Big day tomorrow for my new toy

[M Baker]

One of our master techs is going to be busy Saturday getting my "new" 1991 NSX up-to-date. He put the new Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Specs on last week. I didn't want to drive it until all the belts and waterpump were replaced as that service is overdue (last done in 2004). All it's been doing in Seattle is raining, so why not let my new car sit right outside my office where I can keep an eye on it!

38,924 miles. One owner, local car. Completely stock and clean. Not in the snap ring range. All coolant hoses replaced two years ago. Valves adjusted at 30k miles. Even though the oil and filter look new I wanted to have my own baseline. All documents including every service at Acura of Lynnwood, the Monroney sticker, the class action tire suit documents and coupons, and purchase documents. I even have the original NSX owner's book (thanks Craig!). I'm very grateful for being in the right place at the right time.

I sold my E39 M5 so I could get this car. Now that I have had this nearby for a couple of weeks and had a chance to examine it closely I am truly amazed at what Honda did when they designed this car over 20 years ago. It is a super car.

Thanks to Joe at Acura Augusta for getting the parts to me in time! Looking at the picture below you can probably get an idea of what we'll be doing on Saturday.

I haven't cleaned the car at all. I'm not sure if the original owner drove it in the rain that much.

 

[angus]

WOW, that is clean.

Also noticed you have an E30 M3...

 

[tbnsxt]

If you aren't already doing it, I would highly recommend replacing the complete timing belt tensioner as well as the tb/wp. My 95 started knocking like it had a rod knock, and when we did the timing belt service we found that it was the belt tensioner bearing that failed. It actually almost fell appart when the tensioner bold was loosened.

Since you are making a fantastic decision on doing almost every part you can service on you beautiful new car,(I love Berlina Black), I would do the tensioner as well.

If you are replacing the tensioner already, disregard me as I didn't spot it in your extensive parts table.

It is always great to see people restore their cars back to like new condition, and start with a clean slate as you are doing.

 

[M Baker]

WOW, that is clean.

Also noticed you have an E30 M3...

I did a restore of my M3 over the last several years and did the EVO3 engine upgrade when I had the engine rebuilt. I went through it and took out every last bolt and nut that wasn't BMW and put in all BMW parts. It is a stock E30 M3 with the 2.5 engine. When I bought it eight years ago the M3 was in a sorry state - it was no where near the condition of this NSX - I learned my lesson through pocketbook pain.

Now I have three cars from that era: 1990 Eagle Talon AWD Tsi (original owner), the M3, and now the NSX.

 

[alum04org]

Awesome!

 

[shawn110975]

nice find. and your just posting about it now???

let the upgrades begin... and the daily rape of your wallet in upgrades.

I suggest keep the thing as close to stock as possible.

dont Turbo it, or Supercharge it the hp gains are not worth the headaches these guys are having but will not admit it on prime. and if you do decide to make the engine mods keep ALL of the original parts as when your engine has had enough of the mods putting the original parts back on is easier than tracking them down or buying new/used for triple what you sold them for.

trust me i know.

a stock engine will live longer than a modified one. 20 years and still going.

not one SC or turbo owner can say its been 20 years since they installed the Turbo/SC

and drive the thing its been collecting dust for far to long. she wants to see the world, let her while you hold her close and her revs will give you goose bumps.:biggrin:

 

[Big_D]

Awesome find, Congrats!

 

[Dynamic-uzed-auto]

Please put wheels on at least, congrats for collecting timepiece vehicles of the 90s

 

[Xetronic]

Grats!

 

[M Baker]

dont Turbo it, or Supercharge it the hp gains are not worth the headaches these guys are having but will not admit it on prime. and if you do decide to make the engine mods keep ALL of the original parts as when your engine has had enough of the mods putting the original parts back on is easier than tracking them down or buying new/used for triple what you sold them for.

I hear you! Future work: I will take off the cast iron exhaust manifold and likely replace it with with something like these for more HP and less weight: http://www.scienceofspeed.com/products/exhaust_airflow_products/NSX/ScienceofSpeed/Advanced_Headers/

Also looking into exhaust/muffler combinations that will not make the cabin noisier (no drone on long trips!) but let some of that beautiful sound out for all to enjoy!

I will do what I can to make the car lighter and produce more power without forcing air into it.

The work has begun. First priority: struts for glass engine cover have been replaced.

 

[M Baker]

Please put wheels on at least, congrats for collecting timepiece vehicles of the 90s

You don't like those lightweight forged wheels?! :biggrin: Yes they look dated, but they DO fit the time period for the car. Whatever I do, I WILL keep the stock wheels. And I will get the strongest lightest wheels - that IMHO look nice on the NSX.

 

[M Baker]

Hit a temporary wall in timing belt work. When we took off the old timing belt cover (#1 below) - no gasket. And the new timing belt cover in the water pump kit didn't have a gasket either

I'm missing (#5 below): 11841-PR7-A00 GASKET, TIMING BELT COVER (LOWER). I have it on order but if anyone in the Seattle area has a new one in the bag let me know so as you can get the fresh one that comes in next week.

We still have plenty of work today, but I won't be able drive it until the covers are back on. Not a single dealership in the Pacific Northwest has the gasket. But the Torrence, CA warehouse has one. It won't get here until next week... :frown:

I'm doing this right, and there should be, and WILL be a gasket in there before I take it away.

 

[shawn110975]

you need to get the newer style cover that has the weep hole for the waterpump, I think the new cover comes with it glued on to it but I can not confirm.

 

[rbilder]

Very nice find... exceptionally clean NSX.

The fun is just beginning :biggrin:

 

[M Baker]

you need to get the newer style cover that has the weep hole for the waterpump, I think the new cover comes with it glued on to it but I can not confirm.

That is what I got (new version with the weep hole) sealed in a plastic bag, and the waterpump, both in a sealed box. It was Acura "set" P/N 19200-PR7-305. BTW, not all dealers have this sitting around and you may find you have to wait five days for it. It DOES NOT come with the seal which has a street price of +/- $80. I guess Acura expects you to order the seal or use the one that was in the old one.

The old belts looked almost new with only 6,000 miles in eight years, but it's good we changed it out as that cover needed the seal due to the belts proximity to the passenger rear tire.

Everything is done except for putting things back together after we get the cover seal next week.

And now the sun is out and it has turned out to be a beautiful day in Seattle. Sigh...

 

[bigbadberry]

Clean on the outside, how's the insides look?

 

[Jacob_Seattle]

Mark,

I recognize you from the M5 forums. I also have an e39 M5. I recently purchased my NSX, but also kept my M5. Both are great cars and I did not want to have to choose. Good luck with your big maintenance project. Your car is very nice and clean. I will probably see you at a local meet this spring/summer.

Jacob

 

[M Baker]

Clean on the outside, how's the insides look?

Great question! Very clean, all stock. The dash, doors, carpets, floor mats, seats, steering wheel and shift knob are in very good shape - what you would expect for a NSX with less than 39k miles that had been driven in good weather. It was garaged its whole life.

I don't see any wear and it smells like new leather. I do need to send the speaker/amps to east coast to Brian to have them rebuilt as the driver's door speaker sounds bad/chirps, but the rest of the Bose system great so I am looking forward to having it working at 100%. The trunk smells like a smelly old golf bag - which is what he would put in there, so while it looks clean and new in the trunk, I need to deodorize it!

I want to get the iPod adapter for the CD changer input. This NSX does not have the CD changer - The Monroney shows it didn't have any factory options at all.

 

[M Baker]

Mark,

I recognize you from the M5 forums. I also have an e39 M5. I recently purchased my NSX, but also kept my M5. Both are great cars and I did not want to have to choose. Good luck with your big maintenance project. Your car is very nice and clean. I will probably see you at a local meet this spring/summer.

Jacob

That's right! I had an E39 M5 where absolutely everything worked on it - it was in perfect shape and ended up with a great guy who will take good care of it. I had a year left on my full coverage warranty and decided I didn't want to own it without a warranty to pay for everything (Warranty paid out over $11,000 over the last three years alone). And that didn't include the regular service maintenance costs and incidentals like $800 for Michelin Pilot Sports for the rear wheels.

With the NSX - I work at a Honda dealership and there are common parts and we have guys that are EXCELLENT Honda techs that want to work on it. Guys that pay attention to details and do it right. I can't lose no matter how old it gets - I don't need a warranty for that.

 

[wagyshag]

WOW! Beautiful '91!!! Congrats!:smile:

 

[M Baker]

Day one.

The S2000 convertible top work skirt fits perfectly around the engine bay of the NSX - like it was made for the NSX! The left front suspension which is a beautiful piece of engineering, and no I haven't cleaned a thing in that picture.

Cam covers exactly as they came off the car. Good to see they were clean.

21 year old original factory installed NGK plugs. NSX uses the same NGK plugs as the 1995 Prelude.

After 8 years and 6,000 miles the waterpump is fine, tight, no play, no issues. But replaced because of the 6 year or 90k mile service interval. Anyone want a perfectly good used water pump for "make reasonable offer" dollars?

 

[M Baker]

Not only did the Acura dealership that had done the last timing belt/waterpump work neglect to reattach all the fasteners in the engine bay. They also didn't put the #5 rubber seal in the large timing belt cover (see schematic earlier in this thread) which then allowed road dirt to get inside as it is right next to the right rear tire.

In addition, their NSX tech tighted the bolts so far beyond specs on both rear cam gears that we had to REMOVE both cams just so we could get the bolts lose without fear of damaging the head. We were barely able to loosen the bolts for the front cam gears without having to pull that set as well. Not happy about all the extra time it took us to tear the rear set down. Their tech must not have had access to a torque wrench.

That is the biggest timing belt I have ever seen for a road car.

8 year old NSX timing belt with 6,100 miles on it

So the lesson is, if you do the water pump update kit with the updated timing belt cover - order the #5 cover seal - it's not included in the kit. There should be one on your old cover unless someone threw it away in a prior service, which the Acura dealer did in this situation - Until today they had been the only service department that had done the service work on this car for the last 21 years.

And shame on that same Acura dealership for NOT putting the timing cover seal on this car when their tech did the timing belt & waterpump service in 2004. Well, we just found out that dealership's tech thinks he can skip important items on areas hidden from view. And because of that Blue Team tech's lack of professional concern back in 2004 we were not able to wrap up all the work today.

 

[Big_D]

Nice Work! That car is in even better shape now. You never know what little things can go wrong in the process of a teardown.


I was working on my daughters Toyota yesterday to clean the Throttle body and IAC valve. I had to drive all over town to source a throttle body gasket. While waiting for one to arrive I worked on removing everything. I found 1 loose fastener on the TB so it was sucking in dirty air...no wonder it wouldn't idle. Then I stripped out 4 machine screws attaching the IAC valve and had to drill one out. The tech must have over-torqued those screws. Had to run to Home Depot to get some allen head cap screws so next time it won't be an issue. Finally got the gasket 5 hours later so a 2 hour job ended up being about 6.

 

[condumbwerkz]

Congratulations! Excellent choice on the color

 

[Wick]

Congrats on a very nice NSX... a great addition to your stable

dont Turbo it, or Supercharge it the hp gains are not worth the headaches these guys are having but will not admit it on prime.

The above comment is BTW total B.S. I've had my NSX for 17 years and the SC for about 10 years, never had a problem... and it transforms the car!!