On October 24, 2005, I took the long drive from Ohio to El Paso, Texas, to report to my first duty station at Fort Bliss. The car was loaded up with 700lbs worth of household goods (ironic when you see that the Prelude Manual says it can hold no more than 700lbs and the Army only authorizes payment for 700lbs for a personal move for an unmarried 2nd Lt.) and made the journey, averaging 32mpg the whole way.
My modification journey was put on hold for a whole year due to lack of funds (starting out on life is tough!) but here are some pictures of what I was rocking for the year from Oct 05 to Oct 06...
Yes, Chrome wire loom, I believed, was just as good of a heat insulator as anything else, and I went allll out
Take a look at where I placed the "Mugen" oil catch can (it's down by the power steering reservior and drivers side headlight). There was juuuust enough space to fit it in, and I ran it from the PCV to catch can and back up to the intake manifold. But since I was in the middle of my heyday with knock-offs, I didn't know that Mugen didn't really make a catch can or else that probably would've solved the age old question of why it leaked so damn much!
Once the air conditioning was removed and I had a bought with OBX silicone radiator hoses and lost, it started to change up the engine bay for the better, little by little
I did the Rising Sun Flag myself after seeing it done on an Integra in an issue of HCI where they showcased cars in Hawaii. I really liked it as you can see, but most called it rice. I was pretty much rockin' half ricer/half racer at this point. I'd like to make a special comment on the OBX Yellow Radiator Hoses in the top picture there, but when I got them, I thought "hot damn, these look hot!" Well about a week after installing them, I was driving home from work when I started to notice car losing power. At this point, I looked at my dash and notice the coolant needle skyrocketing to "H." Bad news. I quickly floored the car (probably not a smart thing to do) and then turned it off and let it coast. I did this for 3 miles until I got to a place where I could pull into a parking lot. When I finally did pull in, I opened the hood and I could smell the faint smell of coolant. I looked around the bay but didn't see any obvioius leaks, nor did I see any when I looked at the ground under the car. I couldn't figure out why the temperature gauge had pegged. I kid you not when I say I drove the remaining 4 MILES HOME by turning the car off and on to pick up speed and putting my hazards on the whole way. It wasn't until I got home I grabbed as many towels as I could and ran down to the engine and put them over the radiator cap. I had never taken it off before when the car was even
remotely hot, so I closed my eyes, looked away and winced as I opened the radiator cap... And nothing happened. I was so surprised I took all the towels off and looked into the radiator and it was bone dry! I couldn't believe it so I gave all the hoses a big once over to finally discover that the bottom of the radiator return hose line had completely popped off of the bottom of the radiator neck. It literally drained my entire system and I drove on it for 7 miles! I quickly reattached it and clamped it down again and filled up the radiator with new coolant and water. I kid you not, 3 days later I had the exact same thing happen to me again! It popped off and I was stranded again! Two Sergeants came over to my house that night and we inspected what was going on with them. Even after taking out the entire radiator and using two clamps to where the hose connected to the radiator, we were finding we could still twist and move and then just pull off the whole hose. It didn't matter how tight we tried to clamp it, the Silicone Hose didn't have any friction to help keep it on. So to this day, I rock stock rubber hoses all while wondering if those of you that have OBX or even SAMCO hoses for that matter have had this problem?
To this day, I have no idea how I didn't warp my cylinder head or crack the block... must be that legendary Honda reliability huh?
Finally, dig that "Top Fuel" intake on there! It was a rare piece back in 05' when I got it and it's one of the few pieces that's stayed the course on this car since then. In a scene of mostly AEM V2's setting a standard, this should be what ever Prelude owner inspires to have!
I truthfully don't know why I chose to paint the brake calipers blue especially when the car still rocked red "H" centercaps on the wheels and a red and black pinstripe (OEM). It all happened around the same time I removed the entire air conditioning system using a ratchet set and hacksaw during on glorious June Weekend Day in 2006. Also, dig the EBC dimpled and slotted rotors, I rocked OEM pads on those bad boys with limited success
haha.
