Michael Pardee wrote:
>
> "Eric" <say.no@spam.now> wrote in message news:442BBE4A.3E957917@spam.now...
> <big snip>
> > Keep in mind that older cars are a lot like onions. Once you start
> > peeling back the layers to fix one problem, you find a lot more > > problems.
>
> Great words of wisdom, Eric. I'll have to remember that (and where it came
> from, although I'll keep thinking it was from Shrek.)
>

I've never watched Shrek. The statement is almost verbatim of what we told
customers when they brought their older cars into the shop. It helped
lessen the impact of dealing with reality. With the OP's '84 Civic that's
likely been neglected it might be like opening the bottomless can of worms.
With pulling the head, it would be reasonable to replace the valve stem
seals, overhaul the CVCC valves, repair assorted vacuum hose and coolant
hoses problems, probably overhaul the distributor, and then even if you were
careful, there's probably enough crud in the carburetor float bowls that's
accumulated over the years that it would get sloshed around and wind up
plugging up the carburetor.

Eric