In my adventure to replace the head gasket, I removed the cylinder head and fluid flooded the block. It's everywhere. I did drain the radiator and removed the lower hose. I have no idea where all this coolant was hiding. But when I pulled the head, it all came out. It's on top of the pistons so I'd like to get this taken care of ASAP. I want to know what the best way of drying this up would be.

Thanks

 

well when you pull the head off, theres coolant still in the head. unless you pulled the lower hose and started the car letting it get pushed out and you let it idle until it started to no longer push coolant out, there will still be some coolant left in the block and head. whenever i would do head gaskets after the first time(the same thing happened to me) i just pulled lower radiator hose out of the radiator, pulled the thermostat and just let it idle for a few minutes until all fluid was gone.

 

Yeah, thought an empty radiator was an empty radiator. I was wrong. So it's shop rags or towels?

 

soak it up and spray a little wd 40 or something in there to displace the moisture around the rings etc, might want to change your oil, some may have made it past the rings into the pan, since you blew a head gasket, you should do that anyway

 

I put ARP head studs in, that's more what this is for. But yeah, changing the oil anyways. The area around the bore where people put block guards is full of coolant. Suggestion there?

 

There is a plug on the front of the block, next to the block ID (Dxx, or Bxx). Remove that before you remove the head. That drains all of the coolant from the block and head.

 

Wait, are you serious? I really hope you are joking.

 

No. I'm not. It's seriously there. Is that something terrible?

 

Do you know anything about engines?

 

Obviously just insulting me here. No. I know nothing about engines. Inform me.

 

Bahahaha thats the water jacket bro, there is supposed to be coolant there. drain it using the plug on the front of the block.

 

Okay. Thanks. HONESTLY, this is my first car with a radiator. I don't know a lot about the interior of the motor. I'm a young guy, just looking for some help.

I appreciate it. Did not know. Thought I ruined my motor some how the way the last guy explained it.

 

Don't worry about it man. Not everyone has to be a master on here, we all start somewhere.
Good call with the arp studs. Do you have any other plans for the engine?

 

In reality, not for now. I want to boost it in the future. But for now I just need some more reliability. Replace this, upgrade that. Little by little.

Any suggestions? As far as upgrades or plans with the motor?

 

Work on suspension and brakes before thinking about engine mods. The car is 20+ years old, bushings and hardware are shot at this point.

 

No, not insulting. There is nothing wrong with learning, hell more people should learn how things work and how to fix them. But please, read up on what you are doing before you dive in head first. Learn the parts of the engine. Learn how it all works and how they interact, then you will know how things are supposed to be, and if they are not right.

 

Its got discs all the way around, from an integra. As far as suspension, it's not terribly bad. I think the previous owner put in new shocks (OEM style) but still new. I'll keep making sure it runs before I go crazy.

Well! From everything I've ever read on head gasket installs, there hasn't been coolant there. It's always empty and that drain bolt hasn't been mentioned. I know a bit about engines really. But everything you read (including manuals) are dry. The water threw me off to say the least.

I'll always read before I do anything. But thanks for the help thus far. Got the head studs in, torqued, head on, and I'm hooking up everything. I broke the PCV valve that goes through the intake off. Ooops. I'll get a new one. IT was stopping me from removing the head so I ripped it in half trying to slide it out. Plastic gets brittle so I'm not worried.

 

Dont torque the head studs into the block. Hand tight only. I like to tighten them (with an allen wrench) until they bottom out, then loosen them ~1/4 turn.

 

Of course. I read the box haha. Hand tight felt like the bottomed out. Then I torqued the bolts to the studs after the head was on. Can you even torque the studs? Is there like a torque wrench out there that has allen wrench attachments?

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=alle...w=1280&bih=601

 

Now that I see them, I actually have some of those in my drill bit set. But anyways. Thanks for the help.