Hi first diagnosis post here. Car is us 1994 civic ex with vtec at 164k and have never had issues really. Temp gauge has never been past half.

I replaced the two vtec gaskets with new ones, top part with 3 screws had two different orings in the kit, one with a screen with a little more different shaped one. For the top I chose the one with a screen and I may have chosen the wrong one but I noticed if I used the screen I would have to flip the screen inside out to get it to fit, so I did and put it together and bolted it up.

Started it up with no oil leaks but once I revved there was a nice click. When I tapped on the gas and let off as soon as I let off there was a tick. This is where I might have messed up and drove it for a day until I was going to inspect the gasket again.

Well a day later I started my car up and was leaving my neighborhood and noticed smoke behind me so I pulled over and popped the hood and engine wasn’t to hot yet so I popped the rad cap off and it started to spew foamy coolant out so I drove back home. Let it sit and out some coolant In to fill the rad back up and started it up to find not big bubbles but a lot of small bubbles which I’m guessing the reason why is the head gasket.

I have not done a leak down test but I did take the vtec gasket off and take off the metal screen from the gasket and left it off but nothing was broken off from the mesh. I took off my valve cover to see if anything was in there but everything looked to be ok, no major scratches or gashes on the cam that I can see. I even started it up to see if it still made the click and it did.

Are there any reasons why my head gasket could have gone bad due to a vtec gasket replacement going wrong that anybody could think or is it something else. Sorry if this is no help without actually diagnosing a head gasket with a leak down test or something like that.