Ok...I'm having a headgasket problem that I can't seem to solve and it's really starting to drive me insane! I can't seem to keep a headgasket in my GE-sleeved h22 to save my life. The motor is originally an '01 h22a4 w/ GE sleeves, pauter rods, and je 9:1 pistons. I built the motor and at the time arp head studs weren't available so it got a new oem headgasket and new oem bolts...no problems during break-in. The motor has about 2500 miles on it now and as I've been progressively getting a better tune in my aem computer I've been dialing the boost up. Well once I crossed the 12psi threshold all went to hell...I was leaking under boost. It'd pressurize the cooling system, fill the overflow, and blow the lid off. Well I wrote it off as possibly stretching the stock headbolts and since arp's _still_ weren't available I put another new headgasket and 10 new headbolts so that I could drive it...with the boost dialed down to 10psi I managed to start leaking again after only a couple days. Now I had straightedged the block and head while they were apart and both seemed to be dead on.

Fast forward to a couple weeks ago and I had finally received and decided to install my ARP studs...new headgasket, copper spray, torqued in steps to an ARP moly-lubed spec of 80ft-lbs. Thought all was well...beat on it for a day at 12psi and then upped to 15. AEM computer is dialed to 11.5-12:1 (on the safe side for now) under boost and my timing map is pretty conservative. Well wouldn't you know after 2 days at 15psi I managed to blow the headgasket again? Same symptoms, just leaks while boosting but annoying as hell. I pulled the head which is now a royal PITA w/ studs as an h22 tilts back making removal with the intake an impossibility unless you pull the studs. Thinking that the only logical possibility was that the head was warped I dropped the head at the machine shop to be checked and resurfaced if necessary. Now I get a call back saying that the head is <.001" out...WTF?!

I checked both the head and the block before...I took the head to my machine shop in the hope that they would tell me I was an idiot and it was more crooked than a politician. Now I'm stuck...I can't logically explain why this is occurring and can't justify putting the car back together without knowing a cause?? Anyone have a clue what's happening? My original plan was to go with a thicker cometic gasket but I'm not sure that will cure the problem...the domestic heads at the machine shop seem to think a copper h/g is the way to go but I'm a little hesitant to go with copper on a street car as I've always heard of leaking nightmares with copper. Even if I went to copper I'd need to o-ring, correct? Since the block is step-decked that'd require a complete teardown which I am _not_ doing...the car will be sold before it comes to that.

Help.

--Ian

 

Copper is amazing when it comes to compression, but shitty when it comes to water. i would siggest a headgasket that uses copper rings around the cylinders. who makes one? sorry, i have not a clue for honda's.

 

try the cometic one in there and see what happens compared to the factory. Torque the head studs to spec and then retorque it after a good drive.

 

That's what I think it's going to come down to. The only input my machinist had was that the deck was possibly too rough...I told him that I've got alot of faith in GE and given the amount of blocks they do I think more than just me would be having issues if they were doing it wrong!

--Ian

 

I called Ted @ GE yesterday. They recommended a stock head gasket and their copper o-ring on a high boost motor. He said if you can't use a stock head gasket, use a Cometic stadard gasket.

Ted @ GE told me the copper o-rings were a necessity for higher boost levels. Both o-ringed and non o-ringed blocks coming out of GE have the step deck design. The step decks have the same height on both types.

 

my friend has the exact same problem with his boosted itr.. here is the thread.
https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=252020

I don't believe he has resolved it yet..i think he's going to try to use a copper headgasket.

 

is this any good???

http://store.summitracing.com/defaul...rchType%3DBoth

it's cheap, what about the copper SCE headgaskets?

 

we had the same problem with a b20 85 mm from GE. Went cometic and problem solved...

 

Bingo. Get a Cometic FI gasket. 'Nuff said.