Hello Honda Tech. I am working on a 1997 Honda Accord for a friend. It has the 4 cyl. F22B2 Non Vtec engine.

The radiator was rusted inside causing poor coolant flow, overheating and ultimately a blown head gasket. I removed the head and friend took it to a machinist he knows that gave him a "good deal" shaving the head for $50.

Friend got the head back and informed me that the machinist had to shave .018" (18 thousandths of an inch or about 0.46 mm) off the head due to what he called "severe warpage".

I understand this amount is a lot and is more than the Honda factory manual limit of .008" inch or 0.2 mm taken off. My question is assuming the head was properly milled flat, can it still be used with this amount of shave without the pistons hitting the valves with the cam timing marks set at the stock position? Will a head gasket shim be necessary?

And how much will this affect the drivability of the car. This car will be used as a daily driver by an older person who has no interest in performance or added compression/using high octane fuel and just wants a reliable car.

I have searched for posts related to this and only found a person on another honda site claiming they took .040" off their f22b2 head and it worked fine but they had to advance the cam timing 1 tooth otherwise it had no power.

Can anyone please provide input on this, it is appreciated. Thanks.

 

normally a good shop would put it in the oven in between two straighteners which would bring it close enough to be able to shave it within spec

i would say cut your losses and just find either a used or rebuilt head

also, be sure to measure the block to be sure the block isn't warped

 

Thank you for the advice. Yes I had became aware of the need to "bake" the head after the fact.. I have read that the camshaft bores may be out of alignment in cases of severe warp, and this should be corrected by heating the head first, before surfacing... and in many cases it brings the head back to where it doesnt' require a large amount taken off.

I get the feeling that the shop my friend used didnt do the oven procedure, and only wanted to make a quick dollar from him and nothing more.

For now I will be trying to find another cylinder head. Thanks again