CalvitoSol

well, i have oil leaking around the head and i get a lot of smoke under wot. I did a search and i'm hoping that its just a headgasket problem. i checked the compression and it reads 190 across the board so i'm guessing this is pretty good for a b16a3 w/ 80k miles.

-i need to take my car to the shop to get the hondata tuned but i want to work on the engine before doing this. my plans are as follows

1. arp or aebs headstuds (any suggestions?)
2. oem or cometic headgasket
3. camgears

I was thinking about going w/ a thicker hg like the inline pro and i heard that cometic offers the same thickness that will let me lower compression.

should i do this or just stay w/ the stock hg and rebuild later?
if i did go w/ a thicker cometic, what size do i need and how much will it lower it?

i'll appreciate any suggestions or advice. thanx

MotorMatrix.com

Use the stock headgasket and ARP studs. AEBS studs are a waste of money and I bet they are made by ARP anyway.

TeStUdO

yeah definitely sounds like headgasket, comp looks good across the board.

dfoxengr

inline HGs

Mr. Softee

could be your rings man... i had same problem.

TeStUdO

if it was the rings, i dont think he would read 190 across the board. just to be sure, drop some oil down the spark plug holes to the pistons and do it again. if the psi rises more than 10-15 its the rings. i dont think you should worry w/ high numbers and all the smoke which is almost a telltale sign of a head gasket

CalvitoSol

can you have good compression numbers and cracked rings/ringlands? what exactly do compression and leakdown tests tell you?

TeStUdO

comp and leakdown numbers let you know numerous things like bad rings, bent valves.....things like that. from your numbers i wouldnt worry about it

keebler65

also to verify that its the headgasket, have you checked your coolant for oil contamination? is the smoke white?

CalvitoSol

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by keebler65 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">also to verify that its the headgasket, have you checked your coolant for oil contamination? is the smoke white?</TD></TR></TABLE>

-i can't really say white but more like grey and even closer to dark grey. i can also smell A LOT of fumes out the tail pipe and it's gotten worse as time went on. maybe it's because i don't have a cat right now but my car started to run really rich after i re-wired my fuel pump w/ a 10 gauge wire.

-i also see a lot of oil seeping out by the hg by the passenger side and oil from what i think is the cam seal. it seems like that area was patched up w/ hondabond but started leaking again.

BTW: do i have to replace the stock headstuds everytime you take off the head? i was planning on getting the arp's but i don't think i'd have enough money.