ludesrv

My friend bought a JDM GSR from an importer. We had it running mint and it got stolen. The car had a leaking head gasket when it was recovered. It was pretty major. Driving it for about 15-20 minutes would cause a puddle to form under the engine and you could see it leaking from the front left corner of the head.

We replaced it, torque everything down to honda spec and when we started it up it was pissing oil like crazy from the back. This is the first time I did a head gasket replacement and it actually leaked on startup.

I'm kinda confused as to why it would do that. If the head would of warped shouldn't it be leaking from the same location? I used the dowels and everything was triple checked during assembly. I told the guy I'd rip it apart and redo the headgasket to be sure I didn't miss anything. But I used the proper torque specs and torquing sequence from the honda manual (downloaded of the net). He didn't have a good torquing wrench tho and I wasn't sure if it was properly calibrated. I did use it to rebuild his 400EX quad and it worked great during that rebuild, which is why I trusted it for the B18C rebuild.

Anyways, I'm just asking for advice as to what I should do? Could the head have been warped? Is the headgasket still good even tho I used it for that 1 minute it ran? Should I pull the head of and just get it machined (owner said he would do it if it was needed).

Help me out HT.

pdiggitydogg

Sounds like you may have just put the gasket on upside-down.
Regardless, it needs to be redone - I suggest you take the head to a machine shop, have it resurfaced, and decking checked for you. At the same time, you can check the decking of the block, by using a GOOD straight-edge
Buy a new oem head gasket.

ludesrv

Upside down? Is that even possible? I put it in the same way to old one was. Even the little lines of wear on the machined surface where the gasket doesn't cover were the same. I even checked it with the diagram in the book. I don't see how it could of been upside down concidering it lined up so nice with the dowels.

Is a new head gasket really necessary? I know HT always says 'oh just get a new everything for everything' but we all know some things don't need replacing. I'm hoping I can reuse the gasket as it was brand new and was only on the block for....12 hours.

pdiggitydogg

Its very possible... It says "UP", about 1/4" wide space, when its right, and nothing at all when its wrong - its pretty easy to miss it, if youre not looking.

If you hadnt started it, I would say you could try reusing it.
Think about it this way - do you want to do it three times, because you tried 'getting by' with reusing the gasket (that sounds like it was seated upside-down)

edit**
Oh, and youre not supposed to reuse the headbolts... Get some headstuds from arp (cheaper and better than oem bolts)


Modified by pdiggitydogg at 8:39 PM 7/28/2007

ludesrv

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by pdiggitydogg &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Its very possible... It says "UP", about 1/4" wide space, when its right, and nothing at all when its wrong - its pretty easy to miss it, if youre not looking.

If you hadnt started it, I would say you could try reusing it.
Think about it this way - do you want to do it three times, because you tried 'getting by' with reusing the gasket (that sounds like it was seated upside-down)

edit**
Oh, and youre not supposed to reuse the headbolts... Get some headstuds from arp (cheaper and better than oem bolts)


Modified by pdiggitydogg at 8:39 PM 7/28/2007</TD></TR></TABLE>

I'm aware of the headbolts being a single use only. But I've successfully reused them before on my B18 (40000kms later without problems). I'm gonna talk to him, convince him to get the head resurfaced.

I feel this whole problem could of been avoided if he had the head resurfaced when I told him to do, when I tore the head off it 4 weeks ago.

Hybrid96EK

Upside down headgasket.

gsrhatch2356

as embarassing as this is. it is true the head gasket is on wrong. I did the same thing I dont know if it is upside down or not but if you look the gasket is almost mirror but with just the smallest diffrence so just look again and make sure that all the oil holes coming out of the block have a hole in the gasket.

ludesrv

The headgasket was installed exactly like in this picture. How do I know for sure, cause I thought it was cool that the oil journal of the vtec solenoid was a perfect match to it's gasket, just like you can clearly see in this picture:

pdiggitydogg

So this is at least the 3rd time that these head bolts have been used then?
1: factory
2: when it was apart 4 weeks ago
3: now
That is assuming it was never changed before, by the previous owner...

I still say its upside-down, but you definately need to replace the bolts too

94ferio

definitely should get new head studs, new gasket, etc...

i recently completely rebuilt my JDM b16a and its got a head gasket leak already (slight leak of compression into the coolant causing overheating) and the main cause was the fact that i used the old studs. they were stretched because before the rebuild the head gasket was blown and the machine shop told me the block was warped when i brought it in for resurfacing.

i have to go through the trouble of tearing the head off again, but at least from now on i won't overlook the head studs again.