The Aftermath, part 2
Overview
After finding the pain in the a$$ oil leak, I took everything
apart and prepared to install the new oil pump. Sounds easy,
right? It's never easy!
I closely compared the 88-89 Integra pump (the source of the oil leak) to
the 86-87 Integra pump (the one I should have got in the first place!). I
noticed that the mounting point for the pickup tube appeared to be in a
different location. The 86-87 pump appeared to put the pickup tube closer
to the centerline of the crankshaft. This is the 86-87 Integra pump:
I used a sheet of paper and lined up the edge of the paper with the oil
pan mounting surface on each pump. Sure enough, the 86-87 Integra pump
mounts the pickup tube closer to the crankshaft. Because of this, I needed
to make some kind of spacer since it would not be possible to tighten down
the pickup tube without one. I cut the pickup tube flange off of a spare
pickup tube. The thickness was almost exactly how thick the spacer needed
to be.
Here is picture of everything coming together. I used a little bit of
Hondabond on both sides of the spacer to ensure a good seal. Life would
have been sooo much easier if I had just stuck to the original oil pan, but
running the 2nd gen CRX pan is what I wanted to do. See the oil pan installation chapter for my reasons. Since I added the spacer, the studs were now too short. I had to
remove them and replace them with some longer bolts.
This is my trusty 2 dollar crankshaft pulley tool. It makes tightening
the crank pulley bolt to 80 ft-lb easy. They probably make a special tool
for doing this, but this is a case where Home Depot works just fine.
I took the car out for a 20 minute drive and crossed my fingers. I was
confident that the problem was fixed, but it's never a good idea to
get too cocky. I came home and pulled into the garage. The leak was
gone! WOOOOOOHOOOOOO!!
Any worries that the 86-87 pump would be too weak were quickly put to rest.
This pump generates just as much oil pressure as the 88-89 pump did. My
full-sweep fuel pressure gauge is currently serving duty as an oil pressure
gauge. The original oil pressure gauge is giving me problems, so I've
removed it to send it in for repair (needle is sticking).
300 miles down, 750 to go. The engine is running very good and compared
to the stock engine, it pulls substantially harder above 5000 RPM. The car
is a lot of fun to drive now...it's going to be scary fast with the turbo!
Until next time...
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