Well a lot of time has passed since the first problems started out with my wagon. I had it fixed but she still wasn't quite right, Burned about 50% more gas along with about a liter of oil for a good steady 700 km highway trip. The car was also lacking the power that she had before along with and occasional hiccup where it seemed as if she might die at any moment. I got to car shopping and eventually ended up with a cute little Honda del Sol. While the Sol stole me away from the wagon I have not forgotten about her, especially as winter got closer and I dreamed of the 4WD capabilities of my wagon...
Anyway, I ended up locating a couple of used engines for the wagon, the cheapest one being $500 with absolutely no knowledge of how well it had worked. The guys at the scrap yard were only able to say... "It worked when we got it" while other places could even tell me how much pressure the oil pump had on it engines, but being cheap I went for this engine. I got it come and I was a little disappointed, not very pretty looking at all. I never looked at it too hard, just long enough to make sure it was the right one for my car, everything looked ok so I called my mechanic and told him where he could pick it up. He got the engine and called me telling me of some of the detail about it which I soon went to investigate on my own. It turns out that the scrap yard had literally pulled this engine out of the old car, the valve cover was squat in such a way that a oil stopper wouldn't fit in, the wiring was cut from the harness on the old car rather then unplugging it a few inches further along, and the power steering pump had it's metal hose cut with a hacksaw. They ended up having to swipe a load of stuff from my old engine to this one. The first delay was then encountered, gaskets had to be ordered. No biggie they came in and the parts got bolted on. They they went to bolt on my old transmission to the engine and the pilot bearing was wearing out so we waited for that to come in.
Now the cause of the problem on the old wagon was because of the lack of a temperature gauge. The car was working fine, but I didn't want to risk the same problems again so Rodger, my mechanic suggested a mechanical gauge which could be picked up at most auto stores. He got one and there was no way possible for it to hook up to my car. Go figure. I called around, no one had one or could locate one for me. I gave up on that and figured that I might be able to get away with using the gauges off another civic from around the same time. No such luck, after plopping down $60 on a set and breaking those as well I was frustrated and I took a couple of days off work to go to every scrap yard within 700 kms west of me. Right to Port au Basques NF if necessary.
I got in my del Sol and headed to the nearest town with scrap yard,
knowing where one was and that there were a few more around the same town.
I went to the first one, $85 but it had to come from another province.
"looks like it'll have to come from the same year wagon" the guy said.
Not willing to part with $85 that easily I left. Searching around for the
other 2 scrap yards I had been told of and given the address never came
easily. I eventually found a auto detailer shop and got directions there.
As I drove by the first scrap yard the was locked down tighter then Fort
Knox I almost cried, a blue Honda Civic Wagon 4WD sitting in front of the
building. I went to the next scrap yard and they said that the guy over
at the locked up scrap yard owned it. Good sign, at least it wasn't there
waiting for parts or anything. :) I went over and sized up
the machine, rusting hatch, bad tires, one corner even had the dummy tire
on. The center driveshaft in the trunk... the door unlocked... tempted..
place locked up, they would never know who I was if the dash mysteriously
went missing. Damn conscience... left and went to the third scrap yard
in the same area and was told that the wagon was to be scraped as far as
they knew... :) joyous me! I asked for any names of the people over there
and someone knew who the owner was. Looked him up in the phone book and
gave him a call. Gone for a few days, hunting, got the baby sitter. Fortunately
she gave me the name of another guy who worked there, she found the number
in the phone book for me (I was on my cell phone, no book with me) and
I called him, no answer. Looked at the car some more, thought about putting
money in the car and taking the dash anyway... tried the number again and
I got an answer. To make a long story short, I got the dash for $30!!!
I didn't know what to do then, keep going (to my girlfriend's at Stephenville)
or turn around and fix the wagon and go to my girlfriend's after, considering
the extra 4 hours that would take me I went on to my girlfriends. That
Sunday evening I put the new dash in my wagon and took the wagon on the
road. Everything seemed great, except for a lack of hot air in the vents
at times. Minor stuff I thought.
Well two days later and about 300kms on the trip meter I figured all was all right, I left home for my first 500km+ trip in my wagon in a long time. I made it no problem, and after about 800kms of highway and city driving I left to go on to my girlfriends about 700kms away. (Just to clear things up My home and my most common points of travel are comparable to a triangle. Upside down. My home is at the bottom of the V and the other two points are of equal distance from me. But they both share a common 150 km highway up through the center before going in separate directions for another 350kms each.) Well just 50 kms out of St. John's My temperature gauge started playing pinball... noooooo... I called my Mechanic and he told me to take out the thermostat and where it should be. I took that fitting off the engine and guess what no thermostat. I tried the car again, still overheating. Called him again and he told me to looked for... so I found it. Now it was raining, snowing and blowing a storm, but luckily my hood blocked most of that while I was working on it. Lost a bolt. grrr. Continued, took out the thermostat, tried to put the housing back on. Lost the other bolt. Grrr. Called a friend in town and his father came out to help with a flashlight, It was now dark. I waited in the car until he showed up. I was all bundled in blankets before I got too cold. cute. Now he came I found one bolt and started to put it in, no problem, we then proceeded to look for the other one, no luck. I stole one from the rad mount and it was too short, besides I ended up dropping that one as well, hard to work when your hands are very cold in tight spaces I guess. :) I took one that held the fan to the rad, dropped that one even before I got it into the hole, but it was right on side so I never lost it. Got it bolted back together without the thermostat. Started the car and whammo, up goes the temp gauge needle. GRRR. Called my mechanic again and he figured the car was low on coolant now, so what he suggested me to do Since everything was either froze up or dried up where I was, was to take the hose off of my windshield washer sprayer and put it in the rad while I pumped the fluid out, perfect, filled up my rad and got me back on the road again. I wasn't sure what to do next so I booted her for the nearest gas station, about 40 kms away. There was a small trickle of coolant where I had taken the thermostat out so I wasn't wasting anytime. I got to the gas station and bought 4 galloons of windshield washer fluid... just in case, besides it's a whole lot cheaper to waste if it's going to be leaking and a lot less harmful to the environment. :) Well I checked everything under the gar stations lights and all seemed well. I head onward while making plans with my mechanic to meet me in his tow truck to pick me up if I needed it. He even offered to bring my other car and tow my wagon back so I could continue on to Stephenville. Great guy! Well as I continued onward and stopping every now and then and everything seemed fine so I told him not to worry about it and I would continue on to Stephenville. Got there without a hitch at around 2 am. About ten hours after I left. Man was I tired.
So the next day we were planning on going to Cornet Brook, about 80 kms or so from where we were and we decide to take my car. At about kilometer 75 the battery light came on. GRRRR. I put the car in neutral and let her run at idle and it disappeared. The first place I went was Canadian Tire. I got out and checked the belt, loose big time! I went in passed in my key asked them to fix it and went shopping. Went back to Stephenville and on Sunday I got up and left for home. About halfway I lost any sign of warm air in my car at all, but I kept going, no cell coverage here, better make it a little closer to Grand Falls, The intersection point for St. John's and Stephenville to go home. As I got within 10 kms of Grand Falls the Temp gauge starting playing Pinball again.. nnnoooooooo... I made it to a gas station and called Rodger, he was on his way in the tow truck to meet me. I left there and got no more then 10 kms before the temp shot up again. I pulled off, quite upset now and pissed big time. I started going again and made it 2 kms, shut the car down and let it roll... done this for a few click until the intersection to go South to home. Stopped there for about 20 minutes and sized up the engine bay... everything looked fine on the outside :)
I then left and made it about 35 kms or so down the highway before the car battery died from being shut off and the restarted over and over again, luckily this is right at the same time I met the tow truck. Rodger greeted me picked up the front of the car and then proceeded to unbolt the center driveshaft to disable the 4WD of the car, there is supposed to be a lever on the engine/transmisson but seems to be impossible to locate.
That was fine, he carried me and the wagon to his garage where my del Sol was waiting for me, man that car was sweet to drive after that weekend.
He replaced the radiator that week and I was back on the road again. Took a shorter trip that weekend of only about 400 kms round trip total. But was still noticing that I wasn't getting much hot air. I decided to flush the cooling system with a bit of the rad cleaner stuff. Now Rodger and his garage are about 30 minutes away form me so what I figured on doing was stopping about 10 minutes from his place and pouring the stuff in my rad. So I pulled off, left my high beams on and my stereo but turned the engine off. No more then 2 minutes later I was in the driver's seat again. I went to start the car and she just barely turned over... awww darn, my battery is going. I continued onward and about 5 minutes from the garage I noticed the headlights going dim when I pressed the brakes, been there before, alternator. Got to the garage and shut the car off, Rodger asked how my ride was and I flicked the key, "could've been better", the car wouldn't start.
I ended up getting a ride home with some guy who just happened to be from near where I live and took my del Sol out of storage. I had just bought the alternator 13 months beforehand and it was off the road from Feb. to December so I managed to convince the guy to give me good on the 12 month warranty, no problem. whew. saved some $$$ there any ways.
I finally put all my trust in the wagon again and went to my girlfriend's home for Christmas 700kms each way with some run-around driving in between. On top of that I would be coming back with 3 other people in the car along with all their Christmas stuff. Well no problem there for once the car finally seemed to be back in running condition. About 2 days after the 1500km journey the temperature gauge went up while the car was idling, gave her a shot of gas and it went back down again. So I figured on giving the cooling system flush another try, after all I still wasn't getting the heat that I should have been getting. I went back to Rodger flushed the cooling system and about 20 kms later the gauge went up and stayed up just a little until I worked the car then it went up a lot. Nononono. Well I had to take the 700 km trip to Stephenville the next morning and what was I to do, my girl had to get back to school and I was her ride. That night I managed to get out and do some driving just to keep trying the car out, The gauge would go up but if I stopped for a few minute it would go back to normal, and later on that night I started driving around for about 3 hours total, off-road, dirt-roads, snow covered fields, highway, the works, not a sign of overheating.
The next day we filled the wagon to capacity and headed out, after about 150kms were up and we were on the Trans Canada Highway. I got Siobhan to phone home to let them know that the car was working perfect, about 5 minutes later the temp went up again. We stopped in Wal-Mart and when we came out and started the car it had a kinda rough idle, at around 900 rpm versus the usual 1,100. She worked fine after a little gas was applied though and the temp had subsided. We continued on and about 160kms later the gauge went up again, I think the mileage was coincidental because we had stopped during that 160 km period. Then we went again and never got over 40 kms, so I figured we stop for a bit and have some early supper. Afterwards we never got more then 50 kms before the temp went up, it was however while we were climbing a big hill. I kept going this time until the hand started going up past 3/4s of the way and pulled over. Five minutes and a rough idle later and we continued on our way, and made it to Stephenville. Now I hoped for the smallest of problems, the rad cap wasn't keeping the pressure up, so I went to Canadian Tire and bought one, took her out on the highway and nothing but the same old same old, temp gauge went up while passing a big rig going up a hill. Pulled over let the car cool down and presto, rough idle and normal temps again.
I give up, Head gasket??? Frig it, Canadian Tire, I need a head gasket, $65.00 thank you very much. So then I went to my old shop out here, the ones that had "fixed" my old rad and got them to install for a second time a new head gasket and worked out a good deal with them again. Two days later I went out and tried to start my car... guess what, it didn't start. Now this had me thinking of all kinds of nasty things to do but I just gave in and sat in the back of a friends car... thinking all along the way and then remembering what happened about 2 years before, same problem, but when she dried out I sprayed the distributor cap with a weather sealer. Got back to the wagon got Siobhan to try and start it while I was under the hood and there it was, a load of sparks flying out from my distributor cap, it was an awfully wet day after all. Canadian Tire, distributor cap please.
Things seem to be good now. In hindsight it probably wasn't a good idea
to keep starting and stopping the engine as she got hot that day, it may
have caused a slight warpage in the cylinder heads, in any case the car
seem up and running now. Mainly Thanks to Rodger Cooper's Garage
and the kindness of a great mechanic.