95gsr@530

So my first time around doing this head gasket job went pretty poorly and there's no one to blame but my self. In my haste I learned well that patience is a virtue that pays well. I pulled the head back off, yet this time with the intention of methodic overhaul. Between work and school I spend all of my time working on this head. Being a student at butte college gained my access to a parts washer and a valve spring compressor worked that amazingly, even given the cramped and busy nature of the head. Carefully removing the old valve stem seals was definitely the hardest part of the rebuild. The DIY thread on this site was very helpful, but there wasn't much mention of the difficulty of getting the old seals off, and the damage you can cause to a valve guide if you go about it wrong. Everything went well, thanks to this site, my teachers, and my patience. Because of the holiday's and weather amongst other things it has taken me until now to finally pull the trigger on firing it up and letting it run to operating temp. The IACV looked so bad that everything I could do to clean it i'm afraid won't be enough. A hunting idle was the first symptom which influenced my decision to rebuild. .015" off the head for better compression and sealing surface is an exciting idea as well. A deep clean of the parts with which I came into contact with also pushed me towards the commitment. Being car-less has not been fun, but tomorrow I am going to attach the IACV return line to the coolant tube, my last reassembly step, fire it up and fill it with coolant. I'm extremely anxious about this, and probably won't sleep. If anyone has suggestions about "best way to break in a head gasket" or tips on what to look for with these B series motors to insure a top end rebuild went well? I'm not a complete mechanically disadvantaged mind so you can save the really simple stuff, but this is my first time rebuilding a top end, and I'm doing so in my closet and driveway for the most part. My approach:

felpro kit which includes so much stuff i'm not sure where it all goes, but i'll include pictures of these parts and maybe someone can help me out
Valve stem seals came in the kit and claimed to fit both intake and exhaust guides. Makes me nervous, but trigger has been pulled
Head bolts re-used, also nerve racking, but my bank account didn't allow for arp's and i'm not pushing boost or anything
3 steps torqued in proper sequence, but I got creative with the amount of torque that I applied; (22,44,66) I chose this because I read on more than one thread that when reusing head bolts you may need to go a little tighter because they've already stretched. I've also read that reusing can work out just fine.
I thoroughly cleaned the valves and their seats, being extremely careful not to damage.
No attempt at port or polish, as I do not have a flow bench, how could I really know I was doing help not harm?
Machine shop didn't have one either, they just took off the .015" w/out a pressure test. If the head is cracked will have learned the hard way that the extra money is unavoidable
Valve lash set dead nuts to spec and triple checked. Lock nuts torque'd to spec. Intake manifold I could not get at with my torque wrench because i'm doing this in the drive way, and I can barely get the car off the ground with the tools I have available up here at school away from my home/garage/jack/stands. Still torqued manifold in sequence, to close to what I felt was 23ft lb's
cleaned the tops of my pistons with a little seafoam and a wire brush until all carbon was removed, while being very careful not to contact my mating surface with the wire brush.
drained the little remaining oil and seafoam, letting it drip overnight, Castrol gtx high mileage 10-30 with a Honda filter, cold compression test, even readings of 180 across the board.
new plugs, fuel filter, cap rotor, cables (they've obtained clear cuts from being removed so many times and sliding across the cone air filter or something, but they may need to be replaced again
TPS reference and signal voltage checked, .48-4.55 for the reference. Is this .02 and .05 volt outside spec a problem? guess i'll find out..

I'm sorry for the never ending detail but like I said this is a big deal for me and a first time. all advice gladly accepted. Especially about the IACV which I cleaned vigorously, the before picture given.

also, I got a throttle body gasket with the kit, but this similar looking, yet not matching gasket came also. Does it go with the tb gasket? what is it?

OneBadTurboCRV

Take a better picture of the headgasket setting on the block like you were going to install it (or how it came off).

Anything you can buy from a local parts store isn't worth buying. FelPro gaskets for Honda is just like shooting yourself in the foot.

Being an automotive student, you should have learned about checking deck surfaces for straightness already and the difference between torque to yield bolt applications and not. Honestly, a lot of what you are asking is pretty basic stuff... like where can you get OEM quality stuff for instance? The local Honda dealer that selll OEM parts of course!

95gsr@530

Yeah I started at the local Honda dealer. They were unwilling to work with me saying "we don't carry Acura parts, you'll have to go to sacramento" I tried saying well isn't the c1 in motor in ANY Hondas. Their response was the same, sent me to Autozone. The people at autozone, after I showed them these picutres of the gaskets not matching perfectly, gave me cash back! I took my money and ran, I thought I'd get store credit at best.

TomCat39

Figure out what acura's the motor is in and get your motor specific OEM parts from an acura dealer. Only some parts are in both honda and acura.

OneBadTurboCRV

The cam cap bolts, valve cover nuts, headgasket, etc are all the same. You should have done your homework and brought part numbers to order.

The head bolts are different. For the price of new headbolts you may as well go with ARP head studs.

Acura Parts @ AcuraAutomotiveParts.org - Genuine Acura OEM Parts from Acura Carland

Honda Automotive Parts

95gsr@530

Part numbers. thank you. I don't know why I didn't think of that. The b16 that's ran in the si's should have the exact same cam cap bolt/valve cover stud. I wonder, though, if they have the same exact head gasket as well.. doesn't matter at this point, Riebes gave me a deal on this felpro kit that actually fits and includes everything from valve cover to valve stem seals to head gasket. i'm happy with it. what's the beef with felpro? i'm running stock internals, stock cams, stock ecu..

OneBadTurboCRV

I just said they had the same part numbers for the headgasket and provided links showing just that...

No beef, they just are not made properly for the application. I use FelPro on all my other cars. If you search around you will find people having nothing but sealing issues on Hondas. Been like that for years now...

TomCat39

Got the D16Y8 felpro head gasket on my B7 and so far so good. I've been beating the snot out of it since May.

I also assembled it dry and clean and let it sit overnight (I've read let sit after torque at least 45 minutes on MLS before adding fluids) before adding fluids and burping the car.

For me so far so good with my felpro head gasket and felpro valve seals.

PyroProblem

If you still have it all together, you should do a leakdown test so you know where the problem is. Then after you year it down, you'll know to pay attention to the problem area.
And broken bolts/studs are many times a sign the fastener has been over torqued, stretched, and damaged..

ojasia

According to your post I kinda have an idea of how long this MLS gasket was installed for and assuming not long at all.

The blue'ing on that gasket is some kind of rubber that complete's the seal just like any other MLS Hg also the reason you need to ask what kind of Ra there resurface machine can get down to. If its to high you will never get a good seal, but these days most shops can get it down low enough, being in your last semester I wont go into details. on yours the front of the bores are all burnt, corroded what ever you want to call it. I'm thinking you have some mis-alignment issues as well. Although like you said two different company sell one Hg for an engine and when comparing they are different, thats what you get from fel-pro.

But when you mock a Hg up WITH the alignment dowels thats when you check "everything" physically look at it making sure it aligns with the bores, Oil passages are clear and un-obstructed things like that.

Attention to detail! If you end up using your degree to work in the automotive world. not only will people be trusting you to fix their cars but your boss will not accept easily missed problems like this. Sorry about the preaching but you should of done the seals "while you were in there" as well. Take pride in what you do and what your trying to accomplish.

The head looks brand new. Did you have the Machine Shop clean it all up as well as do the resurface? If so for instance thats what I'm talking about.

TomCat39

Ya know this is a really good point and is likely why my non machined shop worked heads were successful.

My clean up method on the block and head for both of them was plastic razor blades and plastic scrapers followed with high quality 3M brand 1000 grit wet sanding paper and I wet sanded the remaining graphite crap off by hand. My desire was to remove the least amount of metal but still get the worst of the graphite off the surface.

Both cars have had zero issues with the viton rubber coated MLS gaskets, one OEM and one Felpro. And none of the parts saw the machine shop.

ojasia

ya its "suppose" to be super unlikely that machine shops especially in this day in age cant get Ra lvl's low enough for our parts, but it really would not surprise me in the least. If you have a good knowledge base of what your trying to achieve and understand whats going on, using your method works! especially if you just for peace of mind check it with a precision straight edge at the end.

The OP either has a problem with machine shop work and/or combined with less then OEM quality parts, or Mis alignment issues. IIRC

btw, probably just good practice using plastic razors but I was always taught a regular steel razor could be used as long as you keep it perpendicular to the surface ie. 90* and scraping against the blade never along/or with the blade if that makes sense.

92civicdxhatch

I've used felpro gaskets forever.. Never had an issue..