I wrote this earlier in 2009 after my biggest maintenance project of the year. Cool story, bro.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases made after clicking Amazon links on this website.I am back on the road after one life altering experience, and there's no turning back. 121,000 miles was enough to send me into a whirl of uncertainty. I had ridden her since the first 69, and I could sense the time on my joy ride was starting to expire.
I just finished my first timing belt job a few days after removing my first valve cover, and there was nothing quite like the feeling of listening to my DC4 idle after I was sure I hadn't ruined the top end of my motor.
I had no idea if the belt was ever changed, and I had no idea how to change it. Today, I am full of all kinds of certainty.
I started working on this car the day I bought it. The independent dealer had no clue what to do with my COdE radio read-out. I fixed it shortly after I discovered honda-tech, making my sign up date there the same day I bought the Integra.
At one point last year, I began overheating. Anonymous heads on the forum say the thermostat is easy. After that didn't fix me, I decided to tackle a leaking radiator job myself. After all, people on the internet made it sound easy.
The radiator swap gave me a taste of the feeling I have come to love--the feeling of satisfaction I get when I finish another fix or project on my car. It is a such a liberating victory for me because I hate leaving my vehicle in the care of someone else.
I was off to the races. I tore out the entire interior, mounted 6x9s beside the rear seat, and wired up an antennae kill switch so I can stop hearing the antenna mast motor run when I do not need radio reception. I removed a remote starter to trouble shoot some electrical issues, swapped a dead head unit, and tore into my front end to replace the front wheel bearings.
But alas, these jobs were all relatively low risk. I didn't truly challenge myself until I took that timing belt off the cams and watched as they slowly moved independently from each other.
I was all in. All belts except for A/C, water pump, cam seal plug, valve cover gasket kit, spark plugs...I got everything. I took my time. I lost sleep over leaving my valve cover off for so many days with a garbage bag and a pile of rags in its place. I watched my rotors get rusty again. All or nothing.
I didn't understand why the manuals suggest rotating the cam gears three teeth before tensioning the belt again, but once I did it, it was clearly genius. I tightened the 14mm tensioner bolt once again, and the belt finally looked right to me. I dropped screw drivers in the LS cam shaft holes, and my crank lined up. I turned the engine over by hand six times, and it all lined up once again.
I took a long slug of my beer before i decided it was time to start the engine. I had no more important parts lying around. It was test time, and I was about to ace. I love this shit.