I picked up a 95 lx sedan, high miles, "bad head gasket." I don't see any carbon trails on either the head or the block between cylinders. There is congealed coolant in a single exhaust port. Before I tore the car down, it would fire, but not run. Curious of the odds of a cracked head compared to bad head gasket, since these seem to be contradicting signs.

The background I have on the car:
-d15b7, seems to have been taken care of overall (replaced shocks and hoses, no signs of recent leaks)
-220k miles (most highway)
-same owner for 10+ years
-sat for 3 years decided to sell it to me

 

The D15B7 is known to have head gasket issues as all non vtec engines from 88-95 have. They used a graphite gasket instead of a MLS gasket and there is a TSB about it.

TSB:





http://www.autopartsway.com/partlist.../pagenum1/tabs

The first head gasket should be more expensive of the two ishino gaskets and is the special leak gasket replacement. The other thing you need from the TSB which is a little harder to find and might only be found at your dealer is the new replacement head bolts. There is a difference, the new ones are the newer dark hardened steel. The older ones are lighter in color and are not recommended to reuse.

Oh and I can tell you, getting that graphite gasket off the block is no fun part of the job. My buddy and I spent close to two hours with plastic razor blades, plastic scrapers and 1000 grit 3m sanding paper, wet sanding to get the block clean. I swapped heads to my old head which had already gone through the gasket change but if not, the same process would have needed to be done to the head to get it clean for the new head gasket.

Also since you don't know if the car was overheated, you will need to make sure both the block and the head are flat with a straight edge and feeler gauges.