I have never worked on a honda before, only old scholl volkswagen's so i was wondering if it is hard to do? i know it requires removing more than a few things but i am pretty mechanically inclined, but i just have always worked on aircooled vw's. So would it be a good idea to get a d16y8 head gasket for a 96 civic ex? it will give me a little more CP right? Anyways if anyone can give me some info that would be great, thanks guys. Oh by the way the reason i think i should replace is my car started overheating and the heater wouldnt blow hot air, and my car was blowing out some nasty bluish white smoke when i get on it, and a bad odor. So im pretty sure that is what it is, let me know if you have had experience with this, thanks.

 

sounds like a head gasket.

replacement is pretty straight forward, unplug everything from the intake manifold (if you choose to remove it, the gasket can be changed while leaving the intake manifold in the car and just unbolting it from the head. then disconnect the exhaust manifold, radiator hoses, sensors, etc. and remove the head.

put everything back the way you took it off and make sure you torque the head back down correctly, its two step.
for the d16a6, 22ft/lb and 49ft/lb

also look in your manual for the correct torque order of the bolts.

 

My advice is go buy a helms manual and you got it made.

 

d-series headgaskets are a snap. but if your motor is virgin the bracket linking the back of the block and the intake manifold is a bit of a frustration

 

They are hard to get off if it hasn't been off before. Easy to do though. Put it on the way you got it off.

 

wouldent u have to take the head to a machine shop to get resurfaced?

 

i *ALWAYS* leave off that god damn bracket. it does nothing except **** you off..

 

gl man

 

The only thing that's really a bitch is scraping off the old head gasket. It gets baked into the block and head