Jose wrote:
And, based on my experience with an 84 Honda Accord, purchased new,
those standards aren't all that high. The engine failed at 80,000 miles.


There were some early Honda engines that required high octane gas, and
would fail when fed a diet of regular. Was this perhaps one of them?

I don't think so. The failure was of the cam and rocker arms. It
appeared to be either a lubrication failure or a metallurgy failure of
either the cam or rockers, possibly due to improper heat treatment.
Honda showed no interest in finding out what happened and absolutely no
interest in standing behind their product. Yes, it was out of warranty,
however, this certainly wasn't a normal failure mode for an engine,
especially one maintained well. I used Mobil 1 and changed the oil at
5,000 miles. This is the only car I've owned in 30 years that has ever
had a catastrophic engine failure (not counting things like water
pumps). I thought Honda might meet me half way and at least offer to
cover parts. Not only didn't they do that, but there response to my
letter was to accuse me of failing to maintain the car properly. After
I sent them copies of my logbook (20 or so pages as I recall), they
replied back saying they couldn't see any obvious deficiency in the
maintenance, but then stuck their foot in their mouth even deeper and
said that 80,000 miles was within the nominal expected service life of a
Honda engine. Since 80,000 isn't even close to my expectations for a
well maintained engine, I've since bought vehicles from folks with
higher standards.

Matt