trying to figure out the cause of this.

i drove it for about 4-5 days it ran great no noises accelerates good etc.

today my wife drove it to work and right before she got home the headgasket blew.

i pulled the spark plug and watched the cylinder fill up with coolant.
only cylinder 4 others are fine.

she said it didnt smoke on the freeway she just noticed it overheating and pulled into a parking lot only few feet from home.

i used same gasket set as on my del sol( J.I.S i know its cheap but it still works on my other honda)
the only thing i did on this one is put the copper gasket silicone on this one...

the radiator fan works when it supposed to as well.

so heres 4 of my best guesses.


1 the thermostat got stuck and overheated and blew the gasket.( its a new OEM honda thermostat)
2 the copper silicone blew out and overheated
3 the head bolts need to be replaced( i belive they were original honda headgasket on it)
4 can missing exhaust manifold(OEM) brackets warp the head?

i noticed that none of the manifold brackets were there from whoever put the previous engine in it. and its pretty heavy

all top nuts on the exhaust manifold were loose and one almost fell off.i tightened them all up for sure...



i ve red that headbolts have to be replaced every time and others say you can use them 2-3 times if its not a high performance engine. which one is right?



its a work car and im not trying to spend a fortune on it, just trying to keep it within reasonable limit...

 

Warped head?

 

I dont see how it could be. I pulled it out or a crashed car.
it looked like it was not serviced and had original honda headgasket from factory,
there was some buildup on the valves that i cleaned off and cleaned and reseated the valves also.
Didnt see any signs of overheating.
Wouldnt it blow up right away? I drove it for 4 days and took it through the gears few times and it was fine. but it blew up right after spending an hour in evening traffic.


the surfaces were pretty clean on both sides.
the timing was correct i went by the service manual for all the torque specs.

i didnt really use copper spray gasket i used the squeezetube copper silicone gasket and applied it with my finger as thin as i could.

 

I have always been told that you NEVER, EVER, EVER put silicon on the HG as a good HG set should seal and provide a good mating surface if the head has been checked for non warp and lightly cleaned up by a machine shop.

 

I don't recall this as SOP when changing headgaskets.

 

SOP? I dont really know why i used silicone i was probably hi on carb cleaner fumes that time lol
Because i didnt use it on my last 2 builds and its good.

 

SOP = Standard Operating Procedure

Yea, Silicone is not good...

 

S.O.P.=Standard Operating Procedure.
I think you've found out the cause for you issue.

 

Guess #5, and probably the right answer, it blew from you using RTV on a headgasket.

 

Your quote " used same gasket set as on my del sol( J.I.S i know its cheap but it still works on my other honda)
the only thing i did on this one is put the copper gasket silicone on this one...


I am confused was it used?

 

Copper spray is different from the silicone you used, lol. I got 2 years out of an Ebay headgasket with the copper spray, which I consider decent.

Did you at least check the head with a straight edge and feeler gauges for warpage?

 

didnt have any available i dont have a shop.
got a new headgasket from felpro and some copper spray this time.

if the head was warped wouldnt it blow out right away?
why would it be warped, it had original honda gasket and i followed the manual when unscrewing the head from the block then it sat assembled on a flat surface not sideways or hangin on the edge.

i drove it to work for 4 days and took it to redline about 4-5 times to make sure everything is good.
there was not a drip of liquid from that engine or any smoke.
what i didnt do is spend an hour in traffic.

i will see tomorrow. and hopefully it was just my stupid mistake of using silicone gasket **** i dont know why i even did that...


my del sol engine i rebuilt in january and it is still dry as the first day i started it.

the head gasket from them is not too bad but the rest of the kit is always fukered up some way.

i had to buy a new water pump seal and bunch of other lil stuff because it wouldnt fit...
lesson learned dont look for cheapest stuff you will pay with your time.

 

If I were you I would take the head to a machine shop and have it magnafluxed (pressure checked) and have them check to see if it's warped or not. I usually pay about 70 bucks for those procedures combined so it's not very expensive for peace of mind.

After that make sure you use a new headgasket, head bolts and torque everything down to spec. If you do all of this then you should be fine and not have to tear this thing down once again.

I have never used any type of sealer, silicone or the like's on a headgasket, on any type of car. with the proper gasket and proper torque technique you shouldnt have to use anything else.

Hope this helps.

Good Luck

 

Listen to this guy. (Excellent first post BTW)

Anytime a head gasket needs to be replaced, just bring the head to a shop to be checked/milled. Checking the block for warpage isn't a bad idea either.

FelPro makes great head gaskets. They make a type that they claim helps seal block and head imperfections.
A new HG shouldn't NEED to be treated with anything to seal correctly.

 

Your problem likely lies in the silicon and/or the rtv. I have seen people use the old studs and not resurface the head plenty of times. However, with the amount of work involved in removing the head I would probably opt for some new studs and a head plane just as a piece of mind.

 

Ill do that.

Do you gous think hanging exhaust manifold can warp the head after some time in stop and go traffic?
It was same issue with the old engine. The headgasket started leaking.
And i never had all top nuts loose on the manifold at same time

 

As far as I know most of them don't have braces except on the very bottom sometimes close to where it connects to the cat. You could always opt for a cheap eBay header. Very light and "clean up" the engine bay some.

 

Very doubtful. If anything it would stretch the studs or pull them out, and again, very unlikely as the manifold is not very heavy.

Do it once and do it right. You can skip a lot of steps to make things cheaper but it will always cost you in the long run. Think about how well these cars run from the factory. It would be in your best interest to use factory parts, specs and procedures when dealing with any stock car...it obviously works

 

My exhaust mani loosened up after the first run on a headgasket repair just enough to let a little coolant out. It's always a good idea to re-torque your bolts after it has been run the first time.

 

Same goes for the headbolts, after a couple of heat/cool cycles you should retorque the bolts.

 

replaced headgasket running fine now
but now i think the tranny is going out because it was also half empty at one point,
im getting a high pitch whistling sound when i accelerate.
according to shop manual its a final drive going out.
wtf lol that car is driving me nuts.