I noticed a little oil leaking from what it appears to be the head gasket on my b18c1.

So I am going to change it out soon,
I was wondering what are the basic procedures and any helpful hints on changing the head gasket.

I will appreciate any help..........

 

Somebody give me a break........

 

Is it coming from right, front side of the engine?
If it is it might be from your exhaust cam seal. Get some break cleaner, clean off all of the oil and and take your car for a quick romp and check where the oil is coming from. Hopefully its that, cuz that would be much easier and cheaper to replace than a head gasket.

Either way make sure you have a helms manual (www.helminc.com) handy and the the right tools.


[Modified by nosepkr, 10:44 AM 1/2/2003]

 

Its coming from the left side of the head, but it looks like its coming from the where the block and the head meet, cleaned it befor and noticed it started coming from that same spot and dripping slow down the block
Pretty sure its the head gasket.

 

First thing, get a helms manual. http://www.helminc.com Study it, you'll want to pickup a new headgasket (of course ) and new head studs, make sure you've also got a decent torque wrench around. The helms manual will be your friend.

 

anyone ever find a Helmes manual online? Like in PDF format or something like that? I'm prolly gonna change out my headgasket here soon (as I think that is the reason my coolant system is getting preasurized) ... Again, I'm guessing helmes is the way to go (and obviously $69 isn't much) but an easily accessable online version would be nice as well.

Again, as asked above, any quick and easy tips or pieces of advice from this massive online technical community? Thanks guys...



[Modified by atisvt99, 2:49 PM 1/11/2003]

 

so that's it? nothing else worth commenting on???

 

you take off the vc (valve cover), loosen timing belt and slip it off the cam gears, take off the 2 long "cam covers?", and 5 cam caps, lift out the cams, now you see the head bolts. loosen bolts in this order
1 . 5 . 9 . 7 . 3
4 . 8 .10. 6 . 2
loosen all a little at first, then go back and loosen all the way. remove bolts, head is now loose. remove header, air intake, unplug all head and im (intake manifold) sensors, and hoses connected to the im. (i leave the im on when removing the head) now, lift off. change head gasket (i recommend oem honda), being sure to replace new one right side up, replace head bolts (i recommend ARP head studs, they dont stretch). make sure the 2 little rings are in the block (the ones that go around the head bolts)to hold the gasket in place, inspect everything, put head back on, torque bolts opposite from how you loosened them, starting with center two, first torque all to ~25 ft-lbs, then to ~68-70 for ARPs (double check these specs), and put everything back together. be careful re-torquing cam retainers (caps), if you strip out one, the cam will be loose and make sure they are on in the SAME order/direction they came off in. and make sure to re-ground the head at the correct vc stud. this is also a good time to replace vc gaskets, cam seals, etc. i think im pretty decent on explaining this.
by the way, if you dont use this torque sequence, you will probably warp the head.



[Modified by 22lbGS-R, 12:43 AM 1/12/2003]

 

now that's tech talk... I really appreciate it.