Car project (entry 4 of 4)

By kate on February 22nd, 2010

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After taking a weekend off of the project, we were back at it on another Sunday, cautiously hoping to be able to turn the car on by the end of the day. We put on all the stuff we’d had to disconnect (driveshafts, suspension, exhaust, radiator) and plugged in all the clips and hoses again.

After pouring in the fluids, we arrived at the Moment of Truth. I got in the car and turned the key to accessory power. So far, so good. I turned the key again and there was a kind of popping noise as it started to turn over. This spooked us, so I turned off the engine. We consulted our reference materials and all we could find was some advice that the engine wouldn’t start or run smoothly at first, so I got back in and tried again.

This time, the engine started up pretty quickly, and actually ran! There were no obvious problems that we could see or hear. It was a joyous moment, one I’d hoped for but never let myself really expect. My grin was a mile wide.

At that point, it was late and we were tired, but we pushed through the last hour of work (putting on wheels and hood, mostly) so we could actually drive the car out of the garage that night. I was giddy as I pulled it out and parked it on the street.

The next morning, I took it to a mechanic for a few adjustments that required special tools we didn’t have (timing light, belt tension measurement). The mechanic found one small issue (an extra washer causing a fuel leak), but otherwise praised our work. The one-hour minimum of shop time was plenty to get everything adjusted, and I drove the car away afterward, running smoothly.

Even after five and a half days in the garage slogging through this project, I’m not tired of working on my car. I enjoy the measured pace of engine disassembly and reassembly, and wouldn’t mind doing it again. I’m already building a list of possible next projects:

fix non-working driver side speaker wiring
add windshield wiper fluid reservoir (mysteriously missing)
fix air conditioning system
look into adding power door locks
troll junkyards for missing trim pieces

My car will never look fancy (it’s a banged-up ’92 Civic, after all), but I’m developing a real sense of pride in it. It’s a great feeling to drive around in a car whose engine I now know so thoroughly.

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Car project (entry 3 of 4)

By kate on February 8th, 2010

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As I discussed in my previous post, after removing the engine it became clear the best thing to do was to keep the engine I had. I ordered some needed parts (gaskets, mostly) online. We detached the head from everything else and I took it in for resurfacing to a local machine shop, Action Machine. I had a great experience with them – they were friendly and nice, and reasonably priced. Because I knew just enough to sound knowledgeable, I was able to chat with the guy while dropping off the head, and found that he could sell me the head gasket and head bolts for much less than I had been able to find anywhere online.

A handful of other specialized parts had to be ordered from my local Honda dealer (luckily nothing too expensive), and we stopped at Schucks for the more pedestrian things like fluids and filters. Overall, I spent $259.98 on parts, plus $64.50 for the head resurfacing; a total of $324.48 – significantly less than the $1700+ quoted to me by the mechanic. Doing the labor myself saved me about $1400.

Photo credit: Steve Leroux

Then followed a long weekend of work on the car. Saturday was very discouraging. We spent a lot of time carefully scraping off the old gaskets, then realized we were missing some important (new) gaskets and had to make a second trip to the dealer. By the end of the day, we’d only just put the head back on the block. Adding to the aggravation and the feeling things were taking forever was the fact that the head bolts must be tightened in a very specific pattern, three times each. That is, we had to go through the bolts (in the pattern) three times, tightening to the next torque setting each time. Quite a pain, but we were careful and followed the directions to the letter.

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The next day, Sunday, things picked up. We finished reattaching all the other engine parts that we had removed (transmission, wiring harness, distributor, etc). By the evening, we were able to hoist the engine back in the car and attach a few of the mounting bolts. It felt really good to pass that milestone and have the visual confirmation of the engine inside the car.

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Car project (entry 2 of 4)

By kate on January 22nd, 2010

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Before this project, I knew very little about cars. Looking under a hood, I could identify only a few things like the dipstick and fluid reservoirs. The most advanced work I’d done to date was to replace my headlights a few times (a very simple procedure).

We equipped ourselves with the PDF version of the 1200+ page Honda Civic Service Manual. One version was all over the internet, and it was very inconveniently missing three pages from the engine replacement section (just what we needed). I had to go to the downtown library to photocopy the relevant pages!

Then, we spent a weekend in coveralls and disposable gloves, getting coated in all manner of synthetic gunk (sometimes at unexpected moments). Grant patiently let me do all of the actual work, removing bolts and clips, labeling parts, etc. By the end of the weekend I was pretty good at estimating the size of a bolt head. I can also name a lot of the parts under my hood, and understand at least how they fit together (if not all the details of how it actually works).

I experienced a minor shop injury when my thumb got jammed between a pneumatic wrench I was using and a foot of the hoist. Luckily, Grant sprang into action right away and was able to reverse the wrench to free my thumb. For a little while I was afraid it was serious, but by the next day it was already a lot better.

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As far as the car, it does not yet have a new engine in it. Both engines are sitting in the garage as we consider our next step. Once my engine was removed, some complications emerged. (The new engine was a manual transmission, and lacking power steering.) These could be fixed by moving a bunch of pieces to the new engine. However, we noticed that my existing engine was (visually) in great shape. The hoses and belts appear almost new. We realized that we had just done all the intensive labor that makes head gasket replacement so expensive. The only part of the process that we can’t do is to resurface the head, and if we take just the head to a machine shop, it’s pretty cheap. Then, we need to buy a new gasket kit and should be good to start reassembling everything. (I’d return the “new” engine, which has a 30 day warranty.)

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I feel pretty confident with the engine at this point. I realize that this is a false sense of confidence because taking everything apart is the easy half of the job. The real test will come when we start to put it all back together. I’m excited to see how challenging that will be, and if I remember it all well enough.

Filed under: handiwork, learning | 1 Comment »

Car project (entry 1 of 4)

By kate on January 21st, 2010

I have taken my engine apart, reassembled it, and lived to tell the tale. Not only that, but I’m left with a nicely running car that I can finally drive again. I’ll get into the details shortly but I have to say I’m feeling pretty proud of myself at the moment. I feel knowledgeable and capable, and I’m looking forward to the next car project. Here’s how it all happened.

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In the fall, I bought a car to help facilitate my separation. After a morning of intensive shopping (up and down Aurora Avenue), I found a 1992 Honda Civic 4-door that was a good deal. I paid $1700 for it (plus fees). I had a good feeling about the car, and it served me well for a few months.

Then, on Christmas Day, trouble began. By the next day, white smoke poured out of the exhaust pipe and the car idled really roughly. It was obviously serious. I took it to a mechanic, and got the dreaded diagnosis: broken head gasket. The repair cost for this (and associated work) would be about $1700, what I paid for the car!

I retrieved my car from the mechanic with a “no, thanks.” Luckily, Tim has a second car he’s not using, and kindly allowed me to borrow it for the time being. This gave me time to consider my options.

Grant suggested that replacing the engine entirely would be cheaper and simpler than getting into the head to replace the gasket and resurface the head. And, this would be a procedure he’d be comfortable doing himself! Having always wanted to learn more about engines (and knowing next to nothing at this point), I jumped at the chance to take on this project.

We found a used engine on Craigslist with low mileage for the year, and a good price (because it was missing a distributor – something I already had). It was delivered this week and I worked with the delivery guy to get it up on the hoist. All is in place for a weekend of greasy work.

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A Sad Announcement

By kate on November 12th, 2009

[Also cross-posted to Steve’s blog at http://steveleroux.com]

Steve and I would like to share some sad news: we are separating. For almost two months, we’ve been doing a trial separation while (mostly) staying in our house, staying in separate rooms and switching off weekends as we figured everything out. At this point, it looks pretty certain that we’re headed apart, and we’re now talking about how to make that transition in the best way possible. Kate will be moving into a new place towards the end of November, and Steve will stay in the house for the time being. Ruby will split her time between us.

Although this has been a very difficult period for us, we’ve discovered that it’s helpful to be open about our situation. Sharing the story with our friends has rewarded us with a lot of support and interesting stories, and deepened some of our friendships.� We believe people should talk about these subjects more often, and we’d be willing to share more details with you (or hear your own story) over a cup of tea or pint of beer.

It’s a natural inclination at a time like this for friends to tend to take sides.� We’d like to strongly discourage you from doing this. Both of us are working very hard to maintain a strong friendship through this separation, and neither of us is looking to win points by rallying our friends to our cause.� Don’t be worried about inviting us both to the same event; we still very much enjoy spending time together and won’t spoil your party.

Also, suffice to say that at this point our most important priority is providing a loving, nurturing path for Ruby through the transition, and we’re both fully engaged in that process.

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Why I don’t text much

By kate on June 10th, 2009

It comes down to cost. Either I must pay my cell phone carrier a monthly fee for some number of included texts (which is more than I’d ever send), or pay $0.15 each. I might be willing to do that, except I get unlimited data on my phone, a Blackberry. I came across this recent piece from NPR about texting, and I have to say I agree with most of it:

If we all expect each other to receive text messages, and we all expect that people prefer to be texted rather than called, then we are all more likely to send text messages. And if we are likely to send text messages, the carriers can charge us monthly rates for doing so. AT&T, for example, has packages ranging from $5 a month for 200 text messages to $20 a month for unlimited. And by “text message,” they mean any message sent or received.� This really irritates me!� (whole article)

I don’t have quite the militant stance that this journalist does… I’ll send or receive the odd text with good friends who are inveterate texters. But every text costs me money.

Can I suggest that, if you’d like to text me, just send me an email if you can? I get them both on my phone with equal urgency.

An even better text-to-data bridge is Twitter. Direct tweets can be sent by your own preferred method, and received by the recipient’s preferred method. It’s the most elegant answer to this problem I’ve found.