Hey guys, is it possible that the outter part of the headgasket only leaks oil? I think that's where my throttle problem is from, the car acts up sometimes when I press hard on the throttle when the R is heated up. It does the same thing the car would do if the gasket was on wrong on the intake manifold. I suspect that the heat makes my head gasket more prone to leaks upon contraction, which in turns translates into a missfire feeling. There are no Cel's on the car and I have had heating issues due to my fan giving in last month. I have replaced the fan but i think my head gasket has failed in the ordeal. I had vtec solenoid issues around the same time, I have changed that part and vtec has came back. At first I thought i had put the solenoid on wrong, but it's dry under it and the oil is really on the front left corner of the engine, and not above. I have checked and the cam seal is perfect. I'm assuming its the head gasket, as anyone else had a gasket fail partially(cylinders still sealed) and have their motor seam to missfire under load, without leaking coolant?

Here are the pictures



Cam Seal pic

Underneath Vtec Solenoid pic


As u can see, it's completely dry under the cam seal and vtec solenoid...

How bad is it to drive with this condition? Any help would be appreciated!

 

could it be leaking from the distributor o-ring? oil tends to travel along cracks such as the one between the head and the block. I'm not ruling out a head gasket but i would check that first

 

mine does the same thing. only to a lesser extent.

 

I'll check the distributor, but would that cause missfires though? that's the thing, it acts as if there was a loss of vacum in the combustion chamber

 

the only way to know that for sure would be a leak down test, a leaking distributor seal wont cause a misfire but maybe you have two unrelated issues. have you checked your plugs, wires, cap, rotor, fuel pressure?

 

I havent check anything but the spark plugs and there is no oil in them... I'm gonna put the car away soon and I'll do more extensive testing then, thanks for the help!

 

Valve cover gasket maybe?

 

I had this issue on my 2000R and my 98R. Thought it was the head initially, then after cleaning the head and block and running it, I found it was actually coming from the intake camshaft seal plug. it sits directly behind the vtec selenoid. you need to pull the valve cover, take off the end cam cap and replace the seal. I used a Blox aluminium Cam seal with three orings on it, like 14$ on ebay. never saw oil again.
this may not be your issue as you said your fan failed which would have caused an overhead condition which could have warped the head and allowed the head gasket to fail, but I would not think that is your issue as you dont see any coolant or oil trading places with each other.

 

Also the car is pulling very strong cold and the missfire/boggle issues occur under load after the R ran 20 minutes or so...

 

Turns out the missfires were caused by the rotor screw comin off and destroying the interior of my cap and my rotor... so the oil leak was unrelated to the missfires! Might wait til march to do a leak down test, find out where the leak's commin from!

Thanks for the help guys!

 

omg i have the exact same problem but the oil leak is not as bad as your.
this is what i have tried to fix this problem but didnt fix it yet.
i have replaced cam seal. replaced dizzy o ring. disassemble and assemble the cam holder where the cam seal goes because you're supposed to use a liquid gasket on the corner and i thought i might have messed up doing that. so i tried over and over and over again and the leak is still there. i want to RPG the **** out of my car it's pissing me off to MAX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

when i first put my b20 vtec together i had transmission oil leak from axle area. so i had to replace my axles and drive shaft.. and i got that oil leak fixed now the engine oil leak is still there. wtf

 

Ain't that a bitch, As for myself, my Radiator Fan, my Vtec Selenoid and My Rotor Bolt all gave in around the same time, luckyly I can do the work myself cause it's fairly Simple, but pullin my head is gonna require some help from my friend though... I'm gonna put a Mugen headgasket on when I do, while I'm at it!

 

man. i blew my itr motor ( spun bearing ) this early summer and finally got my new setup B20 vtec and got it started. had oil leaking problem since day one. lol got 1 leak fixed which was the tranny. i just installed pretty much everything new. all the gaskets and stuff. so i dont know why it's still fugging leaking..i pretty much did everything i could do except taking the head apart. my oil leak is VERY slow i can't tell any loss of oil on the dip stick. my old setup did not leak any oil but it burned the oil alot faster than i'm losing it now lol

 

any news on these or you guys just letting it leak out?

 

by leak down test i ment leak down in the cylinders. it wont help you find your oil leak. As for that i would start by replaceing the seals on the back of the head (dizzy o-ring, cam seal, vtec assemble seals,etc.) then clean it and recheck for leaks. eliminate the easy **** before you pull the cylinder head

 

Are you sure that you didn't spill oil the last time you changed it. I've spilled a few drops in the past, and thought I wiped up every bit of until I found a very small pool of oil collect around the head gasket area a few days later.

Or, it could improperly routed blowby. Worst case scenario, your rings are going and so is your head gasket, but I think you would be experiencing other issues if this were the case.

 

any luck on this yet?

 

no updates on these from anyone?
i pretty much gave up on fixing it.. i just drive it now letting it leak

 

maybe head bolts are not torqued down properly?

 

Its prob not the head gasket.
I would think if it was leaking from there you would *really* know it.
Every leak I've had above the head gasket drips and pools in the same spot it seems, and it always looks like its a head gasket problem.
I think you can buy some dye and put it in the oil and then find out where its really coming from. Cam seals are common, distrib o-ring, vtec solenoid, etc, there are quite a few places oil is likely to leak from up there...

 

Same problem on my GSR...changed the head gasket and cam seals and have not seen oil since.

 

what if i just installed new H/G ? and replaced Dizzy O ring and cam seal what else could it be?

 

you didn't change the vtec solenoid gasket?

 

Im having the same problem. I guess I'll be changing my headgasket in the near future.

 

I'm having the same problem on my ITR. Burning Oil, leaking oil, engine boggles...

I'm planning to rebuild the engine soon any tips?