If No One Wants To Help, Then Bygum, We'll Do It Ourselves

I can hardly describe how discouraged I felt yesterday after calling eight shops and having each one tell theat they either don't do engine rebuilds or do but won't rebuild mine.  The reasons are all the same.  Either finding parts is an issue or finding an engine to relace mine is the issue.  Only one guy was nice enough to even discuss my car with me for more than a minute.  He felt that finding parts wouldn't be a problem but he still advised against rebuilding my engine or even replacing it.  It's all the same - I should just get a new car. 

I get it.  And that is good, honest advice for most.  But not for me and this Hondamatic.

Collin was really supportive and understanding and helped me get through my evening of second-guessing myself and our plans.

We really went at the engine today.

Here is Collin taking out the battery.  We dug in and started getting everything out of the way.

Everything that comes out gets labeled with a number that corresponds to the plug or port it belongs to.  This piece to the left had some residue of the awesome coolant/oil sludge mixture the engine turned into.

The spark plugs and the order they go in.  Only two of them were really fouled.  Whatever, though, We're going to replace them all

Ha!  The alternator went here before it came out.  Call me naive, but I was really surprised at the substantial weight of both the alternator and the battery.  Very heavy for such small packages.

This hook was held on by the dual purpose screw cap on top of the valve cover here to hold a wire out of the way.

The distributor also came out.  And with it came pouring a bunch of that same coolant/oil sludge mixture that I mentioned previously.

We were so curious, we had to see what was under the valve cover.  Hmmm. 12 Valves.  They all look like they are in great shape.  If not for the thick gray milky coating of coolant/oil covering ever millimeter of every valve and groove and nook and cranny.  It's all over everything.  And the inside of the cover appears not so immune to the coating either.



 Hard work looks like this.

We're getting closer.

One foul sparky!

Look at that!  Isn't that pretty?!  All the wires and hoses are labeled and set aside for re-installation.  We only ripped one small hose that we'll either replace or just use it shorter, and one spring that fell into the car somewhere.  The carbuerator was going to come off today but we couldn't get to the last bolt that was hiding underneath.  Once  we get it off, it should be only a short time before we get to the head and hopefully we can take the whole engine out.