NSX engine rebuild

[Milkybar]

Hi Kaz,

I've been told that you are the man to talk to in regards to rebuilding NSX engines in the UK, unfortunately I can't PM you so I thought I'd post this here in the hope that it finds it's way to you.

I own a 1991 NA1 3.0l manual NSX and the other week I snapped a con-rod. I wondered if you had any advice about who can rebuild these engines?

The garage that it got recovered to has dropped the sump and can see that the rod has clearly marked the bore and currently the piston is still inside the bore, they have also said that the crankshaft it below it's minimum so needs replacing also.

Any help you can give would be much appreciated.

Cheers

Thomas

[NSXGB]

Hi Milkybar,

Sorry to hear of your problems. You can always use the email option instead of PM option to contact Kaz directly.

Under what circumstances did the engine fail?

There is at least one second hand engine available at the moment if you decide to go that route.

I believe any competent engine builder would be able to repair your engine (VTEC Direct may be worth a try - Kaz may be too busy to help you). Being an aluminium block it has steel bore liners so the damaged one can be replaced without having to replace the complete block.
Unfortunately its not going to be cheap. Good time to do something a bit trick?

[Tokyo-Joe]

Norton Way in Letchworth are doing an engine build on a 91 right now so I would give them a shout. Expect a painful wallet :(

[NSXGB]

Norton Way in Letchworth are doing an engine build on a 91 right now so I would give them a shout. Expect a painful wallet :(

Got to be the same one surely?

[Nick Graves]

Very lucky it didn't throw the rod through the block.

It's the 'any competent' bit that I struggle with. Not with Kaz, etc, but many other rebuilds I have heard of have had issues afterwards.

I'm sure an engine swap with a factory second hand one will probably be less ag & cheaper.

At least the undamaged block will have a lot of value to someone who maybe wants to install a stroker kit or somesuch?

[Silver Surfer]

Not sure how much shipping and import tax would be but:


http://www.nsxprime.com/forum/showthread.php/174822-Engine-from-1991-Great-Condition

SS

[Kaz-kzukNA1]

Hi, Thomas.
Sorry to hear the news.....

As NSXGB suggested, you can contact me through email by selecting the option ‘send email’ once you have logged into NSXCB site and left clicking on my user ID.
As you joined in 2008, please double check that you have your latest email address registered to your account detail.
I may just send simple email to you.

Or, you can always visit the 'Blog' section of this site, click on any of the blog post and you will find my contact detail including the QR code at the right side of the window.

If you prefer, you can send email to my disposable address of kaznsxcb-001 at yahoo.co.jp (please replace ‘ at ‘ with @).


From what you wrote here and also on NSXPrime, I think you need to first find out what caused the rod to fail.

With about 7,500 NSX in Japan, I have never seen or heard any engine failures without another primary cause.
Without knowing it, you may experience the same/different engine failure even after the engine was rebuilt.

What is the mileage of your NSX at the moment?
Did you stop the engine AND put the gear in neutral or pressed on the CL pedal at the time of failure?
Any sign of issues before the rod finally failed? For example, loss of coolant, changes in oil level, over-revved the engine in the past including the previous owner (if he/she declared it....)???


You will need to re-bore the eng block (depending on the damage level) means new over sized piston and piston ring that I’m not sure still available from Honda or not (aftermarket parts should be still available), not sure whether any damages were done to the cyl head side or not, sounded like you can’t re-use the crankshaft so new crank, metal selection for the main and rod (really time consuming task), inspection of cyl head and block if the coolant entered, etc, etc, etc.....


If this happened in Japan, there are several options available due to much cheaper parts price than UK and several NSX specialists with the support of reputable engineering companies already carried out the similar process in the past with good results.


Not sure how you are going to source all the parts but you will need to carefully balance the cost of rebuilding the engine (parts + labour) against the cost of swapping the engine as well as from the reliability point of view.

From what you wrote so far, it sounded that it would be cheaper to swap the engine than rebuilding it especially if you can’t re-use the crank and also if you can’t find out the primary cause of the issue. If you can find an engine with known history within Europe, may be better option for you???

Looking forward to hearing from you again on the progress.

Kaz