Rebuild engine or replace with lower milage used?

[Chief]

I have a 91 NSX with over 132K miles on it and looking for a little advice. The only thing I can personally hear that is not 100% on the engine is the fact that I have one or two valves that continue to "click" slightly at idle despite recently having them adjusted. I am told they are within spec and something more than an adjustment is needed to fix the "clicking" sound. Also my mechanic tells me that the cam shafts are beginning to show slight wear and the pistons can be heard slapping from under neath the car. Based on the fact that I do not race the car and only add 6-7K miles a year to the car, I figure there is really nothing to worry about now. On the other hand I am curious to learn more about rebuilding my engine or purchasing a lower milage used one. For those that have had an engine rebuit what type of investmenty would I be looking at? What advice would anyone have with regards to replacing the engine with a lower milage one? What could this investment cost?

Would appreciate any feedback and thanks in advance!

Chris
91 NSX

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Chris
91 NSX

 

[steveny]

If it were me I would sell the whole car. Add whatever amount I needed to the selling price and buy a newer low milage car. This would save all the headaches involved in rebuilding or replacing the engine. You might even be money ahead as I have heard it is very expensive to rebuildd the NSX engine. I beleive the figure that was quoted to me by thee local acura dealer was over 15k. Their mechanic is currently rebuilding a integra r motor and he said that was going to be over 10k.I thought that seemed a little high.

 

[BrentCobb]

Chris,
Take a look at my engine rebuild post here:
http://www.nsxsc.com/ubb/Forum17/HTML/000029.html

Take care,
Brent Cobb
187,000 miles
1991 Red/Black

 

[David]

Originally posted by steveny:
I beleive the figure that was quoted to me by thee local acura dealer was over 15k

That's crazy. You can buy a brand new 3.2L motor from Honda for that much. Check out Brent's numbers - they are much closer to reality for a major overhaul on an NSX motor. You may not be able to get as good a deal as he got, but it should be in the same ballpark.

That said, I got my block decked, dropped in forged pistons, pressed in ductile liners, etc. etc. for about $6k not including the cost to R&R the motor. If you are going to go through the motor, you might consider some upgrades - forged pistons, Extrude Hone the heads and intake, blueprinting, etc.

Call Comptech and ask them for a price to go through your motor. That will give you an upper threshold.

 

[Jimbo]

Chief,

Hmmm...Heard pistons slapping? He could be right, but that sounds funny to me. NSX bottom ends are pretty rugged and I'd be surprised that you would have enough piston wear to hear slapping.

Anyway, my 2 cents would be...if you really like the car, and it's in otherwise great condition, I would consider doing the rebuild or finding another engine (as opposed to selling).

I would keep my eyes open for another engine as well but there's always the risk of not knowing if there's a problem with it.

There was just an engine on eBay that didn't make the reserve. Perhaps you could contact the seller...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/aw-cgi/ebayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=591216070&r=0&t=0

If you did pick up another engine you could minimize the downtime and plan the swap. You could also sell the old engine and recoup some of your costs.

-Jim

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1992 NSX Red/Blk 5 spd #0330
1991 NSX Blk/Blk Auto #3070 (Sold)
1974 Vette 454 4 spd Wht/Blk
Looking for a 76-79 Honda Accord

 

[Chief]

Brent,

Appreciate your feedback and links to your engine rebuild.

Chris
91 NSX
132K miles

 

[Chief]

Originally posted by Jimbo:
Chief,

Hmmm...Heard pistons slapping? He could be right, but that sounds funny to me. NSX bottom ends are pretty rugged and I'd be surprised that you would have enough piston wear to hear slapping.

Anyway, my 2 cents would be...if you really like the car, and it's in otherwise great condition, I would consider doing the rebuild or finding another engine (as opposed to selling).

I would keep my eyes open for another engine as well but there's always the risk of not knowing if there's a problem with it.

There was just an engine on eBay that didn't make the reserve. Perhaps you could contact the seller...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/aw-cgi/ebayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=591216070&r=0&t=0

If you did pick up another engine you could minimize the downtime and plan the swap. You could also sell the old engine and recoup some of your costs.

-Jim

Jim,

Thanks for your thoughts...you are right on about not selling the car....I love the custome paint and bodyworks that has been done to it. I realize sooner or later I will have to do something with the engine as I add on to my current 132K miles. I will continnue to look into the rebuild or used engine options.

Thanks again,

Chris
91 NSX