Honcho's Long Road to Imola Type-S Zero
- Thread starter Honcho
- Start date
Thanks! I wonder if I can hijack the seatbelt light circuit and use it as an oil temp warning light....
Yes, I re-used my 92 side gauges. Honestly it is mostly because I prefer the "blue" temp gauge look. I also prefer the "narrower" look of the early gauges. JMO.
Sneak peak at my seat project:
are these what I think they are?
Downforce seat shells?
That really depends on paint. If I can send the chassis in the next few weeks, we're looking at May-June for a fully reassembled car. Of course, there is going to be a ton of tuning required. I'm switching injectors and cams, so I'm going to essentially have to start from scratch and work my way up (e.g., get it started, find a stable idle, tune the low cams, tune VTEC, part throttle, etc.). I'm having an extra bung welded on the headers for the wideband O2. Thus, for a fully tuned driver, it's gonna be more like next fall. I'm hoping a basic math re-scale of the fuel maps + dead time adjustment will at least get me started and idling so I can at least bleed the coolant system and set the idle rpm.
General
More items arriving. Still waiting on paint and now with the virus quarantines, it might be a while.
Modified ECU complete and ready for tuning. Special thanks to Prime member @MotorMouth93 . He was extremely gracious in installing the board for me, as I lack the proper equipment or skill set to do it myself. Now, my NSX can talk to TunerPro and I can adjust fuel and timing in real time. The green headers on the Demon II are for the wideband O2 and any other sensors. I may incorporate an oil pressure and fuel pressure sensor too. Still deciding.
Ferric chloride solution for refinishing the console trim pieces. You need this stuff to remove the foil coating on US trim pieces.
Finally, my Tohnichi 100Nm torque wrench. I've gotten by with my Harbor Freight clickers for many years, but for critical things like engine/transmission assembly and torquing head bolts, I need Japanese-precision. This wrench is 1/2" drive and runs from 10 to 100 Nm, which covers most critical bolts on the NSX. This thing comes with its own calibration sheet! It even has a finger stop and line on the handle to guide your grip for the most accurate torque. It's quite impressive. Can't wait to use it! Bought a brand new set of 1/2" drive 12-point sockets for it too.
With the paint delays, I may have to find a way to start the other projects now, even with the space limitations in the garage. It's quite frustrating, but I'm not confident the chassis will be out of the garage for a while...
More items arriving. Still waiting on paint and now with the virus quarantines, it might be a while.
Modified ECU complete and ready for tuning. Special thanks to Prime member @MotorMouth93 . He was extremely gracious in installing the board for me, as I lack the proper equipment or skill set to do it myself. Now, my NSX can talk to TunerPro and I can adjust fuel and timing in real time. The green headers on the Demon II are for the wideband O2 and any other sensors. I may incorporate an oil pressure and fuel pressure sensor too. Still deciding.
Ferric chloride solution for refinishing the console trim pieces. You need this stuff to remove the foil coating on US trim pieces.
Finally, my Tohnichi 100Nm torque wrench. I've gotten by with my Harbor Freight clickers for many years, but for critical things like engine/transmission assembly and torquing head bolts, I need Japanese-precision. This wrench is 1/2" drive and runs from 10 to 100 Nm, which covers most critical bolts on the NSX. This thing comes with its own calibration sheet! It even has a finger stop and line on the handle to guide your grip for the most accurate torque. It's quite impressive. Can't wait to use it! Bought a brand new set of 1/2" drive 12-point sockets for it too.
With the paint delays, I may have to find a way to start the other projects now, even with the space limitations in the garage. It's quite frustrating, but I'm not confident the chassis will be out of the garage for a while...
Doing your part to stimulate the economy during the current stock market retrenchment. Bravo!
The individual wire connections to the ECU board look like single pin headers - no mechanical retainers. If the case top cover presses down on the wires then there may never be an issue with the connectors backing off the header pins due to vibration. If the connectors have space to move up you might want to consider some locking arrangement.
The individual wire connections to the ECU board look like single pin headers - no mechanical retainers. If the case top cover presses down on the wires then there may never be an issue with the connectors backing off the header pins due to vibration. If the connectors have space to move up you might want to consider some locking arrangement.
Top cover is going to gently press on the wires. These wires are for datalogging only, so not critical for engine operation even if they did wiggle loose.
Intake Manifold Restoration 1
Everything is shut down and I am stuck at home. Good news is the car MIGHT be going to paint this week, as auto body shops are allowed to remain open under our stay-home order. In the meantime, keeping busy by cleaning and refurbishing the EACV. Unlike OBD-II DBW cars, which modulate the throttle plate to control idle, the NSX's OBD-I PGM-FI system uses a solenoid-driven bypass valve called the Electronic Air Control Valve (EACV) to permit airflow past the throttle when closed. It's controlled by the ECU and helps the NSX keep a stable idle. Because the valve is exposed to the circulating exhaust gas inside the manifold and the PCV blowby, the filter screen becomes virtually blocked over time and the valve plunger itself gets caked in black soot. This can cause a lot of idle problems.
Screen almost 100% blocked. Amazingly, this NSX still was able to maintain a steady idle.
Cleaned the plunger to this level using carb/choke cleaner. Take care to keep cleaner fluid away from the solenoid.
The new screen and old one.
Installed the new screen.
Cleaned up the coolant barbs. The EACV is heated by warm engine coolant to keep the solenoid from sticking in cold weather.
Everything is shut down and I am stuck at home. Good news is the car MIGHT be going to paint this week, as auto body shops are allowed to remain open under our stay-home order. In the meantime, keeping busy by cleaning and refurbishing the EACV. Unlike OBD-II DBW cars, which modulate the throttle plate to control idle, the NSX's OBD-I PGM-FI system uses a solenoid-driven bypass valve called the Electronic Air Control Valve (EACV) to permit airflow past the throttle when closed. It's controlled by the ECU and helps the NSX keep a stable idle. Because the valve is exposed to the circulating exhaust gas inside the manifold and the PCV blowby, the filter screen becomes virtually blocked over time and the valve plunger itself gets caked in black soot. This can cause a lot of idle problems.
Screen almost 100% blocked. Amazingly, this NSX still was able to maintain a steady idle.
Cleaned the plunger to this level using carb/choke cleaner. Take care to keep cleaner fluid away from the solenoid.
The new screen and old one.
Installed the new screen.
Cleaned up the coolant barbs. The EACV is heated by warm engine coolant to keep the solenoid from sticking in cold weather.
Intake Manifold Restoration 2
Last night I put the manifold in the "hot tank," which was just my laundry sink filled with hot water and Ajax dish detergent. While not as good as a real hot tank, it did a pretty good job, using wire brushes and a scour pad.
Intake ports before and after.
Runners are generally clean now.
Even managed to get down by the EGR ports. This was caked in oily black soot.
EACV air passages. Clean on left, dirty on right. This required carb cleaner.
Intake snout cleaned up nicely. Before and after.
While the "hot tank" worked well on most of the manifold, I couldn't really get to the fuel injector holes. I have to drill these out to 14 mm with [MENTION=13737]OLDMNSX[/MENTION] kit anyway so I will use carb cleaner once that is done.
More concerning are the EGR passages. Maybe I am being over-cautious, but these passages remain almost 100% blocked up by 28 years of exhaust carbon. The hot water soap did not really work and there is no way to get a scrub brush in there. However, I am deleting my EGR system, so not sure how thoroughly these need to be cleaned up. I may just replace the gaskets, seal it all up and call it a day. My other thought is to have my cylinder head shop run the manifold through their real hot tank, which will ensure a gleaming, clean piece.
Last night I put the manifold in the "hot tank," which was just my laundry sink filled with hot water and Ajax dish detergent. While not as good as a real hot tank, it did a pretty good job, using wire brushes and a scour pad.
Intake ports before and after.
Runners are generally clean now.
Even managed to get down by the EGR ports. This was caked in oily black soot.
EACV air passages. Clean on left, dirty on right. This required carb cleaner.
Intake snout cleaned up nicely. Before and after.
While the "hot tank" worked well on most of the manifold, I couldn't really get to the fuel injector holes. I have to drill these out to 14 mm with [MENTION=13737]OLDMNSX[/MENTION] kit anyway so I will use carb cleaner once that is done.
More concerning are the EGR passages. Maybe I am being over-cautious, but these passages remain almost 100% blocked up by 28 years of exhaust carbon. The hot water soap did not really work and there is no way to get a scrub brush in there. However, I am deleting my EGR system, so not sure how thoroughly these need to be cleaned up. I may just replace the gaskets, seal it all up and call it a day. My other thought is to have my cylinder head shop run the manifold through their real hot tank, which will ensure a gleaming, clean piece.
Last edited:
Might actually be a speed-up. I'm stuck home and the body shop is open and deserted right now. So, hoping things get moving fast in the next few weeks! Though, Mrs. Honcho has a considerable honey-do list! NSX comes second after all!
Last edited:
Lots to report, but no time to update the blog. I'll have an orange car in about 7 weeks.
Your heads will be funding some of that LOL. But your cams are going in the car. 
Can't wait to see painted pics!
He's going to get to work repairing, prepping and painting the body panels immediately, so we should have some pics soon. Turns out YR-514P is a 2-stage paint, so he can paint the panels off the car (YR-536P is a 3-stage tri-coat and must be painted on the car to avoid striping/shading issues with the mid-coat). I need to do some final strip and prep on the chassis before it can roll to the shop.
