ZMotorsports Shop Projects 2.0

[Pressingonward]

Very nice work. Your welds are beautiful and the design is top notch.

I will second your comments about a vertical bandsaw, they are very handy to have around! For anyone who doesn't have the funds or space for one - a jigsaw with a good blade will handle most jobs that a bandsaw will, just at a slower pace. You'd probably go through several blades to do a full bumper like Mike, but it could be done if that's all you had to work with lol

 

[zmotorsports]

Very nice work. Your welds are beautiful and the design is top notch.

I will second your comments about a vertical bandsaw, they are very handy to have around! For anyone who doesn't have the funds or space for one - a jigsaw with a good blade will handle most jobs that a bandsaw will, just at a slower pace. You'd probably go through several blades to do a full bumper like Mike, but it could be done if that's all you had to work with lol

Thank you for following along and the comments.

The welds on the wings were so-so as I knew they would be blended at the seams but I appreciate the feedback.

 

[Bigblue&Goldie]

Nailed it! Looks super clean!

 

[rattle_snake]

Bumper turned out great. I like that it's one-of-a-kind in a time when jeep bumpers are a commodity product. I also like that it doesn't have light holes, looks cleaner. Can focus on lines instead.

 

[zmotorsports]

Nailed it! Looks super clean!

Bumper turned out great. I like that it's one-of-a-kind in a time when jeep bumpers are a commodity product. I also like that it doesn't have light holes, looks cleaner. Can focus on lines instead.

Thanks guys.

Justin, thank you for the comment about the lights. My son had a 14" WARN LED light bar that he won and he really wanted to incorporate that into the bumper but I tried to convince him that it would either block airflow across the cooling stack and/or just not look right with the lines of the WJ. He was reluctant but finally agreed to sell it and purchase some round LED lights instead. I think they look much nicer and give it a clean look.

Not to mention that I am just not a "light bar" kind of guy. Something about them just doesn't sit well with me.

I appreciate you guys following along as well as the comments.

 

[shortykorte]

Painted body color, front bumper will look like the original which means great design and work.


Shorty Korte
Always remember quality in QST

Sent from my iPhone using Garage Journal

 

[lilscorpion]

Wow. That turned out awesome!!

 

[zmotorsports]

Painted body color, front bumper will look like the original which means great design and work.


Shorty Korte
Always remember quality in QST

Sent from my iPhone using Garage Journal

Wow. That turned out awesome!!

Thanks guys.

 

[zmotorsports]

Last night I broke everything down, blended the last piece (center section) and prepped everything to take to the powder coater.







Thanks for looking.

 

[zmotorsports]

Today was preventive maintenance or scheduled maintenance day on the wife’s Acura TL.

Timing belt, water pump, idlers, hydraulic tensioner, serpentine belt and tensioner pulley all were replaced.

Removed lower cover to expose the harmonic balancer.




The official Honda/Acura tool will work to hold the crankshaft for removal.


Or you can use a socket with more mass and an impact gun. A standard impact socket generally won’t work due to not enough mass. I used a 3/4” drive 3/4” deep impact and it zipped right out.


Next remove the 7 shoulder bolts holding the lower cover on as well as the serpentine belt tensioner assembly.


Remove the front and rear upper belt covers.


Turn the engine over until all of the timing marks align.


You may have to use a mirror to verify the rear cam marks as they are hard to see from above.


Using some marking paint sometimes helps.




The motor mount must be removed prior to removing the belt, tensioner and idlers.


Hydraulic tensioner removed.


Parts removed.




Water pump removed and ready to start reassembly.


New belt going back into place.






After pulling the pin on the hydraulic tensioner turn the crank over a couple of revolutions to verify the marks.

At this point I like to start the engine and let it run briefly to determine if everything is ok.


Everything reassembled and ready to install the engine covers, tires/wheels and clean up the shop.


Old parts boxed up for disposal.


Here is the Aisin Kit part number if anyone needs it for the Honda/Acura “J” Engine.


Thanks for looking.

 

[shortykorte]

Does the parts come in a single kit? If so that makes it nice. Curious about how many miles the car has.
Another job well done.


Shorty Korte
Always remember quality in QST

Sent from my iPhone using Garage Journal

 

[zmotorsports]

Does the parts come in a single kit? If so that makes it nice. Curious about how many miles the car has.
Another job well done.


Shorty Korte
Always remember quality in QST

Sent from my iPhone using Garage Journal

Thanks Shorty.

The parts can actually be purchased in multiple ways. They can be purchased individually or NAPA has a kit that comes with the belt, idler and tensioner pulley but the hydraulic tensioner and the water pump must be purchased separately. The NAPA kit is make by Gates with the NAPA label and has a lifetime warranty on the parts which is appealing but normal wear doesn't fall under that criteria.

The Aisin kit which my local NAPA had in their warehouse has everything included in the kit and was a few bucks more than the Gates parts when added up but marginal. The Aisin is OEM for the Honda/Acura and only carried a 1-year warranty but I chose to go with the Aisin as it was OEM and not as concerned with the warranty on these.

Honda recommends replacement at 100k miles on these and most of the Honda/Acura gurus testify to that 100k mile service but say it can go as long as 120k but don't recommend anything over that being an interference engine. I've been busy trying to get my son's bumper built so I let it go a bit further than I like but when I opened it up everything still looked great inside with 105k on the odometer. Once I got the bumper off to the powder coater I just didn't feel comfortable letting it go any longer so for peace of mind I fit it in over the weekend.

I also purchased new struts for the car but didn't get to them so I'll have to fit it in next Saturday morning for strut replacement.

Thanks for following along Shorty.

 

[fnieto]

Great work Mike, thanks for detailing the process.

I need to get the my wife Lexus in the shop for the same. Her car turned 70K recently but it's a 2006 so I'm more concerned with time over milage. I plan on replacing the same components. It's a little tight being a V-8 and facing forward. Those interference engines don't do well when the timing belt lets loose.

Thanks for posting!

 

[Bighead38]

Agreed. When I built my son's go-kart I did a lot of homework and made sure to have the proper Ackermann angle, kingpin inclination angle as well as caster/camber and it was a joy to drive and handled like it was on rails.

Ha ha. I'll definitely have to find some pictures of it in our scrapbook and post it. It was pretty sleek, low and fast for just an overhead B&S engine.

We want proof!

 

[zmotorsports]

Great work Mike, thanks for detailing the process.

I need to get the my wife Lexus in the shop for the same. Her car turned 70K recently but it's a 2006 so I'm more concerned with time over milage. I plan on replacing the same components. It's a little tight being a V-8 and facing forward. Those interference engines don't do well when the timing belt lets loose.

Thanks for posting!

Thanks Paco. This one was just the little 3.5 liter J engine mounted transversely but it was close quarters between the front of the block and the right strut tower. My hands ended up getting more cut up than they've been in quite a while.

Being an interference engine was my biggest concern as I don't have the time nor want to spend the money if the worst happened. Better to be proactive vs. reactive on these engines.

 

[zmotorsports]

We want proof!

I'll have to find some pictures when I get time. I don't have any electronically so I will dig through my photo album and see if we have anything.

 

[Bighead38]

I'll have to find some pictures when I get time. I don't have any electronically so I will dig through my photo album and see if we have anything.

Cool. Sounds like you put a lot of work into it. How did you set up the front end?

 

[zmotorsports]

Cool. Sounds like you put a lot of work into it. How did you set up the front end?

There was no suspension but I fabricated the entire chassis including the spindles and spindle mounts. They had the correct inclination angle as well as Ackermann angle and handled very well. It was also very low to the ground and stable.

 

[polexican23]

did your year Acura hide a stupid plastic push rivet under the shield. i

 

[Bighead38]

How many hours do you think that Acura job took?

 

[zmotorsports]

did your year Acura hide a stupid plastic push rivet under the shield. i

Are you talking up under the strut tower? If so, yes, there was a plastic push pin placed vertically under the tower that I had to use a pick tool to pull the center down far enough to grab with the pin release tool then it came right out.

 

[zmotorsports]

How many hours do you think that Acura job took?

The job took me about 5-1/4 hours start to finish.

I was a little slow getting going Saturday morning as I had a few cups of coffee with the wife before heading out to the shop. I opened the shop @ 9:30am, racked the car and got right to work. I was ready for it's road test by 2:30-2:45pm. After road test I cleaned up and put tools away and locked the shop up and headed back inside right @ 3:30pm.

Not a bad job, just time consuming. I'm not sure what the book calls for on that job as I have heard some say 4-hours and others say if doing water pump and belt it is 5.5 hours. I know I wasn't working very fast as I was just enjoying the day, listening to the radio and keeping a steady pace. I had some issues with the shoulder bolts lining up on the rear timing gear cover that I fought with for about 15-20 minutes before walking away for a few minutes to get a drink, then returned and it fell right back into position.

 

[Finallygotit]

.....I had some issues with the shoulder bolts lining up on the rear timing gear cover that I fought with for about 15-20 minutes before walking away for a few minutes to get a drink, then returned and it fell right back into position.

Funny how that is sometimes. Nice work as always Mike!

 

[aka Larry]

The job took me about 5-1/4 hours start to finish.

I was a little slow getting going Saturday morning as I had a few cups of coffee with the wife before heading out to the shop. I opened the shop @ 9:30am, racked the car and got right to work. I was ready for it's road test by 2:30-2:45pm. After road test I cleaned up and put tools away and locked the shop up and headed back inside right @ 3:30pm.

Not a bad job, just time consuming. I'm not sure what the book calls for on that job as I have heard some say 4-hours and others say if doing water pump and belt it is 5.5 hours. I know I wasn't working very fast as I was just enjoying the day, listening to the radio and keeping a steady pace. I had some issues with the shoulder bolts lining up on the rear timing gear cover that I fought with for about 15-20 minutes before walking away for a few minutes to get a drink, then returned and it fell right back into position.

I guess all J-series engines are not created equal. I helped a friend replace the t-belt, water pump, and tensioner on his J30 a couple of years ago. It wasn't particularly difficult, but somewhat aggravating. In our case removing and installing what seemed like a hundred 10mm bolts that held the 3-piece dust covers in place was a pain. The biggest pain, was the tensioner, which was not a hydraulic one like yours. Reason being, we hadn't done one like this before because we had previously mostly worked on the Honda B-series engines. The instructions actually said to remove one of the hold-down bolts for the battery, grind it to a point, and screw it in, to hold the tensioner pulley in place for the t-belt. We scratched our heads for a bit because that REALLY didn't seem to make sense, but we did as instructed, and it worked out just fine. It took us all day, but we didn't rush, and stopped for lunch.

 

[zmotorsports]

Funny how that is sometimes. Nice work as always Mike!

Yeah, ain't that the truth Dan. I don't get those situations all too often but sometimes just walking away is better than getting pissed and breaking something.

 

[zmotorsports]

I guess all J-series engines are not created equal. I helped a friend replace the t-belt, water pump, and tensioner on his J30 a couple of years ago. It wasn't particularly difficult, but somewhat aggravating. In our case removing and installing what seemed like a hundred 10mm bolts that held the 3-piece dust covers in place was a pain. The biggest pain, was the tensioner, which was not a hydraulic one like yours. Reason being, we hadn't done one like this before because we had previously mostly worked on the Honda B-series engines. The instructions actually said to remove one of the hold-down bolts for the battery, grind it to a point, and screw it in, to hold the tensioner pulley in place for the t-belt. We scratched our heads for a bit because that REALLY didn't seem to make sense, but we did as instructed, and it worked out just fine. It took us all day, but we didn't rush, and stopped for lunch.

I too thought that all J-series were the same. I've only worked on a few but the timing belt replacements have all pretty much been the same between the Acura and Honda's.

I also noticed that the instructions did mention to use one of the battery hold down bolts to grind to a point for the tensioner release the same as you described. While I've done it in the past, I have found it really isn't necessary. I know some mechanics who merely use a pair of diagonal cutters and cut the old timing belt but I can't bring myself to do that. I merely unbolt the tensioner and let the slack push it out of the way, then removed the tensioner pulley and then the belt. That seems much quicker than grinding a taper to a battery hold down bolt. Just removing a battery hold-down bold, grinding a taper and inserting it in the tensioner to release is probably a 15-20 minute detour that isn't necessary although it does work.

 

[aka Larry]

I merely unbolt the tensioner and let the slack push it out of the way, then removed the tensioner pulley and then the belt. That seems much quicker than grinding a taper to a battery hold down bolt. Just removing a battery hold-down bold, grinding a taper and inserting it in the tensioner to release is probably a 15-20 minute detour that isn't necessary although it does work.

Since I don't have near the experience level as you, had never done it on a J-series, I didn't want to screw up his DD, so I followed the directions.

 

[zmotorsports]

Since I don't have near the experience level as you, had never done it on a J-series, I didn't want to screw up his DD, so I followed the directions.

Understandable, no harm in following the directions, even when they seem odd.

 

[LXCam]

I didn't want to screw up his DD, so I followed the directions.

Understandable, no harm in following the directions, even when they seem odd.

What are these directions things you guys are talking about??.

 

[zmotorsports]

What are these directions things you guys are talking about??.

Directions; words written in a FSM by engineers and technical writers, usually in steps, that create confusion and frustration to those of us actually performing the work.

 

[zmotorsports]

I received a call from the powder coater today so I picked up the bumper parts for my son’s WJ after work.


We then started to build a small skid or guard for the windshield washer bottle on the driver’s side.




We then commenced the fabrication of the sliders by building the mounting points.






Thanks for looking.

 

[Boosted1]

That is going to look really good.

 

[BORING HOP YARD]

Nice work Mike, your Son is one lucky young man. Good job dad!

 

[zmotorsports]

That is going to look really good.

Nice work Mike, your Son is one lucky young man. Good job dad!

Thanks guys, I appreciate the comments and thanks for stopping by and checking out the projects.

 

[zmotorsports]

There has been some interest in a go-kart that my son and I built about 20 years ago for my son and I finally found some pictures of it over the weekend.

I don’t have any during the build process but here is the finished product.

It was constructed from 1” square tubing. I built everything on the chassis including the steering, rear axle, pedals and linkages. I used a new Briggs & Stratton engine with a CVT clutch system and go-kart slicks. I finished it off with chrome, polished aluminum tread plate and red left over from one of my shop truck projects.

Here is my son sporting his ride.




Lastly I’d like to pose a question. As my wife and I were digging/sorting through pictures last night I ran across quite a few pictures of previous projects and wondered if anyone would like to see them even though they are far from current projects and probably not up to the quality of my current work. Most of these are 15-25 year old projects.

If interested let me know and I can try to upload some pictures. I must warn you though, there are a LOT of them.

 

[jhn9840]

That’s a sweet looking go kart. Do you still have it? Personally I’d like to see anything you want to post up. Thanks for sharing your work.

jhn9840
John

 

[zmotorsports]

That’s a sweet looking go kart. Do you still have it? Personally I’d like to see anything you want to post up. Thanks for sharing your work.

jhn9840
John

Thanks John.

No we don't still have his go-kart. We sold it when he outgrew it in Jr. High, but he put a lot of miles on it cruising around the old neighborhood.

 

[Bighead38]

Awesome. I would have put a million miles on that thing. Hell I put a million miles on mine and they weren’t as cool or fast like that one. We had a racetrack connecting my yard and the neighbors when it snowed. I would be out there everyday. I got pulled over on my neighborhood one day when we had a snow day. A car was stopped on the side of the road so I passed them. Turned out to be an undercover cop who pulled me over. He was so pissed and made me push it home lecturing me the whole time about how my parents were gonna kill me bla bla bla. Finally got home with the cop and my old man just laughed at him. Said the kid is having fun on a snow day and knows how to drive what’s the problem?

Yeah old projects are welcome imo.

 

[Bob Heine]

Mike, I would love to see your projects from the past.

 

[gearhead1960]

I vote yes for old projects......