You’re fine. At least as far as defective engine blocks goes. And since it’s a Honda with less than 100k on it, you probably have absolutely nothing to worry about. Enjoy the trip.
Thanks for the reply. I researched everywhere and nowhere else does anyone give the 11/'07 cutoff. Where did you happen to find this information?
Honda’s warranty extension to 10 years applied to 2006-2008 Civics and early built 2009 models. Since your engine block has not cracked after so many heat cycles (9 years) it is unlikely for the block to fail in the near future. If the engine block develops a crack you may notice a coolant odor and observe a gradual loss of coolant. It is unlikely that your engine will rupture and result in a total lose of coolant.
It’s been 6 years since I posted that. I honestly have no idea what specific reference I used to find it, but it seems things have been updated in the interim.
That said, I agree with @Nevada_545 - if yours hasn’t cracked yet, it probably won’t.
I’ve seen these cracks firsthand . . . we’re talking hairline cracks
Definitely not a situation where you suddenly lose all of your coolant
In my experience, lack of a failure to an extreme point is no guarantee of future performance in certain, undefined instances, As an example, my VW cylinder head worked as intended to over 300k miles before it finished cracking to make a combustion leak into the cooling system. One might think that the head had proven itself at 300k miles and 30 years and would last indefinitely. There likely was a crack that grew with heat cycling to where it finally leaked. If some Honda blocks of a certain time period are cracking prematurely, who can warrant that the remainder will not crack? Honda can hope that some will be scrapped before their blocks crack to cap whatever obligation they might feel for their customers. Cracking blocks before 200k miles may be too early.
1 Like
Actually, I believe the opposite. By 300,000 miles, cars have exceeded their expected service life and the chances of sudden, catastrophic, unforeseen failure just increase.
According to your thinking it should be ok if the wheels fall off while you are going down the road at 60 mph after 300k miles because the car has exceeded its expected service life. Where is the expected service life of a car specified other than in opinions?
I bought a car that turned out to have a cracked block. The block was cracked around a valve seat (it was a flathead engine). I stripped off the head when I was getting coolant in the oil. When I saw the problem, I put on a new head gasket, bought a can of K & W seal, followed the directions and drove on. I was able to drive the car 350 miles from my home to the University where I did my graduate work. I sold the car a year later and two years after that it was still being driven. I only paid $75 for the car—it was a 1947 Pontiac I bought in 1962. The point is, I don’t think a cracked block will leave you stranded in the middle of nowhere. I don’t know if K & W seal is still on the market, but if I owned one of those Hondas, I would buy a can and keep it in the glove compartment for an emergency.
Presumably, that flathead engine block was cast iron
Would that K&W work equally well on an aluminum block?
I don’t know that I would say that the wheels are going to fall off, but by the time you get to 300K the chances of something like the torque converter splines stripping out, a connecting rod giving way, an oil pump seizing up, transfer case shaft splitting in half seem to rise sharply. These are all things that I’ve personally seen.
There is no specified service life of a car, but the general consensus is that if you experience major engine or transmission failure at over 200K, the car is done for. Of course that’s up to the owner. A car will last forever if you keep fixing it. I have personally done over $20,000 in repairs to a 1992 Ford Tempo for a customer. If you keep paying, we’ll keep fixing.
@db4690 I really don’t know if K & W is even on the market. If it is, I have no idea whether or not it would seal an aluminium block. I don’t care for aluminium block engines, but there isn’t much choice. I also think valves belong in the block, not in the head. That is why I still use a push lawnmower made in 1988. The block is cast iron and the valves are in the block. I know that new mowers have OHV engines and I’ll bet the blocks are aluminium.
@asemaster We bought a new Ford Tempo back in 1985. It was the only vehicle I ever owned that I got rid of after 3 years. My wife thought it was too noisy on the highway. It was quite trouble free–she just didn’t like the car. I can’t envision anyone spending $20000 to keep a Tempo on the road.
Well there’s quite a backstory to this one, suffice it to say the car had an unusually hard life.
The brake warning light burned out. As a result the woman drove 25 miles with the parking brake on.
There was streetlight out at an intersection just outside of town. As a result, she missed the turn and ran into the ditch and hit a culvert. We replaced a bent strut, lower control arm and tie rod. 2 weeks later the light still hadn’t been fixed. The second time we replaced the steering rack as well as the other parts.
Car was towed in, died while driving on freeway. Replaced an ignition module. Woman asked me if the part went bad because she drives fast. I said I doubt it, but how fast were you driving? She said “I don’t know, the speedometer only goes to 85.”
2 Likes
I recently hired a 27 year old tech, he has had one other job in the auto field. He has spent the last 8 years working at a VW/Audi only independent shop. He is quite proficient at what he does.
He had the head off of a car, a VW 5-valve per cylinder head. Somehow the topic of Ford Flathead V8 came up. He asked what that meant, was it called that because the valve covers were flat? After 10 minutes of trying to explain how a flathead engine worked, I just told him to Google it.
Boy, that brings up some memories
I can’t swear to it, but I think I may have seen older cars where 55mph had a prominent red line on the speedometer, perhaps to remind you of the speed limit . . . I’m sure somebody will soon confirm this, or correct me
Perhaps I’m being unfair, but I can’t imagine your typical 4 cylinder Tempo doing much past 85. Maybe 100 going downhill, with a tailwind?
I remember years ago, my dad rented one, a 1990 model, I believe. I wasn’t terribly impressed, especially with where the controls, switches, etc. were placed. I seem to remember the trunk release button was hidden, only accessible after opening the glove box, or some equally idiotic location. To me, it seemed like a stereotypical fleet use car, the kind that only local city and/or county fleets and rental car agencies would buy
1 Like
@db4690 I owned a 1948 Dodge. The speedometer at night when the headlights were on had a green glow up to 30 mph. The color changed to yellow until the car reached 50 mph. The color then changed to red.
1 Like
@asemaster Until 1949, the only U.S. cars that didn’t have flathead engines were Chevrolet, Buick, and Nash Ambassador. Oldsmobile and Cadillac developed OHV V8 engines for the 1949 models. The last flathead engine that I remember was in the 1965 Rambler American.
I am aware that an OHV engine is more efficient, but the 1957-58 Studebaker Scotsman equipped with the optional Borg Warner overdrive would get 30 mpg on the highway. This was very good for a 6 passenger car at the time and that was with a 186 cubic inch flathead 6 engine.
Oh, this one was the Tempo LX equipped with the bulletproof 3.0 Vulcan V-6. Otherwise it never would have survived as long as it did.
The OHV engines didn’y have much of a preformance advantage over the flatheads until the gasoline available permitted compression ratios of more than 7 to one. The flathead engines were quieter and cheaper to manufacture. My 52 Plymouth was so quiet you could not tell if the engine was running unless you stepped on the gas.
I have always wondered why anyone bothered to make an F head engine ( overhead intake valve and exhaust valve in the block). The last one I can recall was used in some post WWII Willis .
An excellent article in Hemmings about an 1926 Hudson 288 cu in six explained the with the 4 1/2 to 1 compression of the day, an F head would give more power than an full overhead valve engine because the valves could be made larger, not having to get both valves in the cylinder diameter. At those compression ratios they didn’t need a small combustion chamber.
Anyone remember the T head engine? It was a flathead engine with the intake and exhaust valves on opposite sides of the cylinder so instead of crossflow heads like a Hemi or DOHC you had a crossflow block. The only example I can think of is the Mercer.