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

So, the eng/gbox is out of the bay.

Took extra hours due to heavily corroded bolts/nuts/etc around the exhaust and parking brake sections but things should speed up once getting to this stage.



There were several loose bolts and nuts around the eng mounts.
Eng front mount bolt was really loose that I could loosen it with just a tap on the breaker bar.
From looking at the position of rear mount bolt, I don't think all four mount bolts/nuts were loosened and tightened properly at the specific sequence. This is very important procedure yet quite often, neglected especially when the TB/WP service was carried out without taking the eng/gbox out.



Started with the general inspection to decide the level of service required.





As always, lots and lots of leaves left inside the V-bank.
If left long enough with enough moisture, it will create nice compost but probably kills all of the organic materials once the engine was started.





While there was heavy corrosion at the base of oil cooler coolant hose, the rest of the area was fine.
2nd photo is from a different angle and towards the rear of the car (that is left top corner of the photo), the oil cooler still showed plane original surface. The entire assy will be removed later any way so will investigate further but so far, I'm happy to re-use it for now.







O2 sensor connector holder was not tightened properly and very loose. Also, somewhat bent as seen on many NSX with 4 x O2 sensors. Will try to straighten it later.









I don't know whether it is due to the extra heat from the NA2 header, coating material or the pre-treatment before the coating but with the red valve/rocker cover, sooner or later, it will become flaky and peel off from the cover. It tends to happen mainly at the rear bank cover only.

This NSX is the same and the coating is almost gone at the exhaust cam side.
I'm quite sure if I start washing the engine, it will peel off further.


I'll ask the owner on what he wants to do as he may have powder coating facility.
It's magnesium so needs to be careful not to crack it.
Or, I could ask Andy at Vtecdirect to have both covers coated again or swap them with already coated one to minimise the turn around time if they have something ready to go.