Help your friendly neighborhood admin! (I think my motor is done...)

[uslspct]

Yes, so what is new?

Do you have a set of 6 spoke alloys you want to sell to me?

[deevergote]

At the moment, I'm probably going to have to buy a new head. I removed the old Bosch Platinum 4 that I put in place of that scary #3 NGK, and the same problems started with that.

It seems that the threads in the hole are severely damaged. I put in a brand new NGK Irridium IX today, and it went in fairly easily. I tried to torque it properly, and it just kept going. It's not very tight at all (2-3ft/lbs probably) but the plug wire can be pushed down a little, indicating that the plug is already probably sitting way too low. There's a slight but noticable misfire at idle, and I can still feel a bit of a vibration when the motor is under load. It's running decently right now, but I don't know how long that will last.

I will do a compression test soon. I'm a little uneasy removing that plug again, though! I'll probably wait until it starts causing real trouble again. I'm hoping there's no piston or ring damage because of this!



I really should build the block up, if I'm going to replace the head. I won't want to go through all that just to put a stock head back on there, so I might want to get some work done to it. If I spend money modifying the head, I don't know that I want to trust a tired stock block! Bah, damn motors...


But yeah, I'll probably sell you the wheels, Nick. There's no point in having 3 sets of wheels for a car that I can't drive! Better to have the money to fix it...

[MRX]

Why would you have to replace the whole head because of stripped spark plug threads? Just get a spark plug thread defouler.

[deevergote]

True... I'm not sure I can trust that though... I guess it's worth a shot! Do you know anyone that's used one before?

[starchland]

what about a helicoil? or whatever that thing is called.

so what do you think caused this?

[TypeG]

cross threaded plugs are easy to do to a honda. a lot of old school honda tech's say to put a 3/8'' hose on the end of the spark plug when installing it. if the plugs starts to cross thread the hose will spin on the plug and prevent thread damage. later.

[starchland]

I realize that...I meant more along the lines like was the block warm possibly when this happened? previous owner?

[deevergote]

I'm not sure. The engine is a JDM H22 from hmo... and I've had it for 4 years. I replced the plugs quite some time ago... November 4th, 2005 (I made my "sparkplug indexing made easy" thread at the time). I DO remember when I did that, I did my best to point the open end of the plugs towards the intake manifold. #3 didn't quite go, but I didn't force it. I put about as much pressure on it as I did the others, and just let it go when it wouldn't go perfectly. I know I didn't force it, but I didn't use a torque wrench, so I may have torqued it a bit much. The other plugs were a little under spec when I finally torqued them today, and they were in at the same relative hand-tightness that I've always done.

I don't know what the cause could've been, aside from an error on my part installing it. I KNOW that the aluminum of the head is easily damaged, so I've always taken great care with that!

When I removed the severely messed up NGK that you see in the pics, the little floating washer part (what is that for, anyway?) was bent and jammed down on the threads. I'm not sure what that indicates.

[uslspct]

Your PM box is full.

I wanted to see if you could sell me some rims. If not the 6-spokes then the 7's. I popped a tire and the other one was leaking air. I have some new Falken's ready to go on but I need some wheels.

Your 2 wheels/tires I have on the front are fine.

[deevergote]

I can part with the 7's. I still want to paint the 6's bronze! My phone is being a bitch, and my PM box is blowing up. I haven't had much time to be on IM (though I will soon... I just lightened my workload a bit). Shoot me an email if you can't reach me otherwise...

[d112crzy]

Bump an old thread.

Do you still have the video you took, Deev? i want to show it to almostJDM. His video sounds very close to what yours sounded(from what I remember anyways).

I'm trying to help him diagnose the problem.

I don't think his is knocking, just like yours wasn't.

[ACCLUDE91]

Got any quotes for the head(s) yet? Like I said, you might be better off fixing your current one and using the spare "to get by". Take it to a shop and see if there's any issues with cyl #3 valves sealing first!

[deevergote]

Nothing yet. I don't want to bother anyone until I'm actually looking to have the work done! I'm wondering if I need to get a full valvetrain, or if I could just use the stiffer inner-springs that I got a while back...

The car is running now, and hasn't pushed the plug up since I got it back on the road. I won't trust it for work (though it MAY be more reliable than the GTP at this point!) but I've been driving it locally. 30mpg is so nice!

I'm thinking of contacting ESP, one of the Member Shop owners here on the forum. If I recall, their headwork is reasonably priced, they know the H22, and I've heard nothing but good about their products and professionalism. It'll require shipping the thing across the country, but worth it if they can do good work at a good price!



I washed, washed, washed, waxed, washed, washed, and waxed the hatch today as well... And I picked up an engine stand for $10! I also found out my neighbor has a hoist, and has worked as a mechanic since he was 16. I'll definitely ask him for some help! I think I'm going to rebuild the A20A slowly, as I can afford it. Until then, I'll just start making the thing look pretty If the GTP can hold out while I do these things, I'll be happy as a pig in slop.

[ACCLUDE91]

Awesome bro! I knew there was a reason for putting the 3rd gen back in your possession!

[deevergote]

For sure. I'm not going to let it sit like I did last time! That would be an insult to your generosity! At the very least, it's going to be restored to it's former (before anyone we knew had it) glory I'd still like to go turbo, or ultimately, RWD... the H22 seems like more work than it's worth, as I really don't NEED another H22 Accord! Not out of the question, though.