Hello, I have a 1995 DX Civic coupe with a D15B7 that I'm replacing the head gasket on. I did some research and discover that you can bump up the compression and get a better gasket by using a D16Y8 3 layer MLS gasket. It seemed a lot of guys used FEL-PRO's 9915 PT gasket so I bought one. The gasket says its to be used on 1992-02 D16Z6, Y5, Y7, and Y8. However, the holes for the water flow to the head don't line up all the way. What gasket should I buy? I don't plan on doing much to the engine in terms of performance mods, just looking for good gas mileage on the way to and from school. But, I figured if I could bump the compression up a bit why not. Any information will be great, I know about cars but this is the first honda I've ever worked on.
-Thank you, Sean.

 

The thing to remember is that a multi layer gasket will not be able to seal as well as a OEM one because it will have less give. It will have a higher chance of leaking if your not having the mating surfaces checked or milled.
The B7 head has open coolant hols on the cam gear end and they are blocked on the distributor end anyway.

 

the factory one from Honda

 

If it ain't broke, don't fix it

100% use OEM if you're going to replace it anyways and no fel-pro version exists... not sure why you would if there are no issues.

 

OEM Honda head gaskets are MLS

 

On the non vtec 88-95 they were not. There is a TSB regarding these graphite gaskets tending to leak and the leak gasket replacement was an MLS gasket but is discontinued by Honda.

The way I understand it, the reason the graphite was used is they did not mill the block and head to as high of an RA so the graphite sealed the rougher surface at the expense of durability.

I was able to find the thicker mls leak gasket from Ishino at autopartsway. The D16Z6 and D16Y8 gaskets are thinner than the graphite gaskets and tend to cause a bit of pinging/detonation as the quench/squish zone falls below optimum distance. I'm not sure if they are available through autopartsway anymore as it's been awhile and support for the 92-95 is falling away as time goes on.