In talking with a well-respected local mechanic who almost exclusively works on Hondas about the blown head gasket in my Civic, he informed me that I would need to get an entirely new head if I wanted to fix the problem properly. He claims that just fixing the gasket won't fix the problem (even if the head doesn't appear to be warped or cracked) because the head has probably separated. He says that fixing the gasket will appear to fix the problem but it will start malfunctioning again in short order because of the separated head. I have not heard of this separated head problem anywhere else or from anybody else. Is this guy BS-ing me?

 

ive never herd of that either. does this guy work at a dealership or and independent shop? and also does he have parts ie heads just laying around??


EDIT: were in MO are you from??

 

Sounds like this mechanic may just work at a Import specific shop focused on honda/acura.

 

Yeah, ask him what the hell a separated head is... You might take it to a machine shop and have the head machined to a perfectly new flatness, but if it's okay per your Helms measurements, I can't see why it would be a problem to re-use your head. You'll want to have it checked for cracks and such, but I think that machine shops can do that too.

 

I used to have a pontiac grand am which was famous for blown head gasket. same thing happened to mine diagnosed as a gasket later found out it was the head also. to avoid doing the head later you can have it x-ray'd for piece of mind anyway IMO.

 

regaurdless you should always have the head milled when the HG is blown. this head seperation is a new thing. is he maybe talking about the casting lines in the head??? but if those were to come apart or "seprate" that would be a very bad thing

 

He owns an independent shop that specializes in Honda. Oh and I live in the Joplin area (southwestern part of the state). I'm still a little confused as to what he means by that, but he seems to be indicating that it's separated in some way that will still allow it to leak even if the head gasket is replaced. He also doesn't act like machining the head would fix this issue. Still smells of some BS to me.

 

i know that arear what is the name of the shop?? im from KC.

 

It's West Automotive. It's like 13th and Illinois here in town. I mean, I like the guy and he seems to know what he's talking about. It just seems wierd that I've never heard of this anywhere else before and none of the other mechanics I've talked to have indicated that this might be a problem.

 

is there anywere else in town that you can have someone else look at it??
if it were my car id send the head to a machine shop slap it on and call it good

 

Well that's what I was planning on doing originally. I figured it was worth checking to see if this was a well-known problem first, though, because I don't want to spend all the time and effort getting the thing put back together if it's just going to shoot craps on me again in short order.

 

its up to you but ive never herd of that before.