I decided I was going to paint my valve cover today, so I get it off successfully, and everything, get it all painted and was really happy with the end product. Go to put it back in, get the gasket perfectly in there, go to tighten the bolts and bam. End up breaking one of the bolts up near the top. Don't you just hate it when you get something done, you feel proud of yourself and then something stupid like this happens. A friend of mine works for honda so he's gonna get me a new bolt tomorrow and get that in there. Apparently this happens alot to people, but what can you do I guess. I guess this post has no point, just letting out some frustrations heh.

 

ha i did that to mine the other day!! he needs to get me the center bolt for the d16 front..

 

Never happened to me but I feel ya. lol

 

i did that in my 88 LXi, it sucked, but i just tightened the other bolts down even tighter, and hoped that not much oil would leak out...

 

damn hate to hear that hope it goes well

 

Yeah, I talked to my friend today and he's getting them tomorrow from Honda. They were actually out of stock of them because they said this happens frequently. Tomorrow though, bringing it to his house to do the bolts. Cause he has something I can easily get the bolts out with. I would have driven it around today, but I was losing a bit of oil. So I just drove around my moms civic for the day. I think it may be time to invest in a torque wrench.

 

next time just use a 1/4 inch drive and tighten them till they get snug, they don't need to be super tight. and use a little honda bond around the dizzy and cam areas to minimize leakage, just like the factory does.

 

Blah, I haven't done exactly, that, but I understand what you mean about things no going right, and I totally feel for ya.

I've tried to change my brake pads twice in the last two weekends. First time I was given the wrong ones, and that was when I had access to an air ratchet. This weekend, I had to to it by hand, but you know what? The asshat who previously owned my car somehow misplaced the carjack arm... I know that's a weak excuse, as I coulda gone and got myself a jack, but it was hot outside and I was like 100 feet from my condo's pool... so I'll try for a third time next weekend I'll have air ratchet access again then. Third time's a charm, right?

 

Yeah, Hopefully third time is a charm for you. I had bought the paint friday with the intent to do it then, but I picked up my girlfriend from work and we ended up running errands and such and I didn't have enough time. Saturday it rained, and Sunday I finally was able to do it but still ran into problems. Good luck with the brakes though. Mine need to be done aswell.

 

The torque wrench is your friend when you are doing anything with gaskets. If you under tighten it, it will leak. If you over tighten it you will break to bolt or break the gasket (gaskets have really small spaces in them that can break easily). Air rachet is not really gonna help you with breaks, you really shouldn't need it. I have an air compresor and air tools in my garage but i don't use them for brakes, only to get the wheels off.