Three Years & 33500 miles later!..

Around three years had passed since the project was built, but as many an enthusiast knows, projects are always open to new ideas, change or improvements. So in february after a light bump on the road with a speeding vehicle, the engine was removed and torn down for a visual and methodical measured inspection to go against the original clearances recorded.

It was still in great shape bar a pin hole of porosity developing in one of the sleeves. New sleeves were in order, maybe even a change in capacity. In the process of stripping it down, I used some alloy wheel cleaner and a stiff rag to scrub the carbon depoits from the top of a piston, the result was clear, the numbers could still be read with ease, no signs of detonation or otherwise damaged parts of the pistons crown. This was with daily 'use and abuse' over three years used all over the UK. This is testament to good tuning on a high-compression turbo engine.

 Amongst other things that were inspected. I was quite surprised to see this sliding aluminium piece to have so much wear. This was part of the MOCAL thermostactic / oilstat control mechanism. These operate with a calibrated wax 'thermostat' unit that pushes the alu piece against a return-spring, allowing a great deal of oil-flow to travel to the oil-cooler. These units do two things, they regulate the oil temperature so it is fairly consistant once upto operating temperature and they also help maintain higher oil-pressures during startup instead of the oil-cooler and pipes needing to be pressurised first just before the engines bearings and cams get their much needed lubrication. So the bad components were changed for new along with a new thermostat unit too from mocal.

Cleaning the Bay

For my cars body painting and repair, I took the EK9turbo to AAD Doncaster. Their head body repair guy I believe is one of the best out their and I knew it was in safe hands. The vehicle was taken and checked on a jig, a new front panel from honda was fitted, painted and waxol'd along with all new panels direct from Honda. No expense spared. Needless to say the car came back looking great, only needing to go back for a final flat and polish once I have it back on the road. AAD's bodywork cheif Mick advised this was best incase any marks were made during engine reinstallation. I was happy with this precaution, having seen the countless top quality paint-jobs that have rolled out of AADs doors.

After jetwashing the bay it was looking like new again! It was time start reassembling the car! Whilst upping the spec a touch. No point in half measures!