well this motor never made the power it should have ( 320whp @ about 1 bar), but it always ran strong for the power it did make.
most recent compression check was 180-120-180-180, static comp around 9:1

i was having trouble loosing coolant and having it mix with oil. and when i pulled the head i noticed the deck surface was covered with mixed coolant and oil. its also all over the headgasket.





now i know some of this can spill around when removing the head, but this seems to be more than that. did my headgasket not seal right? interestingly, the #1 cyl has what appears to be burnt coolant on the piston, but thats the only cyl without the mixed coolant and oil around it....

also i dont know if you can see from the pics, but i have a little scuffing on the cyl walls, is that normal to that extent? the pistons are fine with no scuffs.

lastly, look on the intake side of the #3 cyl, it almost looks like the gasket gave in


i did a leakdown a while back and i was getting over 50% out of those intake valves, but after i loosened the lash it went away.

i was getting just about 100% leakdown out of my #2 exhaust valves though. i was expectinng them to not be seated flush in the head, but they look pretty good to me..


sorry for all the questions, im just trying to figure out what i need to replace and what path im gonna take for next year with this

 

If your having that many problems. It's the off season, I'd break it all down, pull the rods and pistons out. have them cleaned up. order so new rings, have block honed, tear through the head, My guess is #2 exhaust are bent and probably a lot more are. Take it to a trustworthy machine shop and have them go through everything. Check sleeves to make sure one hasn't dropped. re-deck it if you must. And also, if you were burning a lot of coolant, my guess is you have a lot of water damage that's going to need to be cleaned up. need a closer pic of the CC to determine that. I'd start over, take everything apart, have it checked out through machine shop, Everythings good then re-assemble it.

 

pistons and rods are out, they look fine (no scoring or warpage), just some carbon buildup from about 10k miles.


my machinist should have checked the valves last time, as he did find a few bent ones that were replaced. maybe it didnt help that he was fighting with his girlfriend when he did my head

 

on this picture

you can tell how the gasket was blown on the second cylinder from the left on the top side (notice the black area) that right there was causing combustion pressure to built into the coolant

and on this one

you can tell on the head on cylinder #1 on the coolant hole on the top/left shows sign of the gasket blown and also on the intake side of the cylinder #3

have the block checked for the deck, and mill it as nesesary to get it prefectly straight

make sure the sleeves havent "sunk"

also check the pistons skirts, and valve releifs on the intake
seems you can see some "white" stuff on them, make sure they werent any sign of detonation

 

Usually if there is a leaking head gasket, the liquid will wash off the carbon covering. I don't see that in the pix. Sounds more like you have valve sealing problems.
The finish on your head looks a little strange, however.

 

that spot on the 2nd cyl from the left is right where i blew my sleeve apart on my last setup. the block has since been aftermarket sleeved and decked 2x.

the head had the combustion chambers smoothed out and some valves replaced. i guess it needed to either be milled more or just thrown in the garbage.

 

i know this is a stupid question but i cant see it in the pic. do you have the plug in the head for the lsvtec?

 

yeah the plug is there in the upper left corner, kinda hard to see but it didnt appear to be leaking

 

i would get an OEM headgasket and resurace the head with a valve job

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by earl &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The finish on your head looks a little strange, however.</TD></TR></TABLE>

i was gonna say the same thing.

did he use a wiz wheel on it or something?

 

belt sander lol

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by GrinderGuy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">belt sander lol</TD></TR></TABLE>

lol yah the cuban resurface job..

 

yeah i dunno. this person has done a few other heads for me with no problems, as well as for a handful of other 400+ hondas that havent had issues...