Been having an oil leak on my B18C that I tried to fix this past weekend. I replaced the exhaust cam end plug, the VTEC solenoid gasket and filter, and the distributor o-ring. I most definitely torqued everything to spec, but I'm still getting a pretty bad oil leak from this area that I can't seem to pinpoint. Any other possibilities?

I tried to clean and degrease this area of the head as much as possible (image borrowed from reliable LS/VTEC build thread), but it's still difficult to see where the oil is coming from. Maybe it's coming from in between the VTEC valve and the solenoid assembly? I didn't change that gasket, and in fact have never changed that one in 287K miles.

 

If the Valve Cover gasket is leaking on that side of the engine, it would run down that side of the head and block. It isn't leaking is it?

 

I would try the other gasket on the vtec solenoid(the one without the screen), when I did mine they were both equally dried out and leaking. I believe there is another internal seal in the distributor besides the little o ring that may be causing it, but I'm pretty sure its a major pain to change. Checkout hondalioness webpage she has a nice writup on disassembling a dizzy.

 

I looked over the distributor when I had it off, and there was no evidence of oil leaking from there. I went ahead and changed the o-ring, though, because the original one was pretty hard.

 

Checked again and definitely no oil coming from the distributor.

I had to use an inspection mirror to see around and under some areas, and it looks like there's oil on the bottom of the VTEC valve where it bolts to the head, but the bolts are all torqued to spec. Maybe I botched the gasket install? I was sure I had it in the groove in the valve assembly correctly before bolting it to the head.

Is it possible for the head gasket to leak oil, but yet no oil and coolant mix together? I do not see any oil in my coolant, and coolant level has remained rock solid for over a month, so I know I'm not losing any coolant.

 

any luck yet?
i'm having the same problem

 

The head gasket can leak oil and not have coolant mixed. I know some hondas around me that are notorius for doing that. You did the cam seal, the dizzy o ring, vtec solenoid gasket kit. Get a new gasket for the top of the vtec solenoid see if that stops it. If you come out the next day or whatever and theres oil, spray brake clean on the area (bell housing and etc) Start the car and let it run and watch where the head meets the block and see if oil comes from there.

My B16 was doing it for a while and then i did the HG and it stopped.

 

try both vtec solenoid gaskets....Those things **** all over the place...

 

up vote the top vtec gasket

 

If the OP hasn't figured it out by now, he has failed at life.

 

Did you put hondabond on the cam seal? Manual says you need to put it on the seal right where the seal goes into the slot. And also in the corners where the cam cap meets up with the head. Could be your issue.

 

Shut this down, its from 4 years ago.

 

LOL yeah I did end up fixing it, I think it was the 2nd VTEC oil seal which I didn't know about originally.

I've actually had the engine opened up and replaced the head gasket since this thread, in July 2013.

 

HA! Welcome back OP! Glad to hear everything is alright. Would've been funnier if you said no, I still haven't figured it out hahaha

 

My problem now is that I have a small leak somewhere around the oil pan I think, even though I replaced the oil pan gasket when I had the engine pulled out in 2008.