 pictured earlier from a junk yard 2 miles from my house. Both are from 2002 Acura TL Type S donor cars, both have around 80k miles. The junk yard had them listed on car-part.com for $250 plus tax plus a $100 core fee for each. By buying both, I got him to cut the core charge in half. I then got one of his guys to deliver them to my house for another $20. All in, it was $330 per engine delivered.

Now with that said, the engines usually come without accessories or harness and a few of the sensors almost always get broke when they pull the harness. I spent another $340 on Alternator, Compressor, harness, bolts and belt to install the accessories, and 2 broken sensors.

[Titus]

Friday night saw a break for Furious 7, and most of Saturday was detoured by replacing the house water heater, but I found time Saturday night for dash removal. Probably Not required to complete the swap, but it will make some things easier and allows me to remove the rest of the airbag stuff, install a new heater core, and add some foam strip to the back of the dash to get rid of some old age rattles and creaks.

[Titus]

Today started with removing the brake booster and AC lines, and then finishing the cleaning. Won't be much more action in here until I can get the paint work done.





I then turned my attention to the transmission. You need to cut a notch out for starter clearance. A template is provided with the kit to mark it.



After a little work with the cutoff wheel, it is ready for test fitting.



Today's last task was the throw out bearing bushing. Others have said it was a real pain to get on, but it slid on by hand for me. I may even go back and dimple it to add a little more friction so it doesn't ever move.

[TNRooster3]

This looks just too cool, WOW.....wish I lived close enough to see this in person, where have I been not to have seen this thread? Also the engine swap is really something, now I wish I had not traded off my '91 Mariner Jellybean and did this engine swap instead. Rooster would have had a really cool garage mate.

[Titus]

This looks just too cool, WOW.....wish I lived close enough to see this in person, where have I been not to have seen this thread? Also the engine swap is really something, now I wish I had not traded off my '91 Mariner Jellybean and did this engine swap instead. Rooster would have had a really cool garage mate.

While you may not know my car, Rooster does!

[TNRooster3]

Man oh man, did not know this, cool stuff, thanks for the pix, I'll add it to my album. There are so many cool miatas in and around Dallas!!!

[Titus]

No wrenching updates right now as I wait on a few different dependencies, but I did get a new radio surround for the car in the mail today.

The old radio surround was purchased years ago when I needed a place for boost and a/f gauges. It was also stainless steel, as most everything I bought for the car back in those days was shinny.


The new one gets rid of the gauge holes that are no longer needed, and is in matte black to fit in better with the current theme of the car.

[TNRooster3]

Anxiously waiting for the next post with info on this V6 swap in this amazing looking car!!!