OK, I completed my ZC swap about 2 weeks ago & the car is not smoking & it definatly has more power than the a6 that was pulled out. I noticed today while trying to fix my idle that a small amount of what appeared to be oil was bubbling out of a corner. The corner is where the valve cover meets the cylinder head near the throttle cable, etc. Is this my headgasket? I sure hope not- I'm about sick of working on this muthafukkah

 

thats probably your valve cover gasket..is it new? did you use silicon sealant in the corners of the valve cover around the cams..(on top and bottom of the gasket / use the sealant)

 

no, it's not new, I tried to convince my GF's dad (he helped w/ the majority of the swap) to help me do ALL of the gaskets, but he didn't want to. Is it difficult to change? Should I change the headgasket when I do it? TIA

 

i would buy a new valve cover gasket and get some silicon sealant and put some where i mentioned above (in the corners around the cams) and all you have to do is take off a few 10mm nuts that hold the valve cover on and take out the plug wires (remember which wire goes to which cylinder) and lift off the valve cover and take off the old gasket and put the new one on..easy as that. i doubt you need a new headgasket..it doesnt have anything to do with the valve cover gasket.
what motor is it?
edit: my bad..its a dual cam zc..get a 89 integra (d16a1) valve cover gasket..it will most likely come with the little seals that go in the middle of the underside of the valve cover also ..just swap those out while the covers off.

 

Yeah it sounds like a valve cover gasket to me.

 

Cool- thanks guys- I appreciate the help!

 

The 89 teg valve cover wont work 100%, the belt side runs straight and the head of the zc kinda dips out a small bit, you have to cram it in there. Jus throw some hondabond in there to be sure.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by blah13 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The 89 teg valve cover wont work 100%, the belt side runs straight and the head of the zc kinda dips out a small bit, you have to cram it in there. Jus throw some hondabond in there to be sure.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Valve cover, or valve cover gasket?

I used an 89 Integra VCG on my ZC and it worked perfect.

 

if oil still leaks with the new gasket look into your pcv system

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by FourthGenHatch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Valve cover, or valve cover gasket?

I used an 89 Integra VCG on my ZC and it worked perfect.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Boh, valve cover gasket, my bad. I dunno, maybe the one I got wasnt an 88-89....it wasnt in a plastic bag like they usually are he just pulled it out of a bin...guess since it was dohc he assumed it would work. Either way I just reused my old one with HB at the corners.