So I did the valve stem seals on my 95 civic w a b18c swap. Was gonna try the air compressor trick, but ended up taking the head off after I dropped a valve, oops. The problem I have run into is that after getting it all back together I have no oil pressure. The only thing I can think of is that I might have put the head gasket on wrong. Any thoughts? Any way to tell if I made this embarrassing mistake without possibly wasting a fresh gasket? Thanks for your input.

 

you put the belt back on right? it drives the oil pump, did you accidentally leave the oil restrictor out of the head? how do you know you have no oil pressure, gauge or idiot light?

 

Gauge. I only pulled the belt off the cams. Not loose or anything. Maybe I should pull the line off the turbo to make sure the belt is running the pump? This is the first time iv pulled a head apart, I don't think I messed with any restrictor.

 

take the oil line off the turbo and disconnect the ecu fuse and crank the motor over and make sure oil is priming through.... your oil light sensor(located above the oil filter) is probably unhooked when u removed the head....

 

Oil light isn't on. Reading zero at my after market gauge. Checked that line, not kinked or anything. I'll check the turbo feed line. If that's fine, all I can think of is that I made the noob mistake of putting the head gasket on wrong. When I searched for a thread where this type of thing happened all I could come up with was a cpl guys who had made that mistake. Thatnks again for your input and thoughts.

 

^^ He said he's reading oil pressure off of a guage, not the idiot light. Also, the oil pump is driven by the crankshaft, not a belt.

im assuming you drained the oil before you did all this work, you did fill it back up to normal level correct?

This typically is only an issue with brand new pumps, but sometimes pumps driven by the crankshaft have an issue pulling oil up into the pickup tube causing no oil pressure. If this is the case, try adding an extra quart to quart and a half of oil over the full level on the dipstick. This submerges the pickup tube so the oil doesnt have to travel up hill. Then re check to see if it gets pressure. If it does, drain the excess oil and you should be good. But like i said, this usually happens with a brand new pump. Still its a possibility. Are you using an electric guage with a sending unit or a manual guage that actually pumps oil to it?

 

my fault i was thinking it was a timing belt driven pump

 

no sir, i dont know of any honda motors that are driven by the belt. Atleast none of the B series are.

 

you mean like the ones that aren't in Accords,preludes, and some Acura stuff?