arexniba

Hello all.

Lately I've noticed 2 things going on. First, I've noticed that there was oil leaking from the middle of the long & short block...where the head gasket lies.
And just today, saw my upper radiator hose blown up. I had to remove the radiator cap to relieve pressure, and it went back to normal.

Anyways, this is the cause to it. My aftermarket catalytic went out on me about 1 month (or so) ago. I had no clue during the time it was the cat. because I was losing power, and at one point I had to take my mom to work. I was only able to travel 50mph on the freeway, and on the way back it wouldn't go over 20mph.
Called a good friend of mine that's been doing mechanical work for about 20-30 years--old fellow.
Well long story short, I replaced the cat. with an OEM one and it's been fine ever since.

However, since I replaced it there was a minor leak from that spot I mentioned earlier dripping on to my tranny case.

Now my question is, what exactly can it be? I've searched and people with blown head gaskets have mentioned that the symptoms are oil in the coolant--i.e. in the coolant reservoir tank or in the radiator itself.
~However, I don't have either symptom.
Then, others have mentioned that the leak can be cause by a bad cam seal??

Well a few days after I first noticed it, I called my mechanic/friend back and he said the cause of the leak was the clogged cat. Especially having forced it back that day, he explained (not entirely in his words, but I'm summarizing) that the pressure the cat. was causing forced the oil to leak out.
It makes most sense, but now that all of you know my scenario what's the best outcome ya'll think I should come to?
The head gasket is around $70, and I saw a few pics of install, and it looks like it's labor intensive. However, I can't do the entire timing myself, I am not that experienced...
People say it's straight-forward; yet, I don't see many articles here, nor on Google of installing the head gasket...
I have the Helms manual, but there's hardly any pics or details to guide me step-by-step.

Well I will post the pics of what I'm talking about in the next post.

Thank you for your help

arexniba

qazaq

leaky cam seal

for a good manual go to http://www.hondahookup.com, register and download Honda Service Manual for integra

arexniba

Ya I posted this up on TI and one of the members told me the same thing...cam seal.

Is this just as difficult to replace, by myself, as it would be to do the head gasket?

CompanyFlow

Your cat is not going to cause you to leak oil. Replace the cam seal and slap your mechanic in the face

BoSox46GSr

I've never seen a hose do that before... something is restricting coolant flow it looks like. But that oil leak is most likely cam seal. But I'd replace that hose as well, you don't need that thing popping while your driving.

Sweetsystem

I had the exact same problem. I thought I was leaking between the head and block too.

I replaced the Cam plug seal with a BuddyClub Cam seal, Much better than OEM. I thought it was done and it would never leak again. Found out my Dizzy O-Ring was leaking too. Dizzy O-Ring is easy to replace and you can clearly see where the oil was leaking from.

When u remove the dizzy you might think the black ring is a part of the distributor because it will be rock hard and wont budge, just keep at it and try not to scratch the metal. I couldn't locate the O-Ring at Autozone so the dealer would be the best place to get it. Cam plugs can be found all over ebay.

arexniba

Well went last night to Kragen and bought a new upper radiator hose and 2 bottles of antifreeze coolant.

As i was removing the old rad. hose, I noticed this brownish, thick developled thin plate inside the hose. I thought it was a part of the hose, but then noticed some more of it around the nozzle of the radiator (where the hose plugs into).
I thought to myself, is this what's keeping it clogged, or is it developing from the coolant? Maybe a mixture with the oil now that it might be affected by the gasket?

Anyways, I completely drained out the old coolant, replaced the rad. hose. As I filled up the rad. with new, fresh coolant I then turned the car on letting it run at idle while I was looking at the coolant.

2 BAD things I noticed:
1. The coolant kept rising up. I used a towel to soak up the excess coolant, but to no avail, it kept on rising.
2. The coolant did not have that oil mix with coolant. Or maybe it did because it was reddish in color when it rose to the top. So, I'm thinking somehow one way or another the coolant has mixed with the oil.

Good things I noticed:
1. I've been checking out the rad. hose every time I park my car and it's fine.
2. The temperature level on my guage is still below half.

I'm just driving the car casual now, and i'm thinking about fixing the car on my own. The only trouble i foresee is the f*n timing belt...Unfortunately, I've never learned to time, neither do I know how to set the cams at TDC. Additionally, I don't know how to take off the timing belt.
Everything else is do-able except for that...

EARLdaSQUIRREL

do a compression test or leakdown test to see if the headgasket is bad, also autozone rents out a "block tester" that uses a special dye to tell you if the headgasket is leaking

replace the dizzy 0-ring seal and the cam cap seal, along with the vtec solenoid gasket and you should not have any more leaks around that area

qazaq

replacing O-ring and cam seal is really easy, you don't even have to set cams to TDC as longs as you wont move the distributor end keeping it in the same position once you take it out.

if you do want to set to TDC, it's not that hard as well, there are plenty of threads telling you how to do it. i would recommend doing so just to be on the safe side

Sweetsystem

Whatever that reddish stuff was, it wasnt Oil. Oil and coolant turns yellowish milky colored when heated. Its possible someone put that Dark Red High Mileage coolant in there and those two are not supposed to mix. It may have even gunked up and caused some small passageways to clog up. I recommend a good scrubbin coolant flush. Either way I dont think you blew your head gasket.

PatrickGSR94

iTrader: (1)

I bet the insides of the radiator is completely trashed, though. You probably need a new radiator.

Oh and the coolant was rising because there was still air trapped in there somewhere. It happens to me sometimes after flushing coolant, but other times it doesn't (when I managed to get all or most of the air out).

arexniba

thank you all for that guidance. I think in the end it is the hg that is the culprit.
However, I did have some clogging. When i took off the damaged hose there was thin plate looking layers on the interior of the tubing and some around the outside of the radiator.
I cleaned it up, and been looking at it for the past 2 days.
I've been driving casually, and have noticed my temp. is back to normal and the rad. hose isn't bulging like b

PatrickGSR94

iTrader: (1)

those thin plates are probably radiator fins that corroded away and got caught in the hose.

tegra2G

when you are letting your car run have the heat turned on

arexniba

What will the heat running do?
I remember a while back whenever I messed with the heat my temp. guage would react to it...is that what you're getting at?

arexniba

Good assumption bro, never thought of that...was thinking the coolant possible mixed with something creating that or some debris got in there a while ago and over time it had collected enough to have those thin, browninsh plates...

cars...they're mysteries..

CompanyFlow

If the HG was blown you would overheat. Then again, if you had an obstruction you would overheat as well. Did you have the heater on while bleeding the system?

PatrickGSR94

iTrader: (1)

you don't have to have the heat blowing in the car, just move the temp slider to full hot. That opens the valve and allows the coolant to circulate through the heater core.

PandaBear

The hose looks like that because the supporting cords inside snapped. Time to replace it before it completely blew.

PatrickGSR94

iTrader: (1)

heh looks like there's a tennis ball lodged in there!

"It's not a TOOOMAHHH"

PatrickGSR94

iTrader: (1)

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by arexniba &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">




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hey thanks for that pic. Ever since I put my tranny back on last time I couldn't figure out why I couldn't get that wire harness plug to reach the bracket... turns out I got the bracket rotated too far backwards on the bolt.

arexniba

Lol, no problem man, i'm glad the pics helped ya out

steveo135

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by PatrickGSR94 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

hey thanks for that pic. Ever since I put my tranny back on last time I couldn't figure out why I couldn't get that wire harness plug to reach the bracket... turns out I got the bracket rotated too far backwards on the bolt. </TD></TR></TABLE>

LOL

and arexniba i just noticed in that pic that your missing the stud that goes through your exhaust manifold that the lock nut goes on

Sweetsystem

Yeah i noticed you didnt have that exhaust bolt either.

The same stud broke on mine too. I have carbon dust all over that side of my block.

Will an exhaust leak that small cause a loss performance or miles per gallon?