2000 Honda CR-V Burnt Exhaust Valves

Here are some pictures of the valves from my 2000 Honda CR/V. The number one cylinder has a burnt exhaust valve, as you can see on the left. The lower valves are the exhaust, the upper two are the intakes.

#2 - Big difference.

#3 - Probably the best of the 4.

#4 - Not to shabby for 180,000 miles!

Honda CR/V Update...{taps playing in background}

Well, I finally got my hands on a compression tester. Couldn't find one to rent so I spent $25 and bought a fairly decent one. The results weren't very pretty...

Cylinder #1 30PSI
Cylinder #2 170PSI
Cylinder #3 170PSI
Cylinder #4 170PSI

With those results, I rechecked cylinder#1 just to make sure. Yep, 30PSI. Ouch.

I went ahead an added a bit of motor oil to the cylinder and rechecked it to determine if it was valves or rings. The reading climbed only by about 10PSI, to 40. This would be a pretty clear indication that I have a severe problem with the #1 cylinder valves. Most likely it is the exhaust, because as I mentioned in another post, Honda up and changed the service interval for valve adjustments from every 105,000 miles down to every 30,000 miles because this is a known and recurring issue for them.

Anyone with a little extra time on their hands is welcome to help me find a junkyard cylinder head or even motor for cheap. Alabama Cylinder Head appears to have a $505 solution (with a year warranty too!). I'm certainly going to shop this one around!

FiOS in Philly - - Finally!

Verizon is now taking the television battle to Comcast's own backyard. Philadelphia is where the latest battle in the war of Cable versus Telco's will be waged. NBC's website in Philly released this info... Way to Go Verizon!!!

You may find me a bit biased, I work in a Verizon Video Hub Office. I will tell you that the quality of our network, with all it's extra capacity and redundancy, is far superior to that of anything cable has to offer. Why? We don't stomp our bit rates to squeeze more channels into a data pipe. With more data, you get less compression. Less compression means a better picture, especially for High Def, even more so for sports channels like ESPN HD.

Does Comcast offer over 100 High Definition channels? Nope. They claim they have more HD, but they are counting titles from their Video On Demand (VOD) library as "HD offerings". Verizon has plenty of HD VOD in addition to our 100+ HD channels.

Got FiOS?? Why Not?????????????

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!!!!

Today my parents celebrate their anniversary!!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO YOU...HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO YOU...

We hope you both have a great day. Take a moment and celebrate!! God Bless & Love You Both!

Congratulations!

Love,

Scott, Deb and the Kids!

My wife is funny!

So I am sitting here explaining the car to my wife....she says that CRV stands for Certified Recall Vehicle....ha ha ha!

Honda CR/V Update!

Well, the water pump and timing belt have been on the CR/V for several hundred miles, and the work is holding. The bad news is the Check Engine Light (CEL) still flashes. I am assuming it is the same misfire codes from before. So, it's not a timing belt problem. It needed replaced anyways, even though the old one looked good - 180k miles is a lot for any belt. The water pump replacement is just good common sense while the front of the motor is exposed. Oh - the distributor rotor and cap were replaced along with the plugs. The wires aren't very old - so I haven't swapped them out yet, but plan to as a simple $40 assurance that the misfires aren't related to their breakdown.

Perhaps I should have started by checking the valves. After doing more and more reading on the Honda CR-V Owners Club Forum, it appears there is a not so well known fact that the exhaust valves on this particular engine tighten* over time. The Honda owner's manual recommends 105,000 miles for the first adjustment of the valvetrain. Honda later changed this to 30,000 miles, but didn't work very hard to let owners know. If I had to guess, the valves had never been adjusted.

I pulled the valve cover and checked each intake and exhaust with a set of feeler gages. I took the time to check the intakes (.003" to .006") and made only a few minor adjustments. The exhaust is spec'd at .006" to .008". At least two valve clearances were below .001" - - terrible! And several had gone down to .003" to .005". Needless to say, it really needed adjustment.

After I put it all back together, I still have the CEL coming on, but not as often. The car has significantly more power where it should now. With a steady load on the motor, no CEL comes on. If I coast or idle, the CEL will start flashing again. From everything I have read, it sure sounds like the exhaust valves might be damaged. Ugh. Double Ugh. Here comes that cussing again!

Get the right tool for the job!!!!!!!

Well, if a picture is worth a thousand words! This is the old timing belt, doesn't look to bad for 180,000 miles, huh?

I accomplished the removal of the crank pulley bolt with the aid of the RIGHT tool for the job. Nothing like buying a tool I'll probably never need again! But valuable lessons have been learned, and aside from all the cussing, it has been fun to wrench again. Been awhile since I've put the ass of the family car on the line by taking it all apart! The tool you NEED is pictured on the right. I got mine at Napa, one store found one in stock and got it for me. I had to drive in a blizzard to go get it with my son's Dodge Stealth, ohhh, how fun! The next step is to replace the water pump and swap out the old belt. Wish me luck the rest of the way!

the timing belt saga continues...

I got started on the timing belt for the Honda CR/V. I got everything torn apart, valve cover, upper timing cover, engine mount, power steering pump...etc...

I can't get the crankshaft pully bolt to budge. I tried a 1/2" impact ratchet with no luck. Amazingly, the procedure in the Haynes book I have and the Autozone website both say to grab ahold of the pully with a strap wrench to hold in and turn the bolt with a breaker arm. A strap wrench will mess up the harmonic balancer pulley. So obviously imact drivers and strap wrenches aren't the options to try.

So I Googled the situation a bit more, and found the following to be extremely helpful in convincing me I could still get this done on my own. Just not in the time I thought I would.

from The Unofficial Honda / Acura Usenet FAQ

sgtsandman is my hero...from the Honda SUV forum

this tool seemed impressive and inexpensive, from DenLors Tools, but I wouldn't be able to get one in my hands until Thursday morning...time isn't my friend for this particular job.

I kept looking (googling) and found Amazon had this one for about $20, plus another $20 spot to get it here shipped next day. So I have an order placed, and my fingers crossed.

DTV Transition...are you ready???

Well, even if you are ready, it looks like the Obama administration feels you might not be. In a letter to certain members of Congress this past Thursday, John Podesta, co-chairman of Obama's transition team, said the conversion should be delayed.


I've had digital converters connected to my old analog sets for over a year now. I bought 3, two with $40 coupons and the other at full price. I still need two more! The television in the family room is new, so it has an ATSC (think digital broadcast) tuner in it already - - no need for a digital converter. Why did I need any converters in the first place? Because I am too cheap to buy satellite TV service and the cable company can't reach my house with their coax. I suppose you might ask why I don't have something like FiOS...the fiber doesn't run out this far (yet) either.

Why might you need a converter? Personally, I wouldn't put all my eggs in a cable or satellite providers basket. You should have at least one converter, or a newer TV capable of native ATSC signal reception. This is regardless of whether you have cable or not! Why? Well, in the event of a disaster, you might need to watch your local stations. With a converter (or newer TV), you will have the option of at least tuning to local channels if your TV service provider goes down. (assuming you have power too...although converters that run off 12V DC are available - use one with your portable DVD player auxilary inputs and you'll never be without TV!)


The only sane reason I can think of for delaying the transition is because the Department of Commerce has run out of money for the converter box program. You can apply for the $40 coupon still, you will just be put on a waiting list (you'll just be number 1,100,001 on the list since there are 1.1 million on the waiting list already!)


In my humble opinion, the transition needs to go through as planned. A ton of taxpayer dollars have already been spent on the program to the tune of $2,000,000,000! That's right - - TWO BILLION! The car on the left cost taxpayers $350,000, and it got wrecked! Think about it - approximately 20 million households in America need the converters. They cost about $50 each. Our government could have just spent the $2 billion and bought the converters to supply to consumers directly!

I sure hope there is something good, wholesome, and family oriented on TV tonight...yeah right!

pico projectors!

Wow! Talk about cool! I don't think I will be running out to buy one of these "pico projectors" any time soon, but the concept of marrying a small projector to an iPod is just plain nifty. With time, one could expect improvements in projection quality, perhaps rivaling the need for a small LCD in the bedroom. I'm not sure what you can connect to the inputs of the projector aside from the iPod shown in the video. There is minimal information on wowwee's website. We'll have to keep an eye on this one! Thanks to cnet for bringing us this first look from the CES...

2000 Honda CR/V Timing Belt and Water Pump Replacement

I am about to embark on the replacement of the timing belt and water pump for the family Honda CR/V. It seems the check engine light has started to blink...and well...the codes are misfire 1,2,3,4...so timing is off. Seeing that the Honda just turned over 180,000 miles, it is way overdue for the timing belt to be replaced. The water pump will get replaced because you might as well if you are in the neighborhood. The water pump is actually driven off the timing belt for this Honda CR/V. I've picked up the parts from Autozone already, about $50 for the water pump including the o-ring gasket, and the better part of $100 for the timing belt and tensioner (again - I'm replacing the tensioner because I will be in there - might as well).

There's some good information on timing belt change procedures on the internet, Autozone actually has the procedure with nice clear photos and drawings. I know from talking with others and doing a bit of reading that this procedure is a pain in the ass. Tight quarters...metric bolts...and stubborn pulleys. Still, I have about $150 into it in parts, and shouldn't have to rent any tools (reminder...need to borrow Bob's torque wrench and strap wrench...). The Honda Dealer wants $650 and the local mechanic wants $400 plus. So, if all goes well, I should be back in business for another 100,000 miles on the Honda engine and feeling good about saving at least $250! Look for my future post on how the whole experience went down.

Getting the bigger financial picture...maybe

I've always struggled with getting the bigger financial picture of my life. I like data, statistics...you know...numbers! But if you don't use those numbers to your advantage...then you are living without a BUDGET!!! ARGHHH!!! It seems like no matter how many spreadsheets I create with balances for checking, savings, credit cards, income, etc, etc...they end up outdated and don't reflect the flexibility that a budget would need for our family. So...enter a new website I saw on TV during some network morning show. It's called mint.com and seems like a good start towards something. Being web based, we can only hope for more functionality and improvement on what they have today. I gave it a first stab and was only able to enter a few accounts. I ran out of time, and wasn't well prepared with all the account information I would need. So, get that stuff in order and your experience will be better than mine. Once I get comfortable with the site, look for a more in-depth review. For now, if you'd like, try it out and let me know what you think!

Happy Birthday to me!

Ugh. 40. I guess it's not such a big deal. I had a nice day hanging around the house. The kids are back in school as of this morning, so it was pretty quiet here. I even snuck in a late morning nap. When I work, I have to be up at 2:30am, so this morning, being off, I slept in until 5:30am! Then it was time to get the kids up and off, so a (quiet) nap at 10:30am is usually a delicacy for me! I was rather nice. Tonight my in-laws, Steve and Sara, came up to the house to bring me a gift and enjoy cake and ice cream with the family. Yummy. People aren't joking when they want to call the fire department for 40 candles on a cake, there was alot of fire there. I did manage to get it out in one blow. Can't tell you what I wished for though!

Thanks to everyone that sent a card, called, are just texted me! See you on the other side of the hill!

Open Solicitation for Mid Life Crisis ideas...

Oh my...I turn 40 tomorrow. I haven't even had time to think of a mid-life-crisis to enter into yet! I need your help - - Fast!

Meet the iPod Family!

My family has iPods - - lot's of them! So I thought it might be cool to make my iPod Family bumper sticker, you know, like the ones you see on all those soccer mom SUVs that show Dad, Mom, their super kids and all their special pets??? Well, here it is!

One Nano went MIA, if you see it let me know! Two of them are dead (sad faces). They are iPod Videos - 5th Generation with 30 gigabyte hard drives. Since the units won't power up, the batteries are immediately suspect. I decided the first step was to see if I could open the units up. After a quick Google search, I saw that many sites offer the batteries for cheap with a nifty tool to help open the iPod case without destroying it. I also read somewhere in Google-land that a guitar pick is an option many have said worked to help open the case too, so guess what? I found a guitar pick in the clothes dryer the other day (they all end up in the dryer for some reason), and was able to use it with no problems to open the cases. The next step is to identify a good supplier for the replacement batteries. I've seen them from $9.95 to $39.95. The price seems somewhat dependent on battery capacity (measured in millamp-hours, abbreviated mAh) and whether there is an case opener tool included. ipodjuice.com seems to have just about everything...but look around. I'll post another entry to the blog when I actually get around to ordering and replacing the batteries.

Happy MMIX!

Happy New Year! Well, if you've followed my blog you'll notice that I haven't posted in quite a while. You'd think taking a year off would give me some more material to consider! Well, with 2009 kicked off and running, we'll see if I can't keep up with the blog-sphere a bit more. No resolutions - why set myself up for that disappointment? Let's just say I'll try to post more if I think someone will actually read this stuff!

New Years Eve 2008 was spent at home with the family, sans our (still-at-home) oldest. Brian attended a church lock-in-party with friends - a night fueled by caffeine and video games I am sure. So Deb, David, John, Ashley and myself watched a movie (okay I caught the beginning and the credits...). We (er...my wife and kids) watched "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor". I couldn't tell you much about it, my eyelids were in the way!

I did manage to stir for the final seconds of 2008 and give my wife her first kiss of 2009, Ashley got a kiss from her Dad too! I thought Dick Clark sounded terrible, it was difficult to understand what he was saying...but sick or not, I'd rather listen to him than Ryan Seacrest!

Well, I suppose this is a good start for the year 2009. Don't hold your breath!