K

A month ago my head gasket blew; well atleast i thought it did. one night I was idling in the parking lot becasue i needed my headlights and radio while i worked on another car. And when i got in to drive away i move 20ft heard the radiator cap blow saw the temp gauge was at the highest point and turned the car off immediatly. Next morning topped off the coolant and car blew white smoke and there was coolant leaking from my test pipe so i figured head gasket blew.

i decided to replace it myself in the parking lot, loads of fun, and do the ~60K service (all belts,water pump,gaskets,tensioner,oil+tranny fluid). So ordered all the parts from honda except i ordered ARP head studs from ecutuning.com (NEVER EVER BUY FROM THEM they owe me $130) I got all the parts in 4 days except the studs, i had to order them from http://www.importparts.com.com (HIGHLY RECOMEND) they arrived today; anyhow when I took off the head the gasket looked good; so i thought that maybe it warped so i got it pressure tested and milled flat and it passed and looked great and thought it had to be the gasket (so did the machinist);

So had all my parts and was preping the head for the install tomorrow (damn fillings) and see this beauty:



oh yeah and it's ROUGH and not stock looking



So could this be my problem? Nope because my brother's '94 GSR has the same thing????? and runs great with 150k miles. Plus i checked the thermostate and it worked flawlessly so i have no idea why it would overheat anyhow.

Anyone have any clue about my original over heating problem?
Anyone have this hole too? (easy, just take off the valve cover and take a gander)

Thanks





Modified by B18C-Hatch at 12:42 AM 8/31/2006

 

here is another head I just found with similar, yet stock looking, holes

 

Is your radiator fan operating?

 

yep

 

Perhaps the blown gasket cause the overheating in the first place. I can't confirm or deny the opening of that passage on my head, as I never paid attention. However, if it was connected to the cooling system, which it most likely is not, it would leak oil into there and coolant into the oil.

 

yeah coolant in the oil and and it was burning oil and coolant in the exhaust so defiantly mixed

 

pull the dipstick. if the oil is a milky brown colour, then you are getting coolant in with the oil, if its just burning coolant, then it may be a cracked water passage.

However, if there was air in your system, it would build up alot of pressure, blow the rad cap, and possibly soak your test pipe, thus the white smoke, which would also mean that your head and head gasket are fine, and ur cooling system was just air locked....

 

that rough spot is from coming out of the mold in the manufacturer from honda..they dont trim or polish that area...its not important...like other things that come out of moldings..you always have excessive edges or what not...dont worry about it...i checked mine and many others...it has the same roughness...

 

yeah thats how the casting is set....just leave it, its fine....it supposed to be wide open though i dunno why urs is like that....the mold must have had a gap in it

 

those are common casting imperfections, almost evey head has them, you head gasket must have blown from old age or poor cooling system matinence

 

thanks for the info; yeah must have been old age

 

To confirm, every gsr head i have seen have that same casting imperfection, nothing to worry about.