Today at Atelier Kaz - ex-Honda R&D, F1, Indy/CART engineer

Have been working on another NSX for several days now so
catching up on updating the blog.

The service menu is the Eng Refresh + LMA and based on the previous
investigation on this engine, it requires the head gasket job as well.
Ideally, I wanted to combine as many services as possible while the
engine is out of the bay but it is important to discuss the priorities with
the owner as well.

So, based on the discussion, we’ll focus on the most important bits first
and decide what to do on the rest of the items as the future services.


Until now, I had to turn down the requests from several owners for
servicing their eng head or block due to the limited space, lack of facilities
and most importantly, no relationship with the reliable local engineering company.

After talking with the race team and the local Honda garage, both recommended
the same local company for head skimming service so I’m now happy to carry out
at least the initial head area maintenance.
For the eng block, crank area or replacing the valve guide, I still prefer using
different company and working inside the clean air room so that’s going to be
the next step.


When this NSX was delivered, I noticed that the coolant level was way below
the MIN level so it lost the coolant over the long period.
There was also slight misfire at the idle rpm during the last observation.

Based on these, decided that it’s not safe for me to carry out the
test driving session before start of the service and also didn’t want to
warm up the engine for the compression check.
Therefore, I won’t know the actual condition of this car before start of the
service but I have enough data on compression of NSX engines measured under
cold conditions so will rely on them.

Once the cam shafts are off, I’ll carry out the leak down test as well.
Again, the engine won’t be hot so not accurate data but I have enough data
to compare it under the cold condition.




One of the reason why I recommended the owner to consider my Eng Refresh.
The famous crank pulley failure in the past.

I heard from the owner that it happened many years ago and
had it fixed by the local garage.
Unfortunately, the person worked on this engine didn’t replace the WP and
the TB lower cover to the later spec and simply re-used the damaged cover.

So, over the years, it allowed all sorts of things to contaminate the TB, drive pulley
and inside of the TB lower cover.
Not good and requires good washing and inspection......


The fact that the person didn’t bother replacing one of the most important parts
in protecting the TB was the first sign of the poor service carried out in the past
and eventually, I started to find so many mistakes that the owner was not aware of.


Can’t wait to rescue this engine to the normal state.




When I first opened the Eng maintenance lid/cover, the first thing I noticed
was the significant amount of oil splashed around the rear bank INJ area
especially towards the TH body side.
Before removing anything, I thought it was something to do with the
PCV valve system so informed the owner about the possibility of replacing
the PCV valve and wash the TH body thoroughly.




Once I started removing the parts, I understood the cause of the issue.

About 2/3 of the rubber gasket under the rear bank valve cover was
missing (not installed properly) and caught somewhere.

I can actually see inside of the engine such as the cam holders through the gap!!

I just hope I can find the missing rubber still around the edge of the
valve cover recess and not chewed into the valve train.

I need to be very careful when washing this engine once it’s out of the bay
as I don't want to pour the cleaning solution inside the engine.




The Eng rear hatch glass damper was dead.

Under normal circumstances, I'll either install my spare used one temporarily
during the service and place back the original ones later or simply remove the
hatch glass for the duration of the service.

However, for this NSX, I already done it many times.
Therefore, it’s not cost effective for both of us so we agreed to replace them
with the new ones this time.




Now I don’t need to use my head to hold the glass.