meandino

I bought a 95 LX that is in need for a head gasket. The engine was overheated and they just parked the car. They started it to see white smoke coming from the exhaust and toke it to there mechanic to find out the head gasket was blown.

The oil shows no signs of antifreeze mixture, and it looks like there is no antifreeze in the radiator or the reservoir.

I'm in the process of trying to start the car before I dig into the engine to replace it. The battery is dead so I'm waiting till its charged.

The question I have is what is the best brand of gaskets to use for this? I was going to use Honda genuine but they are pretty spendy. What brands should I stay away from?

Here are the things I was going to replace:
-head gasket set
-timing belt set
-water pump
-thermostat
-fluids

Thanks for your help H-T

1grex

I have yet to have a problem with fel-pro

cr1m3rat3z

Can't go wrong with OEM.

meandino

yeah I've heard good things about fel-pro

meandino

You can never go wrong with OEM its the best in my opinion. I just don't want to spend that much right now.

meandino

I found a gasket set on ebay for $42 shipped. Are these any good?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tchlink:top:en

meandino

Before I started the head gasket job I was wanting to hear the engine run. Is this bad to do for a few seconds.

The car is not starting but it does have spark. Any suggestions?? Would this be because of a bad gasket?

meandino

Okay, well I threw some new plugs in and it started up after a little cranking. It amazing how just spending a little money on plugs can be a big improvement. Its just blowing out a lot of white smoke from the exhaust.

So I wanted to break down the engine to replace the head gasket, but I heard its best to figure out why the gasket blew in the first place. What do you guys think?

davey5300

Most likely due to the overheating

Targa250R

You should probably find out why the car overheated before installing a new head gasket. Unfortunately it's not always obvious, especially if the head gasket was initially damaged in a prior overheating incident that has since been repaired. Head gasket problems can be a long term development; overheating will cause the head gasket to blow, but once it is blown it will cause overheating itself.

I recommend Ishino gaskets. Make sure to use only an OE Honda thermostat or a dual-stage thermostat from one of Honda's OE manufacturers. Never EVER use a single-stage thermostat or a thermostat that didn't come in a box labeled "Honda," "Nippon Thermostat," "Fuji Thompson," or "TAMA Enterprises." Anything else may run you the risk of cooling system problems.

If the car was overheated pretty badly and/or you can't figure out why, then in most instances you're better off just picking up a complete used engine from a salvage yard for a few hundred bucks and just installing that. It will save you the aggrivation and parts cost of having to tear it down multiple times and deal with warped parts, cracked sleeves, oil burning, etc. Replacing just the head gasket to fix up a car on the cheap may sound like a good idea initially, but often times it doesn't turn out the way you'd hoped.

meandino

So what would I do to figure out how it overheated? If I add coolant won't it just overheat because of the gasket?

Targa250R

Depends on how bad the head gasket is. You could also try filling the system up and then running a pressure test cold to pinpoint any leaks. Also look for cooling system components that appear new or recently disturbed.

If you can't figure it out, then you'll just have to monitor/address it after fixing the head gasket if need be. Again, there may not even be a cooling system problem at this time; it's possible that the car was overheated due to a faulty cooling component long ago which damaged the head gasket initially, and then the damage progressed over time as the engine consumed coolant through the combustion chambers and caused the coolant level to slowly drop until it was empty.

meandino

Yeah a pressure test would be awesome if I had one.

I'll be switching out the thermostat and water pump just in case. So that will take care of any problems that they may have caused. It could be as simple as the fans were not turning on.

So thanks for your advice. I will see whats going on.

meandino

I looked around in the engine bay for coolant leaks and what not. I found some coolant sitting on top of the fan shroud. Looked like it would have come from the cap.

I rented a pressure tester from autozone. I have to go back and get an adapter so I'm unable to test the system. However I tested the cap and it failed. I think the cap is what made the car overheat to blow the head gasket. I'll have to test the rest of the system tomorrow, but almost don't think I need to.

faran

Targa250R

I also have the same issue for Honda Accord 1995 EX V6 looks like a blown head gasket issue I have started a thread on that as well at "https://honda-tech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2721214", I do not have any overheating but I do have Oil/Coolant in one of my Spark Plug is there any cheap way to fix it rather then replacing an engine??

Any help would be greatly appreciated,

meandino

I rented a compression tester and here are my results:

1 : 135
2 : 120
3 : 110
4 : 170

Now when I was doing the test on the # 4 cylinder I heard a grind when it was trying to
turn over only on the first crank. I also noticed fluids coming out of the radiator cap
only on # 4. So I tried the test again thinking the grind was uncommon and messed the
test up. On the second attempt there was another grind but this time on the third
crank, and there was still fluids coming out of the radiator cap. Got the same results as
the first attempt.