Life sure was different back then! I have a bunch more backing up to do as well as some scanning that I’ve been neglecting so chances are you’ll see more of these “back in the day” posts.

So, the story is, Bonnie’s dad gave me a job to do while he lives the good life on a cruise somewhere in northern Europe. The job was to replace the valve cover gaskets in his aging but still reliable 1998 Toyota Avalon. Apparently the gaskets are old enough that he’s getting a small oil leak through one of them… a common problem among these Toyota V6’s. I knew it was going to be a pain to get the valve cover off the rear bank of cylinders since you have to remove the intake manifold and a bunch of other stuff to even access the bolts. Then there’s this stupid !#$%^& wiring harness that is like the boss character at the end of a video game that you know you can beat but with no small amount of frustration. Anyway, perseverance paid off and I got the job done with only a little cursing and yelling. Thankfully, no permanent scarring (physical or mental.) Plus, amazingly enough, I didn’t have any leftover parts which is always a good sign. And the car started right back up after I put everything back together. Finally, I haven’t noticed any oil leaks (yet) so hopefully I did a good job. Sometimes it’s hard to tell with these slow leaks… for all I know, the leak is coming from somewhere else since I didn’t really notice as much oil as I would have expected from the old gaskets. Oh well… we’ll see.

So, back to the giving back part of this post… Here are some pictures I took along the way to make sure I knew how to put the darn thing back together correctly. There were so many hoses and electrical connections to keep track of. So for those of you who were too lazy to take these pictures yourself and now need a reference… enjoy! I also added some comments to the pictures that might be helpful for you.

This is technically Alissa’s second Christmas. Bonnie’s parents got her an early present of a new big girl car seat. It’s the new Recaro Como in cobalt.

Here she is helping me put it together.

It’s supposed to be good until 70 lbs so I figure she’ll be using this thing for the next 10 years or so.

1. The crank bolt is hard to get off, but all you need is a 22mm deep socket and a big cheater bar if you have a manual transmission. Just put it in 5th gear, pull the emergency brake, and pull really hard. One tip is to wrap a pillow in a garbage bag and put it where your cheater bar might hit the fender in case you aren’t able to stop pulling in time.

2. The timing belt tensioner can be compressed with a bench vise, but make sure you put the pin and rubber seal on the right way. I had it backwards the first time which isn’t apparent until you try to put it back in the car.

3. I marked the old timing belt so I knew how many teeth were between the camshaft gears and the crankshaft gear. That helped me put the new one on correctly the first time. (The second time I wasn’t so lucky… see number nine below.)

4. A standard harmonic balancer puller works great to pull the crankshaft pulley. Just make sure you have metric bolts.

5. The PCV valve in my car is threaded on. The replacement one I bought has a grommet instead. Make sure you get the right one for your car.

6. You don’t need to pull the power steering pump like it says in the service manual. You just need to remove the power steering pump bracket out of the way so you can access one of the timing belt cover bolts.

7. I bought the Toyota Extra Long Life coolant. It was friggin’ $23 compared to the Prestone universal kind at $12. I didn’t think it was going to be that much more but oh well… I guess it’s not a big deal if you just change it once every 100,000 miles. (Tip: the parts guys said the “super” long life coolant is the same as the long life, just pre-mixed with water so you don’t have to dilute it yourself.)

8. Make sure you engage the number 2 water bypass pipe when you install the water pump. I missed it the first time and didn’t realize it until I was almost done buttoning it up and realized I had 2 extra nuts that didn’t have a home. Doh! That really sucked as I had to tear everything apart to fix the problem.

9. Make sure your timing belt position stays true after you release the tensioner. (I would release the tensioner before you put anything back on and count the teeth between pulleys again.) I had thought everything was fine until I put the crank pulley back on and found out that I was off by a tooth. Doh! Had to take a few steps back (again) as a result.

I know, I’ve been a Honda guy forever… four Honda cars (Acura Integra, s2000, Pilot, Accord), three Honda Motorcycles (Nighthawk, VFR750, CBR929), and I even own a Honda generator, models, and clothing. Just a couple weeks ago, I was thinking I would wait for the next Honda Fit to come out to replace the Accord since it’s getting harder and harder to get Alissa in and out of that thing. But the we decided to sell the go kart which got me thinking that maybe our next car should be a little sportier than the Fit. So the question was, what four door car is relatively cheap, very reliable, significantly sporty, and nice to look at? Pretty much the only car that satisfied all those qualities was the IS300. I thought about a Subaru STi or Mitsubishi Evo but those tend to be used and abused by racer boys. Then there’s the E36 M3 sedan, but the maintenance on those is pretty bad. Same goes for the Audi S4 or Mercedes C240. Finally, if I wanted to stay true to my Honda red blood, I considered the Acura TSX and TL as potential contenders. Unfortunately, they’re front wheel drive so they were also summarily eliminated. So the only car left standing was the Lexus.

The only thing is, I wanted the manual transmission with the limited slip differential which is relatively rare among IS300’s. But as luck would have it, there were two on Craigslist, ready for the taking. The first was located just a couple miles down the road still in the Sunset even. It was a 2004 with low miles but had been pimped out a bit and had a funky smell inside. Also, it had been in a fender bender and was black which wasn’t a selling point for me. But the second was silver, in really good shape both cosmetically and mechanically, and bone stock. The only thing is that they were asking for too much money. Anyway, long story short, I made my offer (in line with blue book value), walked away, and a couple days later, they accepted.

(EDIT: added picture)

So now, it’s time to sell the Accord… here’s the Craigslist ad: http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/car/480344291.html

Let me know if you’re interested!

P.S. I love craigslist… I sold an old tuxedo today for $20 and a box of old baseball cards for $5. No shipping, no fees, no bidding. Just take my crap and give me money (that I can use to buy other peoples’ crap also on craigslist.)

1. 1997 Honda VFR (V-four) – I owned this one for a few years and always regretted selling it. It’s probably my favorite bike. V-four, chain driven cams, single sided swing arm, pretty comfy but still sporty, slightly cheesy styling.

2. 1990 Honda Hawk GT (V-twin) – This is another single sided swing arm bike that I thought would be a great little city bike. It’s pretty narrow with it’s 650cc v-twin engine, doesn’t have a fairing to worry about, and a lot of them for some reason end up with Super Trapp exhausts which make them sound pretty good.

3. 2000 Honda Goldwing (Opposed 6) – Come on… everyone needs a bike with 1.8 L, 6 cylinders, and enough torque to tow your daily driver with. Besides, they have CD players, heated grips, and still go like a bat out of hell.

4. 1978 Honda CBX (inline 6) – I like the older naked bike look (I had a 1991 Honda Nighthawk 750 for a few years). With 6 cylinders spread wide across the chest of this beast, I just had to make it part of my list.

5. 2006 Honda CR 250R (2-stroke single) – I’ve never actually ridden one of these but I did do an American Supercamp course a few years ago and really enjoyed it. I always thought if I ever moved to a place near the woods, I would get one. Plus, it’s got that two-stroke engine narrow power band and exhaust buzz.

6. 1992 Honda NR750 (V-four, but the pistons were oval and it had 32 valves and multiple spark plugs per cylinder!) – This is maybe the weirdest thing Honda has ever done. As a way to use 4-stroke engines in GP racing, they decided to have oval pistons in order to make up the power difference to the 2-strokes everyone else was running. The oval pistons allowed them to have 8 valves per cylinder in order to improve the breathing that would normally occur with the 4 or 5 valves achievable with a circular piston. They also needed two connecting rods to connect the piston to the crankshaft. Unfortunately, the program did not go well… as you might imagine, oval pistons present all sorts of unique and new technical challenges. Honda went back to more traditional engines afterwards but did end up producing this hand made production bike in 1992.

7. 1990 Honda CB-1 (400cc inline 4) – This bike is super rare… I think I’ve only seen a handful of them ever. But when I was still at Cornell, before I even started riding motorcycles, someone always parked one near the autolab and I remember walking by and appreciating how small and simple it was. If I could have just one bike, I think this might be it.

8. 2006 Honda Ruckus (50cc four stroke with automatic transmission) – Ok, this isn’t really a motorcycle, but I really like the looks and always thought a scooter would be fun to have to just putz around the neighborhood with.

1. 2006 Lotus Exige – follows the proven formula of light weight and great handling for speed without necessarily requiring tons of unweildy horsepower. And it looks mean!

2. 1991 Acura NSX – I’ve lusted after this car since it came out. Supercar looks and technology at more pedestrian prices with the reliability of a Honda. And I like the older ones that didn’t have power steering… more of a pure sports car.

3. 1990 BMW e30 M3 – Since a driving instructor took me for a ride in his, I’ve loved this car. I really dig the boy racer looks in addition to the handling and power plant.

4. 1998 Porsche 993 911 turbo – I needed a turbo on the list and what better turbo than the last air cooled 911? The whole whale tail look has always looked good to me too.

5. Spoon Honda Fit race car – This last one was really hard. I almost put Honda s2000 down but I already owned one. Plus, I already had the NSX on there so I thought I’d stay away from Honda. True, the Fit is a Honda, but the Spoon Fit is really a race car so it’s only cheating a little. Finally, I think I may actually get a Fit so I like to pretend that it’ll be like the Spoon one some day.

So that covers it. I have V6, inline 4, horizontally opposed 6, rear engine, mid engine, front engine, rear wheel drive, front wheel drive, turbocharged, supercharged, naturally aspirated, German, British, and Japanese cars.

Update: Dennis put a list of his own up. You can tell who’s the veteran (and professional) blogger and who’s still figuring things out.

One of my daily reads, www.vtec.net, reported today that there may be a Type R version of the Honda s2000.  How cool would that be!?  That might push the Lotus Exige off the top of my lust list of cars.  Of course, it’s pure speculation at this point and I would say the chance of anything materializing is probably less than 10%, but it’s fun to think about.  Also interesting, the same article mentioned that the next generation s2000 may be a down-market version designed to compete against the Miata instead of the SLK/Boxster/Z4.  That also sounds interesting as it would be much easier on the wallet.  Besides, I always thought Honda would be able to come up with something at least as good as the Miata… like a lite-s2000.

Anyway, Deeann knows about my bias so for Bonnie’s baby shower, custom designed the onesie on the left.  Pretty sweet, huh?  Bonnie has joked that she’s waiting for me to get her Honda harness pads to replace the bunny ones she already has.  I think I’ll leave those alone for now.  But who knows… the stroller can use some Honda stickers!