Author Topic: Oil changes: DIY or just pay for it?  (Read 41257 times)

JordanOfGilead

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Re: Oil changes: DIY or just pay for it?
« Reply #150 on: January 14, 2016, 11:48:22 AM »
It costs about $1k for my car, so even if it takes me 10 hours it's still a great investment.

What kind of car do you have? European import?

Accord v6, but expensive area.  I could probably get it down if I don't do the water pump, etc. but that just increases the cost for those separate items at a later time.  That's also what I paid last time to a trusted mechanic, I could probably pay less if I shop around, or drive out of the metro area (but then what do I do while I wait?).  However all that takes time that I could be spending doing it myself and learnin

I still have 1-2 years before the 7-year mark for replacement, so we will see.  Hopefully I'm fired by then.

It's not the most mustachian car, but I've had it for a while and took good care or it, so I think the value I get out of it exceeds the private market value.
does it have 2 or 4 cams? Timing a V-engine will be a nightmare. I have done a couple belt replacements on dohc and sohc civics and getting the cams and the crank shaft all lined up at DTC is the most frustrating and tedious part of it. Some older sohc hondas have a motor mount in the middle of the timing belt so you have to partially remove the engine to change the belt. A problem I had with my DOHC timing belt was that there wasn't actually enough room to get a socket on the tensioner pulley bolt and it was inside of the pulley so I couldn't get a crescent or box wrench on it either. Basically my only option was to take pry the belt onto the cam gear with it in full tension.
 
Some cars are easier than others, but it's definitely something I always hate doing.
That said, if you're going to do the belt you might as well do the water pump while the belt is off.

2
I'll share a very important lesson learned then.
I'm not sure about the accord's v6, but my D and B series 4-cylinders all had alignment holes in the cam shafts. If you rotate everything to top dead center before removing the belt, you can use a small metal dowel (I used an allen wrench) through the cam guide into the cam shaft to lock it into place so that it doesn't rotate while you're working. Makes timing it a whole lot easier. The pins will only go into the cam shafts at tdc and 180 degrees off tdc and there should be markings on the cam gears and crank shaft to help you figure out which one you're at. I shaved about 3 hours off of my last water pump replacement by locking the cams before taking the belt off. I wish that bit of advice had been more prominent in the Honda forums.

zolotiyeruki

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Re: Oil changes: DIY or just pay for it?
« Reply #151 on: January 14, 2016, 02:46:08 PM »
I just mark the pulleys and old belt with a paint pen or chalk, transfer the markings to the new belt, and line up the markings on the new belt with the markings on the pulleys when re-installing.

JordanOfGilead

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Re: Oil changes: DIY or just pay for it?
« Reply #152 on: January 15, 2016, 05:54:58 AM »
I just mark the pulleys and old belt with a paint pen or chalk, transfer the markings to the new belt, and line up the markings on the new belt with the markings on the pulleys when re-installing.
That's not as accurate as using the factory top dead markings and you run the risk of being one or two teeth off. With an interference engine, one tooth off means valves hitting the piston.

zolotiyeruki

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Re: Oil changes: DIY or just pay for it?
« Reply #153 on: January 15, 2016, 07:55:33 AM »
I just mark the pulleys and old belt with a paint pen or chalk, transfer the markings to the new belt, and line up the markings on the new belt with the markings on the pulleys when re-installing.
That's not as accurate as using the factory top dead markings and you run the risk of being one or two teeth off. With an interference engine, one tooth off means valves hitting the piston.
I don't understand how it's inaccurate--you end up with the exact same spacing at the end as what you start with, assuming you're careful in the process.

And yes, I check the TDC markings too :).  Belt and suspenders.

JordanOfGilead

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Re: Oil changes: DIY or just pay for it?
« Reply #154 on: January 15, 2016, 10:28:37 AM »
I just mark the pulleys and old belt with a paint pen or chalk, transfer the markings to the new belt, and line up the markings on the new belt with the markings on the pulleys when re-installing.
That's not as accurate as using the factory top dead markings and you run the risk of being one or two teeth off. With an interference engine, one tooth off means valves hitting the piston.
I don't understand how it's inaccurate--you end up with the exact same spacing at the end as what you start with, assuming you're careful in the process.

And yes, I check the TDC markings too :).  Belt and suspenders.
Because you are lining a mark up from the gears to the belt to another belt back to the gears there are a lot of chances for the thick line drawn by chalk/a paint pen to move a little and it only takes a couple mm total between the three marks (crank, and both cams) to throw the timing off. The crank pulley and cam gears should have marks on them that line up with something on the head/block and those things are held constant. There is no transferring of a mark and less risk of a mistake being made.

enigmaT120

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Re: Oil changes: DIY or just pay for it?
« Reply #155 on: January 15, 2016, 02:49:37 PM »

I'll share a very important lesson learned then.
I'm not sure about the accord's v6, but my D and B series 4-cylinders all had alignment holes in the cam shafts. If you rotate everything to top dead center before removing the belt, you can use a small metal dowel (I used an allen wrench) through the cam guide into the cam shaft to lock it into place so that it doesn't rotate while you're working.

I wish I had known about that.  I am happy to say that my current Honda 3 cylinder engine has a timing chain, not a belt.  :-)

'04 Insight.

ketchup

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Re: Oil changes: DIY or just pay for it?
« Reply #156 on: January 27, 2016, 01:21:47 PM »
I'll share a very important lesson learned then.
I'm not sure about the accord's v6, but my D and B series 4-cylinders all had alignment holes in the cam shafts. If you rotate everything to top dead center before removing the belt, you can use a small metal dowel (I used an allen wrench) through the cam guide into the cam shaft to lock it into place so that it doesn't rotate while you're working. Makes timing it a whole lot easier. The pins will only go into the cam shafts at tdc and 180 degrees off tdc and there should be markings on the cam gears and crank shaft to help you figure out which one you're at. I shaved about 3 hours off of my last water pump replacement by locking the cams before taking the belt off. I wish that bit of advice had been more prominent in the Honda forums.
Yes!  I did a five-cylinder Volvo timing belt, and it was a nightmare compared to my three-cylinder Metro, but it would have been a lot worse without locking the cams with this nifty tool that came with my timing belt component kit:

Made me a hell of a lot more confident that I had everything lined up right, and that was an interference engine.  I think separately it would have been something obscene like $25-30, but I would pay that for being sure I wasn't about to blow up my engine.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!