Joseph Michaud

I probably already have the answer to this, but wanted to run it by the masses.

95 Del Sol S, with stock 1.5l. Over time, oil accumulates in the #3 plug socket. I've replaced the valve cover gasket twice, even giving an extra assistance to the gasket around that area. The last time it was pretty clearly not leaking through there. It's not coming up from the plug itself.

I found an obscure page somewhere last year about another set of o-rings under the valve rockers that can cause this. It didn't seem too horrible to replace them, but for the life of me, I cannot find any reference to them or a part number to order them. I talked to the local dealer service department and they said they don't list any such parts. I'm nearly 100% positive the post I saw was on a civic 1.5l and the picture he had showed 3 o-rings and another that looked kinda like an "8" that went around the oil pump line into the valves. Plus, it's only logical that they would exist.

Am I out of my mind, or has someone else heard of, or dealt with this before?

Thanks!

TomCat39

B20VtecVillain

You said you changed the valve cover gasket, but no mention of whether you changed the spark plug gaskets themselves? If you look at the bottom of your valve cover there is a rubber gasket under each spark plug wire hole. Replace those, and use a little layer of Honda bond or ultra grey RTV on each clean dry gasket, then reseal your valve cover. This solves 90% of oil in the spark plug galleys. The only O ring I can thing if that is UNDER the head and valvtrain components is on VTEC only engines and this is the part number for that.

Jimster480

Exactly.

Spark plug gaskets are what actually cause oil to leak.

I think the OP changed the wrong gasket. Or when he installed the spark plug gaskets (if he changed them) he did it wrong or used poor parts.

mk378

It should be like TomCat shows. This is a pretty simple replacement, but be sure to lift the rocker assembly off as a unit by holding at the ends. Do not let it fall apart.

TomCat39

The non vtec motors of the 92-95 era, and possibly before also had lower spark tower seals unlike the vtec models.

Vtec (1.6 liter) uses a one piece spark tower so only has the upper seals on the valve cover.

OP is talking about a 1.5 Liter not the 1.6 Liter so it should be the D15B7 for the Del Sol. Which also precisely correlates to the 3 o-rings and one specialty figure 8 ring mentioned by the OP which is the lower tower seals. I provided the part numbers for those seals.

I am not sure on the vtec-e motors as I have not seen the D15Z1 engine to date let alone ripped into the head of one.

Joseph Michaud

Thank you TomCat! This is exactly what I needed. See what I mean about the conflicting info? It's even in this thread. This must be pretty obscure, because the service dept wasn't even aware of them (or just didn't care to look into it).

MK378... Yes, thank you for the reminder. The post I previously found also said be very careful to make sure everything lines up correctly when bolting it back on too. I recall something about a rubber mallet to convince them to seat, but hope it doesn't require that, lol.

B20VtecVillain.. Yes, I bought a kit that came with the plug gaskets and new bolts and inserts (and before ya ask, yes, I added a little rtv around the edges like the manual suggests). When I took the valve cover off, there was no oil on the plug seals. I evacuated the oil before taking the VC off to hopefully see if there was evidence that the seal failed.

24TEN

iTrader: (2)

Adding pics from my rebuild for future reference:







My car has the 8 valve engine but these are the same seals.

Joseph Michaud

24TEN,

Thank you for the pics! With all of your help, this will make it a lot easier for someone else in my shoes to find in the future.

Is it easier to seat them in the head or rocker assembly? I'd hate to have one bulge through or something, although I'm pretty careful about those kinds of things. ***EDIT: After thinking about this, I would guess the obvious answer would be in the head. It would be rather difficult to flip the rocker assembly over without something falling out.

When you put the rocker assembly back in, how difficult was it to get everything back lined up and seated properly? Right now, I think that's the only thing I recall from the write-up that isn't answered in this thread.

24TEN

iTrader: (2)

In the rocker arm assembly, it has the groove and little tabs to hold it. The head is only a flat surface for seating, there would be no way to know if you are aligned properly until it's too late if you just let the seal sit on the head and then installed the rocker arm assembly on top (you're basically doing it blind that way).

94eg!

iTrader: (2)

Removing the rocker assembly is not difficult by any means. You can do it without removing the cam gear or timing belt & cover, but you won't be able to replace the cam seal if you go that route. Just be careful not to disturb the cam seal once you remove the caps.

On my 89 CRX I did have a hard time separating the rocker assembly from the head. Some of the cam-caps were very tight after 27 years. Of course the valve springs pushed the rocker assembly up a little at one end, but the other end was a pain. I didn't want to mar or damage ANYTHING so I took my time and found good places to pry the ends of the caps with a screwdriver, always covering the lever-fulcrum with a towel. You don't want your prying to damage the surface of the head where the valve-cover gasket sits.

And yes you have to put the new o-rings into the cam caps. They will hold in place just fine as mentioned by 24TEN. Be sure to get 3 of the #16 o-rings, and only 1 of the #17.

When putting the assembly back in, be sure to put a thin layer of Hondabond under cam-cap #1 where it seals directly to the head in-line with the cam seal (wipe away any that gets squeezed out). Otherwise you will leak oil on either side of the cam seal. This is how they are assembled at the factory. You will see remnants of Hondabond when you take it apart.

The trick to re-installing the whole rocker assembly is to make sure you've backed out all your valve-lash adjusters completely till they stop. That will make sure none of the studs can get hung up on the tips of the valves. I didn't need a mallet or anything. I just followed the tightening sequence (with the engine at TDC1) repeatedly till everything bottomed out.