i put in a new head gasket along with arp head stud and its leaking even more than when i had it torqued around 65lbs. now its torqued to 80.
also didnt resurfaced the head, and not sure if it had been resurfaced in the past. how do i figure if it had been resurfaced?
why am i leaking, is there a special way to do this?

leaks at the 2 front corners when it was torqued at 65, now i only see it leak at the dizzy corner.

leaks so bad, when i raised the back to take off the wheels, it came out of the dizzy corner.

torqued the head stud in correct order as well.

thanks for any help in advanced

 

man i hope i didnt put a open deck gasket on a closed deck block.
i remember comparing the gaskets and it looked ok at a glance, but this new gasket was originally purchased when i had a open deck block.....

 

look up the part numbers and see if open and closed deck block head gaskets are different

 

To check if the head has been resurfaced you can find the tolerance for the measurement between the surface around the top of the head where the valve cover rests and the surface where the head touches the block with a set of calipers. This is how my local machine shop checked a h22 head I picked up recently.

 

whats the calipers supposed to say with a head that hasent been resurfaced?

 

and yes open and closed decks have different part #s

 

This can also be a result of the head gasket be put on backwards. I've seen it done a b series, not so sure how possible it is to do it on an h series. Or a severely warped head. How is your compression and are you burning any coolant.

 

im sure i didnt put it on backwards, and my oil looks clean. i bought the motor and it shipped from jersey. sounds very healthy. thinking about pulling the head off. but before i do that i just want to get opinions

 

They say to do it in three stages, but I would do it in 6 stages just to be the on safe side.

Also the head needs to be 100 percent cold before removing it.

Also you're supposed to apply engine oil to the thread.

Also, you need to retorque after the engine has been run.

I don't know why the head was replaced but it should be resurfaced or atleast checked for straightness whenever taken off.

 

A buddy of mine did that with his B18 race motor the night before the races and they had to take it all apart and put it back together at like 4AM

 

i did all the above but, torqued it from 29 35 65

ran it for a week, and the leak wasent as bad as it is now.

and its also a usdm head on a jdm block, im sure that shouldnt be a problem.

 

arp says do it in as few steps as possible.
did you tighten the studs in proper order at least?
honestly with the leaks I would be pulling it off, getting it surfaced, getting a new headgasket, and measuring the studs to make sure you didnt stretch them by overtorqueing then.

 

I thought arp studs could be retorque 4 times without stretching. Can you really stretch them by torquing them to 80fp?

 

yes i did in proper sequence, next step is to pull it off i guess

and if i remember correctly the stud say 90 lbs at max

 

just pull it and get it machined flat... it dosent make to much of a diffrence if it has been machined already

 

Head might be warp? Use a straight edge and a feeler gauge to measure head & block surface.

 

thats the next step, should i rebuy a new gasket too? the one it has now is new.

 

If you torqued the motor down, and untorqued the head, you can re-use the gasket


BUT, if you torqued the head down, ran the motor (obvs), and then removed the head, you need a new gasket.


Technically if you torque it down, its gone, since they crush to seal, but I believe you can re-use it as long as the motor hasn't been run. Just get a new headgasket, do you really want to take the head off again ;P

 

The measurement was in a large book the machinist had. Not sure what it was but he was able to show me that mine was milled down. One thing I did when I assembled mine was spray the gasket on both sides with copper spray from the auto parts store. Also, I was wondering, I don't think you ever said what kind of gasket you had, I did a lot of reading before getting mine and decided that genuine honda had the best reputation with trouble free seals.

 

guess ill have to get anew gasket.
im using a oem honda gasket.

thanks for all the help guys

 

make sure you put the "up" side up lol

 

i did, it shows the numbers facing up on one of the corners. also how much should i mill my head?

 

to not retard my timing

 

Always go with OEM Honda Gasket. I've heard stories about the MLS Headgaskets as well, but some got away with no problem whatsoever. About getting the head milled, I think the shop should know the safe and precise measurement.

 

if the instructions said 65 ft/lb and you overtorqued to 80 ft/lb you went 25% over yield. torquing 4 times is different than overtorquing 4 times....the real question is what did the instructions that came with the arp studs say to torque to?