help me explain my nightmare

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S

sniezek66

Member
Well within the past year in half i have been at my wits end with this car. It's a 90 honda accord lx for reference. Here is my story. About a year and half ago i decided to have my f22a1 motor built up to handle n.o.s. I took it to a very reputable shop (been featured on hotrod t.v. three times) and told them what i wanted. They built the engine up with boring it 40 over, port and polished head, three angle valve job, beamed the rods, lightened the crank, and flat top forged aluminum pistons (the pistons were the reason why it took a year to build). So after this was done me and my boss and co worker assembled the motor. We torqued everything to spec as per mitchell on demand, and double checked ourselves many times. After this was all done i installed the motor started it up and it ran great. I never ranit hard what so ever and just babied it around. Then one day when i was driving it home to store it (mind you this was it's first drive more then 100 yards) i was about 6 miles out and suddenly thecar shut off. I restarted it and i heard a faint tapping noise. I had it towed back to the shop, pulled the oil pan, and discovered it spun a bearing on number three cylinder. When i pulled the main caps off i noticed the closest cap to the oil pump was shiny, no wear, then the farther it went to number four cylinder they had more and more brass on each one. Also the other three rods had brass covering as well and wear about to spin. The only conclusion is simply lack of lubrication, but why?? When i installed the engine i check oil pressure and all was within spec, also the light never came on once. Basically it seems i had just enough oil pressure to keep the light off, but not enough to lubricate this high performance engine. Two questions have to be answered. First who is at fault for this delema me and my shop, or the machine shop. Second, should a high volume oil pump should have been used, or is this motor from the get go just not compatible enough to lubricate an engine that was modified from it's original state? Of course as you can imagine i am not very happy and very unsure of what to do and how to approach this situation. Should i get the neccesary parts to repair it of say fuck it and start over with an h22a. I hate to throw the money away and the car ran amazing well after it was completed. Let me know with some opinions on this situation.

Thank You
Kurtis
 
Honestly, my best reccomendation would be to cut your losses and move on to an h22. The f22a is not a great performance motor, and I think you'll find your much happier with the h22.

As for the spun bearing, you said they did some lightening of the crank and such? If something in the rod journal were sized incorrectly (the bearing, or journal itself) it could easily have starved that area for oil and ended up destroying the bearings. Or, if the crank were balanced improperly, and was vibrating (which it shouldn't be anyways) more on one side than the other, that could explain why the bearings wore unevenly and failed eventually.

edit: or if the crank was installed slightly crooked.
 
well yes that is a good thought, but if that was the case i would have had some vibration in the motor which i did not have at all. For some reason there was a lack of lubrication. I have never in my life heard of a honda oil pump going bad, nor to my knowledge did it loose prime. Well it's over nad done with it live and learn right. I am seriously considering the h22a, but i would prefer finding one that has either already been built up internally or has had a turbo or something already added to it. Do you know of any places where i could find one that has a good reputation. I honestly just do not feel like going through the hassle of taking a motor to a machine shop, waiting forever to have it completed, then trying to find the time to assemble it. Let me know if you know of anything

Thanks
Kurtis
 
talk to jeff at importbuilders :thumbsup:
 
I'm not sure why your motor took so long to build.... If you have the money the whole process should take like a month or two.
 
hell it took my friend about 1 year to get his car working and all that(install Type-R into EG)... the f22a can be tuned i guess, my cousin had a built one that can beat on b16a powered cars and some gsr/type-r swaps, so theyre not that bad. when yall reinstalled the crank and rods were they checked for clearance???
 
Yes the clearance and everytihng was checked, just wasn't lubricated enough damn the luck, but that's life. Anyways money wasn't an issue with the building process it was the time it took to have the pistons specially made in japan by JE and have them shipped. Since i wanted to run nos they had to be forged so it took longer, but hey it's just history now. Might just have to build up and h22a??
 
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