So I spent some time researching this further. The description you give of i-VTEC as applied to 4-cylinders is correct, but unfortunately Honda decided to use the same moniker to apply to the automatic-trans-equipped J-series V6, which of this time period at least, did not use cam phasing. In the V6 automatic engines, i-VTEC meant that it had a VCM system which ran off the camshaft and was part of the system used to shut down cylinders much like GM vehicles have been famous for. So the automatic cars could run in 3, 4, or 6 cylinder mode. But still no cam phasing. The auto cars used the J35Z2 engine.
The V6 manual trans cars like mine had traditional VTEC with a hard set point for engagement. This was the J35Z3 engine. So I could still have VTEC trouble of some sort, but it's not on the cam gears.
Spotted a Scion xB with this sticker on the back:
Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits - Mark Twain
Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy / Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
I have the exhaust off my 16-year-old Subaru. While I was in there, I looked at the bolts holding the fourth heat shield on the manifold (the one where the bolts can't be accessed without removing the manifold from the engine) and decided I'd rather change them now than have one rust the rest of the way off and have to do this all over again in a few years. Soaked everything with kraut oil for awhile. First one turned easily. Second one a little harder, but came out. Third one started to turn, but then the force dropped. No saving it, just keep turning and take my fate like a man. It was broken off pretty much flush with the casting.
Went and bought a screw extractor kit. Punched it, drilled it, and put the extractor in it. Turned it to the point where it felt like the next thing that would happen was snapping the extractor, and no movement. Left it overnight. Slept on it.
I was thinking about just drilling it with a tap drill size and hoping I could peel out the thread. Today, when I talked about it with the full time fab guy, he suggested exactly that (said he'd done it before), so that's what I did tonight. We both looked at it before I started, and he said maybe use a size down from the tap drill. It worked perfectly. The bolt actually broke up in chunks as the drill worked on it, tearing most of the male thread out with the chips, at least on the upper parts. When I got through the screw, I could see basically intact female threads all the way around. Chased it with a tap until the tap bound up, and it pulled out a thread coil (left from the original bolt) of about six or eight turns with it. Chased it again, and original female threads are all good.
Woo-hoo!!!!! Luck, skill, care, and perseverence. And some more luck. And maybe partly the talismanic power of the Heli-Coil kit I had on standby. I shouldn't believe in such things, but I still kinda do.
Chased the rest of the holes so they're clean. New hardware and LPS nickel anti-seize on everything when it goes back together, so when I never have to do this again, it will be easier.
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Not another dime.
fuck.
please let this guy still have this car.
please let me be able to get it.
timing this week is HORRID too.
but i've found a 2004 Chrysler Sebring V6 5spd STICK SHIFT convertible, in the Alexandria area, for piss cheap.
That's a rare car! Feels like a lifetime ago, but I remember meeting a guy in the local car scene ~10-13 years ago that had a similar vintage 4cyl 5spd Sebring Convertible, and he was trying to put an SRT-4 Neon engine in it. Not sure if he ever got that done.
I do know those 2.7L's V6's were very prone to oil sludging from oil drainage and PCV issues, hopefully if it's survived this long, that means the owner changed the dam oil!
Here's to hoping you manage to snag it!
All I remember about the Sebrings from my time at the Dodge dealership was that they were a Mitsu product and as such, sourcing parts was a little different. We almost never saw them come in, but probably because: rarity. I want to say that it was a Sebring that had a weird problem where the engine would randomly cut off going down the road. Daimler-Chrysler took an interest in it, and the A-grade tech that had the project tore the entire interior out of the car while chasing circuits down. Eventually they found a short in the lighted mirror in the passenger's side sunvisor which was on the same circuit as something else. It took an ungodly amount of hours to find; he had that car for weeks.