I need some advice on how to handle this situation. I had an 11.5:1CR B20VTEC built for me last year by a local shop. I managed to get about 4,000KM on it before the head gasket blew on me. Since day 1 there were problems with the motor. Basically what I think happened was the lack of any crankcase breathing on it caused the gasket to blow but I need a second or third opinion. I was told to just run a hose off of the valve cover to the ground to keep the smoke out of the engine bay. They've said that they'll cover half of the labor to replace the head gasket but I have to pay for the parts. Considering how new the motor is, I'm pretty pissed about this arrangement. To me it seems like poor planning and lack of research on their part that caused the failure, but I wanted to see what the experts had to say.

PS, I've ordered in a cometic head gasket and all the parts to make a Endyn style breather system. Hopefully this fixes the problem.

Thanks for the help.

 

Lack of crankcase ventilation will not blow the head gasket, it will blow the seals. Have a machine shop look at the head and the block to make sure they are not warped. Also you may want to try the Cometic "HP" gasket, it has a thicker ring around the top of the sleeve. I used to go through a regular Cometic gasket every month, but the HP gaskets seem to hold up well.

 

Turns out I had a head gasket problem and a cracked sleeve. How's that for 4,000KM on a new build?!?! The shop that did the work basically told to go screw myself. How common is this? It was only bored .020" over and really wasn't pushed that hard. I think I took it up to 7,500-8,000RPM only a couple times. The power died off after 6, so all it did was make noise.

Anyhow, I guess I just need some advice on how to deal with this shop. I'm out quite a bit of money and they don't want to do a damn thing about it. All the work was done by them with the exception of the install. All the parts were purchased through them, including the head and block.

I don't want to get another B20 block, bore it out and have this happen again. Is anyone having any success with their B20 builds?

Thanks again.

 

Ive heard b20 sleeves are thin and notorious for cracking, especially when bored. dont quote me on that tho. Id either get the b20 sleeved and never have to worry about it again or just get an ls block.(which would be way cheaper)

 

Here's the damage....it's across every cylinder, so I've had a couple people suggest that it was a tuning issue....but I'm no expert. Anyone care to throw a theory at me?

 

Did they build your motor?

 

you really cant expect any type of warranty on work that is done for performance, sorry....

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by hybridvteceg &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">you really cant expect any type of warranty on work that is done for performance, sorry.... </TD></TR></TABLE>