Pulled the head today to replace the HG and the original was in the process of crumbling into pieces. Turns out all that stuff in the water that I'd drained out was just sediment from the disintegrating head gasket.

After I'd cleaned it all up, I noticed that the sleeved section sits a bit proud of the actual block itself. Is this normal?


After scraping as much off as possible, the sealing surface wasn't quite clean, but felt pretty uniform when I ran my finger over it. Would something like this seal with a MLS head gasket?


Ended up taking an aluminum flat bar and attaching a 800gr wet/dry to it and smoothing out the rest of it. It feels just as smooth as before, but looks cleaner for sure. Measured runout and it's less than what I can pass the 15 thou feeler gauge through.

I'll probably be reassembling tomorrow. Any pointers for someone whose never done an HG job before? Would a copper spray be appropriate for something like this?


Definitely cutting this a bit close. Track day on the 27th, then headed to vtec club the weekend after for norcal vs socal at BRP. This just has to hold through til then. Might be wise to get triple A...

 

Copper spray is dependent on the head gasket. If the head gasket has a viton rubber coating like OEM or Fel-Pro perma torque then no spray. If the gasket is plain metal with no coating then definitely spray.

I've seen the sleeves a touch proud and didn't have an issue. I suspect it's done purposely by factory for a tight cylinder seal on the gasket.

If that is a D15B7, I would look for the Ishino leak gasket replacement. The graphite junk is junk and the leak gasket is the proper thickness oem mls gasket. Autopartsway used to carry them, they still might.

Took a bit but finally got autopartsway.com to come up, they don't have it in stock at the moment, OEM part number 12251-P01-004

 

Some crazy stuff happening up north. Those are some crazy pictures to see. I can't imagine getting that much rain in the span of a couple days. Good to hear that things worked out and you were able to get back home.

Spent tonight overthinking this whole half-tooth error thing on the d15 vtec franken-build. Was reading the thread on d-series.com and couldn't for the life of me, figure out why you'd need to advance the belt an entire tooth. I suppose when I mocked it up with the z6 cam I didn't tension the belt enough on the 'driving' side and the TDC marks lined up both the crank and the cam gear. Couldn't for the life of me get the logic of the entire thing through my head while in the garage. Came back to my desk and started scribbling and drawing things on paper. Took me another hour to realize that I didn't tension the belt enough, and if I did, either the crank or cam would be slightly retard with the z6 cam gear. Basically, I just need to toss the y8 cam gear on and pull it taut and see if both timing marks line up. Right?

Also discovered something else from the whole fiasco last month. I overheated the engine to the point that the spark plug wires melted at the bottom and permanently sealed my new iridium plugs into the old head.

Installed the z6 manifold while the head was in the car. The bottom center nut is impossible to get to. Had to tighten it from under the car. Am I missing some kinda trick here?



Also found out that the y8 tensioner doesn't work. I'll just reuse the b7 tensioner and maybe give it a bit more tension if it still feels loose with the spring. It shouldn't though right? The shorter belt should make up 1:1(ish) for the decreased deck height. If anyone wants the y8 tensioner, PM me and I'll send it your way for the cost of shipping.




Also remembered that I had this dent in the downpipe and discovered the whole washer/cross threaded nut thing going on from the previous owner. Wonder how much (if any) power this robbed? Picked up a 4-2-1 z6 manifold which I'll replace this with.

 

If the difference between the b7/z6 gear and y7/y8 is half a tooth, then yes you run the Y cam gear. I think you should also be using a z6 tensioner and if you don't already know, the 103 tooth d15z1 timing belt.

Been a while since I've thought about that stuff. Put a new alternator belt on the eg. Bought one for a z6 but it was just too short for the y8 so I used the one that was supposed to go in the Integra.

 

The timing marks won't line up if I recall. You have to put marks from the other gear onto the replacement gear with the keys lined up.

I'm pretty sure I put the two cam gears on top of each other to show the key index variance and then aligned the keys to show the timing mark variance.

If I remember correctly, you want the timing marks of the gear the is indexed incorrectly a half a tooth. And you want to put those marks onto the gear that is indexed correctly.

As for the Z6 IM, the bottom middle nut, the only way I found to do it is with a swivel adapter. Problem with the swivel adapter is you can't torque to spec being any angle throws the torque out the window. That IM has that chunk of extra material right where a straight extension needs to go and does go np on the B7 IM.

What block and head are you doing up?

 

I'm tossing a z6 head onto a b7 block. My car is a '95 CX on the title and the b7 block just says d15b and has a 4-wire o2 sensor as well as all sorts of other odd stuff. The z6 that the head was pulled from had also been messed with a ton, so I'm not 100% certain what I'm dealing with at this point.

For the belt, I think the z6 belt is the right one for the z6 head, y7 block combo. I've buttoned it all up and with the b7 tensioner, everything seems to line up.

As for the timing marks, I got out there and put it together and tomcat is right. The gear and timing marks are indexed a half tooth difference from each other. I thought about pulling it off and doing just that, but in the interest of time, threw it on in the advanced timing position. I thought it through and this was the most logical thing to do since the y8 gear retards the timing half a tooth. In addition to the deck height difference, that gives you -1 tooth mechanical timing. Therefore, advancing it an entire tooth should equal zero, right?

I need to check again cause from the pictures I'd taken today, the y8 cam gear timing marks sit dead on where they're supposed to. Right at the 9 o'clock on the side going towards the crank, and right above 3 o'clock on the side coming up from the water pump. Odd. The b7 crank timing arrow is around 1 o'clock and points towards a mark that's on the right edge of a tooth on the pulley.

Also put two and two together and realized that the bend in the downpipe is from lack of center exhaust support. The entire exhaust is supported at the bracket in front of the block, then next at the hanger right where the muffler and midpipe meet. I need to track down the bracket that goes from the back of the block to the downpipe and then get a center hanger welded on before this goes to the track. Probably wouldn't pass tech with how it is right now...

 

Grabbed the pics from the camera. Looks like the timing marks on the cam gear are dead on where they're supposed to be. The crank looks like its slightly retard. The arrow on the oil pump points to the center of that tooth. The timing groove is on the right edge of that groove. I think this means I'm still 1 tooth retard and need to advance the cam another tooth to get the timing correct?

Crank


Backside, coming from water pump


Backside, going to crank pulley



Also replaced the tensioner bolt with one that was pulled out of the AC bracket on the car that the head is from. The OEM one is m10x1.25, 55mm length. Just happens to be a size mcmaster doesn't have. Visited the junkyard and discovered that it's not quite accessible with the AC and alternator in the way. In the cars that I could get to it, I'd just round out the head since the screw head is, for some odd reason, thinner than standard JIS. Almost had to take a bolt extractor to the one in my car when pulling the head off.

 

You're not using the right belt because you're not using a 1.6 block. Using the Y7/8 cam fixes the half tooth difference when using a 1.5 block.

 

If you have the half tooth variance (thought that was only with y8 on b7 but I dunno) then you will want the Y7 or Y8 cam gear but you will align the key way of the y7/78 to the z6 cam gear and copy your tdc marks from the z6 to the y7/y8. That gives you the tdc on the half tooth shifted y7/y8 for a Z6 head. You can't add the half a tooth variance of the gear to the half a tooth of the deck. If you have the y7/y8 gear marks lining up then you are either half a tooth advanced or half a tooth retarded assuming the y7/y8 tdc marks are setup precisely as the obd1 setups for the y7/y8 head. If they changed the setup due to say a taller head, then you could be 3/4 tooth out on mechanical timing or 1/4 tooth or anything between.

I hope that makes sense.

If I recall the b7 belt is 106 tooth, z6 is 104 tooth and I don't recall what a vx is. Maybe 103 tooth? The tensioners are different size between the z6 and b7 and that is what takes up the extra slack in the higher tooth count. The 104 tooth on the b7 tensioner should be good. Might be a touch tight. I think someone found a 105 tooth belt that was same width as Honda, think it was a Kia belt. Don't recall exactly though. Oh and a D15B block means it's a JDM block, could be one of 4 or so variants. Only the Vtec D15B was significantly different than the B7 with the larger crank journals etc if I remember correctly. Did you see what pistons you had before slapping the head on? That would help indicate which JDM block it was.

 

I don't know where you came up with that explanation but you build the engine as a d15z1 when you use a 1.5 block and any vtec head. 103 tooth vx belt, not 104, not 105, not 106. You use the Y7/8 cam gear and line it up how you would normally time a d15z1, you don't change any timing marks.

 

The Y8/Y7 cam gear timing marks don't match the Z6 cam gear and the Z6 cam gear is made for the Z6 head.

Please explain how you can get the SAME TDC position of the cam when it's now off half a tooth because of the different half a tooth index of the obd2 cam gear. The Z6 cam is still in the Z6 head. The ONLY part that has changed is the deck height. The cam still needs to be in the same exact TDC position it's in when it has the Z6 cam gear. That part doesn't change.

I'll have to pull out my cam gears again and take a look but I am pretty sure that the marks do not line up when you align the keys of the cam gears.

As for the belt, please explain how changing the head is going to drop 3 teeth. The B7 is already a shorter deck so that can't be it. The water pump and tensioner is still the B7 and the B7 takes a 106 tooth belt. Changing the head is going to loose an inch and a half of belt?

 

Didn't get a chance to work on the car today but I'm going off of this thread here.

https://www.d-series.org/threads/how...e-info.166652/

The logic seems sound for the belt choice. Deck height is 5mm shorter and head height is 2mm shorter. Therefore, you use a belt that is 10mm shorter (10mm = 1t), it should make up for some of the reduction in height. The extra 'slack' should be able to be taken up by the tensioner. You'll get a slightly less taut belt, but that can be somewhat made up for by applying pressure to the tensioner. The shorter the belt, the tighter it will be. Seems like it will also affect how close to TDC you'll be able to get mechanical timing. My understanding of the half tooth offset clocked cam gears is still fuzzy, but from what I understand, the eye to eye being reduced, then the slack being taken up by the tensioner causes the 'peaks' of the teeth on both the belt and gear to line up, causing the "1/2 tooth error", then remedying it with the y8 cam gear.

Some of the info is also missing. Where did that dude get the 5mm deck height measurement from? The 2mm head difference is from the manual. I think an eye-to-eye measurement would be really helpful.

As for the tensioner, the Z6 tensioner has a longer arm and more leverage on the belt, but a smaller pulley. If the spring is the same spec, this tells me that they did this to comp belt tension for the combination of belt length and distance between the crank and cam. Spring has different p/n though so it's another variable.

I've got the timing cover and the harmonic balancer on now. I think sighting through the timing cover might be easier than the pointer on the oil pump. I'll transfer the timing marks from the b7/z6 gear onto the y8 gear and see which one sits closer to TDC when the crank is exactly at TDC. At this point, the worst that can happen is the mechanical timing being a bit off. Nothing that'll cause a disaster. Seems like you'd ideally have an adjustable cam gear.

On another note, I received a part that I'd wanted from day one of owning the car. The five mart / osaka jdm devil wing, designed by Kei Miura of TRA kyoto. It's a pretty standard fiberglass piece. Some imperfections at the edges, but nothing that can't be removed before paint. We'll see how good it fits up once I get the car out of the garage tomorrow. The corners seem super delicate and I'm surprised it arrive in one piece after being sent through fedex.

 

If you get a chance to take a look behind the timing cover, do let me know what you find. If I'm thinking straight, at TDC of crank, the original y8 marks will be a half tooth advanced and the transferred b7/z6 marks will be spot on with the marks on the head.

Also, from yesterday, looked at some pics and PM-3 is embossed on the piston tops. Didn't know there were variants of the JDM d15

 

Most of my research was done on d-series.org but that thread was not one I remember. There are older much more informational threads on there that you should look for. It was quite a long time ago I was building the same engine you have. The only difference is I had an adjustable cam gear. Kinda disappointing to find out it wasn't a true p08 d15b so I sold it.

 

Pm-3 piston I believe is the same b7/b2 piston so it's the standard non vtec 1.5 liter block. As for the variants, the ones I know is JDM D15B Vtec, JDM Dual Carburetor, JDM 3 stage (Vtec-e, 16 Valve, Vtec) and then the JDM D15B non vtec. The only one I've not ever heard of or seen anything about is a D15B Vtec-e only motor. That would make a 5th variant.

I just need to go through my misc parts boxes and find my spare cam gears. Thinking about it, I compared the B7 to the Y8..... I didn't have Z6 at the time. I do now so confirming the info that they match should be readily easy to do. The B7 gear to Y8 gear is where I think I'm getting my memory from that the marks were a significant amount off and needed a copy over. I was going to use a B7 gear on a y8 head on a b7 block. I am very likely mistaken on the cam gear marking bit because of this old research I did and still haven't utilized.

 

@TomCat39 - Found your pics from a mini-me discussion thread in 2015. Super helpful. Transferred the marks onto the Y8 cam gear and it seemed to be a tooth advanced. That's all settled now. What a confusing topic. In short, d15b7 bottom, d16z6 head, d16z6 TB, and a d15b7 tensioner. Transfer marks from b7 gear to y8 gear and TDC on both crank and cam should line up.

On that note, it looks like I also have a different crank pulley. This is from a d15b8, right? Two marks for TDC, assumed that between the two is TDC.



Did some tidying up and wiring on the car today. One of the most frustrating tasks so far. Was tempted to just solder things, but would really rather not. Especially when I have all the right tools and supplies on hand. Took me about 3 hours to lengthen the IAT sensor wire and completely redo the TA sensor as the oil and heat had completely destroyed the wire jacket and heatshrink over it. Cut it all the way back to the junction and crimped a pigtail to it. Bit of a waste of money using dr-25 and tefzel here, but it's what I had on hand and I'm only 3 days from a track day.



Threw the rear wing on and started on the belt molding but realized that i'd be easier with the car out of the garage.



I'll be wiring vtec solenoid and oil pressure tomorrow (hopefully). Then, all the hoses go back on and it hopefully runs without issues.

 

Are the Z6 and B7 cam gears the same? I think they might be, but remember, the Z6 uses the lower mark with the back timing cover while the b7 uses the side marks with the level of the head. Chris posted the FSM sheet on it. So the side marks shouldn't mean anything to you. Just the lower one roughly at 6 o'clock. I am stuck at home today so will compare the Z6 and Y8 cam gears. Will edit and post the photo(s) in this post later to confirm.

Unfortunately, I don't know a thing about that crank pulley. We don't have B8's up here in Canada. I've only ever seen 3 marks and one lone mark away from the 3. The lone mark was TDC and the 3 marks was the ignition timing marks, with the center of the 3 being the sweet 16 degree spot. I don't know how the dbl mark of that pulley works.

I thank everyone who questioned me, it pushed me to confirm what I was thinking and gather a bit more info in the process. So, honestly, my sincere thanks. It's good to recheck ones position from time to time.

On that note, I have confirmed the D15B7, D15Z1 and the D16Z6 all use the PM3B cam gear. And the side marks of the Y8 to the PM3B are half a tooth off of each other and the Z6 mark is missing all together. Pics below for reference taken this morning:

 

Got it to crank and start on the first try! :D




So yesterday, I managed to get everything together and the car started on the first try. CEL came on for what I'd presumed was the vtec oil pressure and the vtec solenoid. Finished my little vtec harness and went to go do the ECU side just to find out that the pins are completely different than what I had on hand. Back to the junkyard tomorrow.



While doing the ignition timing and had the jumper in the service connector, I took a look into the codes and it seems like I only have one for code 43, the fuel system. The car runs super rich and there's lots of smoke from the exhaust. I have no clue what it could be due to. The o2 sensors are different part numbers though. Could it be that? From what it looked like when I pulled it, I have the P2R o2 sensor. The catalog calls for the P28 sensor. Might give that a try, but right now, that's all I can think of. Fuel rail and injector were also from the old engine and were working when I removed them. Same P/N from honda too.

 

The injectors and fuel rail should be the same for B7/B2 and the Z6. Only the B8 and Z1 have smaller injectors that I'm aware of on the OBD1 cars. So that would lean towards o2, either bad sensor or bad wiring somewhere between sensor and ecu.

I'm not sure, but you might also check your ECT sensor. If it's not telling ECU the car is to temp, the car will stay in cold open loop mode as far as I understand.

Just a heads up, this weekend I'll be moving your posts and all posts related to them to your own thread. This thread really wasn't meant for lengthy troubleshooting and really your situation should be and deserves it's own thread. What would you like for a thread title?

 

Heh, yeah, we've gone a bit off topic here. You can title it as b7/z6 mini me swap, or something along those lines

I tested it with the stock P06 ECU and it gave me an o2 sensor error (code 02 I think?). I went and checked all the connections and ended up getting another o2 sensor from oreilly's. Wired up vtec, changed my front pads and rotors, and went to a track day. The CEL came back once and it went back to running very rich, but went away after resetting the ECU (pulling the backup and ECU fuse). It was when the car was idling when it was at temp. I think what you're saying might be right. I'll need to check the ECT sensor.


Very clean DC2R in the back there. Original owner. Was very cool to see it out on a track.


Can't really say this has significantly more go, but those extra few hundred revs at the top are life changing. It's more forgiving if you brake too early or scrub a bit too much speed as the power is still there. After three 20-minute sessions of bouncing it off the rev limiter, no bubbles, no coolant splatter all over the bay. I'd say my HG job was successful.

 

Glad you got it up and running.

Didn't get the move done over the weekend but since I'm flooded in again, I got it done this morning. Made a bit of a mess but got it fixed up. If you any of yall notice a post missed that should be here, please let me know.

Looks like it turn out pretty good over all. Cheers.

 

Requisite pic of OP bombing the corskcrew or imminent forum ban. Your choice

 

Man, they changed photographers on the day I went and no more free pictures. The photos from the company they hired are kinda subpar. I think they shot every corner expect 5 at the worst time of day when lighting is at the wrong angle. Don't really feel like buying them, but here's one!

https://www.caliphotography.com/i/me...iPhoto.jpg/all

I did get my first point-by passing session on gopro though. Same video I linked in my build thread. I counted a 2:10 lap, but certainly beat that in my last session when I got the hang of turns 4, 5 and 6.

 

Was at the muffler shop getting a new hanger welded on to the midpipe when I saw some dripping oil. Got home and there was oil all pooled up on the flat surface of the block against the transmission side. The oil level would drop on the dipstick about a quarter way between the high and low line after 30 minutes of hard driving. Had thought my HG was bad at first, but then thought again and realized that lots would have to be wrong for the HG to leak around the oil port. Looked around a bit more and the vtec solenoid was absolutely pissing oil. Enough oil for me to think that it'd be a fire hazard. This was the day before leaving for the track on friday so I ended up getting a set of Dorman replacements through oreilly's. Expensive, but a whole lot less expensive compared to a fire. The strainer on the seal between the two halves was on the wrong way around. Was about to just push it out thinking it was co-molded into the seal, but it's just retained by a groove in the rubber seal. Reinstalled it the right way and threw it in. Buttoned everything up, added a bit more oil, then drove 200 miles to my stop for the night before heading to Buttonwillow.



40 bucks for three gaskets; one of which you didn't use... Either these are expensive, or I'm getting used to those closeout prices from rockauto lol.



Took it to vtec club on Friday. Got to drive a bit harder than I did last week at laguna and started to pick up that whole thing of tossing the car into corners and slamming on the gas in order to straighten it out. Learned a lot. Saw a lot of cool stuff.



Left for home the next day. No pool of oil on the ground which means the vtec solenoid seal was the issue.

Nice cruise up the coast to wrap up these three weeks of chaos. My takeaway from this trip was never to do a road trip in a racing bucket seat. I'm still all sore from three days of sitting in that thing.