ClubSiRacer

Since I built my motor, I have had an ever so tiny oil leak out the front corners of the block, primarly on the left side of the head gasket nearest the VTEC solenoid. I keep thinking its the head gasket but no matter what I do (including replacing the head gasket with a brand new one) it doesnt seal properly... Not a big issue since its only a tiny leak, but over time its causing my oil to drop down slowly thus I have to get more oil at take it up the *** prices. None the less, I spoke with Jason at Cometic ( www.cometic.com ) today about their gaskets and he said that with the head and block both milled some, the dowels may be causing the head not to fully seat on the front of the block. (Which is what came to mind awhile back but i'm too lazy to try that.) Anyway, does this sound like a likely cause? Its not leaking coolant and the head gasket isnt blown. (It does this even with a brand new gasket properly torqued to spec in the proper sequence.) Its just leaking a slight amount of oil (via the oil drains located at the front and rear of the block) at the front of the gasket primarly at that one corner. He also suggested since i'm running 81.5mm pistons to use an 82mm gasket just to be safe. Thoughts?

paulzy

iTrader: (1)

have you checked to see if the cam seal or vtec solenoid is leaking?

B20-T

yea its probaly your vtec selenoid seal or cam seal or valve cover seal..just check those out..

ClubSiRacer

I'm sure its neither of those. Their are no signs of oil on the head itself and it would be pretty obvious if that was the source. (I've seen leaky cam seals before, I had an Integra LS with that problem before I bought my Si.)

Basicly i'm 90% sure the head isnt fully seating up front and more so in the corners with the dowel (head alignment) pins. The last time I removed my head, the pins were rammed into the head so hard that I had to get out my jumbo vice clamps to pull them back out and replace them. So i'm guessing when I'm torquing down the head it is smashing the dowels into the head itself causing them to seize like that. (The first time I pulled the head after 25k miles roughly, they FELL out with no force at all.)

Its not a flow of oil coming out since the drains are not under pressure, but it is enough that it is noticeable and that to me is a problem.

The tossup here is, I am picking up some GSR cams soon and will have half of the crap off my car anyhow. I can either:

A> Pull the whole head off, swap in a new head gasket (perhaps a Cometic 82mm gasket), check and make sure everything is peachy, swap in a new oil pan gasket (friend of mine who was helping me "rebuild" this time last year was a wrench monkey and ultra tightened my oil pan down causing the gasket to leak), drop in a new water pump for safety sake and then replace the dowel pins with shaved down pins to be sure it seats fully. This would take a matter of a day or two hanging out in the garage and cost a few hundred bucks in parts. Not money I have, but I can get the stuff I need if I decide to go this route.

or

B> Just swap in the new cams, fix my oil pan gasket (without my friends help this time), replace the water pump and flush the fluids out of the system. Then again, i would be stuck with an iffy leak that could lead to other problems, or mabee its not a problem at all, just a grit of dirt got on the gasket when I dropped the head on and its simple as that?

I dont mind doing the work either way... And i've had to pull the head a few times to replace the gaskets, fix various problems or swap in new parts. I just dont want to pull the head and swap in a new gasket and find out it didnt make a lick of difference because the dowel pin wasnt the problem. And I dont want to send my head off to the machine shop again to get it resurfaced, nor the block which is a major task to have resurfaced.

Basicly my main question is, could the dowels cause the head not to fully seat the head gasket? Has this happened to anyone? And how did you fix it becides replacing the gasket over and over?


[Modified by ClubSiRacer, 9:49 PM 2/12/2003]

ClubSiRacer

Anyone?

tony1

I've never had it happen to me, but i've heard of it happening. If you're already gonna have it half way apart then i would go ahead and change the gasket and be done with it. I wouldn't go cometic though. I would go with an oem gasket. You could get an overbored oem gasket from golden eagle if it needs to be bored. We still use a stock honda gasket in our car with no problems. Can't go wrong with oem quality!

B20-T

Umm how does your oil look?is it millky

ClubSiRacer

Why would you suggest OEM Tony? I cant say i've had any problems with mine, but just curious...

Oil looks just like I poured it on the block from a bottle.

ekb18c

Wait, you milled your head and didn't shave the dowel pins down a litle bit?

I think that's the problem right there.

stupid fast 5.0

I have to agree on this one.
It shoulden't need much shaving but a little would most likely allow the dowelpins to seat properly.

my2c

tony1

Well, i've seen random problems with the cometic gaskets. Who knows, maybe they were install problems, i haven't used them. But, i know for a fact that a honda gasket will seal w/o problems (if everything else is right of course). I use oem gaskets in every motor i build.

DeepSi

If Golden Eagle tells us(ht.com) that we should use OEM headgasket, and not to use Aftermarket HG. I dont question the experts , i just do what they say, they have the experience and knowledge. GE told us that we should use OEM on all blocks they build.

ClubSiRacer

Well I didnt know at the time the dowels would need to be milled down. You'd figure that they would have made the recess for them deep enough to allow for the head to be machined when someone performs a rebuild.

None the less, these two damn dowels have caused me headaches in the past. Its no suprise they still haunt me to this day.

Either way, thanks for the feedback. This is Lesson Learned #43578C.579

Tinker219

I had the seal problem with my dowels on an LSVTEC i did last year. I think I just ground down the dowels a little bit, and it was fine after that.
like everyone else says...OEM