I'm trying to find a complete gasket kit for my H22a, and the Honda dealer wants almost $500 canadian for it !!!(includes valve seals). My question is : What aftermarket (inexpensive) gasket kits have you used? Any thoughts where I should go to get one ?
I might have to take the motor apart as I pulled the oil pan off, and there were a few small (1-2 mm's) flat chunkies in there (small flat bits that look kinda like casting flash.. they have the texture of casting flash anyway..) How many of you have found some smaller fragments in the oil pan? should I be shi*tting?

 

Uh I've had some of them more then once and never figured out what they were. Are yours a sort of steel? Mine wouldn't stick to a magnet so I got no clue what the F they were. I'll drain my oil tonight through a stocking and post pics if I get any again.

BTW this is from a 99 5th gen with 39k on the motor.

 

Yeah, it'd definately aluminum.. not very much tho, I could be over-reacting. Anyone else getting the chunky's?

 

When I started disassembling my head and removed the VTEC solenoid, I noticed there were a couple of very small metallic slivers stuck to the oil screen. There was no debris in the oil pan or anywhere else within the engine, 75k miles and in very good condition. I'm also clueless, a good guess though would be casting flash like you stated. Another thought I had was maybe they are from the head assembly(?), mainly the cam lobes or rocker arms.

 

Little metal chunks are from the aluminum head casting.

Honda did a poor job during the manufacturing process. If you remove your valve cover, you'll see fragments of aluminum sticking out where a mold/cast was made. If you take pliers, you can "break" those extra aluminum casting off very easily.

When the time comes to overhaul my H22A1, I'll smooth out all the "casting-flaws" on the cylinder head. I think it would help increase lubrication and lessen the chance of aluminum material breaking off and ruining something.

I just recently overhauled my friend's Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX engine. When the oil pan was dropped, I noticed several small bits of aluminum pieces in there. I traced it to the cylinder head. It's sad, they suffer the same poor casting quality as the Honda cylinder heads.