Grease Monkey, Continued....
So, I own a home, I have a 10 month old daughter on the verge of standing on her own, and I'm now legally married.
In other news...
/rant on
Beth's cousin flew in from Mass for the wedding and stayed a couple extra days. He just so happens to be a manager of a Goodyear shop out East, and we just so happened to have some free time. So, just like when I go to a relatives for a family gathering and end up working on computers or answering computer questions, her cousin gave our cars a once-over.
I had a spark plug well filled with oil, and was leaking oil from the valve cover. A new development in the last 2 weeks since I popped the hood. It was time for a valve cover gasket replacement. I'd noticed lack of power, rough/laggy acceleration, and had thought it might be the clutch going.
Beth's car he suggested disappear in the most profitable way possible.
I got an estimate at a shop I trust, $100.50. Not terrible...but not a bill I was anticipating either. I googled the job at hand and found I could buy a gasket and do it myself. Fun.
Things went fine, so it seemed. I got the cover off, old gasket out, new gasket in, and put everything back together. I had a happy car again, so it would seem. A quick peek under the hood showed me otherwise. The 1.9L beast was leaking oil worse than when I started. So I decided to check the torque on the bolts again. Upon going around and tightening each one, I got to the last one, gave the bolt one last gentle tug and SNAP. Crap. Further research showed a spec of 8ft/lbs max torque for the valve cover bolts, not the 15ft/lbs I had stuck in my head for some reason.
Last night I employed a coworker with some drill bits capable of biting into metal and got the bolt tip out in about half an hour. It'd broken off a good 1/4" into the hole and the only drill bits I have will barely go through drywall. I replaced the bolt for $5 at Saturn of Lincoln, invested in some RTV I'd found was needed for two key points on the engine, and patched everything back up again. I also replaced the spark plugs (properly gapping them) and gave my distributor cables a nice de-greasing and cleaning.
I took off this morning after letting the RTV cure overnight. It ran like shit for about a mile. No change from the last two days. Not only was I trudging off to work, I was also preparing to lose hope, and started to dread the potential bills I had in front of me. No sooner did it start to sink in did I get a green light Cotner and A.
Just like that, all was good. I had my power back, there was no lag or sputtering when I accelerated or put load on the engine, no occasional rough idle. I don't know if it took the PCM that long to catch up with the fact things were kosher, or what(yes, I reset it). After a commute around Lincoln (home ->work ->babysitter ->home) I checked for leaks. Lookin' good!
I celebrated with an oil/oil filter change and sped around South Lincoln for 15 minutes. Unfortunately I think my clutch is next to go.
/rant off
In other news...
/rant on
Beth's cousin flew in from Mass for the wedding and stayed a couple extra days. He just so happens to be a manager of a Goodyear shop out East, and we just so happened to have some free time. So, just like when I go to a relatives for a family gathering and end up working on computers or answering computer questions, her cousin gave our cars a once-over.
I had a spark plug well filled with oil, and was leaking oil from the valve cover. A new development in the last 2 weeks since I popped the hood. It was time for a valve cover gasket replacement. I'd noticed lack of power, rough/laggy acceleration, and had thought it might be the clutch going.
Beth's car he suggested disappear in the most profitable way possible.
I got an estimate at a shop I trust, $100.50. Not terrible...but not a bill I was anticipating either. I googled the job at hand and found I could buy a gasket and do it myself. Fun.
Things went fine, so it seemed. I got the cover off, old gasket out, new gasket in, and put everything back together. I had a happy car again, so it would seem. A quick peek under the hood showed me otherwise. The 1.9L beast was leaking oil worse than when I started. So I decided to check the torque on the bolts again. Upon going around and tightening each one, I got to the last one, gave the bolt one last gentle tug and SNAP. Crap. Further research showed a spec of 8ft/lbs max torque for the valve cover bolts, not the 15ft/lbs I had stuck in my head for some reason.
Last night I employed a coworker with some drill bits capable of biting into metal and got the bolt tip out in about half an hour. It'd broken off a good 1/4" into the hole and the only drill bits I have will barely go through drywall. I replaced the bolt for $5 at Saturn of Lincoln, invested in some RTV I'd found was needed for two key points on the engine, and patched everything back up again. I also replaced the spark plugs (properly gapping them) and gave my distributor cables a nice de-greasing and cleaning.
I took off this morning after letting the RTV cure overnight. It ran like shit for about a mile. No change from the last two days. Not only was I trudging off to work, I was also preparing to lose hope, and started to dread the potential bills I had in front of me. No sooner did it start to sink in did I get a green light Cotner and A.
Just like that, all was good. I had my power back, there was no lag or sputtering when I accelerated or put load on the engine, no occasional rough idle. I don't know if it took the PCM that long to catch up with the fact things were kosher, or what(yes, I reset it). After a commute around Lincoln (home ->work ->babysitter ->home) I checked for leaks. Lookin' good!
I celebrated with an oil/oil filter change and sped around South Lincoln for 15 minutes. Unfortunately I think my clutch is next to go.
/rant off