Other Names for Rocker Gasket Cover?

MeatProduct

I'm ordering replacement parts for my Prelude from the US (considerably better prices than the Honda dealer is giving me) and on no site in the US can I find a Rocker Cover Gasket. I'm sure they have them it's just that I don't know other names for the part and my car knowledge is quite limited. Anyone know what it's normally called?

Also can't find any reference to a Track Rod

Many thanks, appreciated.

Nick

mike65

Track rod = tie rod

Rocker cover = Valve cover

Mike.

MeatProduct

Thanks Mike, can now order the parts

Nick

JHMEG

Honda's official term for it is Cylinder Head Cover. It should be about €20. (I bought one and 4 sparkplug gaskets for my Integra, all in €24)

Honda almost universally refer to the other part as a TRE (tho the T is for Tie) that way there's no confusion. (I paid about €70 for one, iirc)

IrishRover

These days, the term "rocker cover" is a misnomer, because the cover over the top of the head is not covering rockers, it's covering one or more camshafts.

Rockers look like miniature versions of those derricks you would see pumping oil out of the ground in Texas, and were used in old style pushrod engines.

You can see the rocker in the top of this pic on an old pushrod type engine:


Now seeing as pretty much every modern engine has overhead camshafts to control the opening and closing of the inlet and exhaust valves in the head, I think the correct term should be cam covers, although seeing as there are valves there too I suppose valve cover would be ok as well Mike

Actually, I think valve cover may be more of an American term. Cylinder head cover is a good generic term - doesn't matter what mechanicals are underneath it that way.

MeatProduct

Thank you IrishRover, most informative!!

Nick

MeatProduct

JHMEG wrote: »

Honda's official term for it is Cylinder Head Cover. It should be about €20. (I bought one and 4 sparkplug gaskets for my Integra, all in €24)

Honda almost universally refer to the other part as a TRE (tho the T is for Tie) that way there's no confusion. (I paid about €70 for one, iirc)

Thanks JHMEG, where did you buy those parts from cause I'm now having trouble getting any US car part company to ship internationally.
Nick

Seth Brundle

IrishRover wrote: »

aah - brings back memories of my old Fiesta - such an easy car to work with!

IrishRover

Cheers.
There's a company on ebay (UK) called The Gasket Shop. I've used them before and they might not be the cheapest, but have a huge stock. I don't see rocker/cam/valve/head ( ) cover gaskets for the Prelude there but you could mail them and ask.

Do you know what your engine code is? That would probably help in finding the right part as the engine could be listed under other Honda models like an Accord.

A good motorfactors should be able to order you this gasket set if they don't have it in stock.

MeatProduct

IrishRover wrote: »

Cheers.
There's a company on ebay (UK) called The Gasket Shop. I've used them before and they might not be the cheapest, but have a huge stock. I don't see rocker/cam/valve/head ( ) cover gaskets for the Prelude there but you could mail them and ask.

Do you know what your engine code is? That would probably help in finding the right part as the engine could be listed under other Honda models like an Accord.

A good motorfactors should be able to order you this gasket set if they don't have it in stock.

Thanks for all IrishRover. I've got the engine code, I've been typing it in all morning to the sites in the US which have all the parts I need. I really like the idea of getting it all from one place and what I may end up doing is getting it sent to a friend in the US who can then post all the parts on to me.



Nick

IrishRover

Actually, I just remembered I have a cam cover gasket set here for a F series Honda engine here. It's branded Ajusa with part number 56016200 and is marked for Honda/Isuzu/Rover group for engines F18A, F20A, F22A, F20Z, F22B.

I don't think I'll need this one so if you have an F series in your Prelude you can have it for €20 if you like. (It includes the spark plug gasket rings and cover bolt washers)

bushy...

kbannon wrote: »

aah - brings back memories of my old Fiesta - such an easy car to work with!

Two stroke diesel Fiesta ?

MeatProduct

IrishRover wrote: »

Actually, I just remembered I have a cam cover gasket set here for a F series Honda engine here. It's branded Ajusa with part number 56016200 and is marked for Honda/Isuzu/Rover group for engines F18A, F20A, F22A, F20Z, F22B.

I don't think I'll need this one so if you have an F series in your Prelude you can have it for €20 if you like. (It includes the spark plug gasket rings and cover bolt washers)

Thanks IrishRover but my engine is a H22A, just two letters out

Nick

IrishRover

Ah grand, you've got a much better engine so

SouperComputer

Quite a lot of the popular V8's over here are pushrod, which is probably why its still referred to as a rocker cover. Yup, they have some funny names over here, not to mention this "inches" thing

JHMEG

MeatProduct wrote: »

Thanks JHMEG, where did you buy those parts from cause I'm now having trouble getting any US car part company to ship internationally.
Nick

That's what I paid locally here.

From experience American car parts places won't ship internationally without it being some €120 DHL next day delivery. Unfortunately that's often a deal breaker. [I did buy a distributor from Canada tho that even with the €120 shipping worked out cheaper than buying locally.]

I presume your gasket is leaking? Its normal for it to leak in the corners, and the Honda manual states to use liquid gasket in the corners anyway. You can also seal the whole thing with liquid gasket if you're careful and want to do it on the cheap! Lots of mechanics do this. Liquid gasket is about €7.

The TRE you could get on e-bay, but you take the risk of not getting the right one. Try a motor factors.

Nice engine btw. VTI or Jap import (Type-S even)?

PS Clarkson described the H22A as the best mass produced engine ever made, which I found amazing considering his anti-Jap 6-cyl bigotry.

MeatProduct

JHMEG wrote: »

I presume your gasket is leaking? Its normal for it to leak in the corners, and the Honda manual states to use liquid gasket in the corners anyway. You can also seal the whole thing with liquid gasket if you're careful and want to do it on the cheap! Lots of mechanics do this. Liquid gasket is about €7.

The TRE you could get on e-bay, but you take the risk of not getting the right one. Try a motor factors.

Nice engine btw. VTI or Jap import (Type-S even)?

PS Clarkson described the H22A as the best mass produced engine ever made, which I found amazing considering his anti-Jap 6-cyl bigotry.

Yes, it's a leaking gasket but a bunch of other things have gone bad on it and I'm at a loss as to why the Honda dealer didn't replace them before it got this bad. I've maintained it with a full Honda service history to make sure things like this didn't happen. Overall I'm not too happy with my dealer. There have been some good positives from them but I have a big repair bill infront of me that I think could have been partly avoided. This is what needs replacing:

Rear Brake Discs (should have been sorted out by dealer before they got damaged)
All Brake Pads (fair enough)
Rocker Cover Gasket (Not impressed since I told them to sort this out 2 services ago and they billed me for it yet the problem remains)
Front Track Rod (fair enough, cars been hitting the kerb when reversing out of my driveway since it's so low to the ground)
Rear Ball Joint (don't know how that happened)
Rear Wheel Bearing (again, no idea how I managed that)
and of course the big one which is the gearbox going, €2700 for a Honda supplied replacement that only has a 3 month warranty!! Quite disgusted about that.

I love the car but I have a big spend ahead of me now and it is absolutely no guarntee that the gearbox won't go again as I've read that it's happened to others. A guy even posted that he's on his 3rd gearbox!

So I think the €120 or so shipping costs from the US for everything but the gearbox will save me quite a bit of money. I found a dealer in Arizona that sells stock Honda parts that would be willing to ship to Ireland.

I didn't know I could use liquid gasket, I'll check that out, thank you.

Wow, I'm impressed about the H22A Mine is a UK import VTi, with the high spec bar the leather interior (which I didn't want). Cruise control really batters my sausage

Nick

IrishRover

I got a gearbox rebuilt with steel caged bearings in England a couple of years ago for £350 (about €500) and they gave a year's guarantee on it.
I wonder are there any decent gearbox rebuilders in the Cork area?

I bought front brake pads for a '96 2.2 Prelude recently enough in a motor factors in Dublin for about €40.

Maybe you could see if you could get some of the parts from a decent motor factors in Cork and get an idea on prices, so you can compare with what you would be getting from the states.

Your car sounds nice btw. Would like to see some pics.

MeatProduct

IrishRover wrote: »

I got a gearbox rebuilt with steel caged bearings in England a couple of years ago for £350 (about €500) and they gave a year's guarantee on it.
I wonder are there any decent gearbox rebuilders in the Cork area?

I bought front brake pads for a '96 2.2 Prelude recently enough in a motor factors in Dublin for about €40.

Maybe you could see if you could get some of the parts from a decent motor factors in Cork and get an idea on prices, so you can compare with what you would be getting from the states.

Your car sounds nice btw. Would like to see some pics.

Well I had never considered a gearbox rebuild could do the job, I'd most certainly like to follow up the idea. I'll call around tomorrow to see if I can find any.

Well my car is flattered that you would like to see pictures of it I'll have to give it a wash first you understand.

That's a good price on the brake pads you got. The fronts in the US are coming to about €35, not the cheapest and not the most expensive ones there, they have a pair for about €18 which thought are probably pretty crappie and I'd rather spend a little extra to be nice to my car. But I still figure with all the parts I do need that it would work out about €400 cheaper (that's buying stock parts from the US compared to the stock parts supplied by the Honda dealer here).

Thanks for the information again IrishRover, most appreciated.

Nick

Seth Brundle

bushy... wrote: »

Two stroke diesel Fiesta ?

LOL - I was referring to the pushrod technology

IrishRover

Cheers Nick.
Ah sure whenever you want with the pics - not good weather for it now. I've always liked the Preludes.
I'll be interested to hear your experiences of buying parts from the states.

JHMEG

I have never really paid much attention to brake pads, as any set I've bought have worked no differently to the last set. Let's face it we're talking single pot calipers on smallish discs (tho my 98 Accord Coupe unusually had twin pot at the front). I'd go with 2 sets of the $18 pads meself. Last time I bought pads they were €25 a pair (integra) in a motor factors. No point getting stuff from the US if it's no cheaper.

Actually, regarding cheap: Iridium spark plugs for my wife's Civic IMA are €35 EACH here. The exact same plug in the US is $9.99. And it takes 8 of them! Point being cheap pads there might not be cheap at all here.

IrishRover

The brakes on the 2.2 vtec Prelude are pretty good though and they are bigger discs than on the other models - 280mm I think.

MeatProduct

Right so, I'm going for the second cheapest pads, they don't look too bad here's where I'm planning to order from www.intlautoparts.com and they estimate the shipping for the parts I need will come to about $125. However I can't find a ball joint listed anywhere on their site, would there be a different name for it, I've found it on the other auto sites no problem.

Since I'm ordering from the US was wondering if wither of you two want to jump in and get some parts too from the same place?

Nick

MeatProduct

Called around today and nobody wants to touch the gearbox rebuild for the Prelude. A couple of places mentioned that a place called A&M? in Dublin might do it but I can't find them in the golden pages, anyone know them?

Thanks,

Nick

IrishRover

MeatProduct wrote: »

Called around today and nobody wants to touch the gearbox rebuild for the Prelude.

This kind of crap sounds so typical of the kind of attitude you get in Ireland, ie: "Don't want to do it unless it's exactly the kind of job I do every day and I can do it in my sleep and yet pretend it's rocket science so I can charge you way more than the job's actually worth".

I've heard of A&M, can't remember if I've ever had any dealings with them before. Found them in the eircom phonebook:

A & M Gear Box Centre
180 James St, Dublin 8.
01 6793722

Might as well try a couple of other places if you're going to bring it up to Dublin:

Mr Gearbox Mr Clutch
72A Ballygall Road West, Dublin 11.
01 8568133

Red Cow Gearbox & Auto Centre
Snow Drop Ind.Est. Club rd Fox & Geese Clondalkin, Dublin 22.
01 4299622

Bohernabreena Gearbox Centre
Mountpelier Tallaght, Dublin 24.
01 4627980
087 8138503

Walkinstown Clutch & Gearbox Centre
93 St Patricks Rd Walkinstown, Dublin 12.
01 4299921
087 6121793

I can't think of any Honda parts I need right now. I'll let you know asap if I can think of anything.

MeatProduct

Thanks for the number IrishRover. None of them will touch it! Mr Clutch was very helpful and gave me the number of a guy who would do it. Called him and was very helpful and said he'd do it but for €2000! It's obviously better than buying the new one for €2700 and getting it fit for €600 which only has a 3 month warranty. This guy said he'd stand over the rebuild for 12 months.

You know, I'm considering getting a auto to manual tranny conversion with things getting this expensive

Nick

IrishRover

Oh it's an auto?
I suppose unless you really prefer an auto maybe it would be a good opportunity to look into a conversion.

Still, I can't understand the attitude you are coming up against. I always seem to find this kind of attitude here too. Seems to me like it's a "small island mentality". :mad:

Is the car driveable? (assuming you fix the other things on it)

MeatProduct

Sorry I never mentioned that, I'm just so used to typing it everywhere else that I just assumed I had done so here too It's a tiptronic autobox, lovely to drive I must say.

The car is drivable even with all the things wrong with it but I'll get them sorted before making my way up to Dublin. It' only in the early stages of the gearbox problem and I've only been driving it about once a week to the office in the last month and a half to reduce the wear of the box. Getting much more exercise as a result

Yes, I agree, the attitude here is disappointing. From looking at the American Prelude forums it seems the world and his/her uncle do tranny swaps and all sorts of mad things! Would like to see a more helpful attitude from the garages here.

Nick

IrishRover

Ah well that helps that you can still drive it at least!
I've just mailed a gearbox place I know in the UK to ask for some advice on it.
I'll let you know when I hear back from them.
What year & model is the car?

JHMEG

Would you not consider swapping in a manual box? Should be readily available 2nd hand, cheaper, and less troublesome in the long run. You'd obviously have to swap a few bits on your centre console too.

MeatProduct

IrishRover, thank you very much indeed, really appreciate your help. It's a 1998 2.2 VTi Auto/Tiptronic, Engine H22A5 and Chassis # BB624...

JHMEG, I called Japrek earlier about a tranny conversion and they said they wouldn't do it even if they had the replacement manual tranny cause of the hassle invloved. Said they had a 94 Prelude with a manual tranny but he didn't know if that would go into the 5th gen Prelude. I've seen guides on the web for doing the swap so I might ask a young mechanic I know if he'd be up to giving it a go.

I would like the manual option but it's the same problem who'll do it and as well as trying to get the manual box with all the necessary parts. Gonna call around to a few dismantlers just in case.

Thanks guys,

Nick

MeatProduct

I've found a chap in Cork that will do the auto to manual conversion but doesn't have any of the parts. I've got a list off the web for everything I'll be needing to do the conversion so I'm going to be costing it tomorrow. I'm tempted to get this since it's probably less hassle in case I didn't get all the parts for the tranny swap and it's a better and lower mileage engine. Only downside is that it doesn't seem of have the LSD tranny which would be prefferable. They even have shipping costs to Ireland.

As I calculate it these are the options:

1: Replace tranny with dealer: Parts: €2700 Labour: €600 Total: €3300
2: Buy 2nd hand tranny: Parts: ~€750 Labour €400 Total: €1150
3: Gearbox rebuild: Total €2000
4: Swap Engine + M/T (Type S JDM): Parts: ~€3200 Labour: ~€650 Total: €3850
5: Swap Engine + M/T (Stock): Parts: ~€2450 Labour: ~€650 Total: €3100
6: Swap M/T: Parts: ~€1300 Labour: ~€500 Total: €1800

The boy-racing scumbag in me would prefer option 4 there I'd be concerned with number 6 as I feel there's more potential for things to go wrong although I'm certainly no expert. Options 1 & 2 are no options since the tranny will be guarnteed to go again. The rebuild is very expensive but I'm considering it. But a 220bhp JDM.......................... *salivating*



Nick

Edit: Link wasn't working