My CRX's head gasket is letting go. I've got it on life support with some alumaseal but it's running like my old hatch did with bad valve guide seals - the ignition is getting interrupted, there's oil in the coolant (not the inverse, thankfully)...

Anyway, might as well do some mods while I'm tearing this thing apart. (BTW, I found this out after finishing my timing belt/water pump, etc, how awesome...)

I'm thinking of using a Mr. Gasket 3186G, which is MLS, .030" compressed, and - this is the tricky part - 79mm bore instead of 75.5. I'm thinking this is quite negligible for use on a stock D16A6, but I'd like to be sure of that. This gasket is 40 bucks vs. the 95 for the Cometic. I could get this gasket and the next mod done for the same amount, read on...

Also while the head is off I wanted to have it milled .030", which according to the compression calculator would give me 10.12:1 compression, which I think would be pretty ideal for a daily driver, not too much for Cali pump gas but enough to be worth doing. Doing either of the above by themselves and leaving the other stock would net 9.46:1, which is good but I don't think 10.1:1 will be anything 91 octane can't handle. I live in California and really don't have the money for this to begin with so no boost plans, and if so then the gasket could be swapped out for a stock height MLS and drop it down to the 9.46:1, which shouldn't be too much for boost, should I ever get that far.

I just want to make sure I'm not too far off base here so far. I've planned on the cam gear being necessary, too. The motor has 120k on it, and until this happened was quite happy to zip to redline as it should. As mentioned new timing belt, front seal, water pump, tensioner, and I just bolted on an AEM CAI.

I'm thinking get the compression up as per above, AEM cam gear, Delta 260, cheap header, cheapo N1 exhaust (screw around with the muffler selection for a better sound but can't really beat the price, especially if I can pick it up in LA), tune, done. All nice and legal in Cali ('cept the bumpstick but they aren't going to find it, and it should still pass the sniffer test), improved over stock but still quite streetable. I was thinking Mini-Me before, but I think I'd rather not chance them seeing the solenoid and failing. Figure D16Z6 type output, maybe better, no real huge investment, and I don't have to plunk down 700 bucks or so at once. Probably work out to the same amount of money after all the mods, but I'm not swapping out a perfectly good motor just to get VTEC.

Thoughts? Anyone know of a comparably priced .030" MLS gasket that's the correct bore, while I'm at it?

 

You didn't necessarily clarify so I have to ask, is the block already bored out or sleeved to 79mm or is that the plan? I ask because you say 79mm bore for the head gasket but you also say for use on a stock D16A6.

 

Stock D16a6. I was messing around with another compression calculator and they had a parameter for the headgasket bore, and was mentioned in a few build write ups so I'm not all that worried about it now. Figure half the difference, as seen on either side of the cylinder, is 1.75mm - I have guitar picks thicker than that.