Prelude sessional care

It's that time of year again when all project cars emerge from their garages, and so did our Prelude

Straight outta garage, it went to a nearby car spa . The car got so clean that now, while working on it, have to wear gloves – not to keep hands clean, but to avoid making the car dirty. I've never seen under the hood of any car so clean (except for the cars in museums)

I was so impressed by their work that I took all our other cars there for cleanup too

After days of research, lab testing, and A LOT of help from Project Farm cross the pond, I finally found the best filters and oils for the 3rd gen Prelude and MR2 SW20
Project Farm did a really good job, but sadly, half of the products he tests don't exist in the Baltics :|

So, it was time for the Prelude to open its Christmas presents!

Changed the oil and its filter yesterday; I still need to change the air filter, fuel filters, and install new reflectors

This was my first time changing the fuel filter for it. For the longest time, I couldn't even figure out where the rear filter was located. Found the front one following the repair manual, but the picture of the back one wasn't too descriptive...

Somewhere "rear"..
Went to forums and Googled around; the best I could find was, "you can literally see it behind your driver-side rear wheel"

Well, that didn't work for me. Couldn't see it from under the car or behind the rear wheel. Almost gave up and thought to do it some other day (which I still decided later on)

After eating, gave it another shot to find it, and there it was! Just behind a plastic cover!

Removed the cover, clamped fuel hoses to prevent potential leaks and tried to release the fuel filter itself. After struggling with it for a solid hour, couldn't get the fuel filter loose and was afraid I'd break something if I continued using brute force. Since it was getting late, I decided to leave it for the weekend

To be continued..

Now is the continued part
Changed the air filter but still didn't change the fuel filter

It's a dual carb model with a B20A3 engine, that no one else seems to have. I couldn't find any manual, guide, or forum post about how to replace the air filter for that engine; there are plenty for other engines but none for this one. The only thing I've seen before is a picture that one workshop (kassi auto), took when they were adjusting the carburetors of my other Prelude
That picture was not inviting at all😅
Was afraid I'd have to deal with something similar

The number of vacuum hoses attached to it is crazy!

Luckily, it turned out to be rather easy: disconnecting two pipes, one wire, unscrewing a single screw, and opening four clips in each corner. It took maybe about 10-15 minutes to get it done. Most of the time was spent on investigation and making sure I didn't break anything. I recorded the process too and will upload it someday after editing

To be continued.. (when I finally get to fuel filter)

While waiting for the weekend to work on the fuel filter, a nearby gearbox repair company (Nortest Auto) changed the gearbox oil, since I had no idea when it was last changed and I don't have tools to do it myself. Asked them to change it just in case, at least I have service record for it now - my Excel sheet :)

Finally, the weekend arrived and I found time to change the fuel filter. Remembered that I had some special tools for removing pipes, which made the job a breeze. It ended up taking only 5-10 minutes in total

At last, the seasonal care is complete for this year!