Questions Answered By Honda Expert, Ryan Basseri Of Rywire.
•www.rywire.com
Great Magazine! I've been a reader for years now. I've been building a fifth-gen Accord now for quite a few years. It's got an H22 with lots of bolt-ons and suspension mods. Lately the H is burning oil and I remembered you did a technical article on the H blocks not long ago. In that article you mentioned that it's possible to have the FRM lining reapplied to the cylinder walls if they're bored slightly over so you don't have to always sleeve the block, which is what you opted for in the article. I just recently acquired another H22 for a turbo build and had the block sleeved. I now find myself with two Hs needing attention and the more I can save on one, the more gets spent on the other. What is a ball park figure for having a machine shop reapply the FRM lining on the block and what shops can help me out with this? I know price varies from shop to shop but after sleeving one I would like to try this other route as well. Oh, I just recently picked up another clean fifth-gen so both engines will have homes-sooner rather than later with your help. Keep up the great work and thanks for any help you can provide!
JoshJosh, the fiber-reinforced metal liner rejuvenation process should only be a couple hundred more than a standard bore and hone, but an experienced installer with experience needs to do it to ensure a correct finish is applied. Depending on if you ever decide to run boost or forged internals on this motor, you might just opt to get this one sleeved as well.
Love your magazine, and obviously Honda. I have been into them for seven years. I am partially ASE certified and love every aspect of even the simplest cars, but there is one thing I cannot get my head around. It's the stabilizer bar. Many may write this item off as a simple piece of the suspension pie, but that, I refuse to swallow. It affects so many factors as to which is it's actual intended purpose is. What else does this simple torsion bar do for us, and when is it best left out? Many are quick to grab the stiffer/thicker bar but this can't always be best. Help!
Kevin
Anti roll bars keep the car's body from "rolling" in a sharp turn. In a right turn for example, the left wheels are stuffed into the ground and the body of the car on the low side is forced up (right side wheels). You could end up going so fast into a corner that your wheels on the low side can lift off the ground. Maintaining a constant contact patch between your tires and the concrete will allow you to drive faster through a turn.
The anti roll bar helps to distribute the weight evenly and keeps the car flatter into the turn. The flatter the car stays, the better. If you over-size the bar it can actually work against you, losing independence of the suspension. This will cause the wheels to feel joined and any road inconsistency on one wheel will end up being shifted to the other side of the car, making the car feel off balance. The key here is to size a bar that is a happy medium between too stiff and not stiff enough. In most cases slightly bigger in the rear on our FWD Hondas will help rotation in a turn. As you may have noticed it's not easy to get a FWD car to rotate correctly-they tend to want to under-steer like crazy.