Grumpys93 : 1993 Accord LX

[Grumpys93]

Time to breathe some new life into this thread. So as most of you know I was contemplating on whether to buy a 5th gen with an h22a in it. Well I went ahead and pulled the trigger. I am a proud owner of a POS 5th gen with a hopefully good h22 in it. Only time will tell, but for the price I can easily make my money back if it becomes a flop. My goal is to swap the h22a into the accord and use that until I finish piecing together the turbo kit for the f22b.

Enough talk on to the pictures.

Here is the Parts New Parts Car:
Previous owners called her Ruby for looking like a rubiks cube with its variety of white, red, and rust color.


Once I got her home I started looking around, I haven't been able to dig deep into why she isn't starting but I do know she is low on oil.

Here is why I bought her:



The swap was done very well, however there were somethings I didn't like what I saw


Yes that is scotch tape used as electrical tape (This is on the ebay headlights though so I really don't care about that)

Looks like oil leaking from VTEC Solenoid:


This is what the battery to tranny ground looks like. I saw this sparking when I tried to jump it two days ago. Could be part of the issue on why its not starting;


Then just messes all over the car:



They did leave me with an extra p13 ecu so I am happy about that


Pic of the fart can that is welded to what looks like 2.25 exhaust system with 2 glasspacks inline.


More pics to come and troubleshooting.

[Rilas]

Congrats on the purchase Nick! Hopefully it runs great and it is something dumb that is not letting it start.

[Grumpys93]

Congrats on the purchase Nick! Hopefully it runs great and it is something dumb that is not letting it start.

Thanks Will I'm hoping for the same thing as well. Today I checked to see if the fuel pump primed when I put the key in the run position, which sadly it did, so it's not a bad fuel pump and most likely not a bad main relay. Next time I have an hour or so, I will pull the spark plugs and oil pan and see what I find there. The gas gauge is also reading Empty, but I don't know if it's broken or not so I will also be putting a gallon of fuel in and seeing if it starts after I do an oil change on it and look at the oil pan and old oil.

I also got a package delivered from UPS today, kinda forgot what the rush feels like when you see UPS has delivered your part. Man do I miss that feeling. Anyways here's what I got:



Stage 4 competition clutch with upgraded pressure plate

[Raf99]

scotch tape, lol. So the lights were a xmas present and that was the left over tape. Great find! And I like how you showed all the issues (with pics ). Seems like once ya fix them all that engine just might be happy again.

[Grumpys93]

So I got to work on ruby today. First order of business was to check the spark plugs and take the battery out to hook it up to my battery charger and put some gas in the tank. I put 2.5 gals in it just to make sure.


As you can see the electrodes on #2 and #3 are pretty much none existent


I replaced these spark plugs with my old ones I ran on my last turbo set up.

Then proceeded to pull the valve cover to, one see if the timing belt was still connected and two, to see how the head looked.


I then took my battery to tranny ground of the CB and put it on the CD and mounted it to a more easily accessible location and because the original location was lose and it was too much of a pain to reach the bolt to tighten it up


After that I drained the little bit of oil it had in it and did an oil change.


I decided to cut the old oil filter open to see if I saw any metal shavings or flakes. I was pleased that I didn't see any in the filter or the oil



While I was installing the oil filter I saw that the o2 sensor plug is busted and the pins are barely in the plug. I'm not to worried about this because I have a spare o2 sensor I can use and this also wouldn't prevent it from starting.


So now I was ready to attempt to start ruby.
Needless to say she didn't start. So first thing I did was pull a plug and put it next to a metal tab to see if I got spark. In which I didn't.

So then I pulled the distributor cap and checked to see if I got spark at the coil, which I didn't. However I'm not sure I was doing it properly since I was using the end of a multimeter as something metal for the coil to arc to.

So I replaced the igniter with my old one from my f22b dis and at this point is where I had to stop and help mama with the little one. But I did try to crank it real quick to see if I got spark at coil again and again I did not. I need to go buy a spark plug tester or one of those light things to verify it is a bad coil. Im not sure if I have one laying around to not. I'm still not 100% sure I'm getting fuel, though I do hear the fuel pump prime. But I did not see the spark plug I pulled wet.

So I need to relearn how to diagnose a crank no start again, so next time I have another hour or two to play, I'll be better prepared.

any tips would be much appreciated. It's been a while since I've had to go into troubleshooting why a car won't start.

I have a msd coil blaster I could use to place the internal coil, I'll just have to look up how to hook it up. Man I have forgotten a lot

[Grumpys93]

Well I got about 3 hours today to work on the white accord. First thing I did was check for voltage at the coil, which had 12v, so then I checked the negative side of the coil to see if the ignitior was clicking on and off. Which I was very pleased to see it was.

So then checked for spark at the coil one last time and of course there was none. I went up to auto zone and bought a new coil, and the Lucas version of sea foam. Replaced the coil and put everything back together. Low and behold the car started up and sounded great.

I also discovered that the oil leak was not coming from the vtec solenoid but actually the distributor o-ring. I grabbed one of my spare distributors and replaced the o-ring, along with the gasket around the distributor cap.

So I spent 105 for new oil, oil filter, and coil and she purs nicely. I drove her around the block a couple times to warm everything up and see if I would get a CEL. Got the rpms up to 4000 before I had to slow down. So tomorrow morning I will take her on the road and hit vtec crossover and see how it goes. No CELs so far. Tomorrow we shall see.

The exhaust note is actually pretty decent, I will also put the Lucas seafoam in the oil, intake, and fuel tank to give the engine a little interior cleaning before I start the pulling process.

I am almost half tempted to just sell the white car and make a decent profit towards the turbo motor. But the thought of having a spare engine and an H22a makes me want to keep it. I'll post up pics and vids tomorrow.

I did notice that it idles low once warmed up. Cold it sits about 800-900 and warm it drops to 300-400. So I will play with the idle valve tomorrow as well.

I'm just happy it runs and runs good so far, the car itself is a death trap and I can't wait to get rid of it.

[Fleetw00d]

I did notice that it idles low once warmed up. Cold it sits about 800-900 and warm it drops to 300-400. So I will play with the idle valve tomorrow as well.

If the 5th gen tach is similar to the 4th, it essentially starts at 500. If you count the tick marks backward from 1000, then the first large mark just above zero actually corresponds to 500 rpm, so the low idle is really about 700 rpm, just about where it oughta be.

[Rilas]

Nick that is awesome that you got it running relatively easily. I honestly think you should just pull the H22A and everything else you can use, and just scrap the rest. You can even try to sell the trans since you don't need it. Driving around in your own Accord will be well worth the trouble. Even better once you've finished up the turbo build.

[Grumpys93]

If the 5th gen tach is similar to the 4th, it essentially starts at 500. If you count the tick marks backward from 1000, then the first large mark just above zero actually corresponds to 500 rpm, so the low idle is really about 700 rpm, just about where it oughta be.

Yes you are correct. However it sits below the big tick mark at the bottom and you can tell the car is trying not to die.

Nick that is awesome that you got it running relatively easily. I honestly think you should just pull the H22A and everything else you can use, and just scrap the rest. You can even try to sell the trans since you don't need it. Driving around in your own Accord will be well worth the trouble. Even better once you've finished up the turbo build.

I think that's what I'm going to do. Have fun with th car until I finish the turbo motor. How's Lola going?

Also here is a video of me test driving the CD7 and seeing if vtec engages


The CEL came on while driving before I floored the car. I didn't get a chance to see what codes it was throwing, so I will have to do that another time. I was in a rush today and just wanted to make sure the car drove fine and vtec engaged.

[CyborgGT]

VTEC's not until 5300, isn't it? Glad to see the gamble seems to be paying off though.

[Grumpys93]

So research tells me it's 5300 like you said but if you watch the video with your speakers up you can hear it engage at 4200 unless those are the butterfly valves opening up. Also today I decided to run 2nd gear out all the way and I hit a rev limiter at 6500. Now I know the H22a is suppose to rev up to 7500-7800 all day. So again I am not very knowledgeable on the H22a and I'm especially clueless on automatics. The CEL comes on at random today it didn't come on at one point until I was driving around for 30 mins another time it came on in the first 10 mins of driving. Then when I turn off the motor the CEL goes away. So do I need to jump it while the engine is running or will it still show the code when the motor is turned off. I have dug to far into it due to lack of time and the weather being crappy. So any quick advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Fleetw00d]

If it works like our Accords, jump the service connector, then turn the key to the "on" position - do not start the engine. Then note the codes.

[Grumpys93]

Right but will it show the code that comes on at random when driving? I'm use to it throwing codes if there is a CEL when you put the key into the on position, not after driving and it going out when you shut off the motor. I'll try and jump it out tomorrow and see what happens. I also need to see what automatic tranny this car has. I'm guessing by the shifting points it's the accords original tranny.

[GTRON]

Yes you are correct. However it sits below the big tick mark at the bottom and you can tell the car is trying not to die.


I think that's what I'm going to do. Have fun with th car until I finish the turbo motor. How's Lola going?

Also here is a video of me test driving the CD7 and seeing if vtec engages


The CEL came on while driving before I floored the car. I didn't get a chance to see what codes it was throwing, so I will have to do that another time. I was in a rush today and just wanted to make sure the car drove fine and vtec engaged.

What happened to the video?

[Grumpys93]

What happened to the video?

It's still there