Yeah, I'm glad it's his car and not mine. If I ever have to do this much disassembly on our Fit, it will mean the whole motor coming out to get rebuilt with aftermarket rods and pistons and the head getting an aftermarket camshaft and valve springs.

The sad result of all this work is that it will make the exact same power and have the exact same durability as it started with.

I like there to be an upgrade to help justify my time.

At least it will have new gaskets, steel inserts for the spark plug threads, a fresh valve job, new water pump, and new drive belt.

 

Ash - yeah who knows what the person traded it for...maybe a tacoma?

Good work GAFIT. Looks like you were busy this weekend =)

How was your Drive today Kenchan? Any better?

Mike410b - yeah that is a great color for the fit. Looks so fresh now that it isn't wearing salt.

Hope everyone had a good weekend. I got my hair cut, went out for drinks with the GF Thursday night. Easy Friday, got some errands and house cleaning done. Saturday went to a family members wedding. Sunday relax, sold bunch of stuff on CL/forums and then went bowling and had sushi for dinner with a friend that was in town from Spain before she left.

 

That sounds like an extremely nice weekend! And thanks!

I got a new pair of shoes, a new tshirt, donated a bunch of old clothes & generally looked for other stuff I could donate/toss. I think I may finally be at the point where other than stock car parts I have nothing left to cut down on.

ken how's new commute?

GAFIT, that looks like a pain in the butt

 

GAFIT- that is exactly why i hate repairing these cars because at the end of the day it’s just a Fit.. just back to square one. GL on the project though.

hey shinjari and mike- my commute was actually quite plesant.. and only like 10min longer than vs the expressway, already saw increase in the ave MPG meter. and since there are so many lights i don’t bother mashing the gas which also saves fuel. lol

 

and i heard a kaching! in my head for saving toll. lol

 

With that money saved you can buy more headphones! Hahaha.

I tried the headphones I got the GF for xmas. While they sound good...they seem a little small for my giant melon aka head. They are over ear style...but somewhat sit on my ears unless I wear them 'just' right. So maybe I won't be getting a set for myself. The search resumes for a decent <$100 bluetooth over ear headset. Passive or active noise cancelling. Im more concerned about sound quality with minimal leakage due to office environment. My ear buds are decent...just not as full sounding as I'd like.

Too many options these days. Audio technica is just out of reach, Sonys and similar just get too expensive for over-ear bluetooth. Hell I may just give in an get some Skullcandy HESH 2s for $60.

I'm not opposed to non-traditional brands. I mean been eyeing CB3 Hush, Bluedio T4s/T2s, Cowin E7s, PAWW Soundwave or the Symphonized Wood grain to name a few. Seems Mpow is popular on amazon (9k+ reviews) but just not a fan of the design.

 

you can use these BT headphones as wired too if audio quality bothers you. but then i’m already listening to compressed files whether it be mp3 or aac.. and most recordings these days are over compressed dynamically anyway and most are clipping so it makes no sense to go too audiophile. i mean i have good ears and the audio is perfectly fine for listening (QC35 and the WH1000’s MDR1000x)

another option is to go wired with anc like the bose QC25. cheaper and cancels out ambient noise. but again, the source and signal is compressed if using your phone as player unless you are playing high wav. files.

 

and those big wav files are dynamically over compressed from the original master.. and chances are the signal is clipping.

 

I have a LG V20 which has a quad DAC so I try to play FLAC files when possible. Wireless would be ideal, but these would most likely be used at my desk anyways so not critical...just nice for ease of use.

 

GAFIT- Nice work there. Even though just doing a repair gets you back to square one It has always given me a great sense of accomplishment. That engines innards are nice & clean. A bottle or 2 of Techron run through the tank will help clean the piston tops.

It's 33 here today & the snow is the consistency of cold oatmeal. Too sloppy for a wash. Mike your Fit looks great. Hope it stays clean for a few days.

Ken taking the surface streets makes sense. Saving money on tolls is great. I'd recommend staying with high octane gas. That way you'll be ready for fun if the situation should arise.

 

hi ash! yah, considering i will probably mash the gas on occasion, i should stick with premium gas for sure. i mean why bother having a GTI if i’m going to drive it like a regular car, right?

 

Yeah, his piston tops looked worse than any of the motors I've owned and taken apart, but I honestly thought the valves and pistons would look worse.

He runs the cheapest fuel and gets whatever oil and filter the quick change places want to use.

 

GAFIT so what do u think the root cause was? cheap gas and oil or..?

 

Poor quality by Honda!

Nothing that he or anyone else could do should cause spark plugs to blow out of a cylinder head and take the threads with it.

It's due to a poor design followed by poor materials and, possibly, poor machining.

All of the domestics I've owned with aluminum heads have literally double the amount of threads on the plug. These heads should have either thicker castings where the plug threads in followed by a longer threaded plug or should have steal inserts to accommodate for the shorter thread area. These plugs should not be inserted into aluminum in my opinion.

The failure rate is astronomical once over 100k miles.

My own Fit, that has been maintained to a VERY high standard, has weak threads on cylinder number 3. Given enough time, I will be having to do this on our Fit as well. On ours the plug is loose every 30k or so miles and I start hearing the cylinder leaking.

 

Here's the plug that goes in the aluminum head in my Lincoln...




Here's the plug that goes in an Chevy LS with aluminum heads...




Here's the plug for our Golf with aluminum head...





Here's a Fit plug...

 

nice examples GAFIT. those are short threads indeed. but not all fit engines blow like that, do you think it was factory installation error or the aluminum block diecast itself poor quality?

 

drove home using surface roads.. i got home about as fast as i usually take the express way. i was like wtf mang.. haha. mpg meter average didnt move but im pretty positive it will increase tomorrow. looking at where the inaccurate fuel gauge is tonight, and 100miles on the trip meter, my guess is that i can do 300 miles on this tank. maybe 350 miles on the next tank.. not sure but i can fill 12 gallons (13.4gal tank?) so might happen.

and at no time did i feel like my windshield was going to get cracked by a flying rock.. because bigrids are banned from this road unless with a permit.. plus only going 35-40mph most of the drive.

 

any of you test drive the new Civic Si coupe? how is it? i like the interior picts and honestly like both the interior and exterior appearance better than the CTR. im sure performance wise its nothing like the CTR but then again, im not looking for an all out performance car as it will be my kid's primary car.. and id like to drive it around on crappy days on the weekend. lol haha

i miss driving a honda MT car..

 

They only had the sedans when I was shopping for my Hatch. I want the larger turbo (can get more boost/hp/tq with Ktuner vs my smaller turbo), LSD, slightly larger brakes and adaptive suspension. But I like my hatch styling.

Hopefully the LSD is drop in. That'd be nice.

Pretty baller for a 1st car man. I'm jelly.

 

We were so torn when car shopping. Wanted a Civic Si Hatch! The CTR just doesn't make sense as a daily.

The Civic Si Coupe is an excellent choice if you can make due with 2-doors. It looks good and drives great. Not a rocket, but fun to drive. The interior styling is excellent and the shifter has that great Honda feel. The whole car has a great feel.

My only complaint on the Si Coupe, besides my need for 4-doors, is the quality of the interior isn't up the standards set by VW, GM, or Ford. That being said, I'd buy one!