Stroker Surprise

**Booyah** · 12-19-2010, 21:34

For the last six months or so I've been searching for the right NSX for me. I'm not too comfortable buying a car sight unseen so I've stuck to looking at cars that have been within eight hours or so of driving from the Dallas area. My number one goal was to find an NSX at a price point where if needed I could most likely sell it without taking the financial a$$ whooping cars are known to give.

I did a lot of reading on prime about the in's and out's of buying an NSX. I took the first two cars for a PPI at the local Acura dealerships. The PPI's were worth the cost in the knowledge I gained but when I factored in the travel expenses and the cost of the PPI's I could see this route was a good way to spend a lot of money with no car for the effort. I looked at 91 model cars from 15k to 25k. The thing that I found interesting was that for me to make them a car that I was comfortable driving, each one of them would have been at least 26k-28k after it was all said and done.

Two weeks ago I aquired a 94 NSX project car from a dealership that is right in the middle of the project part. That meaning that someone else took it apart and now I am going to try to put it back together again. This is not the car I had in mind when I started my search, but after resigning myself to the fact that most of them are going to need some work I decided that I might as well learn to do it myself.

I wasn't expecting much on my initial visit, but I was pleasantly surprised by the cars condition. I spent the rest of the week looking over the service manual and the exploded parts diagrams on the Delray Acura site to familiarize myself with the major engine and transmission components. On my second inspection of the car I went through the two pallets of parts and it seemed that everything was there with the exception of the cats and the turbocharger. The engine and heads were still in the crate from the engine shop and they had a receipt for the work that was performed. I spent a few more days going back and forth with myself and then one morning after a tall Starbucks I decided to quit being my normal conservative (aka puss) self and take a chance on it.

I've had two weeks now to find out what I actually have in hand. So far all of the surprises have been pleasant ones. The best surprise came when I called the engine shop to find out more detailed information on the work they performed. Since I had the invoice number he didn't have any problems finding the build sheet. He said that he had received the engine and a few new parts to install. He rattled off the following:

Installed forged JE pistons
Installed billet rods
Installed Brian Crower stroker crank (daddy said cha-ching

)
Bore 91.3mm
Stroke 84mm
Balance and blueprint, assemble shortblock, competition valve job...etc.

So the journey begins.

Pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nsxstro...7625509875359/

**X-TOM-X** · 12-20-2010, 01:13

This looks interresting. How long do you think it will take to put it together?

**DocL** · 12-20-2010, 05:08

It's fun to sometimes find out you got more than you expected and the engine upgrades are fantastic.

Looking at the pictures, was the car ever in a front end accident?

**shawn110975** · 12-20-2010, 05:09

I am not surprised the turbo and headers were missing. those are high ticket item and was probably Mis-placed by one of the mechanics.lol

keep us posted with new pics,, we love to watch these builds

pics, pics, pics LOL

**Booyah** · 12-20-2010, 06:49

Originally Posted by DocL

It's fun to sometimes find out you got more than you expected and the engine upgrades are fantastic.

Looking at the pictures, was the car ever in a front end accident?

The car is on the prime salvage list, but I knew that going into the deal even though the Texas title is supposedly clear (haven't received the official title yet). The right front fender has a slightly wider gap between itself and the (about 1mm max difference) hood than the left so I'm assuming that is where the damage occured.

**Booyah** · 12-20-2010, 06:54

Originally Posted by X-TOM-X

This looks interresting. How long do you think it will take to put it together?

Not sure, but I'll be disappointed if it takes more than three months give or take. Getting the parts rounded up is taking longer than I anticipated. So far it seems you have to allow at least 5-7 business days to round up even things like gaskets and o-rings.

**Booyah** · 12-20-2010, 07:00

Originally Posted by shawn110975

I am not surprised the turbo and headers were missing. those are high ticket item and was probably Mis-placed by one of the mechanics.lol

keep us posted with new pics,, we love to watch these builds

pics, pics, pics LOL

I have the headers, exhaust, intercooler and the turbo plumbing...just don't have the turbo itself. At this point I think I'm going to start out running it NA and see where it goes from there. I'll post new pics as things change.

**Ponyboy** · 12-20-2010, 07:01

Wow, welcome to the "Stroker Club." What an awesome surprise and it sounds like a great project.

Word to the wise if I can be so bold: don't be afraid to ask for help.

**Booyah** · 12-20-2010, 07:14

Originally Posted by Ponyboy

Wow, welcome to the "Stroker Club." What an awesome surprise and it sounds like a great project.

Word to the wise if I can be so bold: don't be afraid to ask for help.

Thanks..any and all advice/help is greatly appreciated.

**Booyah** · 02-12-2011, 15:43

Well I'm at the two month mark now and have made some good progress. I have the engine back in the car and have it tuned good enough to idle. I took my first trip in it today...just to the end of the driveway and back but it was nice to finally see it move under it's own power. I'm waiting on UPS to deliver my exhaust and hi-flow cats before I try to make it around the block.

For the most part it's been a pretty straightforward process considering how little I knew about the NSX when I started. I've had to do the two step forward one step back a good number of times because I put parts on in the wrong sequence. If I had been the one to take it apart in the first place it would have been much easier to reassemble. I still owe some Japanese engineer a good a$$ kicking for their placement of the top bolt in the passenger side driveshaft support bracket. After working for a couple of hours to get it in place, I re-engineered it to only need two

I think trying to figure out the Tec3 ECU and all of the tuning terminology involved has been my biggest concern and still is to some degree. I want to thank chudson1549 for providing me with a bin file from his old Tec3 unit. Having that file gave me some insight as to where to start.

Here are a few pics of it's first trip out of the garage.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nsxstro...7625909512851/