It's been two year now that I've run this setup:
B18A stock sleeves with Wiseco /eagle/ARp head studs
Ported Ls head with Crane cams/springs/retainer reving to 8100rpm

Pic of the engine bay


I'm running and SC61 at 15-16 psi on daily driving(91 octane gas). Car pull really great /plugs looks fine.... 11.5-12 AFr on the WB... Timming around 18deg...

Motor as been running for 30 000km and run like a charm but have been thru many HG problems.
When it fails, it just begin to push coolant into the coolant catch can but it dosen't getting worse than this. Even if I put some C16 in it and get up the boost. I just have to refill the radiator and bleed the system.

I have try many HG : Cometic, Oem, NAPA, with copper spray or not...
It take's like 5000km and it begin to push air into the coolant system again.
Head have been milled/checked each time, block was decked when I have built the engine . ARP stud have been torqued with the ARP lube to 64lbs each times.

Headgasket does not look bad after removing the head but the coating on the HG is remove partialy around the cylinder walls. I've seen many high hp setup on stock sleeves, have you been thru problems like this?

The car have run the time in the sig.

Thanks for the help

 

11.5 to 12.0 AFR might be a little lean. I'd try to keep it closer to 11.3-11.6. I believe ARP says 70 ft lbs for the studs as well not that its a big difference.

 

Well I don't know if the ARP studs are different from a vtec b-series, but they should be torqued to 75ft/lbs with moly lube. It's like 80 or so with oil.

I just got finished building my motor this past weekend so I know for a fact my numbers are right. I also have all the torque specs so if I ever need them again I'll have them.

 

ARP spec sheet say 65lbs with moly lube. I've even try to retorqued them after 1000km....it was tq correctly.

 

just wondering, how did you get 99-00 style headlights for your 96-98 civic?

 

If I run the car just on no/low boost, it don't push any air into the coolant system.

I think that the sleeves just being ''shaked'' a little when I drive it hard, and it cause the HG to wear out.

Any thoughts?

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by igo4bmx &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">just wondering, how did you get 99-00 style headlights for your 96-98 civic?</TD></TR></TABLE>

That's 98 headlights.

 

Any guess ?????

 

Yea, your sleeves could be "walking". Has your motor overheated? You may need a head re-surface. I had that problem once, I had to re-build the motor with sleeves. some people like to o-ring sleeves with real high boost!

 

oh yea, cometic and honda gaskets

 

sleeves could be walking , or your studs have ben reused to many times and have stretched , do you have any pics of what the old h/g's looked like ??

 

I'd have the block checked. You had it checked once when you built in but having so many headgasket issues after that might be your problem.

 

I do not have pics of the HG, but as I said, the only things I see is the black coating on the HG is gone near the cylinder walls. I will check the block deck again when i'll take my car back from storage.
Anyone have but Oring on their stock sleeves?

How many time do you usually re-used your ARP headstuds? I have torqued them 4-5 times now...

 

do you have a blockguard? I used to have just a built LS Turbo, but I had a blockguard too (stock sleeves). I never had any problems with the coolant doing that. Does it look like the coolant has fuel or oil in it when you drain it? I would get new ARP headstuds, a new OEM headgasket, and a blockguard and then see if it still happens...

 

The coolant is perfect, no oil no nothing... just ******* air pressure

I'm not really a block guard fans because of their poor fitment issues and I think they are the cause of many cracked sleeves too.

But I don't want to start a debate on that.

Since my engine is already built and it is really important to bore the block after the installation......I will not put a block guard in it.
Thanks for comments

 

check the block, try new arp's and tq them to like 75. i think the stock headbolts tq is 64. i did the normal seqence for mine, then did another step of 10 ft/lbs over that. i hope you work out your situation

 

Damn reminds me of the situation I used to have with my y8. I blew 4 headgaskets in a little over a year...also tried many different methods of torquing headstuds and using copper spray ****. This was before I knew what I was doing with timing and all and was running p28 timing maps on my y8 which as we all know now doesn't like the timing that a z6 does

 

forget it torque your studs to 85-90 lb-ft. problem solved!!! However, you will still eventually have HG problems. I'd tune in deeper into the 11:1 a/f just to be safe!!! GL

 

First, AFR is only going to play a roll if your knocking. Second, try pinning the block to hold the sleeves in place. Its cheap and effective. Third..you may try and over torgue the studs. I personally don't like the idea, but if it keeps that head on, then FK it.

 

Check the deck of the block and make sure its streight, if thats all good get a cometic gasket with the copper ring inside of it, spray it with copper spray, torque the studs to 15ftlb inside of the block, than torque the head to 80ftlb with moly lube.

 

well it looks like your head gasket looks just like mine was looking before I had me Benson block.

Its doing that because your sleeves are moving... Some block wont do that and some will.

Well I had the same problem than you and did the same thing to solve the problem but nothing worked.

You need to sleeve it or try another block.

 

tear the motor down have it hot tanked and fille the block. CCfab has an excelent writeup on this

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1444721

i am doing this to a B18A - should be able to pull 20 psi on it

 

Didnt see if you said this or not but, did you get the head and block resurfaced?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Importordomestic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">tear the motor down have it hot tanked and fille the block. CCfab has an excelent writeup on this

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1444721

i am doing this to a B18A - should be able to pull 20 psi on it</TD></TR></TABLE>

Maybe but I never seen any high whp setup with it. My b18a have done many run on +20psi ....

All of you that over-torqued the headstuds... you never had issue with the treads giving up ?


I will get the block decked again and the head resurfaced again for sure. Thanks guys

 

my ls had the same problem, i was runnin too much timing and a lean mixture, what ems are u tunned on? and how much timing are u takin away when in boost?

 

Uberdata and now Chrome, around .5deg / psi