91 2nd Gen Rebuild

That’s a beautiful bike. Hard to resist the projects when those old Honda’s are so affordable and fun to tinker with.

BFGs are the way to go. Ton of meat. I bought my 2021 TRD ORP a couple weeks ago and just got stock size 265/70/17 BFG K02’s (which I think are 31s?) and they’re way more sizeable than the all season passenger 265s that were on it. Couple pics for comparison. I’m going to do a 1 inch leveling kit with these tires since they do fill the fender gap a bit more.

the overland bros are cool with their 33s+ but with some good all terrains and 4x4 there aren’t many places they can go that you wouldn’t be able to.

 

Yeah man they are super simple engines. Going to be a learning experience trying to figure out the carbs on that thing though.


Crazy what a huge difference those tires make man! They for sure have just the right amount of thread on them. Looks great.

 

Still waiting on the rims to arrive. Excited to get started on cleaning them up and figuring out whether they're going to need to be powder coated or painted. Hopeful that I can avoid both, but want them to look as good as possible.

I was about to find 4 center caps on eBay, from 4 separate sellers.

Final one arrived today, they're all in pretty decent shape considering their age.

 

After some time deliberating, I made a decision on tires and a modest lift.

I went with the 31x10.5 BF Goodrich A/T.





Have a 2 inch lift on the way from Fatbobsgarage. Comes with a diff drop bracket as well as new rear coils, rather than coil spacers which I had been considering before. Link here.





Going to have it sit on some Eibach shocks that were well reviewed.





Unfortunately won't have time to touch any of this for several months, but wanted to get everything in the garage and ready.

I need to get the dirty old OEM rims I bought on ebay cleaned up. I'd love to throw them in some kinda bead agitator, but not sure where I could find someone that has one. Going to look around locally and see if I have any luck.

 

Super fast shipping from Tirerack.

 

Made some solid progress over the past week. Full steam ahead until she's driving.

Motor is in. Vacuum lines are on. New brake booster, clutch master and slave cylinders are in.

I sand blasted the manifold and painted it.

Throttle body rebuild is done - she's installed.

Today I installed the Old Man Emu 2'' lift - front and year, with some new shocks.

Last week I used some sanding disks to get the oxidation off the old rims, and hit them with 400 water paper. Got the new tires mounted, and now have started progressing with 600 grit. I'm going to get to to 1000 and see what that looks like. I'm going for a fairly matte, but very clean aluminum look. Once I get that, I've got some clear coat ready.

 

Yesterday I tackled the old man Emu lift install. I went with a 2 inch lift. Rear coils weren't super challenging to exchange.

Had to do some grinding to accommodate the spacers upfront, but nothing that made me question any structural integrity.

Today I was able to get after the rear ends.

Got new bearings / seals placed on the rear shafts and got them back in. Aligning the splines into the diff was not as easy as I thought'd it be.

Got rid of some surface corrosion and rebuilt the rear brakes.

 

Fitted alternator and steering pump.

I sanded the rims down all the way to 2000 grit. Gave them a brief acid wash to dull them, and clear coated them.

Chassis is still on jack stands, but I couldn't resist mounting one rim to see what it'd look like.

 

Update:

Engine is running well. Timing was challenging - aftermarket distributer just didn't seem to be possible to calibrate, I put back In original denso and timing was perfect with some minor adjustments.

I had a leak - rocker cover didn't seal well, even with brand new gaskets - had to remove manifold and adjust placement / use some high temp silicone - I hated having to do this, but the 2 parts engines I have acquired have silicone in the same spot, anyone else run into this issue?

Cooling system is working great.

AC components on the way.

I removed the rear and front bumpers and sandblasted away the surface corrosion that I could find - then painted with a galvanizing paint.

Should be able to go for a drive soon.

 

What did you do for those instrument cluster lights, that's looking nice!

 

Thanks man! I was very fortunate to put some power to that gauge cluster and it just worked! The only gauge I've been having intermittent issues with is the fuel gauge.. sometimes it reads and other times it doesn't. I did put a new sender unit in when I switched out the tank and fuel pump, so I'm hoping that it just hasn't traveled much since there isn't any gas in the tank. (I put in a gallon or two to start it). Hopefully once I put a good amount in there and have that sender unit travel through its range of motion the gauge will work.

 

Finally running. Got the antique tag on her. Got an alignment done. Hoping to do a 2 hour drive from where I've been working on her to where I live.

 

What an awesome thread.

 

Thanks Man!

 

What did you do with the exhaust? Did you leave it alone or heat wrap it? Or anything like that. I am reading my hg and found out that who ever designed the exhaust for the 3vz sucks. How did that idea go through someone mind. Because it seems to me that is the main reason the head gasket is even a problem.