I think I found the source of my BAD oil leak. Its coming from the oil passage on the Vtec head, I think. I talked to the machine shop who did it, and he said it was sealed, but there is always the possibility that it either wasn't sealed good enough, or the seal broke. He told me he would fix it if I bring him the head, so Im going to pull the head tomorrow probably.

I was going to order a replacement head gasket cause I was under the impression that OEM head gaskets couldn't be used. When I called Mike K. up to order it, he said not to bother, it would be fine to re-use it. What do you guys think?

Oh, ther is a stedy little stream of oul coming out of between the head and block in both corners on the distributer side of the head, does this sound like it could be coming from the oil passage?

 

i always replace the gasket. and that could be your distributor leaking.

 

From where on the distributer? It seems to be leaking from right between the head and block. There is a nice little stream coming from both coners of the distributer side of the motor, the streams run down both sides of the block, and onto my header creating a TON of smoke!!!!!!


[Modified by InfamousRS, 1:51 PM 5/30/2002]

 

i reused the middle layer on a USED headgasket and am running 11.5:1 compression and redline it all day. 6k miles and counting

 

any possibility the head was warped
was it torqued down proper
i dont see how the vtec oil supply could have come undone, if they tapped it properly and put a brass plug in it. plus that would only put one stream of oil down the head, correct
oh well, it was fun while it lasted, right

 

Whats up man. I just pulled my head last night from my LSVTEC because of the same problem. Someone told me to remove the rivets holding the headgasket together so it can seal properly. I had my head torqued down to spec and it still leaked. My leak came from the passenger exhaust side. Also when I match the headgasket up to the head some of the coolant passages and oil passages are slightly off, I am not sure if this matters or not though. Well hope you get your problem solved quickly, good luck man.

 

Is it safe to only use the middle layer? If so, I may only use the middle layer. How thick is just the middle layer?

 

I don't think the head is warped. It was milled .020 before I put it on.

Oh, and the car is still fun, it just looks bad with all the smoke.


[Modified by InfamousRS, 4:39 PM 5/30/2002]

 

Did you use the LS headgasket ? That's the one you need.


InfamousRS:

I had a eeriely similar problem recently and pulled the head and replaced the HG, same problem. I thought the head was warped and wanted to shoot someone. It turned out to be the Vtec solenoid gasket was leaking and it was so slick that it appeared the oil was coming from the head/block seam on the passenger side (and smoking like me on a weekend)

 

Buy a new head gasket and use arp head studs. Shouldnt leak then. I was going to suggest the head was warped as well. But since you have it off, check the clearances of the head and the block to make sure neither of them is warped.

 

Remeber when I recomended you use gsr headstuds or arp gsr headstuds. You should do that just to be safe.

 

That was leaking. I fixed it though, and it doesn't appear to be leaking any more.

 

Are you replying to me?

 

I know you did. Is there any difference in size in the LS vs. GSR bolts?

 

YES! if your doing an lsvtec you NEED VTEC bolts!

 

I am not sure about the length between the ls and gsr because I have never compared the two. However, I do know for a fact that the b18c studs are about a 1/4" longer then the b16 studs.

 

I WAS RIGHT!!!!! It was that stupid little plug!!!!! Theres bearly any sealant on it, and it screwed right out with out any effort at all. Im going to put it back in with red locktite.

 

I finished putting the head back on. It apears to have stoped smoking almost all together. There is no more oil coming from the head gasket. Oh, and I re-used the head gasket and it seemed to work fine.

We did a compression test and it was 190 across all 4 cylinders. Does that seem right for about 10.1:1 compression?

 

Yup I used an LS headgasket. I am not sure if the 90-93 ones differ from the 94 and up ones though, to my knowledge they don't.

InfamousRS those numbers are within spec. According to the manual for a GSR (10:1 compression) the standard is 270 psi, the minimum is 140psi, and the variation between cylinders is 28 psi. HTH man and sorry for posting my Q's in your thread.

 

Does a compression test actually relate to your actual compression? Thats a pretty big gap, 140 to 270 psi!