SimplyCivic

Hey,

This is my first time posting, and i come begging because im stumped. So i have a h23a bluetop in my ej8, i come to this section because the H series are more associated with preludes...

Anyway, my car was perfectly fine, and the motor ran strong but i decided to pull the intake manifold off and delete the secondary butterflies and open up the eight ports to 4. I did and as i reassembled it, a horrible vacuumn leak with my idle fluctuating from 1.5-2k was present. With brake cleaner ive found my intake manifold gasket was at fault.

Fast forward to now, ive done this eight times. ive been using victor reinz intake manifold gaskets, and within my eight attempts ive tried copper sealant spray, ultra copper rtv, and as it sits i have the hondata thermal gasket sandwitched between two paper gaskets from victor reinz. I have torqued to spec, 7 ft lbs to 16 ft lbs inside to out. Ive even sanded the head and intake manifold with a sanding block and it is a little better, idle fluctuates occasionally, hissing from the vacuum is still present and i am lost....i am sure it is from that area, fuel injector o-rings are new, i made new gaskets for the plenum and throttle body and brake cleaner seems to show the manifold gasket still leaks....is it possible i have a warped head or intake manifold? Im completely lost and am losing hope... 8 times ive tried and no luck. Ive been wanting to tune my car but havent due to this leak... im open to any suggestions please...

ojasia

Pull it off and post pics of head and IM. Judging by your troubleshooting with brake cleaner I don't think we need pics of anything else as long as ur 100% positive it's coming from there. Btw Gasket layering just makes things worse.