So, I was driving along two weeks ago in my 92 Prelude S (F22A!) and my car started making a weird grinding noise. I stopped, looked under the hood and could barely hear it, so I tried revving a bit, didn't get any louder, so I just got back in and kept driving, thinking that I would work on it last weekend. The next day, I was driving and it got louder. I looked again, and it almost sounded like poorly adjusted valves, but louder and not from the valves. I decided I wasn't going to drive it any more except to drive it back home to my parent's house where our shop is (about and hour from where I live).
So it sat for a few days, and then the night before I was going to take it up there I was driving it up a hill about a half mile from my house at about 10 MPH and I heard a THUNK! Naturally, I was already on edge because of the noise it had been making so I pushed the clutch in and start coasting up this hill. I look down, and notice my RPM gauge is zeroed so I try starting it back up real quick, and it just cranks and cranks and cranks, nothing happening.
I'm still coasting up this mile long hill (shallow grade, thankfully), and I know that if I stop I'm never going to be able to get it going again pushing it, so I get out while it's moving, have my girlfriend slide over to steer, and I push it about a half mile up this hill to my house, leaving a trail of water/antifreeze on the road behind me.
The next day I had it towed home to our shop. While we were trying to figure out what we were going to do with it, we pulled the valve cover and I noticed the timing belt was not over the top of the cam gear. Since we weren't sure if it struck any valves, if anything else had been damaged, etc, we started looking around at ebay, papers, etc, looking at prices for just a head, a whole engine, or a different engine. We considered getting just an H22A head and building a frankenstein, but, luckily for us, we looked at Craigslist too. In the Sacramento Craigslist, there was a guy trying to sell a complete H22A out of a 94 Prelude, with P13 ECU and a completely separate H22A head out of a 98 lude, for $500. Yes, $500. We drove 2 hours that day to get the whole package.
Anyways, I'm now mid swap, on hold because we are going to pull the pan on the H22 and check it over before we put it in my car.
I haven't figured out what went wrong with my F22, but what we think happened is the water pump was making the noise, and it seized and snapped the timing belt. I finished pulling the engine out of the car today, but I had to leave it (and I needed help getting the crank pulley bolt out) before I got it figured out. I'll edit in an update when I know what happened.
Moral: Always check Craigslist! $500 H22 FTW!
So it sat for a few days, and then the night before I was going to take it up there I was driving it up a hill about a half mile from my house at about 10 MPH and I heard a THUNK! Naturally, I was already on edge because of the noise it had been making so I pushed the clutch in and start coasting up this hill. I look down, and notice my RPM gauge is zeroed so I try starting it back up real quick, and it just cranks and cranks and cranks, nothing happening.
I'm still coasting up this mile long hill (shallow grade, thankfully), and I know that if I stop I'm never going to be able to get it going again pushing it, so I get out while it's moving, have my girlfriend slide over to steer, and I push it about a half mile up this hill to my house, leaving a trail of water/antifreeze on the road behind me.
The next day I had it towed home to our shop. While we were trying to figure out what we were going to do with it, we pulled the valve cover and I noticed the timing belt was not over the top of the cam gear. Since we weren't sure if it struck any valves, if anything else had been damaged, etc, we started looking around at ebay, papers, etc, looking at prices for just a head, a whole engine, or a different engine. We considered getting just an H22A head and building a frankenstein, but, luckily for us, we looked at Craigslist too. In the Sacramento Craigslist, there was a guy trying to sell a complete H22A out of a 94 Prelude, with P13 ECU and a completely separate H22A head out of a 98 lude, for $500. Yes, $500. We drove 2 hours that day to get the whole package.
Anyways, I'm now mid swap, on hold because we are going to pull the pan on the H22 and check it over before we put it in my car.
I haven't figured out what went wrong with my F22, but what we think happened is the water pump was making the noise, and it seized and snapped the timing belt. I finished pulling the engine out of the car today, but I had to leave it (and I needed help getting the crank pulley bolt out) before I got it figured out. I'll edit in an update when I know what happened.
Moral: Always check Craigslist! $500 H22 FTW!
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