97 accord. 2.2 non vtec. I bought the car with a blown head gasket. I first ordered a new mls steel gasket and installed it without resurfacing the head. the gasket seemed ok at first, but later started leaking. so i took the head off and had it resurfaced. The machinist told me a graphite gasket is a little more forgiving if the surfaces are not perfectly flat. He had to take almost 1/16th off the head. I put it all back together with a new graphite gasket from ebay, and the gasket is still leaking. I am getting water out of the tail pipe. There is no oil in coolant or coolant in oil. I guess the block is warped? any suggestions? maybe a thicker or different head gasket?


Thanks
Ben

 

Did you torque the head down correctly in three stages?
Did you check to see if you had a crack in the block or the block was not warped?

 

Yea. I torqued it down in 3 stages and in the right sequence. I dont have a percesion straight edge so I couldn't check for warpage. The head should be level and I hope they checked it with their straight edge to make sure. The block being warped is the only thing that makes sense :-\ . I have heard about copper head gaskets and gaskets coming in different thicknesses. Wasnt sure if one of them might work. Would be willing to try before I pull the motor

 

Is it over heating? And is your coolant level dropping? I would also buy a straight edge before I would pull the motor to check to make sure the block is flat/true. Is it possible that the head/block is cracked/damaged?

That sneaky gasket on the IM has gotten me more then once with not sealing right and leaking coolant into the engine. : /

 

The head was suppose to be pressure checked when I had it resurfaced. The block and cylinders looked ok. Can coolant get into the intake if the intake gasket is leaking?

 

I'm thinking that the gasket didn't seat/ seal right. However I would really get in there and look for cracks.! And like others have said check the block with a straight edge. How much coolant are you losing? A lot or only a little.?? I would probably go back with a MLS and maybe a little copper rtv. Saying that from doing a vtec, not sure if the copper rtv is good for a none vtec

 

I will do a leak down test tomorrow. if there are no signs of a bad head gasket, I will assume it is the intake gasket. I wasnt able to get the torque wrench to fit in there, so I just used a wrench.

 

Yesssss. Check that seal on the IM side. I don't know how it gets into the intake track but, for me it has and it I couldn't figure out why it was still burning coolant till i dumped a ton of RVT around that area.


Is it over heating? And is your coolant level dropping?????

 

NO not if the intake gasket is leaking. Or if the exhaust gasket was leaking. First car wouldn't run right like a big vacuum leak and the second would make it loud.
AGAIN HOW MUCH COOLANT ARE YOU LOSING.? Are you getting moisture out the exhaust or smoke.?
Only way for coolant to get into the exhaust is through the head gasket. IE from the water jackets if there is a crack. One or both block head is not straight. Head wasn't torqued to specs or the gasket didn't seat or seal correctly.

 

I havent driven the car since I've put the gasket on. I have water in the system instead of antifreeze. I just notice it is blowing water out of the tail pipe. It starts as very light looking smoke and in a few mins it is slowly dripping water out the pipe

 

Wat. That could just be normal condensation. And pearlsowner, I have had a civic that was somehow was getting coolant in the intake track form that seal. I don't know how but I put a ton of RVT on it and the car stopped eating coolant/smoking.

 

could be water from before you did the head gasket in the first place I would pressure checking the cooling system first and go from there.

 

This do a pressure test and see if it drops, if it does look for external leaks if none found then you have your answer. Im willing to bet its just condensation built up from none driving. I have all of 500 miles on my Accord in the last year. I do run it when its not in pieces and try to run it for a good 15-30 mins or longer but I still get condensation coming out of the tail pipe. After you do a pressure test and if it comes out good Im sure you know to dump the water and put the right mixture of Antifreeze to distilled water in

 

Never seen that, however anyone who works on car be it for a living or just a weekend project person knows to expect the unexpected. I have seen some weird stuff that in theory doesnt make sense

 

Did you go through a break in period after putting the new gasket on, or start smashing the throttle right away?

 

Break in period for HG? Never heard of that. If HG's need to be broke in, Ive been doing it wrong since forever.