Well, timing belt was done today, removed the AC, cam gears installed, and head studs put on. Head studs were done one at a time so I didn't remove the head, so far so good with the gasket sealing. (flame away) Compression test was also done, 190 across the board with the exception of number 3 which was 185. This was on a cold motor. One thing that was noticed was the casting of the head, sorry for the horrible pictures, this was taken with a first gen camera phone and it's only 128x128 (stupid setting!!). It is where the cam sits:



The car as about 80k on it so I figured that must have been there the entire time, so I don't think it will hurt anything, but there also is nothing I can do about it. If you can't see in the picture it's recessed a little bit, but it doesn't look like it's from damage, like I said it looks to be a casting flaw.

 

I know it's a bad picture, but has anyone else every seen anything like it?

 

well not trying to say its normal but I see that almost everytime I pull the head off my 2 gsr motors and I seen many others with the same marking

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by nebulight &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Well, timing belt was done today, removed the AC, cam gears installed, and head studs put on. Head studs were done one at a time so I didn't remove the head, so far so good with the gasket sealing. (flame away) Compression test was also done, 190 across the board with the exception of number 3 which was 185.
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Wait you put the headstuds in without removing the head? I never heard of doing this on a Honda.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 89civic1.8T &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Wait you put the headstuds in without removing the head? I never heard of doing this on a Honda. </TD></TR></TABLE>

You can do it. You just have to do it one at a time. Saves you from having to buy a head gasket I've also done it without even changing the oil! lol

About the casting. I can't tell what you are talking about from that pic.