I'm gonna make a T-Shirt for Soraya: "Keep Calm and Keep Turning Wrenches"
Okay, so it was a long day. 8am to 7:30pm. I'll try to recap as best I can, but I didn't exactly take notes. Nor did I take a lot of pictures this time.
8am I got out there, moved cars around and got started. Soraya had dropped off some parts last night, so I started installing the water pump. Soroya and Philip arrived as I was doing that.
We proceeded to do everything we could do on the engine before installing it. Installed water pump, oil pan, alternator, transmission, starter, etc.
As we were finishing that, Steve showed up. And somewhere in there Jamie also showed up. By 11:15, we had the engine in the car hanging on the top mounts. Philip had to bail around 11:30, and Steve by 12:30. Soraya and Jamie stuck it out with me for the rest of the day.
Lots to do, of course. Stuff under the car. Stuff top side. Wiring. Hoses. For the most part, things went pretty well. Minor battles here and there, but nothing major... except...
Once we got the engine mounts all in and the wiring all done, battery in, oil in the engine and all that... it was our first opportunity to start the engine. Just a quick run with no coolant hoses, and barely enough of an intake to start and run. I got in the car, turned the key... lights on the dashboard... seatbelt buzzer... no starter. WTF?
Okay, power wire to the starter, but no switching wire. Easy enough, right? Well, after two people farting around with it for 30 minutes or so... mirrors, flashlights, right-handed, left-handed, top-side, bottom-side... This stupid connector just would NOT go on. Something is wrong. Did anybody mention that this was a new remanufactured starter from that parts store that Philip works at that shall remain nameless? Okay, so maybe it's got the wrong connector on it, or something? Really can't see it well enough to be sure. It looks close. But... maybe wrong? Only way to tell is to remove the starter. The starter that I had thoughtfully installed BEFORE the engine was installed... because it's a lot easier to do that way.
Had to remove the oil dipstick tube and the oil filter to get enough clearance to get a wrench on the upper starter bolt. Remembered to disconnect the battery cable. And the power wire on the starter is a pain. Jamie had fought with it installing it... before we put the intake manifold on. Now the manifold is in the way. Joy.
Got the starter off. Routed the offending wire to the top side. Sure enough, the damned thing does NOT fit. It looks like it's either the correct connector, or one that's really, really close to correct. It's either just a very similar connector, or a problem with manufacturing tolerances. But, it wasn't going to fit!
Took a small file and made some adjustments to the corners of the connector on the starter. That got it to fit. Cool. (I guess)
Now to reinstall the starter. Yep, that main power wire up under the intake manifold where it can't be seen, only felt... and barely reached with two fingers... and buried under a stupid rubber boot... fought us just about as much as the alternator did on Friday. Once we got past that, the switching wire went onto the corrected connector without issue. Tightened a couple bolts. Reinstalled the dipstick tube and the oil filter... back where we were an hour and a half ago.
Get in the car, turn the key... give it 5 or 6 brief cranks to get the oil moving... and... it fires right up! Idle is cycling up and down because most of the intake is still missing, lots of open vacuum lines and stuff. But, it's running smoothly and happily. That's all I wanted to know!
From there, we finished up the coolant hoses, intake, filled the radiator, filled the transmission, bled the clutch (yeah, somehow the clutch release rod ended up falling out of position upon assembly... so the first time the clutch pedal was pressed, the piston popped out of the slave cylinder, spewing fluid... it's always something), and generally just buttoned everything else up.
Sidebar: I'm very good about either putting every nut and bolt back in the hole that it came from, or bagging and tagging it if it can't be put back... and insisting that people DO that. It helps a lot. One thing I didn't do this time just because I thought the wiring harness would be logically laid out and that none of the connectors were the same, was insist that all of the connectors be labeled as they were disconnected. This cost us probably 60-90 minutes of time this afternoon! "Where the hell does this wire go? Where did this hose come from?" Sure, we had a few reference photos. But, labels would have been priceless! Time spent on disassembly saves TONS of time and frustration on assembly. Don't say nobody ever told ya.
Fired the car up again. Perfect idle. Smooth and quiet.
Warmed it up, checked/filled the coolant, checked the oil. Engine light is on. Checked the codes. 5 of them. Weird. Stuff like Cam Position, and Cam Control Actuator Stuck, and a couple other odd ones. But, it seems to be running right. Let's clear the codes, drive it, and see what happens!
Codes wouldn't clear or stay cleared... drove it, anyway. Drove fine, but was clearly in limp mode. Wouldn't rev over 3k.
It was dark by now. Happy that the engine was at least running... and our problems are likely electrical... and pretty beat from a full day of wrenching, we called it a day! Threw all the tools and stuff in the garage (thanks, Jamie!), backed the car in for the night.
After dinner, I was out in the garage clearing a path to the washer and dryer so that Cathy can do some laundry tomorrow, and taking out some trash... walking by the car, I decided to do a quick leak check. Grabbed a flashlight, looked under the car. Dry as a bone. Not a sign of a drip anywhere.
And then I was thinking... "well, cam position sensor, and VTEC actuator..." Cam Position is on the back of he head under the throttle body. Meh. But, the VTEC actuator is right there on the front... right where my light is shining. Yeah, that sucker wasn't plugged in. It was in place, and looked right at a glance. But, whoever put it there must have been just routing the harness and never committed to it. It wasn't even close to fully seated. Cool! Maybe that'll fix things?
I was gonna let it go until morning. But, after a shower, I had to know. So, I went back out, reset the OBD codes, and started the car. CEL came back on, dammit. Checked codes. Only ONE code remains! It's the Camshaft Position Sensor code.
I can live with that. It's either not connected, a broken wire, or a bad sensor. We have a spare sensor.
So, 97% success. The engine itself is good. We'll work through this final problem. Then, maybe we'll install the hood.
But, it might be Tuesday or Wednesday before we got back to it!
