1981 Honda Accord

electro_gyrocator · Post by **electro_gyrocator** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 7:25 am

Man, I have to say, I am so damn impressed with MegaJolt Lite JR! My car idles like it never has idled before. After going through 5 different distributors from AutoZone and all of them being failing garbage, it's so nice to have something reliable running in my car. And I am also amazed how much quieter my motor is without a distributor on it!! And it runs so smooth. Even the stock timing map that came in the unit works great.

The engine is a 1751CC (like how Honda rounded that 51 up to 1800

) 8 valve CVCC motor. It's overbored, and fully rebuilt but otherwise bone stock. I've done an auto to 5-speed conversion... Running a Weber 32/36DGEV at the moment, but I have a DCOE sidedraft manifold that I will be updating to. The engine dies off bad at 5500RPM and I'm hoping it was a timing issue that the MJLJ will solve. If not, it will be time for a new cam, as the stock grind is obviously all built for down low.

My sensor bracket, it's in paint now, and looks nice.

Trigger wheel mounted on pulley (did it myself w00t!)

Here's how I did it, I was lucky that the trigger wheel was the exact same size as the crank pulley! The pulley is actually out of a '76 Accord that I found at the junkyard when I went looking for a replacement.

Here's the '76 pulley compared to the '81 pulley. I was going to have the power steering groove machined off, but when I found this, there was no need to! And only $5.

The coil pack location on the driver's side framerail. So convenient!

Mess of wiring. I found a great spot on the firewall to put the EDIS module. The MJLJ is just on the other side of the firewall. So short wiring FTW! I will be cleaning this up very shortly!

Video of EDIS w/o MegaJolt Lite Jr running in Limp Home Mode
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQdK--uMrY4

Video of the MJLJ system working flawlessly!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1E8jsiFdFc

Just for kicks, here's video of the car running, shortly after I rebuilt it. (with crappy distributor!!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_U-vzeKnQU

And here's the car in question. I wish the paint ACTUALLY looked as good as it does in this picture. It's faded badly and the clear is peeling like crazy. Drop will be coming soon, and repaint with fender mirrors, and hopefully the DCOEs I buy will give her a little more get up and go!

NITROPIXIE · Post by **NITROPIXIE** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 8:12 pm

Nice motor, you have done well.

Have you ever watched 'Employee of the month'. The scene when they are on the roof playing golf. "This is an 81 Honda, how dare you!!" Always makes me chuckle anyway.

electro_gyrocator · Post by **electro_gyrocator** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 11:05 pm

Ahaha! Yeah, always cracks me up. The car in that movie is a Civic, but should have been an Accord! Love those scenes with the car in it.

Are there any other Hondas on here? I noticed a disturbing lack of them here...

Post by **brentp** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 1:24 am

Wow!

My very first car was an 81 honda accord. I loved that car and owned it for years!

I remember that the tiny CVCC valve on cylinder #3 burned out, causing hot exhaust to shoot up into the intake, literally cooking the carbureator. it ran horribly for so long until I did the exact weber conversion you did. It ran great on the weber afterwards, and really cleaned up the engine bay! I loved hearing the intake sound after the Weber conversion as well..

Another good one was when the engine inexplicably stalled on the freeway offramp. I was trying to start it, to no avail- blocking traffic with cars behind and all around me. Then, I noticed the paint discoloring on the hood- what was that? Foolishly, I get out of the car, and open the hood. To my shock, the **distributor cap** was on fire! Literally, the plastic of the cap was burning! Right next to the fuel filled Weber, no less. So what do I do? Unthinkingly and reflexively, I reach out with my bare hands, grab the distributor cap, rip it off of the engine along with the melting silicone wires, and throw it onto the ground. My reward was a non-running, mostly intact car and 2nd degree burns on my hand.

I flagged down a truck and he towed me to the top of the hill.. then I walked up to the local auto parts store where they give me a bandage from their first aid kit and let me borrow their phone to notify my wife, Kelley. They had a cap and plug wires, but no information on the firing sequence.. so after randomly trying (and failing) to discover the correct sequence we hit a 2nd store where they had the correct info. The night was topped off at the Hospital Emergency room instead of at a swanky restaurant as I has planned for Kelley's birthday.

Oh, and previously, the back seat area was turned into a giant 13.5 cubic foot subwoofer enclosure with twin 15" woofers. The amplifiers pulled so much current on the alternator it drained the battery, especially at night. We had a popular "crusing" loop around the city center of the town I lived in- so at night, as we cruised around the loop we would *only* turn up the stereo whenever we went past the place where all the hot girls were hanging out. Yeah... (edit) I think Kelley hung out with that group, too.

Oh, memories! Thanks for that.

And thanks for posting pics of a great install!

electro_gyrocator · Post by **electro_gyrocator** » Thu Jan 21, 2010 5:41 am

Oh man! And here I am a month and a half later replying to you! I didn't even see your post before! Dang. It's really cool to always hear people's stories about their Accords. They are getting to be few and far between, and it's funny how so many people had them, and most people have fun memories and enjoyed them.

I think the CVCC valves burning out are a common problem. They're so tiny, it seems like they are asking for it. Also, I have a friend whose 81 Accord engine had caught fire, and I bet the same thing happened to his that happened to yours. It was a Canadian model, and I wound up with his old cylinder head to swap onto my car at one point. The machinist who I was having rebuild it said "Man, looks like this thing has been on fire or something! It got real hot!" Couldn't help but chuckle.

And that's awesome what you did in the back seat! I actually took the back seat out, and built a cabinet in the back for extra storage, and so I can have a larger flat floor in the back to haul stuff. I'm going to turn the cabinets into sub enclosures eventually. So it will sort of be the same thing! Gotta love the utility of the hatchbacks!

On another topic, going through your site here, you guys are located in Washington right? And you do local autocrossing? I've hit up Bremerton sports car club autocrosses a few times, and once in Everett at Boeing Field. I only took this car once and did terrible (10+ year old 165mm tires and old, worn struts don't help at all). I hope to have it ready to throw around the track this season a few times to see how it does. So maybe at some point you'll get to see it in person.

Also, I'd love to check out your project 240. I swear I've seen it before, or one JUST LIKE IT at this guy's house who was a tow truck driver in Seattle. He had a sweet, sweet GNX and a Regal T-Type as well. I was buying some springs from him on Craigslist when I saw that 240. It was silver, caged, and had nearly the same decals on it... Wonder if it's the same or not.

Anyways, thanks for sharing. Fun read! Sorry my reply is so late...