Hi all,

I just purchased a 1981 Honda Civic Hatchback from my neighbor for $100 because i've been looking for another town commuter, and he purchased another new vehicle so has no use for his old car. The car has 72k original miles but he just blew the headgasket a couple weeks ago. I checked and theres a bit of oil in the coolant and it's leaking from the gasket area along where the block meets the head. He gave me a helms manual or something of that nature which is very detailed. I'll be able to use it to remove the head quite easily i'm hoping. The engine is the 1335CC with a 5 spd. transmission.

After a little bit of research, i've found that these 1.3's and the 1.5's the older gen civics had have a bit of a heat issue near the middle of the head gasket, causing them to fail often.

1. I was wondering what a good choice of head gasket would be?
2. Would a multi gasket steel one help with the issue that the poorly designed oem gasket has?

Any input or corrections would be great. Thanks

 

I would suggest FelPro (#8738PT), never had an issue with their headgaskets.

Make sure to take the time and do the job right, and you won't have any problems.

 

Perfect! Thanks for taking the time to find the part number for me.

I'll update with progress next week when I pull the head.