Thank you

Update:

Welp, right about now I should of been reporting back on how the new tires feel but I have only driven on them for 25 miles...

On my way to work last Tuesday the car started creating a cloud of smoke behind it and quickly began overheating so I pulled over, popped the hood and saw coolant all over the transmission case. Radiator was dry and right away I knew it was the head gasket that had went because D series are known for their headgaskets going out at such mileage. Plus the way that it was leaking from the sides gave it away.
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I got some water and then drove it home just fine but its obvious that it was leaking inside the cylinders as the power was cutting out for a couple of seconds, felt like it didn't have good compression and was also noticeably louder. Luckily no milky residue in the oil system either.
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This weekend I got the rest of the garage sorted out and now I'm back in business! Gave the Dark Knight a nice wash and parked her in



I was a little bummed that it took a crapper right after getting new tires (no baller here) but at the same time what can you do but make the best out of it?

I considered getting a spare D16Z6 swapped in to get me around for now while I slowly fix my D16Z6 on the side, but then the cost to swap a spare in would be the same as just fixing mine so to have another of the "same" engine and then still spend more on mine would be silly. Also dealing with a swap in, out and another in plus the sale of the spare is just too much hassle for no reason even if a swap is easy, it would be time consuming.

So the decision I made was to order everything needed to fix it and all the maintenance parts while I'm at it. I'll have a strong healthy engine which will be nice so all in all this isn't too bad of a scenario.

Today I ordered all OEM the parts from Majestic (OEM FTW!). Not sure when they'll be here though. The list includes new head gasket, head bolts, water pump, thermostat, coolant, upper and lower radiator hoses, timing belt, timing belt tensioner, exhaust bolt and nut, timing belt covers with bolts and all gaskets necessary and a battery stay.

It will be a good bit of work to do but def will be nice to get the experience. The head will need to be checked for warpage so hopefully its not which would save me a machine job.

Since the EG is down the mean time, I have the opportunity to do some side work on it while the parts are on their way so Monday I started cleaning up my Function and Form Type Is and got 1 disassembled. Since they will be going back in the car for the winter. Look at them and you will see why. I want my N+ to stay mint so having the F&Fs as a winter setup on winter tires and decent wheels is a nice setup IMO!

The perches are obviously seized but WD40/PB Blaster and a heat gun never fail. Slowly heating around the perches makes them expand and with the help of a flathead+hammer they come loose. 2 spanner wrenches spinning opposite of one another unlocks the upper and lower perches.

 

Sucks to hear about the head gasket man. I dealt with that all summer. When you check the head, check the block too. It is unlikely for it to be warped, but I just ruled it out and ended up doing the head gasket twice before I realized the block was the issue.

 

wow those FFs are fucked!

sorry about your motor. would be cool to see a b16 in there

 

Yeah not the best timing but could be worse. Thanks for the tip!

Yep which is why I'm not driving through the winter with the N+. The F&Fs are still perfectly good though, no leaks or broken collars. Just surface rust on the threads but that happens. Unless you spray them with lubricant everyday in the winter that will happen. I'm going to protect the threads this time around though.

A B swap is still way out of reach right now and I don't want a stolen/beat up motor either. In the future...

 

To bad about the head gasket. You'll enjoy working on it tho. I've been building d-series over the past 5-6 years and they are tons of fun to mess with. I would get the head skimmed slightly. All of the heads I have 'in stock' needed a slight mill, some only around .002' some up to .012". To clean the block drain the coolant from the coolant jackets and be extremely careful to remove all of the oil and coolant that finds its way down the head bolt holes. After the coolant is gone and the bolt holes are 100% clear of liquid use one of these (the yellow one):



You can get them from the Snap-On truck or borrow one from somebody. Buzz the block with it lightly then use brake clean and a shop towel to remove any residue. I like using the yellow finger thing-m-jig because it doesn't leave behind any grit or abrasives on the cylinder walls and is super soft on the deck surface finish.

 

wanna buy this hype-r swap?

 

Yeah it will be a cool learning experience. Thanks for the advice man, I'll be sure to keep it in mind. I can't find one of those things though. If you could help me source one that would be awesome. I've tried searching but didn't get far.

lol that would be one lucky motor to find its way onto my engine bay

Update:


I sold my Cobra Imola 2 bucket seat this weekend and also picked up some new tools/supplies. I got a straightedge and feeler gauges to measure any warpage on the head and block, 7mm thick nitrile gloves, 230 ft-lbs electric impact wrench and a 16,000 btu propane space heater. Now I just need to pick up a propane tank.







I needed go get 1/2'' extensions to reach outside of the wheel well for removing the crank pulley bolt but instead I opted for the impact wrench. If it didn't work then I could just return it. I used it to remove the lug nuts and they came right off. I jacked up the drivers side and got to work on the crank pulley bolt. I was expecting a challenge but I soaked it in WD-40 and used my heat gun on it for a little bit, then got my 17mm impact socket with impact wrench on it and it fought for half a second and came off. Cake!



Notice the little pin inside there. Its called a woodruff key, don't loose it!



Now that the "difficult" part was out of the way, I jacked up the car all around to the highest setting so that theres good room to work with underneath.

First things first, disconnect battery ground and drain all the coolant (remove the wingnut) and remove radiator hoses.



I took off the heater hose as well (goes in above the tranny) and surprise surprise.



It has a nice hole in it like I had suspected. It explains the coolant loss but I am I still confident that the headgasket is blown due to the loss of power and felt like it was hydrolocking. However I ended up forgetting to order a new heater hose even though I got new radiator hoses so I will need to place another order. I called today to check the status and its all ready but being held up by the timing cover that they are waiting for. I still have to get the head checked so the parts wait isn't causing a delay yet.

Next I took off the spark wires, plugs, intake, VC bolts and ground.



Cruise control box out.



Alternator bolt loosened and belt removed.



Oil pan supported.



Motor mount out.



Pulley off and timing belt out. Now is where things get fun, the tensioner bolt gets rounded off for no reason and I'll need bolt extractor sockets to get it out. Good thing I ordered a new bolt but this sucks. Wasn't expecting an issue here. No biggie.



Onto the next, water pump. (If you ever do this make sure you have a bucket under for coolant to fall on)



Throttle cable comes off, injector harness, PS cable and fuel return pulled from intake manifold brackets and fuel cable to the rail (coming from the fuel filter).



Then I removed every plug attached to the manifold. Probably some 8 plugs like distributor, map sensor, VTEC solenoid, etc.



Now I need to remove the header but one of the bolts that connected to the cat is stripped because it won't loosen or tighten, it just spins (I already knew this going in). I ordered a new bolt/nut for it and just need to take a sawzall to cut it off.

After thats done the head can come off and be checked/sent out. In the meanwhile I'll get a propane tank, place the new order and deal with getting the tensioner bolt off.

More soon...

 

http://3mcollision.com/scotch-brite-...ch-medium.html

http://www.reidsupply.com/Detail.asp...FYw-MgodgC0A7A

enjoy

 

So does your oil have water in it? If your head gasket is blown and you have over heated the car get it resurfaced. Remember always better off doing then not. It would be like changing your timing belt and leaving the old water pump. You have had some poor luck.

 

Awesome man thanks a lot!

I can't say for sure but it definitely looks "watery". I'll most definitely be resurfacing the head, I just hope the block is ok too!

Update:

My Honda order came in



I went ahead and picked up a propane tank as well. Haven't needed to use it but will be trying it out today. "We ain't cold no more either breh"



Borrowed a sawzall from the homie to cut the old header bolt off and an o2 sensor socket that slips over the o2 sensor wiring and with a little heat and WD came off.

So the header is out and all that needs to be done right now is remove the head bolts and pull the head to send off.

The tensioner bolt is turning out to be a headache. I borrowed a bolt extractor kit but its very hard to lock it in the bolt because there isn't enough space to hammer it. I'm going to give it another try but if that doesn't get the socket in then I'll have to drop that side of the motor to get access, hammer it in and use an impact.

 

Try using vice grips on the tensioner bolt. Really clamp them on so they dig in to the bolt.

 

I dropped the drivers side of the engine down to get better access and still couldn't do it so I'm picking up a propane torch today and hopefully that does the trick.

I also got a quote for the resurface and will drop it off today or tomorrow.

I am also placing an for more parts today since I didn't order the heater hose and I need to remove the intake manifold for the resurface which I didn't think would be needed so I'll need a new gasket for that as well.

My goal is to have this buttoned up on Thanksgiving but if not by this weekend at the latest.

 

Hondata gasket?

 

Wut?

 

http://www.kingmotorsports.com/p-198...d-gaskets.aspx

 

 

Lol why would I need a Hondata gasket? More compression? :p

 

too busy getting bucket seats to know that this will keep IAT's down. It acts as a thermal barrier between the head and intake manifold.

 

Lol I'm kidding Mike. My point is why would I need a Hondata instead of just an OEM one? OEM doesn't act like a heat barrier?

 

good work going in clauds

 

No

 

Thats why the 32 year old, whos been building Hondas for 14 years mentioned it

its a relatively inexpensive way to upgrade over the OEM piece, why else would Hondata, Golden Eagle and others make it, if it did nothing. They're not ARC Magic

 

Did the Hondata gasket on my last build. Smelled coolant all the time, pretty sure it was from that. . . stupid leaky gasket. . .

 

Thanks Matt

I had never heard of it and the concept is cool but upon research it seems some people are having problems and some are not. OEM usually always works unless things have been changed but I'm already a bit overbudget on this one so I'll stick with the OEM for now.

Well that settles that then.

Update:

To sum up the issue, I'm pretty certain of what happened. Somehow my heater hose got cut, coolant leaked out, engine overheated and as a result the HG blew. The HG was a secondary problem so I would say that this was partially my fault. I pulled over quickly but should of just stayed there until I got some water instead of limping the rest of the way to work stopping and going for a little bit every 15 minutes.

Anyways, I got some work done on Tuesday. I unbolted the headbolts 1/3 turn each at a time as indicated in the Helms manual and then careful not to scratch the block I gently took the head off.



Then I unbolted the intake manifold off and inspected the combustion chamber.



In the bottom left picture, you can see where the HG was leaking. In the bottom middle where theres some extra oil. The HG was a little bent in that same spot. As far as I know this was the only place that it was leaky but it could have been in other places as well.

Upclose on the block. The only area that has deposits like that.



I then got to business and checked the block for warpage and it was fine. Then I checked the head according to the manual and it was within the .002mm limit. I wanted to be 100% sure so I took it to my local machine shop and the guy there was pretty cool. He checked it and said it was good everywhere and in the worst parts if was just under .002'' if not at .002''.

So it passed the service limit test so I will not be getting it resurfaced which will save me some money but most importantly time.

In the meantime I went and attempted once more to get the tensioner bolt out but this time I brought my friend Mr. Map along



Heated the tensioner bolt very well and it still didn't get the bolt off. My next resort will be to cut off the head, remove the tensioner and then I'll be able to heat the bolt directly at the thread and using locking pliers it should definitely come out.

Today I went ahead and disassembled the other 3 F&F coilovers. I cleaned them and lubricated with silicone spray. After I reset the preload and estimated the ride height.



Removed the N+.



I installed the F&Fs and used one washer for each rear side to account for the slightly shaved OEM lca bushing and it fits nice and snug without play.

While the intake manifold was out I removed the IACV and cleaned it out. Hopefully my idle is more stable now.

In between this crazyness I had to go and test fit a Wed



Another thing I did was degrease the engine bay and block and its a good bit better.

It almost seems as if I haven't gotten anything done but I'm getting closer to being back on the road. I really miss driving this thing though, its a good way of testing waters if I ever wanted to take the car off the road for a bit to do some prolonged work. Def would be a sacrifice!

Whats next? Well, I'm waiting for the bristle disc to come in so that I can clean the block/head and I wanted to wait till I removed the head to see if I would need any other parts so now that I already did that I know what else to get. I need to place another Honda order asap (intake manifold gasket, heater hose,clamps and misc bolts). Then I have to borrow Mike's cutter and get the stubborn tensioner bolt off so that I can begin cleaning the head bolt holes on the block. Almost there...

 

Ive used it on 3 different b series builds, b16, gsr and LS-vtec with gsr head and never had an issue. There wouldnt be any coolant in the vicinity of your intake manifold. Sounds like your car had "other" problems.

OEM can leak just the same. Sounds like your blaming your "effect" on an unknown "cause"