Would you resurface your own cylinder head?

[Xist]

I have a kit of assorted nuts and bolts, I just wanted to make sure that I was using the right part.

Show Low has Ford, Fiat, Subaru, and Chevrolet dealerships, so even though none of those would be as reliable as my Hondas, they would have had at least some of the parts that I needed in-stock, so I could be back on the road faster. Of course, there is also a Toyota dealership up here. One could argue a good Corolla with a manual transmission would make more sense than my small collection of cars, but I want lean burn!

[redpoint5]

I'm with Piotrsko on this. While I don't buy new vehicles, I buy them new enough that I never have anything but regular maintenance come up (fluid changes, air filter).

My 2006 Acura has only needed fluid changes so far. Not even a spark plug change. I knock the dirt out of the air filter occasionally.

If I were to purchase a vehicle today, I wouldn't consider anything older than about 2010... I think Uber's requirement is the car can't be more than 10 years old, not that I would drive for Uber.

[Xist]

Driving for Uber seems comparable to selling plasma. Yes, you should have more money afterward, but there is just a tiny bit less of you afterward.

[Shaneajanderson]

Uber's requirement is no more than 15 years old, but some states dictate newer. Take it from someone who's done it (me), You will never make much money doing Uber. On average I came out to about $14/hr before expenses, and after expenses I actually lost money most of the time.

Xist, I had a 95 corolla that I did not hypermile at all, disabled the power steering because it didn't work, and drove 80 mph every where, and I got 41 mpg typically. Never put any money into the car either, and as far as I can tell neither has the new owner, and I bought it ~6.5 years ago. I would pay a premium to have that exact car back.

[Xist]

Fuel filter washers, various exhaust fasteners, and I could not get the intake stud all of the way in. In fact, it came back out! All of the instructions that I find say to tighten two nuts together and then when you tighten the outer one it drives in the stud, but everyone does this with the manifold off. Reinstalling the manifold was when the studs got stripped, so I do not want to go that route for a few reasons. The other studs only have about one full thread extending past the nut, which is not nearly enough to fasten another nut. I put Permatex's red threadlocker on it, which says it needs twenty-four hours to fully cure. Hopefully that will work.

The engine does not sound right. I am going to fill up the radiator and drop it off at the mechanic's Monday morning.

The valve cover is leaking oil, so that will need to be replaced [again] if anyone needs to do a valve lash or whatever.

[Xist]

I took off the valve cover, wiped up the oil, removed the Permatex the best that I could, put the gasket back, and went to use my sealant, but it is Optimum Black, and I keep reading that you should use Permatex Ultra Gray, which is designed to adhere to aluminum. However, despite capping the big tube tightly, it seemed partially dried out. I needed to stand on it with one foot, putting all 240+ pounds of me on the tube, in order to squeeze out more, and it seemed too hard, so I will buy the right stuff on Monday and see how it works.

Eric the Car Guy mentioned gasket adhesive, which sounded like it would be a great help, but that is the copper spray that everyone tells you to avoid. However, when I looked up gasket adhesive I then read that Hylomar, designed by Rolls Royce, although subsequently bought out by Permatex, and changed, was everything that copper spray is supposed to be, and I only read good things about it.

The Permatex Red seemed to work perfectly on the intake stud, although the nut extends slightly further than the others.

I had a new Fel-Pro gasket, Permatex in the corners, and the bolts were properly torqued. I wouldn't expect the Black to fail in my driveway.

Why did it leak unless it wasn't seated correctly?

[Fat Charlie]

If the Permatex was hard to get out of the tube, that'll throw a lot of things off. Like torque values.

Copper spray that worked wonders in the days of black and white TV may not be the best sealant in a tiny little Japanese engine. Your Honda doesn't use the same gas or oil that they did back then, either. Chemicals aren't better or worse than each other, they're just either right or wrong for your application. Stop asking the kids on teh interwebs what the best sealant is and look up the OE spec.

[Xist]

TIME-SERT M6 X 1.00 Metric Thread Repair Kit 1610

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul95-DwbLUo

[Xist]

I bought a Time-sert kit, taped down paper towels like Brian showed in that video, followed the instructions, and had metal shavings all over.

Just everywhere.

I dipped a couple dozen Q-tips in used oil and picked up all of the shavings that I could see. Then I poured used oil over the rocker arm assembly to wash out the shavings. I drained the oil and started tightening the valve cover bolts with a shiny new torque wrench.

Another is stripped and the threads that I inserted in the stripped hole attached themselves to the bolt.



Since I only make things worse, I guess that I will have it towed to the mechanic Monday morning and just sign over my credit card. If the new distributor does not fix my Accord, I will have him fix that one, too.

By the way, I keep posting each of these pictures on Imgur, and people keep downvoting the guy that is just trying to fix his own car.

Bonus?

[nemo]

Doomed

Have you ever considered getting rid of both those cars and getting something reliable?


As for the stripped holes did you clean the threads on the studs before trying to tighten them? It is important that both sets of threads be clean. You should be able to thread the correct size nut on them with your fingers. Did you test assemble things before installation?