totaledTL

35 hours-?

01tl4tl

a joking guess on my part as to how many man hours were involved in 2 engine changes and tracking down the problems...plus a few hours for sobbing into beer after new engine is bad and has to be removed.... again,,to swap parts over to another engine and try again

saved 3500$,,35 hours- =10 bucks an hour..
when hiring yourself.. you often get what you pay for ---which include a lousy mathmatecian LOL

andrew070489

tell me about it!

35 x10 = $3500, wait

jrdecat

I think that I am worth greater than $10/hr, but probably not quite $100/hr...depending on the services I am providing...

01tl4tl

Now THAT made it worth me looking like a fool...as if I needed any help~

01tl4tl

a helicoptor tour pilot in hawaii told me he makes 50 Thousand dollars a MINUTE!!-

99.99% of the year he is flying people around showing off the island,,generally having a good time in life,,,,not considering it ~work~

When suddenly ALL the lights on the dash go red and yellow!!!

For the next 60 seconds he is the hardest working man you will ever meet~

and earns every penny of that 50g in that 1 minute

Rockstar21

iTrader: (1)

so your saying he makes 3 million dollars in an hours time....

you can buy your own helicopter for half a million or even less..

idk, i'd have to see a check stub... otherwize im holding my ground at

otherwize there would be alot of helicopter pilots flying around hawaii for sure...

01tl4tl

no- he does it for free most of the year, and about once a year everything goes bad and he earns every penny of that 50g in 60 seconds of real work

but 60 years of flying could make big money!

The rest of the time is just showing off your flying skills~

jrdecat

So it is all over now! The '00 is back in action and ready to roll. No rattles, shudders, hesitation, or any other indicator that I have done anything wrong. Had a couple loose bolts on the timing belt covers that were making a little noise but I got that all straightened out.

Funny story...I had bought an '02 Jetta 1.8T for the sole purpose of reselling and right after my TL took a dive it started making a funny noise. Well I've been driving that while the '00 was out and I fixed the Jetta this weekend. Turns out the timing belt tensioner pulley was going out!!! I almost had the same catastrophe with two cars! I dodged a bullet on that one. I only thought that my TL was hard to work on. The VW's have even less space to work in than the Acuras do.

It's beer-thrity! Thank you to everyone who helped, provided advice, poked fun at, got a chuckle out of, or in any way contributed to this whole mess!!!

SLushhYYY

iTrader: (8)

:gheywave:

DarkSithCL

iTrader: (1)

awesome...glad ur back on the road!!!!

jrdecat

Feels good to be back in the TL! It rides so much nicer than a VW Jetta!

Cordachine007

Amazing! I love coming into a story from beginning to end. Congrats on fixing the car! An engine swap is something I would never even consider doing, but after reading the entire thread, I am thinking maybe I could...it is great to see all of the members coming together to help a fellow driver. A side note to the story is...I am at 126k on my 02 tl-s and am now looking for the money to get the water pump and TB changed on my car before I am forced to do a engine swap. JR how long would it take you to do the water pump and TB swap (with the engine in the car) or would you take it to the dealer to do?

jrdecat

I definitely would never take my car to a dealer again. There is enough info out there (most of it free, some of it not) to do just about anything. I am so glad that Al Gore invented the internet! With the experience I gained doing the swap I would estimate a TB and H2O pump change to take about 3-5 hours or 7 beers. Prior to this experience I would estimate 10 hours or 13 beers. The hardest part is figuring out how to get to the stuff...and that pesky 19mm bolt on the crank. When you do the TB and pump, definitely spend the few extra bucks and get the tensioner and idler pulleys replaced. If it moves, replace it. The hydraulic tensioner itself is probably ok, you've just gotta figure out a way to get it re-compressed (a vise works just fine).

You'll spend a grand at the dealer and less than half of that on your own. With all of the money you save you could get yourself some fuzzy dice to hang from the mirror.

Go Blue!

jrdecat

This saga has come to a close. Since doing two engine swaps on the ol' TL back in 2009 I have driven relatively trouble free with the exception of a battery here and there. I have had a few problems starting in sub zero Colorado winters and a Christmas tree of dash lights, but nothing major. The car had 259,854 miles on the original transmission. I'm pretty sure I won the lottery on that one. I sold it to a car detailer for $1200 cash when I took it in to get it ready to sell. I probably could have parted it out and got more, or listed it on craigslist and dealt with a bunch of dead beat no-shows, but ain't nobody got time for that. Can't say enough about the help and knowledge I gained from this community. Thank you all. Live long and prosper, and to all a good night!

MarcDavidoff

Wow- wild ride you had with that one. Amazing you were able to get 260k on one of these crappy trans. Interesting though that you went thru 2 engine swaps. Opposite of what usually goes down with these TLs.