xGeNeTiCxFuNkx

I was on a long drive today 70 miles one way and on the way back i stopped at mcdonalds to get something to eat and noticed my mechanical gauge was reading 200 degrees and kinda scared me bu once i started driving it went back to 180, so once i got back to my house about 70 miles the other way i got in my driveway and let it idle until the fan kicked on at about 190 to 196 wich it did, and i noticed my regular dash gauge was in the middle and my mechanical gauge went from 190 to 180 then to 160 then back up to 180 an the fan was still on at the time so i popped the hood and seen that the coolant resivor was plump full and i opened the radiator and there wasnt anything in there, so i took what was from the resivor and dumped into the rad and it filled it, could this be the headgasket? Cause i think compression is pushing coolant but is there anythig else that can cause this? Before i rip the head off and replace gasket, and if it matters it was about 17 degrees out today and i had my cardboard in front of half the rad

Morgan Blakely

yes yes and yes, see other recent thread about heating temp issues on the 99 civic

xGeNeTiCxFuNkx

Ive read them and alot say to just teplace head gasket, so idk i guess once it gets warmer ill rip it down to do it, would the head need to be decked or would it be fine, it never got in the red and ive never seen it in the red, just every so often it will push most of the coolant into the overfill resivor

NotARaCist

iTrader: (1)

Buy/borrow/rent and use a block tester to confirm.

eghatch9295

iTrader: (1)

always best to at least have it checked

Morgan Blakely

I only said to refer to that thread because I had just replied to that one... it just so happened my reply was your exact symptoms. I just got done with my HG and I didn't resurface, but only because I don't have the extra time for it to be down right now... but all my HG symptoms cleared right up once i slapped a new gasket in.

NotARaCist

iTrader: (1)

You may not need to resurface, but you ALWAYS need to check the block and head. "I didn't have time" is a pretty shitty excuse. It takes 10 minutes to do, and 10 minutes is a hell of a lot shorter than the couple hours it'll take you when the head gasket gives out again because you didn't check it.

Morgan Blakely

i might have had time to check it with the feeler guage but that didn't matter... i did not have time to send it to a machine shop. I am a single mother with no freaking help at all and only one way to work... so call my excuse "shitty" if you want... I will be the one breaking down the head again to send it to a shop when it comes time- not you- so don't worry your *** about it. I didn't tell him to skip it, I should certainly hope if someone else had the time and money to have it sent off they would check and do that. you may not be a racist but calling people out when you don't have a clue is still pretty "shitty" of you.

NotARaCist

iTrader: (1)

Best practices - we encourage them around here. If you're going to halfass your work, go right ahead and use whatever excuse you want to make yourself feel good. I don't care. Don't bring up bad practices and half assed work here, though, because the only thing you accomplish is encouraging other people to do the same. When they come back a month later wondering why their head gasket failed again, the regulars here like myself will be the ones helping them. Halfassed work that fails also reflects poorly on the forum where people got the idea from in the first place. We already have enough trolls and ignorami making the forum look bad - please don't add add bad advice to that pile.

xGeNeTiCxFuNkx

K so my next question, when i get the head out can i just bring it to a machine shope to have them check if its warped or not, and how much does it run to deck the head if it needs it? And can i run the car yet as long as i keep an eye on the coolant? I dont drive long distances on average 10 miles usually

xGeNeTiCxFuNkx

Would this head gasket work? http://m.ebay.com/itm/220962618993?nav=SEARCH

Its got all the gaskets i need and even the head studs or would i be better off buying this kit and an oem gasket?

NotARaCist

iTrader: (1)

You could bring it to a machine shop and pay them to check it, or you could buy a machinist's straight edge and some small feeler gauges and check it yourself. It's an extremely easy process. Just make 6 dots with a Sharpie, one at each corner, and two in the middle of the long sides. Place the straight edge from point to point, and if I remember correctly, you shouldn't be able to fit a feeler gauge larger than .008" under the straight edge.

You can buy a machinist's straight edge from Sears, Lowes, Home Depot, Harbor Freight, or if you have a college nearby, you can go to their bookstore to buy one. Same with the feeler gauges, minus the campus bookstore.

If the head is warped, any competent machine shop should be able to plane it for you. Prices will vary by location, so check with some machine shops local to you.

I definitely would not recommend driving the car with a damaged head gasket. Continual overheating will warp your head. A head gasket leaking coolant into a cylinder can also damage your cylinder sleeves, and if the leak gets bigger, it could completely give way and hydrolock your engine, which risks your rods. Long story short, definitely avoid driving the car until it's fixed.

As for that kit...no. No no no. Buy either an OEM head gasket kit, or another reputable company (I'm personally a fan of Cometic, and they have a complete top-end kit), and buy either OEM or ARP head studs. Yes, you'll be spending a few hundred dollars, but spend the money to do it right now, or spend a lot more later to fix new problems caused by the cheap parts.

Schister66

^^Good advice. Do it once, do it right. It may be a bit more expensive and time-consuming up front, but will save you a big headache in the long run.

As for the headgasket, I would only run OEM or Cometic

xGeNeTiCxFuNkx

K ill get an oem gasket and i think the head bolts on hondapartsnow.com were fairly cheap, ad for right now the car doesnt overheat and never overheated thats y i asked if it was ok to drive yet as long as i kept an eye on the coolant in the rad, over time or a course of a week it seems to push it into the resivour

hell0curry

I did two head gaskets in the past two months and two different cars. Both d16y7, the first one was my daily, the second one I bought off Craig's that had a blown HG because the first one was so easy, I figure I do another one. I bought it for 470 dollars did the HG and just sold it for 1500 on Friday.

For my daily civic I was having the same symptoms as you overheating out of the blue, and my whole cooling system was brand new. So lucky my friend is a mechanic and he had the block tester, and it confirmed it was the HG didn't drive it again till that weekend I tore it down Saturday put the new HG and torqued the head down, next day finished buttoning everything up. And it solved my problem. I spent 90 dollars at oreilly's. I just got a new Fel-pro HG, copper HG spray, new coolant, intake manifold gasket , valve cover gasket, and exhaust manifold gasket. You don't really need the exhaust manifold gasket, because the stock ones are metal so you can just spray some of the Copper HG spray and it's good.

I also reused the stock head studs, just clean the holes and the bolt threads and install with some motor oil, get a helms or at least a Haynes I used that really only for torque specs and fighting sequence. I suggest if you do have a bad HG just go for it, if you got a good toolset and a weekend it's totally worth it.

NotARaCist

iTrader: (1)

Felpro head gaskets are horrible for Hondas. They might be good for domestics, but their gaskets for Hondas are just cheap crap. You shouldn't use copper spray on Honda head gaskets. You can get away with re-using stock head bolts...but you really shouldn't. Yes, you should definitely clean out the holes. Ideally you would use a thread cleaning or chasing tool, but if you don't have one of those, you can get away with filling the hole with parts cleaner, letting it soak, then blasting it dry with compressed air. Applying oil to the bolts before installing them is also correct, but an even better option is to use ARP graphite assembly lube.

xGeNeTiCxFuNkx

Would i be able to use the old studs? Cause the car only has 142xxx miles on it

NotARaCist

iTrader: (1)

I personally wouldn't trust them, no.

hell0curry

To be honest I personally don't like Fel-pro either but their HG actually exceeded my expectations. It was a three ply metal HG just like oem ones. I bought two Fel-pro HG and I would buy one again if I ever do a civic again.

As far as the copper HG spray, a lot of people and my self has had great success with using it. When you spray the gasket it makes the gasket very tacky making a better seal.

The head studs can be reused I don't care what anyone says if it looks good and the treads are clean and not warped there fine. Just re-torque them back to oem spec and add maybe 2-3 for ft lbs.

My way may be the less expensive way, but it fixed both problems. And I only spent 90 for both. If you can afford all oem parts then go for that but if your like me and you have a family and other issues to deal with financially wise, it doesn't hurt to buy parts from checkers and save on the expenses. You can't complain when a job that cost around 1100 at a shop was fixed by your self for 90 dollars and a day or two.

NotARaCist

iTrader: (1)

Different manufacturers have different steps for head gasket installs. Honda specifically says to install the clean head gasket between clean mating surfaces. For a stock rebuild, Honda knows best. Copper spray is completely unnecessary if the head and block are both within spec for truness, and if the block or head aren't true, then it's just a bandaid for a gaping head wound. Basically, it's unnecessary at best, and dangerous at worst.

Unless you know the stretch specs of the head bolts, have a stretch gauge, and have access to advanced metallurgic tools to see if they have microscopic stress damage, you can't know if they're good or not. Head bolts are cheap. Replace them.

bamaland601

iTrader: (1)

i'll too say that the copper spray is great at times, i used it when i had a slightly warped head and it sealed the deal with 2x coats to each side.

as far as re-using the head bolt, no never... threads may appear fine but that doesnt mean squat, the actual neck of the bolt stretches not the threads.. so if re-using just remember that everytime you put torque on them thats just like pissing in the wind, all it takes is for the neck to give out then your stuck with a broken bolt in the block.. we all know that isnt a very good thing as you've just wasted more money attempting to remove the broken bolt and/or replace the block

xGeNeTiCxFuNkx

K ill get head bolts to, and just get it fine right, now when i send the head in to make sure its fine, do i need to take out the cam and valves and all that jazz?

NotARaCist

iTrader: (1)

That's all up to the machinist. You can do the checking yourself without having to disassemble the head.

hell0curry

Leave the cam in, thats the beauty of our sohc motors. You have access to the head bolts with out removing any valve train or cams, unlike dohc motor. Just unbolt the head and dont turn the sprocket after unless you want headaches.

xGeNeTiCxFuNkx

K so nothing in the head needs removing, now i understand not to move the cam but if it needs machining what if it moves then? Im gonna mark it, but dont they have marks on it to retime? I know the z6 timing marks were easy to see and retime