My old reliable Tercel became the daily driver yet again. Yes, the usual daily driver, my '95 Honda Odyssey, suffered major engine damage. Some of you will remember me asking for advice about this Honda every so often. Two months ago It developed a loud knock in the engine. I dropped the oil pan and began removing rod caps. The first three were unremarkable. Under the 4th rod cap I discovered the bearings sandwiched on top of each other.... they were squished to paper thin. I inserted new bearings, but the knock was of course, still there. Called my machine shop guy... "You got a spun bearing." He made it clear that without having the crank serviced, the engine was toast.
Well, I pondered what to do for over a month and a half. Bless my Tercel. She fired up within seconds and runs so smooth. She was once again the daily driver! My wife was a great sport about it, of course she is also the one who bought the car brand new in 1985. I wish I had not used this little car so hard over the years, but despite that, she really does run great. The Tercel would continue to be my daily driver if the air conditioning was still working. The compressor died years ago and I discarded it and the hoses. The other parts are still there... dryer, evap, etc. I should have repaired it, but usually it was just me in the Tercel. Now days my wife and I car pool almsot all the time. Yeah the sissy Californian needs his air conditioning. Well to my good brothers in The Great Frozen North, It is going to be 112 degrees today!
Anyway, my Honda engine was suppossed to be removed from the bottom of the car. The engine sits cross ways, it is the same engine found in the Accord. The inlet manifold sits almost under the dash. Not possible to remove it from the top. This would also entail lifting the van several feet off the ground, removing the van's sub frame, etc.
Well I looked on-line and discovered that someone had figured how to romove it from the top. By removing the intake manifold and pushing it away from the engine. The beauty of this was that all the periferal junk attatched to the manifold could also be left in place.
Now that the situation looked hopeful, I called All Engine Distributing which is here in Fresno. They had an engine available for $750. This sounded good to me because they bring these engines over from Japan with very low mileage on them.
A week later and I have a sweet running van with air conditioning! My wife and I just returned from a week long trip with The Honda, and what a change with this new/used engine.
Although my 28 year old Tercel is sitting in the driveway again, she will be driven at least once a week, and available as my old reliable. I just realized that the Honda is now 18 years old... think I will see if I can get anothe 10 years out of her. It sure is nice not to have a car payment.
Everytime I get in that old Tercel I have a grin on my face... it really is a happy little car.