Raf99 : 1993 Accord EX

[Raf99]

Yaa, the last time I tried doing the trans on my own with the engine in was not fun. I scratched the shit out of the engine bay, the dual clutches made it impossible to get it on.... and it was too heavy. I'll have to think on this. Almost worth getting some kind of transmission jack as the rest can easily be done with the engine in the car. The thought of taking the axles out, suspension, exhaust, coolant lines, power steering... ugg.....

[CyborgGT]

Do you have a cherry picker? When I was doing my manual trans conversion, I tilted the engine down and just used a floor jack with a block of wood to support the shallow end of the oil pan, while I used the cherry picker to hold the trans up for me while I wrestled it in/out. Or did you try the engine tilt, and the clutch was still killing your room to work?

[Raf99]

Yes I do. I may try again though, but still need to disconnect a lot of stuff to get the engine low enough. It's that your trying to get the input shaft of the transmission over the clutch and there's not enough room bc of the extra width of the clutches...
And the thing weights a lot so you're sweating balls, can never get the right angle. Meh... we'll see. Thanks for the idea. I may buy a cheap trans jack if one exists.

[Raf99]

So looking over the car today and decided it all needs to come out.

- There's a leak over by the timing cover, which may be coming from a cam seal, not sure
- There's the trans leak where the cases meet
- There's a leak in the back by a bolt, unknown ....
- I have to do the timing tensioner again..
- And the oil pan gasket

I also ordered the tensioner I want and the hardware I need to make it work.


Trans leak


Timing cover leak (coming from somewhere)


This bolt over by the trans is always wet with oil. This may be a hairline crack somewhere




Got the exhaust off, axles out, traction bar off, power steering off, coolant/oil/trans fluid drained, wires disconnected and bunch of other small items. Going to do what GyborgGT did and drop the engine and trans down to the floor as low as it will go & then remove the trans and slide it out. Then take the engine out from the top. I think the only issue will be finding a bolt or something to hook the engine on to.

[Rilas]

Honestly for each of those the only thing I would take out is the trans. The rest can be done in the car without much effort. Hell just remember, I just took all of this apart and had to deck the block in the engine bay, and then reassemble it all. Wasn't that bad other than it being outside in the cold.

[Raf99]

Mmmm still thinking on it. It's doing the timing belt with a new tensioner that's a pain. And man, did I mention I hate taking coolant lines off the engine and spilling coolant everywhere :P

[Grumpys93]

Only thing I hate more the coolant is power steering. One of the reason I got rid of it. I can’t stand the smell and I hate how sticky coolant gets. But ya I feel y’all’s pain. I’ll be swapping out the thrust washers tonight so only dealing with oil which is fine.

[CyborgGT]

Hot coolant is up there as one of my least favorite smells on the planet. Because if you smell it, it's never for good reason.

When I swapped my H23 timing tensioner for the KS Tuned, it became so much easier to get the timing belt on. No real fight. But if you do decide to pull the whole engine, I think what I did was use one of the big transmission bolts screwed into its hole on the block as an anchor point. One of those on the rear, and then the factory lift point (if you have one) on the opposite corner near the power steering bracket.

[Raf99]

Fack, this never gets easier.... why the F is there an endless supply of coolant that spills everywhere!! Ya... let me just lie on the floor and reach up to disconnect this coolant line from the back of the block....

- Got a face full of coolant ---------------- check
- Coolant leaking all over the place ----- check
- Bloody knuckles ------------------------- check
- Fought a 80lbs transmission -------------check
- Scratched the side of the engine bay -- check
- Bend the IACV and the wire going to it -- check
- Fought for an hour to get the trans off --- check

Tried to lower the whole engine to take the trans off and out the bottom like CyborgGT did but that was not easy either. The intake manifold kept crushing wires etc., on the drivers side shit kept getting pinched if I tried to tilt it. I still never had enough room to get it off without scratching the shit out of the side of the bay. And no matter how I put the jack and wood the trans fell off and in the end you "man handled" it out. It's like ... you try and do it nice and easy, jacks in place, wood in place, let me just slowly slide it off the engine. Nope.... it comes off all of a sudden and shit goes crashing everywhere. haha

[Grumpys93]

And that is why I hate doing trans only removals. That checklist right there. Which I am praying that my knocking noise is from the thrust washers and not something in the trans.

[CyborgGT]

... yeah, I didn't have the intake manifold on when I mounted my engine. The F was stripped of externals for removal, and I liked that so much that I waited until the H was in to put its externals on. In both cases, the coolant had to come out or was dry anyway. I forgot about that part.

[Raf99]

So definitely have an oil leak on the drivers side and I guess it's coming from between the block and the head? But that seems impossible... not sure on that one.

Ignore the brown stuff, circled the wet area in red.


Wet area comes from the pool of oil here I believe, but where does this pool come from? Between the head and block??


Dry up here near the valve cover gasket


Dry in here, so not a cam seal




That back corner would be this back corner, top right. Sooo I guess the oil is draining back down and getting past the head gasket?? Not sure on this one. Sure it's just oil drain back, but the head gasket should stop that.


Same thing on the other side. A mysterious oil leak which appears to come from no-where.


Anyways, let's do the oil pan gasket. After taking the pan off I realized my issue as really that the bolts were loose. Meh... got a gasket so let's do it anyways. I don't have whatever this white stuff is, should be fine though.


Looks great here!


Look even better in here! Not one single metal shaving etc.

[Raf99]

What transmission sealant do you guys use ?

While I wait for parts I'll rip into this transmission and fix the sealant issue. Should be easy, just need to buy some Hondabond etc.



The problem area...


Where the leak was. Not enough sealant and used crappy stuff...



Ready for bond...

[Grumpys93]

Its interesting, my little oil leaks that I have are in those same exact areas. I have a small pool like yours on the back of the block in that little groove is cut and same spot on the timing cover. So I am not either and I am running an F-series. As for trans sealant, though I haven't rebuilt my trans yet, I use hondabond for pretty much everything.

Speaking of oil pan, have you tried myhondahabit's oil pan stud kit? I know it was popular in the b series back in the day, I thought about getting it for the h. Supposedly the best way to prevent the pan from leaking. But I haven't heard of anyone here using them.

[Rilas]

Raf your cam seals are leaking. Take off the cam gears and the plastic cover and you will find your leak I guarantee it. They leak down onto the deck of the block and come out right where your pictures are showing oil.

Otherwise good work so far.