Chitty Chitty, Bang Bang! I love my four fendered friend.

But really. It's startin to get a little ridiculous up in here. I don't really have a definitive beginning to my story and it hasn't ended yet. So here is my best recreation.

Day 1:
I had known about my check engine light for some time now. I had it diagnosed as a bad O2 sensor on the catalytic converter. Seeing as how the O2 sensor does not affect the drivability of the car i let it go until I had the time and means to fix it after graduation. So here I am, got my catalytic converter replaced and my check engine light reset (see my Yelp review on catalytic converters). Yay! And off into the sunset I drive, onward towards smog testing.

Day 3:
I didn't have time until a few days after my CC had been replaced to get smog tested, but everything was all good. SO I thought. It began when my car was at an idle, completely stopped. My engine, for lack of a better word shuddered. Then my check engine light started blinking. I prayed to every Deity I could think of to prevent the check engine light from staying on. I went home and made some virgin offerings to appease the car gods so my car would break down and just pass the freakin smog test (stupid California law).

Day 4:
*whistling* Well, it had seemed that my virgin offering from the previous night had worked. The light was off but the engine still shook a little. And by a little I mean a lot. See, I was driving home and then BAM! Like Emril had commanded my car to start going haywire. The engine sounded like it was goin to shake itself out of the block and I was racing home scared. I just wanted to make it to the house and deal with things from there. Trying to conserve on my AAA tow allowance.

Day 5:
I bring it into Acura, which yes yes, I know is a dealership but at least they can guarantee my work and it's all part of my ultimate "TL Plan" (ask me about that later). Thinking I would just pay them to diagnose it and take it somewhere else was my first plan of action. Really long story short, They found the problem and now my car looks like this.
Yeah, the head is off and you have to love the buck-o-bolts in the bottom left corner. But the head and valves are where the real problems are.
That's the hand of Brian, the mechanic.

So then these fools at the dealership tell me that I won't get my car back for a few weeks. Which is perfectly fine, I understand, you just tore my engine down and it's not really drivable at the moment.