Hello, from Gary

[Gary Palmer]

Hello, to everyone. My name is Gary Palmer. I have a number of things I could share with everyone, but I find myself a bit rushed, so I will just try to share thing's, as they come up, or I think about them.

Currentlty I am driving a 89 Civic "Wagovan", which I purchased in the fall of last year, because I couldn't handle driving my 91 Buick Regal, which get's fair mileage on the highway, but around town I think their is a hole in the gas tank. Additionally I think the hole must open up really wide whenever I park the car because it is always lower on gas than I think it ought to be.

I had to disassemble the engine, to get a broken spark plug removed, which is why the owner was selling the car. Since I already had it that far apart, I had the head rebuilt, with new valve guides and I put in new ring's, rod bearings, main bearings, water pump, oil pump and assorted gaskets and hoses.

Consequently I have an engine which has just turned 200,000 miles, but which uses essentially no oil, runs well and get's good gas mileage. My car has a 5 speed transmission and overall I am pretty pleased with it, thus far.

I also have a 87 Civic DX, which I purchased for my oldest daughter, about 6 year's ago. When I bought it, it had about 160,000 miles on it, but it did not use any oil. Unfortunataely, the second year she had it, she had gone to school in the fall, driven from Utah to California in the spring and then turned around and tried to drive it back to Utah in the fall, without having either checked or replaced her oil. Alas, the poor engine gave up just short of Mesquite, NV.

However, when I got their, I found out the primary damage was that the last bearing on the camshaft had run without oil, for so long, that it finally got the camshaft hot enough to be torqued off by the timing belt.

The 87 Civic has the 1.5 L, 12 valve engine, with a carburator, and 10,000 hoses, relays and do-dad's, whatever they are. However in driving it, it was the first car I have ever driven where I kept wondering if the fuel gauge was not working, or if it was, how the engine was generating fuel, or operating, because the gauge never seemed to move.

The 87 seemed to me like it go 40-45 around town and almost 50, on the highway. However, my memory and what I was able to get it back to, after I rebuilt it, aren't entirely in sync, although I can still get 40 out of it on the highway. I don't drive it much, because I have another daughter who is driving it daily between Ventura, Ca and UCSB, in Santa Barbara. I think it's mileage may have gone back up quite a bit because it was having some very frustrating issues with the electronic pickup in the ignition. However, since I fixed that issue, it has been running quite well.

On the 89 I am driving, I have been using the 1,2,5 shift pattern with a moderate, 20-25% pedal for acceleration, then running in 5th under a light to moderate load. Mileage I seem to be getting 33-35 mpg, or maybe a little more, in combined driving around town and on the highway.

I have a number of idea's about some things I want to try, as well as questions I would like to use the member's, here, to bounce some ideas off of.

Oh, on my 89, I also replaced the stock exhaust manifold with a header, which I was able to get for about $55, including shipping, on eBay. The existing exhaust manifold was pretty man-handled and since I had heard that it might help with my fuel economy, I thought I might as well put it on. My quess is that it helps it some, but since I don't have any concrete information, I don't know for sure.

However, I have another daughter whom I bought a 91 Civic DX hatchback, which had a similar engine to my 89, but had a 4 speed. However, her motor had been very abused and I was amazed it would even run, but it still got about 30mpg, on the highway, even though it used about a quart of oil, for every other tank of gas.

Anyway, beyond that I don't have any basis, except the epa estimates, to compare my mileage to, so I don't know if my mileage is better because of the header, or if it is just because the motor works like it was originally designed, or something else.

One note of thought. When I worked on the 87 Civic, I pulled the whole front drive train, support, engine, transmission out and worked on it that way. What I did was to use block the car body up, then disconnect all of the engine connections, lower the engine to the floor and then use a 4 by 4 beam and my floor jack, to raise the whole front of the car about 6 feet in the air. By doing that, I could slide the whole assembly out from under the car and then work on it in the open. This sounds like a lot of work, but I think it was actually a lot easier to work on and it wasn't really to bad to put back in. I think it was a whole lot easier than trying to use a hoist to pull the engine and tranny out through the engine compartment, anyway.

Anyway, for what it's worth.

Thanks, Gary Palmer

p.s. thanks to Matt for helping me to figure out "who I was".