Would you resurface your own cylinder head?

[Xist]

I keep having other projects come up, but I have been trying to get back to my Civic. I extracted a broken bolt, installed the remaining Helicoils, and removed a ridiculous amount of metal shavings. I had hoped to get my engine running last Saturday, but it rained. I bought a $100 awning, but I spent a couple of hours trying to find long cotton swabs, and finally ordered some from Amazon to clean the oil passages.

I cleaned out all of the shavings that I found, blew oil all over with my compressor (hopefully getting some shavings. Everyone said that it would work!), changed the oil in my Accord and Mom's Camry, poured all of the old oil on the Civic head, drained it out, disposed of it, wiped down the mating surface, shielded the head and sprayed carburator cleaner on the mating surfaces, and today I realized that I needed to clean the valve cover. I sprayed it with carburator cleaner and took care of a couple of things that I remembered, but then sat on a lawn chair, ate Dollar Tree's version of Thin Mints, and played on my iPad while I waited.

When I checked on it there were standing liquids, so I wiped them down with a shop towel, and used Q-tips the best that I could, but some of the spaces were too narrow.

I saw oil between the gasket and the valve cover, so I pulled the gasket, wiped it down the best that I could, and cleaned out the groove in the valve cover the best that I could, but there was still oil, so I sprayed all of it again.

At least it won't get below freezing tonight. We had a number of days that didn't get above freezing!

I still need to:

1. Reinstall the valve cover using the torque wrench.
2. Fill the Civic with oil.
3. Reinstall the battery [that has been charging in the garage].
4. Say a very sincere prayer and crank her up!

I also want to double-check the timing belt and make sure there aren't any shavings in there.

[Xist]

I wasted a few hours looking at an Acura that turned out to be wrecked and abandoned. I paid a kid to help with the house and it seemed like he did in sixty minutes what I could have done in fifteen. I removed the upper timing belt cover. I did not feel like removing the wheel and the crankshaft pulley bolt in order to remove the lower cover, but I blew out the entire timing belt area, and did not see anything.

I sure hope there are not any metal shavings in there!

I went to bolt on the valve cover and realized that I did not have any grommets. I could not buy just grommets in the store. I could have ordered aftermarket ones. Napa would have charged $12.49 plus tax. Majestic would have charged $28 and it would have taken a week. RockAuto would have shipped it for $13.50, but it would have taken even longer.

I bought AutoZone's valve cover kit, with the valve cover gasket, spark plug tube seals, and the vital grommets, for $22 with tax. When I was bolting them down I kept thinking that my torque wrench should have clicked already. I told Mom that I was nervous, it seemed like the bolts were tighter with a way longer handle than when I messed up everything. I returned and each bolt clicked immediately.

I filled up the oil. It only took 2.5 quarts! I reinstalled the battery, plugged in the spark plug wires, said a fervent prayer, and started her up.

[Xist]

When my Civic overheated one of the wires got stuck in the engine and fell apart when I removed it. I replaced it with an old wire. When I swapped the wires from my Civic to the Accord to see if that was why it was misfiring (without throwing parts at the problem) the Civic wires had excessive resistance and the Accord still misfired on one cylinder, so I knew that I needed to replace the Civic wires if I did not ruin the engine.

Well, it doesn't seem ruined, so I figured that I should go ahead and replace the wires. I had planned on just returning to AutoZone, but I made sure that they had it in-stock.

They don't.

They have Duralast for $35 and Duralast Gold for $41. If I ordered the NGK set they would be here on Thursday or Friday and cost $75!

Amazon would have it here by Monday for $45. RockAuto would have it here a week later for the exact same price.

O'Reilly's has OmniSpark for $38 and Import Direct for $43.

Everyone says to only use NGK.

[Fat Charlie]

You need to appease the Machine Spirit. Look up what the actual original plug was and use that. If it's NGK, so be it.

[Xist]

Honda sells Nichiwa Kiki. When I search for that name I just find 32722-P2A-J01, which Majestic sells for $75.55, plus $9.34 shipping, although that turns into $55.12 when you click "Checkout."

Fifty-five dollars to ship a one-pound box?!

Bernardi no longer charges shipping on orders $75+ and they would not charge me for tax, either. They have the best price that I can find at $89.14.

Meanwhile, my NGK wires worked perfectly on my Accord, and my Civic uses the exact same ones, although other Civics use different ones. Amazon will have them here tomorrow.

Regarding the "Aw dangit!" from my previous headline, my engine is still making a tapping noise. Maybe I didn't do the valve lash correctly, but someone pointed out that I was supposed to clean the oil control orifice in the head and replace the o-ring.

Places want up to $20 shipping and a week for a $1 o-ring, but hopefully that solves one noise--once I remove the valve cover again.

I also swear that I hear an air leak. Hopefully I can narrow that down after I take care of the first noise.

[Xist]

Things that nobody mentioned:

1. You need to remove the distributor before you can pull the rocker arm assembly.
2. Two bolts on each end are for the [not rocker arm assembly]. They are 10mm while the others are 12.
3. One does not simply remove the orifice with a 10mm bolt like everyone says. Maybe a straight pick?
4. The manager at O'Reilly's brought a big kit of o-rings, but those are 1mm. The metric kit on the shelf is 2mm. It is supposed to be 1.7. That is close enough?

Did I need to clean out the orifice and replace the o-ring?

I do now!



Surprising fact: Some of the bolts holding down the rocker arm assembly were loose.

Would that cause tapping?

Well, now I need to put everything back together--for the third time?

[Piotrsko]

Yup, bolt being loose causes ticking

[Xist]

I need to start trying to refer to the FSM when there is a chance that it will have the information that I need.
I looked up how to remove this and everyone said to use a 10mm bolt, but you can clearly see that the hole is far too small, so I asked online, and everyone argued with me, telling me to just use the bolt, even though I showed multiple times that it was too small.
Well, in a different discussion, some Mr. Bones said to use the tip of a screw and everyone agreed, but when I mentioned it, everyone said that I was crazy, just use a10mm bolt!

[Fat Charlie]

Originally Posted by Xist

I need to start trying to refer to the FSM when there is a chance that it will have the information that I need.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by Fat Charlie

May you be touched by his noodly appendage. R'amen