michaellong

I have a 1998 Acura 2.3CL that I loaned to a friend who overheated it many times until it no longer ran. Recently, I purchased a 2003 BMW 325i with a blown head gasket, which has an aluminum block and all 12 of the block threads stripped. According to Wikipedia, the F23A1 also has an aluminum block, so I am worried that my Acura may also strip its threads when I try to torque down the head gasket bolts. It looks impossible to install a helicoil into the Acura's block because of how deep the threads are in the block. So has anyone had their block threads strip after overheating, and how did you fix that? The Acura's head gasket has no cracks in it, so I assume that the head either lifted up or developed a crack. I got a used head from the junkyard, which came off a 1999 Accord. On my BMW, the head gasket looked fine, so it looks like the head lifted on that car as well.

I am considering using the old head gasket bolts so that the threads won't have as much pressure put on them. From what I see online, it looks like the F23 engines have torque-to-yield bolts, so this is not the best idea.

The Acura's oil has water in it. It has 180 PSI of compression on cylinders 1 and 4 and 90 PSI on cylinders 2 and 3. Interestingly, when I kept cranking the engine with the throttle wide open, the car started after 30 seconds of trying. Then the car was able to start and drive each time with a misfire.

So how likely is it for my threads to strip? I have looked up "F23 Block Threads Stripped" on Google and couldn't find any results. However, if I look up "BMW Block Thread Stripped" there are a huge number of results that it is a known TSB.

GhostAccord

That would be very rare for a Honda/Acura block to strip it's threads after overheating it. Probably why you found 0 information on Google on that topic. Even if it were to happen, installing helicoils would be a very easy process.

No need for new studs, you can reuse the old ones. I have never been able to find head bolt stretch measurements in any of the Accord shop manuals. If they were torque to yeild (TTY) bolts there would be min and max stretch length specs in the manual. All I have ever found are the torque specs and tightening sequences.

michaellong

I see online that on the F23, the torquing procedure is to torque the head bolts to 22 ft-lbs. Then torque the bolts 90 degrees three times if using new bolts or 90 degrees two times if using the old bolts. So it looked like these bolts were TTY since they are tightened by angle torquing. I am also worried about a story my friend told me when he torque down the head on his Civic. The bolt snapped and flew in the air. He ended up just replacing the engine after that.

holmesnmanny

both that f series engine and my 8th gen civic show up as having tty head bolts at rockauto

my 8th gen civic shows the following procedure for checking for stretched bolts which won't work for your car but it atleast shows you a general idea of what you would check

the general rule of thumb, 'though, is to replace the bolts when a head warps because they will stretch

i have always reused bolts when reinstalling a head that never warped and never had an issue

Kevs02Accord

Have you checked the head and block for warping? That would be my biggest concern. Last time I did a head I got new bolts, don't know if it was needed but I didn't want to take any risks, however, I know Ghost has way more exp with this than I do.

michaellong

I bought a used head from the Pick-Your-Part as I did not want to deal with a head that has been overheated more than a dozen times. Did you do your head gasket because of severe overheating?

Kevs02Accord

No, I replaced mine because it was leaking between cylinders 2 and 3 and I had almost no power. I checked the block myself and had the head checked while it was being cleaned, both were in spec. My biggest concern with over heating is warping. I would check the used head and block if you haven't already. I also chased the threads of the block to make sure they were clean.