Dumb, Stubborn, and bound to end up penniless…….

[aklackner]

Drove 01-0386 2 whole miles today.
Filled the tank and took it to a reputable local shop to charge AC and run a safety inspection.

Driving with the new clutch system will take some practice. It’s very sensitive to throttle input and the clutch is very short. I’m very excited by the over all drive though. Once I settle in and get past nerves it’s going to be a lot of fun. Adjustment to clutch aside more low end power makes for easy driving. It’ll be interesting to get it out to where I can wind it up more and see how it behaves.



No leaks in the AC system and the shop got it charged but noted the compressor clutch wasn’t turning on. They confirmed the compressor clutch worked if directly powered so it’s a wiring issue.

The tech did a pretty basic inspection but didn’t see any issues in brake or safety systems.

Back at home I looked closer at the wiring, the issue was obvious pretty quickly. The AC(fan, compressor, pressure switch) harness I used was from the 97 LS. Prior to 98, Integra’s had 2 relays in the middle of this harness, post 98 these relays were relocated to the fuse box. While both harnesses use an 8pin connector the 97 uses 7 wires for power supply, relay control wires, and pressure switch where the 98+ harness contains only 4 wires for directly powering the fan and compressor clutch, and 2 wires for the pressure switch. The fix will be easy, simply remove the relays and match 98 wiring, but due to access will require removal of the front bumper again.

[Dave7CDMTYPER]

Must be amazing. Let us know how it runs, especially the awesome engine with jrsc.

[aklackner]

Very excited and nerve wracking.

Got the AC harness issue addressed today and also bench bled the brake master cylinder (sort of as it was in the car) it was messy but I somehow managed to contain with rags. It made a night and day difference in brake feel!

Also got a Carbing Front strut bar mounted, this one has the brake master cylinder brace.





Went out for a test drive barely made it down the street this time before I got a low oil light, and a CEL before I made it back home. Oil level is good, no indication of a leak. I’m pretty sure the pickup has worked loose.

I had it off to get the toda oil pump gear in so I’m thinking like a straw with a crack it’s come a little loose and now pulling air past the seal. This fits since at point the oil light would flicker like it was getting some oil but not enough.

I think the only way I can really check this is to drop the pan and check to see if the pickup is loose at all.

Good news here is it happened very close to home, I’d planned an oil change any way, and since I’d spilled some coolant on the comptech header it hasn’t bronzed up cleanly so would benefit from a retouch. So can I’ll try to look at this as lemonade.

I’ll have to read the cel to see what happened there hopefully it’s not an indication of significant damage due to oil starvation (temp was stable and normal) or other major issue and clears up once oil is flowing normally.

[Stin1]

Fingers crossed for you.

[aklackner]

I’m cautious optimistic.

Confirmed and addressed oil (strainer) pickup issue.

Did a quick sand and polish on the Comptech header.

Installed a fumoto oil valve for quick oil changes, fresh royal purple filter and ~4.5 qts redline 5w30. Oil pressure now seems fine (though I need to wire up some my AEM sensor to really monitor), at least Vtec kicks in.

Also realized that the JRSC fuel pressure regulator had been messed with which was the likely cause for exhaust smelling like fuel and the cel (since the ecu couldn’t pull enough fuel). Reset the pressure regulator to what where I think it should have been. Exhaust seems clean and so far no CEL hasn’t returned, though I’d need to watch fuel trim to confirm I’m with in an appropriate range.

Went for another small circuit and it’s feeling much better, either the clutch is wearing in, I’m adjusting, or full oil pressure has made a preemptive significant improvement in clutch experience. There was some squealing so cut short again.

Turned out it was a loose AC belt so got it back out after tightening the belt up.

The feel continues to improve with each outing. There’s a good deal of rattling that I think is coming from the exhaust/rear under panel. I’ll have to continue to make some adjustments there and eliminate those distractions.

Have covered at least as much mileage as when the CEL initially came on so I’m hoping it’s gone for good now after fixing JRSC pressure regulator adjustment. With the underhood emissions sticker on now I should be set for AAA inspection. After that hopefully it’s as simple as wracking up some miles to clear ready for smog/emissions inspection.

[aklackner]

And then my wife says it smells like fuel out side... initially looked like the spectra gas tank I put in to replace the super rusty original is leaking, though it’s more likely its leaking from above and down so it just looks like it’s coming from the edges.

Sitting in the drive way it looks like more of a seep but I can see where it looks like it at least at some point it flowed a bit more. Guess I have more work to do.

I’ll have to check a couple things, If I’m very lucky the fuel leak was due to the JRSC fuel unit forcing pressure too high and that could have caused a leak at the pump fitting, if that’s the case I’ll need to make sure all is sealed well now, replace any o-rings, and that maybe all that’s needed.

[coolhandluke]

I’m cautious optimistic.

Confirmed and addressed oil (strainer) pickup issue....

Wow, I'm impressed by your intuition, nice work!

Clutches usually take a few hundred miles of city drive to "wear in" from my experience.

Overall, you're doing a great job of shaking the car down, identifying issues, and resolving. I can relate to your nerves when I first got 98-1040 back on the road from a shell. Keep at it, as each time you will learn more about the car's state and walk away more confident knowing you have run through it. Then you will just be able to enjoy it.

[aklackner]

So it looks like the fuel level sending unit wasn’t tightened down properly. Dried remnants of fuel correspond to fuel leaking out around the seal as well. I tightened up the (3) 8mm head bolts that hold the sender in place and will monitor to see if there’s any further indications of a leak after drives but hopefully that’s resolved now.

I still have a pretty significant rattle from the World Sport exhaust, it’s just far enough off the line of the oem exhaust that it contacts the heatshield and rear under panel where it turns to head to the rear along the gas tank. I’ll have to get the car up and look at what options are but I’m not a huge fan of the exhaust for this reason if I can’t easily adjust the heatshield and under panel to completely eliminate the rattles under load I may look at other (custom) exhaust options.

Also while temps read normal I’m still concerned the thermostat may not be opening properly. Both fans turn on normally with AC and cycle but I’ve not seen either fan turn on without AC on. Also the upper coolant hose (from head) gets pretty-very hot while the lower hose (to thermostat housing) is consistently cooler though does warm some eventually. Though I feel like after reinstall of the jrsc I had run testing on this to confirm the Tstat was opening and cooling correctly and again the temp gauge on the dash shows temps behaving normally so hopefully some additional monitoring will show concern is unfounded.

[Dave7CDMTYPER]

One option for the heat shield exhaust rattle is to remove the heatshield. I had to do this with mugen cat back twinloop.

It takes a while for the fan to come on with these cars. I had to drain and refill coolant on my gs-r recently, and it seemed to take forever for fan to come on when bleeding the system.

[coolhandluke]

...Also while temps read normal I’m still concerned the thermostat may not be opening properly. Both fans turn on normally with AC and cycle but I’ve not seen either fan turn on without AC on. Also the upper coolant hose (from head) gets pretty-very hot while the lower hose (to thermostat housing) is consistently cooler though does warm some eventually. Though I feel like after reinstall of the jrsc I had run testing on this to confirm the Tstat was opening and cooling correctly and again the temp gauge on the dash shows temps behaving normally so hopefully some additional monitoring will show concern is unfounded.

What thermo is installed?