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Does your engine use “torque to yield” head bolts? If so, and if you re-used the old head bolts, you might not have proper clamping pressure on the head gasket, causing a compression leak.
You may have to install new bolts and retorque them. If this applies to you, it would be a good idea to install another new head gasket too.
I can’t believe anyone would hold a grudge against a professional mechanic using a lift.
Seems it’s a just another case of internet anonymity allowing people to be ass hats.
Zero compression on all cylinders is a rare thing. I would suspect your compression gauge is at fault.
Here’s a stupid question: there’s gas in the tank, right? I can see thieves joy riding until the gas is gone, and then abandon the car. Stolen cars are free, gas costs money.
Your rear axle ratio is going to have a big influence on your towing capacity.
You mentioned “house hold stuff”. So, like appliances, couches, and such? If you aren’t going far, I’d consider just loading the truck bed and making more than one trip.
Does the dome light have a selector switch, for OFF, DOOR and ON?
If so, I’d suspect the switch is fragged. You can try installing a dome light from a salvage yard. Can’t imagine that they’d be expensive.
I wouldn’t consider snipping wires to fix something like this.
Really surprised to see that there’s no plastic tray under the battery. That metal-to-plastic contact at the battery base isn’t a real good idea.
Wow. I had no idea Minis were so chintzy.
I was moderately interested in them when they first came out, but I saw a couple of them on flatbeds being trucked to the salvage yard after being accidented. Both cars were completely crushed. I don’t know what their impact ratings are, but these two Minis didn’t fare too well at all.
Since your vehicle matches the manually-selected upshifts/downshifts to specific engine speeds, you aren’t doing any harm to your transmission. In reality, you are simply pre-selecting the desired gear, and the transmission performs the shift when safe parameters are met. If you check, it’s recommended to manually shift automatics under certain conditions, such as when descending long inclines to prevent riding the brakes, (just as you did), or downshifting out of OD when towing heavy loads or climbing steep hills.
Having said that, back in the day, you had to be careful with the old school automatics that didn’t have computer input/controls. Those would happily downshift instantly into any gear you manually selected, and could cause engines to rev beyond red line if done foolishly. But, when done properly, say, to meet the driving conditions mentioned above, no harm was done.
There are reasons why automatic transmissions allow you to shift manually. You haven’t harmed your transmission.
I know your vehicle isn’t a manumatic.
What I mean is, if manual shifting of an automatic transmission is dangerous, we wouldn’t have manumatics to begin with. You were manually shifting your automatic like a manumatic, and you said your transmission matches the selected downshift to a particular engine RPM.
So, in my opinion, you aren’t doing any harm to your transmission. I’d be willing to bet that manual upshifting or downshifting isn’t discouraged in your owner’s manual.
If the antifreeze in your pictures is leaking out between the gasket and the manifold and/or carb, it’s a case of those surfaces not mating and sealing properly.
Perhaps the gasket isn’t the right one for your application. I would talk to the parts guy at a Honda dealership to see if more than one type of carb gasket is listed for your car. Also, was a new gasket installed? Hope your mechanic isn’t re-using the original 32 year-old gasket.
It might be that the carb isn’t torqued down properly. Like wheel nuts, a carb should be torqued down in a “criss-cross” pattern, and the torquing should be done in 3 or 4 incremental stages, gradually working up to the final proper torque value.
The carb seating surface of the manifold should be clean, flat and without gouges. Same thing for the carb base surface. You can easily check them with a straight edge, like a machinist’s square or a steel ruler. Hopefully, your mechanic didn’t wedge a screwdriver under the old carb to pry it off.
I wouldn’t recommend bypassing the system. Your carb was designed to operate with it, and your engine should run better with the system working properly.
If manual shifting an automatic was dangerous, we wouldn’t have “manumatic” automatic transmissions that allow the driver to run the gears manually.
How old are the rad hoses?
It’s possible the lower hose is collapsing under pump suction, and is opening up again when the pump is stationary.
Is this an “old school” cruise system that has a vacuum diaphragm as part of the control system? If the diaphragm isn’t holding vacuum, or isn’t being supplied with vacuum, the system won’t hold a steady speed.
Yikes. That’s unacceptable.
I’m going to assume you aren’t leaking that much oil externally. It’d be super easy to notice, and you haven’t mentioned anything about external leaks.
Like I said, it’s time for compression and leak down checks.
In case you haven’t had a good look for leaks, the typical areas to look at would be the valve cover gaskets, the oil pan gasket and the oil pan drain bolt, and the front crankshaft seal at the vibration damper. You’ll be able to see evidence of leakage in those areas without having to take anything apart. (Another culprit could be the crankshaft rear seal, but that area is kinda out of sight. Look for leaks where the transmission bell housing bolts to the engine block. Some bell housings have a metal inspection plate that you can remove and look inside that area, it should be bone dry.)
Now that I think of it, have a really good look at the oil pan drain bolt. You said there was some oil loss before, but got worse since the oil change. Could be that the bolt/pan threads and sealing washer were flaky before, and got worse after another removal/installation cycle.
EDIT: Another place to look for oil leaks would be the oil filter, oil filter gasket and the oil filter mounting flange.