central_driver

this is a Cometic Head Gasket Honda Civic 97 D16y8 76mm Bore .030 thickness (pic below)


Motor has 3,000miles. Barely got to boost on it for 2mins. Running ARP studs torqued to 75lbs because were running alot of boost.

all a sudden my valve cover breather started smoking bad. Did a compression check and cylinder 4 next to the dizzy was showing 75-80psi and the one next to that was 130 - 135- 140. btw im on 8.5.1 vitara pistons

I decided to put oil on the piston. i went to work, 6hours later i checked the compression and it said 125psi. I also noticed Oil leaking in between the head and the block right under cylinder 4 by the dizzy and no it wasnt any sensor leaks or gasket. it was running onto the engine stamp from the top of the block. Keep in mind my car drove perfect even with that cylinder reading 75psi without the oil added. I never had any smoke from the exhaust, only the valve cover breather. Oil level seemed to stay where it was after 3 days of driving it with this problem. When i reved the car or boosted on it. smoke would start filling up in the car and going out the hood and my coolant overflow always poped off and i also took off my radiator cap and when i gave my car gas the coolant shot out super high.

Finally i got the head off and looked at the gasket and can someone tell me why 1 side doesnt have holes? is that suppost to be like that? and also i couldnt see any leaks so im kinda stuck on wondering why my car has been smoking and i had low compression and why my radiator gets so much pressure inside it.

BTW there was no oil on the spark plugs at all even after running it and checking 30secs after.

TylerB

Yes, the gasket is suppose to be like that. I'm not sure why, but everyone I have seen has been this way. Is there oil in the water or vice versa? Did you machine the head before installing? Did you make sure you torque in the proper sequence in the proper steps? Was the headgasket and arp's new when installed? I'd be willing to bet either your head isn't completely flat or that head gasket is bad. All of your symptoms can be caused by a defective head gasket.

Edit: Also, the smoke that filled your car, did it smell like oil or coolant?

honda_luvr_2000

The hole design in the head gasket is to help circulate the coolant evenly around all 4 cylinders. Since the water pump is at one end of the engine, by limiting the amount of coolant that can travel from water jacket to head at one end, it forces more coolant to travel from water jacket to head at the other end than would otherwise.
As for the high pressure in the radiator (cooling system) that's due to combustion pressures leaking from the cylinder/s into the water jacket on the other side of the fire ring on the head gasket. Not overheating are you? The head gasket doesn't look to be in that great of shape, especially with only 3k miles on it. Sounds/looks like you have a cylinder head to block sealing problem. Then add in forced induction and you're sure to bleed pressure into the cooling system & even the oil system possibly. The smoking breather could have been the result of excessive blow by or coolant/combustion pressure leaking into oil return galley.

central_driver

oh ok. i checked my oil and the oil doesnt seem to have any coolant in it. same with the coolant. no oil in it... hard to tell tho because i used a head gasket repair bottle and poured it into the radiator. my compression went up to 100 when i did that but after 2days it went back down to 75. thats when i tried to oil trick on top of the piston and it was reading 120-125psi...

i looked at everything. couldnt see anythign wrong with nothing... The block was milled .030 but the head wasnt. i was thinking of seeing if the head was flat or not at a machine shop. The water shooting out the radiator makes me believe its a headgasket. i also had water dripping out the exhaust but than again i was told thats normal. AGAIN no smoke from my exhaust. Only from the valve cover breather. It looked like white smoke not blue. But since the smoke was coming from the valve cover breather the breather was covered in oil which got oil all over my vtec soleniod and intake manifold / fuel filter.
I did notice when i flipped my head over, which im not to sure but arent they suppost to have dowel pins? 4 holes in the head look like they would fit dowel pins and my head has no dowel pins, but wasnt sure if d16 engines come with dowel pins

central_driver

yes it was torqued in proper sequence. I have the manual on my computer which how i learned how to do all my work. arp head studs have been used twice. when i put this motor together that was probably the 3rd time those head studs have been used...

and yeah i couldnt smell if it was oil or not.

TylerB

Yeah my z6 has 2 dowel pins. Since you already have the head off you might as well get some and put them in.

Might be best to take the head to a machine shop to check and see if its flat. Then buy a new head gasket, arp's, and dowel pins. Those arp's are probably stretched beyond there limit. Good luck man.