Here's the deal. My brother just picked up a 1989 Civic with a burnt valve. I still have the D15B from my Civic 4DR laying around. But the D15B has a broken timing belt. And my brother would rather not spend the cash on a new timing belt and water pump (the belt broke because the pump seized) so that I can do a compression test (only to possibly find out the motor is bad). Valve lash seems okay on all the valves. Would you not expect it to be excessive on a bent one? So would you not think that if they are all good, there is at least a decent chance the motor is okay?

 

just pull the head off and see, its like $20 for a new cheap headgasket from a autopartstore, if ok just put back together

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Crx Jimmy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">just pull the head off and see, its like $20 for a new cheap headgasket from a autopartstore, if ok just put back together</TD></TR></TABLE>

Given the difficulty of scaping the old gasket from the block surface (these old engines used composition gaskets), I think I would rather just pay out of my own pocket for a water pump.