A little over a yr ago the cat in my 90 CRX clogged and cracked my head. I bought a rebuilt head and head gasket set/bolts. The head was checked at a machine shop first and torqued correctly. 200 miles later i am on the 3rd head gasket since new. Both Fel Pro gaskets are/were leaking into the cooling system (bubbles in radiator) and it overheats quickly. I fear that the block was damaged. I think the head is probably still good. Should i buy a rebuilt short block or buy a used engine from a "Japanese Engine" business? Car has 95k miles and has new timing belt, water pump and distributor among other things. Thanks

 

Total opinion question. If it was me I would swap the whole engine.

 

if it were me i would buy a whole new engine,tear it apart and build it back yourself.

 

Honestly if i were you i would buy a wrecked car of what ever type that has the engine you want in it. then once you take the engine you can part out the rest of the car and probably make a good amount of your money back. and this way if the car you get is say rear ended you can probably here the engine run and see that it doesnt smoke or knock or anything it shouldnt. also you can see if the engine you are buying came out of a riced car (meaning the engine is probably pretty beat) just my 2cents on it good luck

 

take that graphite head gasket and throw it in the garbage. clean your head and block with lacquer thinner then bolt it down, if it is indeed your head gasket that keeps blowing. have you checked to make sure the block isn't cracked?

 

How do you know the head cracked? Then you reused it??

 

I second the engine swap, you can find a whole new engine with block and head for pretty cheap on craigslist vs JDM vs putting on a new head gasket / buying a long block and crossing your fingers that it did the trick.

 

you can get the block pressure checked at a decent machine shop and i would get your block decked if you like the motor anyway if you want something faster swap that ****

 

The machine shop said there was a crack between valves in one of the cylinders. A prior compression test proved that was the case. This is an economy car, so stock 1.5 is good. I have a 71 Chevelle 454, 90 GSXR 750 if i want to go fast. I just want to save gas and have a reliable car for long trips ect. I cant be parting out cars where i live. The block could be cracked or warped? The rebuilt head i bought checked out ok at the machine shop. Not sure what kind of gasket to use?

 

Have the block checked for evenness and decked if necessary. It could be warped (not very common, but it happens). At the same time have the head resurfaced just to be sure.
Why don't you use a Honda head gasket? They're really not that much more than a felpro or whatever else is out there.

There is also a Honda service bulletin that recommends a special HG and special head bolts for engines that have problems with leaking HG's.
Service bulletin:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...Ev6SQQ&cad=rja

If you want to get it from Honda, places like this will save you about 30% compared to your local dealer:
http://www.hondapartsunlimited.com/f...YLINDER%20HEAD

Or you can get it here (I get a lot of my parts here):
http://www.partsgeek.com/catalog/199...ad_gasket.html

Be sure to get the Ishino brand, which is basically the same as if you got it from Honda, since Ishino is one of the mfg that makes head and other gaskets for Honda.

I would keep the engine. If the block is ok you gonna come out cheaper just fixing it. Just choose the correct gasket and you should be fine.

Good luck