Toasty if I started second guessing that I installed the hg upside down, I would have pulled the head to find out before even posting. That way you can rule that out and no one would even have to know. Then if you still have the issues, you can explain it has a fresh hg to possibly rule that out.

I see your point about buying a gasket for no reason, but even if you find the hg is right side up and reassemble with a new gasket just think it still may need to come apart again if the problems persist. Sucks.

Bottom line is f- the symptoms...find out if its on right side up or not to rule it out.
Cant have doubts with assembly.

 

yup yup. vtec oil line port is in the wrong spot!

 

I'm heading back to college next month and i live about 2 hours away from my tools now. Finding the day to pull the head off my engine isn't so easy. It takes money and planning. I was trying to sell my car, and when i started posting pictures of my engine build, someone mentioned that the gasket was on backwards. I'd like to fix any problems with the car before selling it.

 

then pull the head off and be sure

 

yeah it is obvious its upsidedown but if you notice he had said earlier-

"3rd) I assembled the head to the block. The picture that was taking MAY have been just a quick... throw the gasket on the block and snap a picture, scenario. I might have taken the gasket back off and installed it properly. I'm not 100% sure."


Whats weird is if you were going to take pics of your motor, why would you want pics of the block with the gasket upside down? Kinda strange to show a motor your serious about with the gasket upside down. Just like people that take pics of a dirty greasy old motor and then say "well I cleaned it up after the pics"

 

Simple. Clearly this was my first build and I honestly don't recall any "up" symbol on the gasket, so i put it on the way i thought it should go. I still look at that picture and think... what's the problem?

 

ok, I just did a head gasket on my car for the first time, I installed my head gasket upside down by accident.

Symptoms I experienced

- After filling coolant and warming the engine for the first time. There was very little air that bubbled out of the system through the rad... Even after squishing the top hose after the car was at operating temperature.

- Radiator is always cool/cold

- Lower coolant hose was Always cold, upper coolant hose was quite hot and firm from pressure.

- Idles a bit funny when at operating temp.

Here's a pic showing What you can look for if you've got the gasket installed already.
I realized my head gasket was backwards because of this. Have a look at the "square" edges on the one side of the gasket


these are the things I experienced with a backwards head gasket. Hope it helps somebody :_

 

Thanks that helped me! I am a noob doing my own rebuild and engine refresh on my em1 and as soon as I started it a massive puddle of oil out of the back of the block. Thankful it is fixable just a few more wrenches turned.