m4xwellmurd3r

wow thats impressive compression numbers for that many miles.

I wouldnt bother spraying a head gasket. get yourself a Felpro permatorque mls headgasket. theyre blue and supposedly that blue coating aids in sealing. I have one on my integra and I actually reused it after I messed up my valves (it only had like 30 miles on it though) but that sucker still sealed up perfectly fine. theyre oem quality for sure.

I would also suggest a hondata intake manifold gasket. theyre reusable and also help block heat from soaking into the manifold.


Posted from Honda-tech.com App for Android

PatrickGSR94

iTrader: (1)

But I already have new OEM Honda mls HG and cork IM gasket. You don't think I should put the copper spray on the OEM HG?

Well I dropped off the head at a highly respected and highly rated machine shop here in town. They do lots of machine work on Honda stuff as well as Nissan and Toyota. There's an older guy who does the machine work and has worked on many, many Honda engines. He was also highly impressed with the condition of the head having as many miles as it does. He laid the straight edge on it, and it's perfectly flat. No high spots, and a .003 feeler gauge would not fit underneath it anywhere.

I showed him the old HG and he could immediately see where it had failed. Then he got to looking at the head with a magnifying glass and found a couple of small nicks in the mating surface on the exhaust side of cylinder 3 combustion chamber. They were right in between the coolant passage and the combustion chamber.

So he's going to clean up the head, and shave just a hair's width off the mating surface. He's also going to install the new valve seals for me, and clean up the valve seating surfaces. And then also remove that broken intake manifold stud. All in all he said it would be $125 and should be ready in a couple of days.

Good folks up there. He actually showed me how he does the valve seals and said I could probably do them myself if I wanted to save some bucks, but I told him I'd just rather not deal with it, plus I wanted him to do the work on the valve mating surfaces in the process.

If anybody in the Memphis area needs engine machine work, hit up Bobby at Harris Quon Auto Service.

m4xwellmurd3r

well if you already have the OEM stuff then use it haha. And no, I don't think you should use any copper spray. There's no reason to do it since the OEM gaskets seal up just fine.
125 sounds like a pretty nice deal too, sounds like it'll be all back together good as new.

KILLAB17VTEC

nice to see u tune it up.. any mod plan?

PatrickGSR94

iTrader: (1)

nope, zero, just want to get it running again, and reliably so.

PatrickGSR94

iTrader: (1)

I swear it seems like the more stuff I remove, the more stuff breaks. I found my PCV hose all torn to pieces. Also managed to break one of the vac hose ports on my vacuum tank, so now I need a new tank in addition to the IAB solenoid.

I went ahead and remove the IACV and FITV and will clean those up, as they have never been cleaned before.

PatrickGSR94

iTrader: (1)

WOOHOO picked up the head from the machine shop today, and man does it ever look nice. Almost makes me sad to put it back on top of a dirty block and gearbox bell housing. Oh well who cares, it's just a daily driver

Bobby at Harris Quon Auto Service in Memphis does a superb job with Honda engine heads.

IN VTEC

iTrader: (3)

I thought the spec limit was 0.002"?

Also, I've got a couple of IAB tanks you can have. One's brand new in the bag and the other is some random tank I had when I thought I wanted to make power with a 2-stage manifold. If you PM me your shipping address, I'll mail the new one to you.

S2BumpsticksGSR

The bottom looks like it might be a bit rough. Mine was almost a mirror finish from machine shop. I hope it works for you anyway. Ooh- virgin ports/cumbustion chambers. Gasket match the ports for a teeny wake up...

j13

iTrader: (2)

fresh head with worn oil rings...Im sure you're going to have the valve seats regrinded? you shouldn't. highly sealed combustion chamber with old rings = lower end failure. how do I know this? it happened to me. Im going to pray once for you good sir.

j13

iTrader: (2)

with such high miles on the bearings, oil pump, and rings, should have just payed the 1k-1.5k for a 0 mile engine.

PatrickGSR94

iTrader: (1)

I was making 250+ on the compression before the work. Surely it wouldn't be even higher after this.

PatrickGSR94

iTrader: (1)

Where do you find a fresh long block for that cheap?

PatrickGSR94

iTrader: (1)

Just kinda piddled around with it today, still waiting on parts. I cleaned up the threads on the 9 IM studs I still have and reinstalled them. New stud is coming. Also ordered all 10 new flange nuts since the old ones were starting to get rounded off.

I checked the fitment of the new IM gasket and all the openings in the gasket are just a touch larger than the ports themselves. So no trimming needed there. I cleaned up the IACV and put it back on, then sprayed a crap ton of carb cleaner into the IM, through the runners and through the TB. Cleaned it up as best I could. Also cleaned the oil/coolant sludge off the valve cover.

Started cleaning the carbon deposits off the tops of the 1 and 4 pistons with a little Seafoam. That stuff works pretty well at breaking that stuff up. Still need to rotate the crank 180 so I can clean off 2 and 3 piston tops.

#4 piston


#1 still needs a little work but it looked like #2 before I put the Seafoam on it.


So much cleaner!

S2BumpsticksGSR

Its a very convenient time to replace the o-rings on either end of the coolant tube that runs on the backside of the block. Be very careful of the little hose ends if you choose to do so.

PatrickGSR94

iTrader: (1)

dangit, wish I had thought about that before I placed this last parts order

racebum

there is no way in hell you either have

1. a gsr
2 did the HG yourself

the gsr fel pro HG is the oem hg, it's bare steel. felpro is who makes the honda oem's in the united states for the b18c

many felpro HG's are blue but the one for the b18c is not

racebum

that's a good question

a jdm gsr is around 1800 for a long block...and in your case it may not have been a bad idea. you could drop and run it after switching a couple parts, AND you would get another alternator, bunch of sensors and ps pump along with an ac pump

a type r bottom end is 2500 from acura which is the same price as the gsr bottom end give or take

unless some shop does a slap together rebuild you can not get a new bottom end for that money

a good shop like endyn will charge about 3000 for a full bottom end rebuild


something was also a little funny with the compression, water in the cylinder may have been the cause

a brand new type r that has 10:6-1 compression will crank 255-260lbs

also please tell me you're changing the valve seals, they are $1 each and the most leak prone seal in the engine, exhaust especially. they get hard and heat cycled

since you have the head off it would be less than an hour to do

PatrickGSR94

iTrader: (1)

No doubt man, all new Honda OEM valve seals installed. The machinist was like "dang man Honda ones are the best you can get!" Apparently he's done a lot of Honda head work using non-OEM seals. The valves are also all cleaned up and look brand new.

Got my last parts order in today. Unfortunately I'm still at a standstill until I can get a replacement vac tank and IAB solenoid, since I'm putting the head and IM back on together and no way in hell am I gonna try to mess with installing that tank and solenoid underneath the IM after it's already in the car.

I decided to get a brand spankin new oil dipstick since the green rubber piece on mine is old and pretty hardened. Also got a new dipstick tube but not sure if I'm gonna use it or not. I thought it had an o ring on it and it might be leaking, but it doesn't appear to have one. I'm not even sure how to get the old tube out or what secures it in place.

So yet another weekend it's going to have to sit there I guess. I need to get after draining the oil and rest of the coolant, and also install my replacement shifter parts (previous parts order before this whole ordeal started).

PatrickGSR94

iTrader: (1)

As for the compression, 94 Helms says 270 nominal, 140 minimum. Cyl 1 and 2 which were not taking on coolant cranked 247 and 242 PSI. 3 and 4 were higher which could have been from the coolant/oil mix like you said, but it still wasn't above factory spec 270 PSI. Nor was it beyond the 28 PSI max variation specified by Helms. All 4 cylinders measured within 28 PSI of one another.

racebum

the honda valve seals just fit better. fel pro makes a viton seal but it doesn't clip on as well

surprised you couldn't find a vac tank and solenoid used. they are or at least use to be give aways when everyone starting putting the blox manifolds on the gsr

i still have never seen a stock engine near that helms number, even the 11:1 jrm itr's i had never cranked over 260 unless oil was in the cylinder

average gsr compression is 230-240

once you get this new HG on i bet your numbers are much closer

m4xwellmurd3r

the permatorque is blue though. they used to be black afaik but now they make them blue.
unless they make a more basic mls headgasket besides the permatorque gasket.
no dont have a gsr
yes did the hg myself. not like its a difficult thing to do either.

how the hell can you say I didnt do the hg on my car? or are you implying that because I must not have a gsr theres no way I did the hg on my car, which is an ls.

anyways the permatorque specifically is black or blue, its not bare steel.


Posted from Honda-tech.com App for Android

PatrickGSR94

iTrader: (1)

Yeah I have sourced a vac tank and solenoid and am getting them. I was just saying I'm st a standstill until I get them, because I really want to get it all together at once, with some assembly lube in the cam journals, etc. Then get it cranked and warmed up as soon as possible after assembly.

PatrickGSR94

iTrader: (1)

Updated the OP with this:

Just noticed the other day that the outer boot on my driver side CV axle is getting ready to rip open. Thankfully it hasn't done so yet, so it hasn't made a mess on everything. But I can see the crack starting in the rubber bellows, so I need to replace this before we driver the car to FL on vacation. The axle on there now is a reman from NAPA, been on there 3 or 4 years now. I recently replaced my passenger side axle with a brand new unit from O'Reilly so I'll be getting a matching brand new axle for the left side.

For those who may be wondering, the NAPA axles had a lifetime warranty when I first got them. But then they stopped doing that I guess because of people swapping them out all the time. They changed their warranty to 3 years. I found that out this last time I got a set of NAPA axles and ended up having to pay out of pocket for them. I believe these brand new axles from O'Reilly have a lifetime warranty.

PatrickGSR94

iTrader: (1)

I'm not understanding this. The valves in the head were already sealing well, based on my compression numbers. If any of them were leaking the numbers should have been much lower I would think. So even with the refreshed head and cleaned up valves and seats (only the seating surfaces on the valves themselves were touched, not the seats on the head itself) then I don't see how it could affect the bottom end any more than it did before.

But maybe since the head looked to be in exceptionally good shape, perhaps the rings and bearings are also in good shape. Yes it has 329K miles on it but I haven't really beat on it in the 12 years I've owned it. Did a couple of autocrosses (seriously, just 2), and a couple of drag strip sessions way back, many years ago, like 150K-200K miles ago, but since then it's just been normal driving, with regular oil changes, most recently using 0w-30 full synthetic changed every 6K miles for the past 3 years or so.