My First DIY...

['Chair]

oh and clean engine bay and greasy gunk...and install VSS






Next Up:
Oil Pan Gasket Replacement





this will put the tally at about $165 spent on parts... probably another $100 spent on tools...but the work would have cost around 800 for everything.

[Kmon]

clean the piss out of the contact points on the block and the pan, you don't want to do this again.

['Chair]

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there are a ton of online manuals for free for different honda's.

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where can I find these. I've mainly just been lurking the honda forums

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Anyways, let me know how it's going.

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so far so good

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It's very satisfying doing things on your own.

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like I couldn't even explain...when the mechanic asked me if I wanted my coolant flushed and changed for 70$, I laughed and said "No thanks".

[Kmon]

I'm not deep enough into the honda forums to know exactly where to find the manual, just hit up a couple forums and do some searching a sm should turn up somewhere.

['Chair]

COOLANT FLUSH AND FILL (time: 55 minutes)
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1. Drink coffee and eat delicious burger
2. Make sure car is basically cool.
3. Remove the radiator plug located at the bottom of the radiator(will be accessible with fingers easily)
4. Drain until dripping occurs.
5. Reinstall radiator drain plug and remove radiator cap.
6. Fill radiator with plain water and flushing solution
7. Replace Start car with radiator cap off and let it run until it reaches operating temperature(look at the temp gauge on the dash).
8. You might start to see the water expanding and overflowing as the thermostat opens up and engine starts to heat up. This is normal.
9. Upon reaching operating temperature, rev the engine a good 3 or 4 times to get the fluid really circulating. Were doing this to flush old coolant out of the block.
10. Shut off the engine.
- drain fluid, refill with tap water, and go back to step 7. This is to get all the "flush mixture" out.
11. Drain radiator again and this time drain until bone dry(on my car it took a good 10 minutes, maybe more until only a slight drip is occurring.
12. Mix 50/50 coolant and water in that bucket.
13. Either pour into a small container or directly from bucket into the funnel which is now inserted into the radiator.
14. Fill until full of course.
15. Drain and refill the coolant reservoir with same mixture.
16. Leave radiator cap off again and start engine. This time it will warm up quicker.
17. Now we will "burp" it by giving it a couple of revs. This is getting all the air out of the engine.
18. Turn off engine, fill radiator to top and replace cap.
19. Your done draining flushing and refilling your radiator.
20. Check your levels later that day or tomorrow and add 50/50 coolant/water mixture if needed.

Pictures...

- thought I had the pan in the right spot...guess not - sorry environment :-(































EDIT: valve cover gasket replacement will have to wait until later tonight maybe tomorrow. I have to go pick up a piece of glass for our new table between 4pm and 5pm (right in the middle of f'ing rush hour traffic...gotta love atlanta traffic. Also apparently I found out that I need to let the cover settle once replaced with new gasket for a few hours. So now I'm thinking I might just pull it off, cover opening with foil and towel and go through with sanding and painting it...I know it seems lamo and I'm not a motor head, but I think it looks cool...probably stupid on my beater of a car, but still cool. Maybe I'll just wait and see how clean I can get it first...

[Ricky_Bobby]

Might be the first time I've seen a Tony Stewart license plate on a 91 Honda. I LOL'd at the neighbor's dog comment. And hey, if the valve cover makes you happy, do it. It may be your first step towards becoming a car guy. It really is amazing how much you can do on your own if you have good instructions. Once you do a couple of projects and get that confidence you'll never want to go to a mechanic again. 90% of what I know I figured out myself and I think a lot of people could do it if they weren't so intimidated.

['Chair]

[ QUOTE ]
Might be the first time I've seen a Tony Stewart license plate on a 91 Honda. I LOL'd at the neighbor's dog comment. And hey, if the valve cover makes you happy, do it. It may be your first step towards becoming a car guy. It really is amazing how much you can do on your own if you have good instructions. Once you do a couple of projects and get that confidence you'll never want to go to a mechanic again. 90% of what I know I figured out myself and I think a lot of people could do it if they weren't so intimidated.

[/ QUOTE ]

RB- When I first bought the car at the end of my 2nd year in college, the original owner had a Jeff Gordon front sticker on it. It didn't bother me enough to get rid of it. Sometime during the next year or so, MillionDollaz (good buddy of mine from college) was in a gas station in some po-dunk town and saw the Tony Stewart plate and decided to "steal" it for me because as he put it..."Tony Stewart is an angry little man...just like you!" So needless to say, its got some sentimental value. I'll probably put it on my next car as well.

I think I'm going to paint the VC! Thanks for the encouragement!!

[absoludicrous]

Do you have city water? If so, flush it down your toilet. It'll just run to the waste water treatment plant. It probably won't evaporate, and if it does, that's just as bad as pouring it into the ground.

['Chair]

[ QUOTE ]
Do you have city water? If so, flush it down your toilet. It'll just run to the waste water treatment plant. It probably won't evaporate, and if it does, that's just as bad as pouring it into the ground.

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This is exactly what I was thinking...part of me really wants the neighbor's mean dog to drink some. But come tomorrow, if there is no dead dog laying outside my door, I'll flush it.

[milliondollaz]

comments,

-[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] this thread

-you are going above and beyond for car maintenance, that's awesome. i'm lazy enough to just add oil instead of replacing gaskets, so kudos to you. call me when you wanna replace your brakes.

-the TS story brought a tear to my eye. that's the only thing i've "kroger'd" in the past 10 years. while i was sober of course.

-i just met someone who went to your highschool. and was on your wrestling team. and i probably know about 5 people in the state. random?

-nice write-up. i might do the same if i decide to put some long-tube headers on my camaro