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It seems i have reached that time in my car’s long, long life, where the engine oil seals have gone beyond their service duration… I have access to the original service manual, 1988 first edition for this car, but i was wondering if anyone has any particular tricks or tips for this huge job. To be quite honest, i have only ever helped rebuild and reinstall a 302 HO out of an 86 Mustang, and i was far more comfortable with that than this..
So, what do i have to look out for? What kind of procedures should i take to keep track of the maze of vacuum lines on this engine?
Any tricks or tips would be helpful…
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Looks like a pretty straight forward job.
Just take your time, double check everything and I like to keep my bolts/nuts in ziplock bags with where they go written on them. Oh and since you have to pull the engine and transmission to do the rear main seal, you might want to do replacements that are much easier with the engine out. I personally like to replace things like water pumps and timing belts/timing belt tensioners and cam seals while I have easy access to them.
And on Hondas I like to change out the oil pump or at least it’s seals since it is run by the timing belt. The seals are notorious for leaking.
Be mindful of your suspension parts before hand. If it is time for any of them to be replaced, order up your new ones in advance since you will have to take both sides apart.
Same goes for engine mounts, you will have to disconnect the trans to body mount to get the trans out, the engine to body mount on the drivers side to do the front seal, and at least partially remove the rear mount when doing the rear seal. If any of your mounts are worn, now is the time to deal with them.
Are you pulling the engine all the way out, or doing the job with the engine in the car?
I’ve been told that with the automatic transmission i have to remove the whole engine/transmission together.. and i’ve also been told that is not the case.. Guess we shall see, but i would like to do the oil pressure switch seal, oil pump and seal (my other 3rd gen accord’s oil pressure light started flashing all the time at this age) and whatever else is easy to get to. Water pump and timing belt are going to be done, as they are due in a mere 15k km, so although itll take me 2-3 years to do the miles, its a question of logic there..
Thanks for the ziplock bag idea. I look forward to more comments and advice..
[quote=”Ayeobe” post=77000]
Thanks for the ziplock bag idea. I look forward to more comments and advice..[/quote]It is from my military training. When you are a aviation mechanic in the Army you have to bag and tag all fasteners and parts. This is actually for a very morbid reason, if you are working on the aircraft and get killed by the enemy your replacement needs to know what bolts go where so he/she can finish the job.
I’ve never been in the military, but often use paper sandwich bags for such purpose.
The other thing I will sometimes do is take a big sheet of cardboard from the side of a box (like a paper towel case) and draw a rough picture of what area I am working on (like if I am taking apart the dashboard) with a sharpee. Then, as I remove fasteners from the car, I will poke a hole in the cardboard in the approximate location of the fastener, and thread it into the cardboard.
As I progress, sometimes I will add some details to the drawing to make it easier to tell where the fasteners came from, or write some specific notes next to a group of fasteners. This is a bit more time consuming, but it is like having a road map for reassembly. When you are tearing something apart days before you will get to start putting it back together, this can be really helpful.
Honestly the main seals that I can think of are the distributor ‘o’ ring, the valve cover, cam seal, crank seal, oil pan gasket (this one leaks a lot), and the rear main seal. If you don’t have to go for the rear main seal the rest should be pretty straightforward and fairly easy to access, especially if you’re considering doing the timing belt and water pump. Personally, I wouldn’t go for the ‘I’m going to replace all the engine seals’ approach. You may find that you spend a lot of time and effort for not a great result. Let’s face it, it’s an old car. How does the underbody look? Those tended to rust out pretty bad underneath.
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