Hi, just acquired a 1992 Accord LX with a 2.2, F22A1.

It has 204k on the clock. Runs very well! For except a rough idle.

The guy before me had just had the timing belt replaced, and supposedly the tensioner pulleys also. This is actually a friend of mine, so I know it really did get done. It does run fine, but when you’re revving it up it has a sound of a supercharger whine. But not at idle.

After lurking around the forum here, and on YouTube, it seems the timing belt is probably adjusted it too tight?

Anyhow he used some belt kit called Flennor. That alone makes me nervous. But I believe his mechanic definitely over tightened it I’m only guessing of course. So I’ve only put about 100 miles on it and I’ve parked it in my garage because now I’m afraid something bad will happen.

Im buying an Aisin Kit That even includes the water pump and new springs for the tensioner pulleys. I figure I might as well do it right. I’m going to do it Saturday so I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube clips, and sneaking around the forum here and reading DIY stuff.

Here’s my main question. I have read a couple different threads, and I see you take one of timing belt cover bolts I believe its 6mm and you put it on the tensioner pulley to hold it in place while you install the new belt. So that makes sense to me.

It’s saying to turn the crank counterclockwise, five or six revolutions to seat the new belt. Do you loosen that little bolt up first? And the tensioner bolt loose also while doing that?

Then it says to loosen the tensioner bolt one turn? And the little bolt?

Then find TDC again and turn CCW three teeth in the cam sprocket then tighten? I could be misunderstanding this I’m not sure.

The reason I’m also asking, is some folks had stated that doing it this way left the belt loose? Then they were pulling on the tensioner with their hand to make the belt tightener? I just want to try to do the job only one time unlike his mechanic!

 

The instructions that come with the Aisin kit are probably some of the best you'll find (I keep a copy of it in my Haynes book). To do the job, you have to remove both halfs of the cover, not just the top half. You might want to get a valve cover gasket too, depending on the condition of yours, since you have to take it off to get the upper part of the timing cover off. The biggest issue you'll run into though, is needing the special Honda tool to hold the crank pulley so you can get the bolt loose. That bolt is supposed to be torqued to 150 ft lbs, but you might run into someone that used loctite on that bolt (I ran into that twice). You can rent that tool from the Zone or O'Reilly's for about 50 bucks. Note; If this engine has a balance shaft in it, get the retainer clip too (if it doesn't already have one). It takes a couple of minutes to install while you have the timing covers off, and it's cheap insurance to do. Without it, the balance shaft seal can walk out, and dump 3 quarts of oil in less that 30 feet at idle!! BTDT on my wife's Honda.
The big thing you really have to keep in mind is that these are reverse rotation engines. Meaning the long open side of the belt is pulling toward the crank. If you pull all of the spark plugs out, you can turn the engine over easily. Like I said above, the instructions in the Aisin kit are some of the best. Just follow along with them. Good luck with it, it's not a hard job to do, just time consuming.

 

Thanks for answering me! I didn’t know the Aisin kit came with instructions for tensioning. I had no idea. I have the kit and that crank pulley holding tool on its way from amazon. With that retainer just in case.

I did buy a new valve cover gasket, I have to do the lower rocker arm seals, and then adjust valve lash. Just to make me feel better.

I did catch onto the CCW rotation from a few YouTube clips. It has green anti freeze in it? Is this just the old fashioned anti freeze?

He did tell me he just put in for the first time Castrol High Mileage Synthetic blend. I thought these took conventional.

Im also going to change the transmission fluid. Looks clean but I need a starting point reference for myself. I bought 4 quarts of that DW Honda Fluid. Shifts quite firm, guess that’s better than it slipping.

I think that’s what it’s called. She has 204,000 on the clock, don’t know how long they run, but I truly love this car!

 

Watch this video on setting the tension. This guy was a honda/acura technician and I've found his methods to give good results.

 

Hey!! That was a good video! I watched many on youtube, but I missed that one! I like watching Eric!

Besides a balancer shaft missing seems the same as my 2.2

I was curious, when I did my sons Camry V6, "not fun", I was able to start the engine before covering everything back up, just for about 30 seconds and rev it up. Just to make sure all was okay, before putting it all back together. Is that okay to do on the Honda?

 

Lots of things cause a rough idle. Even one bad spark plug wire. Also a leaking air hose. I would check the simple things first as well. Check the pcv to make sure it's not dirty. Then there is the fast idle control valve that can be cleaned. You can also use a flat head screw driver to make sure fuel injectors are clicking and delivering fuel. Just put your ear on it and hear it.

 

Sounds like you're prepared. As for the synthetic, that's your call, but I haven't tried it, due minor oil leaks (both Accords have over 235K miles). I just run dino oil in them, and change it every 3K miles.
As for how many miles it'll go? The highest I've seen is 500K miles, and it was still going (4 cyl AT owned by a mechanic). Same with the AT, which is unusual because they seem to fail often according to this site. I know a guy in Canada who has gotten 300K kilometers on a V6 AT, and those are known to barely go 150K miles. Needless to say, I had done some investigating into the issue, as I wanted to get an idea of their life span. I'd heard from several sources that 300K on the engine isn't hard to do, as they were designed to go at least that far with just regular oil changes, and timing belt replacements.

 

No problem running either synthetic or dino oil, either is fine.

 

Thats another good video. I knew to check to see if that plastic part inside was tight. But I didn’t realize I could check out while the car is warm, and see if it was sucking vacuum. I didn’t know that’s how it worked. My idol seems fine, just seems like the car is shaking slightly, and when I put it in gear seems like it’s a tad worse. Not enough to worry me. But I want to make it right. My idle seems a little high, I think it’s around 900 rpm in gear.

Today’s the day!! All of my parts will be here! Yikes!!
I even bought transmission fluid I want to do at least one drain and fill, then I’ll do another one in about a week. I’m also going to change them rocker arms seals for the spark plugs, and adjust the valves. That may even help my idle a little bit with the valves not sure.
I was watching something on YouTube and I cannot remember where it’s at now. But a guy was saying that 98 and up had a lot of transmission problems. He was talking about the 90–93 being very durable. I hope my transmission last a lot longer, but of course I guess we all wish that LOL Mine shifts firm, so I guess that’s good.
I usually run conventional oil. I’m just afraid to switch it back after synthetic blend being in there. Not sure it that is bad to do.

Thank you! I ran a synthetic once in my Nissan I had. Started using it at 105k, And all of a sudden I started having some leaks. I don’t know if it was from the oil or not. But I know a lot of people that run the synthetic blend high mileage.

 

Also there is one more thing, you can clean the Throttle body with brake cleaner. Then there is something else you should clean. It's the idle air control valve. It's kind of easy to get off (you maybe be able to clean it inside of the car if you can get one clamp off. And take the bolts off.

Also having the car idle and just feel the hoses with your hands so you can find leaky or bad air hoses as well.

Google "1990 Honda Accord IACV (idle air control valve)" And you will find the video.

I also did some research about our transmissions.. I heard they last a lot longer in the winter. Because they don't get as hot.
I also have the Genuine Honda Transmission Fluid. My operation is going to be get the old stuff out in a clean oil pan (which I bought from a dollar store). Then I have a clean container that I rinsed out with water. Then I bought a new funnel long ones (2 of them $1 at dollar store). I'm going to put 1 quart in of the new stuff. And keep 1.5 quarts of the old stuff (unless it looks too terrible). We don't know if it's synthetic or not. It doesn't say synthetic on the bottle. I also wont be doing the flush method of 3 times every 50 miles. It will probably be every 5,000 miles. And I also researched something else, which I don't know is true or not but this but someone said this:
So I'm debating it. And I don't think I should really put the Honda Genuine Transmission fluid in. Unless someone wants to contact Honda and ask them. In fact, I might drive to the dealership right now and get a refund. There was another member here not to long ago. He said you couldn't pay me to put that in. I might try an Oreilly Conventional Dex brand. Somebody said that worked good for them. But I also heard not to use the new DEXRON versions. Because even if you did keep update with your transmission fluid changes. The cleaning properties in the new one could cause more problems with the filter that honda never wants you to change.

Check this out here: It kind of sucks we got nothing to go on, on what we could use. And there is no clear answer. And there is a lot of doubts on what to use. Then people say, oh don't use cheap universal brands either. It's very frustrating.

https://www.hondaaccordforum.com/for...s-66848/page3/


Also about the motor oil to use. I would use conventional. Even if you have to do more oil changes every 3,000 to 4,000 miles. Oil is cheap. Someone has explained that on older vehicles if there were leaks to begin with and conventional was used. And now you use synthetic, it might make the leaks worse. But since you got that kit. You are going to change some seals anyways. Camshaft seal and crankshaft seals, even then I still recommend the conventional oil anyways. It's not going to hurt anything to switch it to conventional oil.

Also one more thing if your engine shakes at idle, it could be the motor mounts. Check those out as well.