Then sometime around mid-May she started smoking, badly!
I ran around with it since I didn't have alternatives, and the GMC was still being worked on.
Well, I got the GMC working and the Civic started sitting, as I didn't know what was happening with it.
A good few weeks go by and as I was chatting as usual it turns out that one of the guys on the MineCraft I play on is a certed Honda tech. So I go over to him, he does all his mojo and declares that I have worn valve guides, and likely a burnt valve or two. After much ado and a lot of waiting around, I ordered a bunch of parts and dived in head first.
Do note guys, from first crack to finished product, it took nigh on 3 weeks. And I'm still missing pictures!
So, let us begin...
The Culprit itself. Funny thing is that just by inspection, nothing seems to be out of place. I had to vacuum the excess oil out so that I didn't spill it all over the damn place.
Once the head was removed I got some water into the cylinders. Just enough to be annoying... Damn, oh well. What's not obvious in the picture is that there was about 1-2 mm's of build-up in the center. It was "soft", so it was obviously fresh as it can be.
Took a bit to clean it all up, then I sat there with the vacuum for a long time to be sure to vacuum everything out.
The new head. Shiny, isn't it?
Cam didn't look out of shape either.
Now at this point though I definitely lost my cool a bit... Just a bit, to the effect of cursing whoever put it together. The paper gasket was so burned onto the intake manifold that I had to razor and dremel off the gasket.
After some hour or two of work, this is the best I could come up with. Also, the kicker was that it hit me that since I used a wire wheel, wheel pieces were everywhere. So I took 3 neodymium magnets and went all over the intake, picking up any sort of debris. After double checking my work, I moved on to calling it a night...
... But not before I fitted the head gasket on and put the new head on for protection! It was one of the few brand new Honda items that I got, for an extra $15 - making it 52 or so - I didn't mind.
We suddenly fast forward to only a few days ago, as I am missing some pictures of the motor mounts that I changed out.
The head had the melt pot too. As it is a re-manufactured engine, they've add that little spot on. That's the overheat indicator, and if it melts out, you have voided your warranty. Most of the time they are in nice hidden spots.
This means that the Civic that I got at 85K had a rebuilt engine... On one hand that means that someone really screwed up. On the other that's sweet, as I have a lower end that is likely in excellent condition.
The cat... The old cat looks nothing like this, as the old cat is about "90% blocked off" due to excessive amount of heat in the cat. This was likely due to the burnt valve letting gas by, and the oil burning things up.
Also, some modification work. In preparation to potentially staying in Cali for a very long time, I went with a direct-fit Cali / CARB cat. Well, even the direct fit isn't exactly direct fit. So, as touching the cat is a no-no, I did a bit of grinding and cutting on the exhaust. Now it fits perfectly! =)
We have finally fast forwarded some 3 weeks and about $900 worth of parts. Then again, let's face it, head swap, changing all motor mounts, changing intake/exhaust/oil pan/ valve cover and doing everything else next to it would have been a downright fortune.
So finally it has come down to the final key turn, and...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkz6kUytYS0[/youtube]
That didn't sound right. Dad said that it's dry valves, so we ran it for a hint more, but not much longer. As soon as the Honda tech saw the video on YT, he told me that I may be screwed. He asked how I did timing, and apparently instead of doing timing like any other vehicle, there are steps to pre-tention the idler, which I did not follow. End result was that I was probably off by 1 or 2 teeth...
The next day he came over, he went over it, and said that for every other part I did a pretty good job. We did the steps to pre-tention the timing belt, put everything back together and...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkngDpqJFzA[/youtube]
OOooohhh yeahhh... It only occurred to me later that instead of flat pistons, I had the standard notched pistons to make it a non-interference engine. So even though I completely screwed up, I was safe and so is the engine. Now comes the 300 mile break-in period of driving like a banshee before I venture to So.Cal.
Just took a major hit to my ego in the process, that's all. =)
