[Xist]

Good morning, everyone. Thank you very much for your feedback.

It sounds like my twenty-hour work day was a complete waste. I really needed a nap on Sunday, but was having my usual difficulty sleeping, and had I been able to take a nap, it only would have made it even more difficult to sleep last night, which did not go well, either.

I expected my friend to let me know when she was working on it again yesterday, but she did not, so I started messaging her, and she did not respond very thoroughly.

We had an argument at 2-3am about how tight to fasten the oil pan. I told her that I read countless warnings to not over-tighten it and proper torque spec was around nine foot-pounds. Unfortunately, I could not find my torque wrench! Many people said they did not use one, they just hand-tightened, but she insisted that a 10mm bolt could take a great deal of force. I tried explaining that that many people warned about warping the pan and that its metal was thin and would bend easily.

Well, please allow me to fill in details to my usual standards. Yay!

I found her a used pan for $45 in "A" condition and the entire mating surface was covered with silicone. With my Civic, I only used two dabs where instructions indicate, but some people use as much as possible, and she had originally said that gasketmaker was better than an actual gasket. We drove back and after scraping silicone for forty-five minutes, she found a dent.

The oil pan is shaped to go around some round part of the engine. Will someone please tell me what that is called? I will come back and revise this.

I read that you put Honda Bond there because it is prone to leaking and I noticed that gaskets had a lip that went around the edge of the pan, presumably creating a better seal.

The dent was on that part. We looked at it and thought that we could hammer it back. I have body work tools and I thought one of my dollies would be a close fit, but we did not want to chance it on a vulnerable spot.

The scrapyard that sold us the part had already closed for the weekend. O'Reilly's advertised the pan for $80, but did not have any in the entire state of Arizona. Same with Autozone.

Come on! This is the Honda Accord! That is a popular car!

Napa had one delivered from another store for $104. My friend insisted that neither of us could afford it, but she needed a car to drive to work today, and I needed to take care of my own life.

Napa thanked me for my service and discounted the pan to $93. Once we had the pan, things went pretty straightforwardly, but I believe the owner's manual only says where to jack up the car to change a tire. I did not find anything in her Chilton. It took me a very long time to find that you put the jack on a tow hook and put the stand at the usual spot behind the wheel. That would have been a problem, my jack would not have gotten it very high like that. Putting the stands under the tow hooks did not seem very stable at all. Placing them where she told me to seemed stable, but I think that Cobb was correct, and that moved everything out of alignment.

The guy at O'Reilly, presented me with the arguments of whether or not to purchase a gasket or just make my own. He said that he always used a gasket and two layers of seal.

I like to think that Honda knows their own cars.

I considered purchasing a gasket and not telling her. I did most of the work anyway, so I expected to be able to use it without her knowing, but she did not want to use a gasket, so I did not purchase one. However, at 2am, she was trying to decide if she needed a gasket after all, but of course, we could not purchase one at that hour!

It was extremely frustrating to piece together this story. She waited 12-24 hours for the gasket maker to cure, poured in her oil, and it poured right out. She got under her car and she could tighten the bolts by hand.

I had asked her to find the tightening pattern in her repair manual, but that was a waste of time, so I put them in using a criss-cross pattern, hand-tight, and then made two full loops, tightening everything with my socket wrench, tighter than I liked, and tighter than I remember doing with my Civic.

So, how could she tighten them by hand?

She redid everything, this time purchasing a gasket, and still had leaks, so she is having someone else help her tonight. Meanwhile, I need to work on my own car, and she still has all of my tools!

Nice guys finish last.