Planning on buying a 97 civic lx with the stock d16y7 130,000 miles on the original motor still running well in the car. I want to pull the motor and replace all the seals, rod bearings, and piston rings for reliablity sake while I have another car to rely on. Going to source a full gasket kit and piston rings and bearings for the motor through my dad who works at felpro and gets parts near/at cost. I've done a couple full swaps already so I'm fairly experienced with these cars but have yet to do a complete tear down and rebuild. So I have a few questions.

1. Should I reuse the old pistons/rods for cost sake or get new ones?

2. I'm gonna have the cylinders and crank checked to make sure they're both in spec. Is there anything else I should have checked or that I'm overlooking?

3. Any general advice for the rebuild?

 

After you disassemble, then you can determine whats reusable, in all honesty. Pistons are probably fine.

Have it balance checked, the entire rotating assembly. And check for deck warp/head warp.

Main advice is stick with OEM Honda engine seals and bearings, and parts. Most people here will attest their individual failures with felpro gaskets. I hate them myself. Like recently, went to remove an oil pan with a felpro permaseal (that leaked since day 1) and have way too much effort removing old debris from it. Never ever have had leaks or mess with OEM. Thats what I get for being a cheapass and being in a hurry and using autozone stuff.

I've had similar issues in other areas too. No more felpro!

Other than that, I like your thought plan, which made me even care to post

 

Any idea how much it might cost to have the rotating assembly balanced and head/cylinders checked? Im trying to do this on as small a budget as possible. That said the only issue I have with using oem seals/bearings is that I can get a full gasket kit for the motor for like $90 and the bearings for real cheap as well. I haven't checked the price difference on oem vs what I would pay for the felpro stuff though. I may spend the money and go oem head gasket and use the rest of the felpro seals and bearings. Thoughts?

 

Also I just did a head rebuild on my buddys H22A4 and got him a full gasket kit through my dad from felpro and its been months no issues.

 

If you want to use felpro go ahead, no ones stopping you. Not to mention you can probably get the entire kit for cheap. Its on you.

 

I say OEM all the way.

It should be no more than 400 for your machinist to balance, hone, ring gap, and deck/head warp check. Additonal for head/deck mill. Maybe 250.

Cheap is cheap. Thats all I gotta say.

Just call your machinist and ask for their prices

 

on MANY engines, including my race engine, i use fel-pro gaskets. they are very much on par with oem. oil seal and pan gasket failures are typically due to installer error, not the gasket/seal itself. they come on here and make threads about how their pans still leak, learn the right way to do it, get coached to buy an oem gasket, and like magic there is no more leak. the failure is probably almost never the gasket, and the fix is almost never an oem gasket- just proper replacement procedure.

 

Seeing as how I have experience with both on and off for the last 15 years, I know what I'm doing. I follow torque specs, and procedures, every time...

OEM is way easier to work with, and works 100% of the time.

On the same token, Hondabond really does work better than any off the shelf rtv I've had.

 

I'm personally a fan of either OEM or Cometic gasket kits. Also, I'd love to know how you plan on dealing with increased P2W after a hone, re-using pistons. Be smart. Go .5 over.