Another Beans Accord

Well, 2022 was fun and all but I decided I didn't need two project cars with all the things going on in my life. I parted out and scrapped my 1998 3.0CL Dec 31st. Dragged home the new 1995 Accord LX sedan Jan 1st. Sold my 97 Accord Coupe sometime early Feb(I think). I planned to use the drivetrain from my coupe in the new sedan but I just really didn't feel like tearing apart a 3rd car(after dismantling my CL and starting into the sedan) within a matter of weeks, nor converting from auto to manual at the time, and a friend who always admired the car offered me cash. So I let it go for $1500. It felt like it was time for it to go.

Anywho, I found this BEAUTIFUL 95 LX sedan about 10 minutes from my parents house. 106k miles, automatic, bone stock, and very, very, very, minimal rust. The previous owner was the daughter of the original owner and kept every single piece of documentation down to the original sale paperwork. I was awestruck when I saw this car in person and coughed up the $1000 to be the proud owner of a car that didn't run. I even asked my wife before buying the car this time, instead of dragging it home and dealing with the consequences. Somehow, an exhaust valve spring retainer on cylinder #2 decided to leave the chat. I immediately threw it on jackstands after trailering the car home and proceeded to collect parts, powdercoat stuff I've had in my hoard for many years, and stare at the carcass every time I entered the garage and not turn a single wrench on it directly until about a month ago. I've picked away at various things for an hour or two at a time a day or two a week and now that it's about complete, I'm posting some progress.

Here's a basic breakdown.

4 Speed Boringmatic

Suspension:

Bilstein HD shocks, custom coilover conversion, 450lb/in 9" 2.5" dia springs front, 300lbs/in 10" 2.5 dia springs rear+tenders

25mm 3.0CL front sway bar

Progress suspension 22mm rear sway bar

Poly bushings on front LCA's and radius rod ends

17x7 Axis Touring Cup wheels refinished in BMW Silver with black strip NOS center caps

215/45R17 Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3+ tires

Brakes:

98-99 Acura 2.3CL brake rotor over hub conversion

Raybestos Element 3 rotors and pads

Engine:

NOS OEM Euro Spec 9.8:1 compression F22B5 block

Refreshed F22B6 cylinder head

Ported/gutted F23A1 intake manifold

Factory throttle body to keep cruise

3" wrinkle black generic aluminum tube intake pipe, hybrid racing 3" velocity stack+filter

ZR Racing 4-2-1 header

Wrinkle black powdercoated valvecover from Charlie Moua

Factory Catalytic converter and exhaust

05-06 Acura RSX Type-S muffler

Exterior:

DEPO replica JDM SiR headlights/corners and clear bumper lights

DEPO clear taillights with Phillips LED colored bulbs

DEPO smoked rear bumper reflector/indicator side markers

Interior:

1997 Accord SE radio with separate CD player

NOS OEM 1998-99 Acura CL woodgrain center console

1998-99 Acura 3.0CL leather shift knob+lever

At this point, I have far too much in to it than to even want to count. The timing cover bolts were changed to titanium, because. Every other standard M6 "10mm" bolt that I could find has been changed to a stainless steel smooth head bolt that I've scavenged off Honda J series intake manifolds for.... years? A decade or more? All I know is I filled up a large container of ex-garlic powder with them and had more undiscovered in my toolbox's bolt drawer. The engine harness was completely gone through and repaired and various reroutes for the intake conversion and header. Theres so much detail to stuff that even I've forgotten what I've done with things in the past 6 or so months. Within the next week I should be done putting it all together and be able to drive it. Enjoy the first start video and some fotòs.

First start:

https://www.facebook.com/reel/2845763058893555/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v

My goal with this car is not to autox it or anything really. I noticed when I had my coupe all I really did was cruise it around on the weekends or nice weeknight, maybe grabbing some gears but mostly suffering with the loud exhaust and no A/C during the summer. I still loves the way it drove and the way the steering felt though, and this is a recreation/improvement upon that, without having to worry about shifting and sweating my beans off. Plus, it's got 4 doors and A/C so I finally have a "fun" car to take the spawn and wife out for ice cream and car shows with minimal complaints. The beast is about 4 years old now and I took her to her first C&C event this past weekend and she really liked the Italian cow and horse cars. She's a bit obsessed with cows, but I can't afford Italian cars, nor have the patience for anything but a mid 90's Honda. Hell, I don't even do the oil changes on the daily 2013 Fusion 2.5. It would be nice to eventually do the C&D handling loop in Hocking Hills and do the whole Tail of the Dragon thing, as well. I can't reveal what I have in the hoard waiting to be used(too many options for solid plans) if I get hungry for power. It's definitely not anything to do with a ported H series head, Chinese GT30, and Haltech Elite 1000. Nope. Definitely not.

New engine in, temporary valvecover in place

Hotboi lights

Installed the DEPO SiR replica lights

HOARD. Well, a portion of what went on the car.

Fresh pow, maaaaan

Update: I'm full boomer/zoomer now and can't figure out how to do the pictures thing properly, so that's all you get for now unless you add me on the facebangz or follow the gramz(chrisnick419).

If you add a pic then once it shows in the box add another pic it will work; just can't add multiples at the same time. And, welcome back!

Couple progress pictures of the car in its current state. Last night I smashed my thumb between the tow hook and my ratchet and filled a glove with blood on the very first bolt I touched. Got the calipers painted poorly, threw the brakes on, got the axles in, filled the trans with ATF and added coolant to the system. Went to go start it to bleed the coolant and realized I had left the dome light on and trunk open for 2 days since the first start video and the battery is dead. The passenger side front needs cotter pins on the tie rod and ball joints, everything needs tightened up with load, and the valvecover needs swapped out. Other than that, fhe front is almost done. Remembered the 98-99 2.3CL is the same chassis but with an F23, so I also ordered up some throttle and cruise cables, which are still available new from Acura and about $22 for both.

Love me some 90s Honda.  Got me thinking I may need to pick one up to replace my 91 Infiniti.  I've got Nissan fatigue..

Got everything buttoned up tonight and took it to the gas station and car wash around the corner from the house. Still quite a bit to adjust and figure out, but up until it kicked the passenger side axle out of the trans due to what I think is a bad axle, it drove great. I was rescued by two friends, after about 2 hours of struggling to reseat the axle, I gave up and just flat towed it the half a mile back to my house behind a friend's truck. A bit disheartening, but it'll be golden after I swap the axle, adjust the ride height, and a couple other things. 

This is so far up my alley. Makes me want to properly fix/mod my biscuit. At least a bath. 

That's amazingly clean for a car that survived Ohio for 25+ years!!

Looks about perfect as-is for your mission once you get the axle sorted

Looks good. I'm also a 90s Honda fan (had 92 Civic hatch and still have 93 Prelude caged race car).

I like your headlight choice, and the simple clean wheel selection. On the taillights I prefer the oem red and amber look, but I would say those clear tails are 90s tuner era appropriate.

In reply to XLR99 (Forum Supporter) :

This one actually came from Rochester Hills, MI IIRC. It made its way to Defiance, OH(my parents live near Stryker) by way of the PO's daughter after they took possession. Its incredibly clean but still not without some spots of rot. I hope it have that all fixed by the end of the summer.

In reply to nuthunmuch :

The "vibe" I was going for is an early 2000's look with the wheels and taillights. The wheels are period correct Axis Touring cups I had powdercoated in BMW Silver. They'll really pop once I have the caps on.

Even looks great in the rain!

And now that I'm back from vacation, let's get caught up on stuff. The bad axle got swapped out and all is golden.

Had a bit of a situation with the VSS, corrosion, a pick, and about 7 hours of struggle bus to rescue said pick from the VSS hole/differential, but it all worked out. It all stemmed from a flashing D4 light and no speedometer, and a little corrosion on the VSS pins. I took the VSS out to clean it up as well, knocked my pick off the intake manifold where it was resting, and it did a perfect plunk down into the VSS hole to reside under the differential. That orange dot in the hole is where it went.

With that fiasco resolved, I finally swapped the nicer wrinkle black valvecover on, then threw on the F23 throttle cable bracket and tried the new cables. Throttle cable worked like a charm, but I'm an idiot and forgot that the F22 throttle body uses a TV/kickdown cable where the cruise throttle cam is on the F23 throttle body, and the cables are different lengths, so that'll have to sit with the rest of the hoard until I get ready to 5 speed swap it and convert to the F23 throttle body as well. Threw in the 1995 Odyssey F22B6 ecu, adjusted the timing, replaced the F23A1 FPR(@51psi) with that of a D16Y7(@43psi) since the F22B6 runs the lower 43psi base pressure, and it feels very nice and idles much better now.

I messed around with the bilsteins some more, and although I got the ride height where I wanted it, the rear shocks were just too far gone and need rebuilt. I ordered a set of the Maxpeedingrods T6 coilovers and threw on the rears and I am astonished at how good they actually are. I've been in cars with the regular sub $200 versions and these T6's blow them out of the water and are easily as good as a set of koni's. I am floored by them. I would love to get them on a shock dyno, and from what I can find, they're actually pretty good on the valving. Quality is pretty alright, longevity remains to be seen, but they're meant to be a temporary solution until I can get my bilsteins modified, rebuilt, and potentially revalved. I also swapped the clear lense taillights back out to the standard ones because the red Philips Ul Ultinon LED's appear a bit too pink. Changed the blinker flasher to the EP34 flasher meant for LED's to eliminate the hyper blink syndrome. 

the interior received a little facelift as well. I changed over the center stack to that from the 1997 SE model for fancy woodgrain and the 12v outlet on the left side rather than the right, like that of the JDM Si-R models, swapped in said 1997 SE radio with integrated CD player and optional accessory cassette deck. A quick message to my friend who works at a Honda dealer got me the unlock code and out popped a period correct CD that absolutely bumps. I've listened to it every time I've driven the car and I love it. Doing that did reveal that the front left speaker was blown out, which necessitated replacing the blown out one with one of a 1999 Isuzu Oasis(95-98 Odyssey in disguise) that has a fancy reverse cone, but more importantly, made in Japan and much higher quality than the US built speakers my car came with. The rears were converted from 6.5" round to 6x9 Pioneers from a TSX, with the total cost being under $40 for the speakers, OEM conversion plates, and radio thanks to some junkyarding. I wanted a near OEM "premium" sound with minimal out of pocket cost and this fit really nicely. This was about the best factory fit/oem connector upgrade I could scrounge up and am very pleased. When i pulled the front speakers i found them both to be blown, as well.The shift lever and indicator got swapped for a leather wrapped lever and "fancier script" gear indicator from my departed 3.0CL. I still have the cluster to swap in, but may just replace the faces, needles, and lights from the 3.0CL cluster so I don't have to deal with de-mileage-ing my 3.0CL cluster. 

I've put about 60 miles on the car now, and unfortunately, the axle seal on the driver side/halfshaft/midshaft side is leaking horribly. The back of the car was coated with maxlife after a drive last night and it was down probably 2 quarts. When I put everything together, I ordered two new timken axle seals, and unfortunately, one of the boxes had the incorrect seal in the box. I decided in my haste to get the thing done, that the old seal was still decent enough to use with a quick wipe off/clean up, but thats not the case. A new one has been order and en route. One other thing I noticed was how poor output of the halogens were, so I snagged a new in box H4 Moriomoto 2stroke 3.0's for about half off on facebang marketplace. Light output is dramatically improved, and they still do need adjusted down slightly, but due to the excellent design of the chip to work with a reflector housing, they have no glare and excellent visibility. The picture is a bit blurry and doesn't do the output and clarity justice. I ordered a pair of yellow Hella H1 bulbs for the high beams. Something weird I noticed with the JDM headlights is that Honda is only using the low circuit of the H4 bulb. Maybe someone would know if I split the ground(ground trigger) from the high beam to the 3rd spot on the low beam, would it also trigger the high beam on the H4? All the light output would be awesome, I drive way out into no man's land ohio quite a bit to see my parents and it would be nice to have even more light output than standard hi/low beams.

Still on the list to sort out: swap out the front homebrew bilstein coilovers for the MXR coilovers, replace windshield, readjust headlights, fix axle seal, 100 mile oil change, alignment(has an eyeball/tape garage alignemnt), adjust coilovers, install centercaps, paint correction/interior detail, swap on RSX-S muffler. I have begun acquiring 5 speed swap Parts, as well. I wasn't originally planning to swap the transmission but it is an absolute DOG with the automatic, way worse than I thought it was going to be.

Finally got around to throwing on the front coilovers, adjusted ride height with zero preload and screwed in the lower fork cups as low as they would go and it had about 3" of wheel gap. No bueno. Ended up swapping over a set of factory front tophats which netted me some more travel and lowered the front down about 1.5" and got the wheel gap even front and rear a little less than 2 fingers. I may end up going to a 225/45 instead of the 215/45, buy that may be next year. I have the coilovers set to 6 clicks from full stiff and am VERY impressed with them for the price. No crashiness that cheap coilovers typically have, although i may remove another 3 clicks as its still just a touch too stiff. The car handles pretty flat and has loads of grip. I can't wait to get the rear bar on. I also threw on the NOS Axis centercaps and it really completes the look.

In addition to all that, a blue 94 popped up in a semi local yard that had a passenger seat cover that was filthy, but didn't have cigarette burn holes, so I stripped it of its covers for $12. Spent an hour with the handheld carpet extractor and they cleaned up decently, but still need some more love. For some reason I can't upload the pictures, but it was disgusting. Each cover took about 3 full tanks of the Forbidden choccy milk to get decent.

Tonight was the maiden voyage with the family in tow, and my daughter was over the moon to take daddy's blue car around the corner for ice cream.

Also, this thing is hilariously slow off the line. Once it gets moving though, it feels pretty decent and gets out of its own way well enough. From the 1/8 to 1/4 it's only .7 slower and 3mph off my previous Accord coupe with the F23 and M2s4 Prelude 5 speed thay would do 15.26 @ 92mph on the dragy(15.0@91 was the best at the track with 10 less whp and a longer geared accord transmission tapping limiter in 3rd).