Need some help in rebuilding a d16y8 in a 99 EX Civic 5-speed. It's a daily driver, not looking to do anything crazy with it. Looking to rebuild it on a budget but with quality parts. It blew up on me at 220K. The head is stamped P2J-5, which from the codes make it to be out of a 98.

1. Where in the world can I find rocker arms for it? The head is inspected, hot tanked, and ready for reassembly, but I cannot locate new or used rocker arms that aren't crazy stupid expensive.

2. Do I go with a stock cam or a stage 1 performance cam? Any recommendations? New valve springs or will the stock ones be reusable?

 

What's wrong with the stock rocker arms ??? The intake manifolds are slightly different between the '96-98 and '99-00 Civic EX engines (D16Y8), so unless you have a '98 engine AND a '98 intake manifold in your '99 EX, it is unlikely that you have an early head on an otherwise original unmolested factory '99 D16Y8. Altering the build to include aftermarket upgrade parts like a performance camshaft will likely blow your budget since you will now need a replacement ECU and engine management as well as tuning to make the car run correctly. So if you want to keep the costs down, focus on quality replacement parts for what you need... and keep it stock so that you can use the original ECU.

 

As my machine shop explained it "the tips are mushroomed". Seems the head was starved for oil. They said they could buff them, but couldn't guarantee the thickness of the hardened metal and how long they'll last.

The casting definitely says P2J- 5. The Serial Number is 812160098 if that helps at all?

Yea, I'm leaning more and more to an OEM style rebuild for now.

 

If it's just the pads being "mushroomed", I believe that is not a game changer. It's the journals that will be a problem.

The logic I have behind this thought is you do valve lash adjustments to make sure all gaps are to spec. This adjustment is to accommodate wear. Honda was nice enough to have easy to adjust rockers, no shimming required.
So even if the pads are indented some from all the tapping, you make up for it by valve lash adjustments. This also leaves the hardened material as is regardless of shape.

If the journals in the head become scored from oil starvation, then you have a whole different problem of which is typically find a replacement head in good condition.

 

Makes sense to me.

So leave the the rocker pads alone and make sure the adjustment is right on the lashing. Run with what I have and listen for knocking is the summation of what your saying?

 

Pretty much my thoughts.

I was looking to see if anyone disagreed or maybe agrees with the thought.

 

You likely have a late 1998 stamped engine (This would make it a 99-00 spec) that made it's way into a '99 EX in the factory. Super common.

 

The adjustable tappets are an independent part of the rocker arm, so if they are damaged as bad as your machine shop states... you can simply replace them instead of the complete rockers. I wouldn't just "run them" and wait for them to wear enough to work correctly. Wear means metal goes into the engine... and that is never good.

 

Mushrooming doesn't mean metal is coming off, it's more of a flattening of the pad like a hammer gets from beating on things.

No mention was made of flaking which is a total different story.

You can't expect the soft metal not to become deformed from slapping into a valve stem at 7000 rpm for years. It's exactly why the rockers are adjustable to make up for the slow metal deformation over years of use. It doesn't change functionality and I've not see any problems with the mild deformation of years of use to date. I suspect this deformation is what the machine shop is noting and suggesting a full replacement as they might not be aware that the deformation is pretty normal over time.

If the metal shows signs of fatigue like cracks or flaking, they should be stating as such, not just regular deformation (mushrooming).

I think another pertinent question is, are the tappets of a Honda "Mushroomed" by design? So far to date I have not see flat tappets in any of the OHC Honda motors I've looked at. Is the shop confusing a normal shape design as a flawed valve train?