Cracked Cylinder head B18C1
 

I've been posting in the hybrid section on my problems. I pretty much am buring coolant in #2 and #4 cylinders. The car is a 95GSR, pretty much fully modified but not to the point of losing daily drivability.

Mods include: 64mm TB, P&P head, 11:1 JE pistions, Eagle Rods, Type R cams, ported stock intake manifold, and Skunk2 ECU. Also used ARP head studs/bolts.

I had the car built by an Acura dealership and now the car has about 2K miles on it. And one day at a stop light, the idle started getting irratic and when I hit the throttle to compensate to keep the car running, I saw lots of white smoke out the exhaust. Got to a parking lot, let it sit and cool. Pulled all plugs to find 1, 3 are fine, and 2,4 are white (look like lean burn). I had the plugs out about a week before to see how they were after the rebuild and they were all perfect. I also pulled the oil cap (after white smoke incident) to see if I had coolant in the valve cover and I did have milky brown (coolant oil mix) oil. I then pulled the dipstick out and the oil in the pan was clean. I was down a little bit of coolant but not much. From there I had it towed to the dealership that did the rebuild.

At first without starting the car, or even running a test, they seemed to think I had bent a valve. They asked me if I had missed a shift or anything like that. And to be completely honest I have not pushed that car past 7500 rpms yet and have never missed a shift (3rd to 2nd downshifting into the limiter)!!! I would not put my car in that kind of danger...especially with only 2K miles on it!!!! I think that is why I am mostly pissed off. Because I didn't break the car beating on it!!

I immediately told them the same thing that no I didn't miss a shift and the car has never even been to the red line since the rebuild.

I told them to pull the valve cover and check for yourselves. They did and found the same thing I did. They then seem to think that I have a cracked head.

Which leads to my question (finally... sorry but I figured everyone needed to hear the whole story.)

What are the chances of cracking a Honda Cylinder Head that has NEVER been overheated or abused? The Head (casting) has about 140K miles on it and the valves/springs, retainers, and seals are new (less than 2K miles)

Just wondering... I thought aluminum would warp first then crack. But I'm sure it depends on where it's stressed.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Oh yeah... coolant is not leaking onto the ground. Only into cylinders.


[Modified by Shft@9GSR, 12:12 AM 5/29/2002]

Re: Cracked Cylinder head B18C1 (Shft@9GSR)
 

bad headgasket?

Re: Cracked Cylinder head B18C1 (non-VTEC)
 

in the time its gonna take you to post this, and view the thread several times waiting for responses, you could pull the head and find out the problem.

Re: Cracked Cylinder head B18C1 (riceboy)
 

sounds like you either have a blown headgasket or a warped head, which would blow the gasket.

Re: Cracked Cylinder head B18C1 (Jared)
 

I figured on the possiblility of warped head or bad head gasket, I was just wondering on possibilities of cracking a honda head.

I know it also needs to come off. No matter what the cause. I just wanted to have some input on possibilities.

And as for warping of head, the coolant is only leaking into cylinders, which to me says the head probably isn't warp, but that the headgasket was not installed correctly when the mechanic put it together. But figuring it was an acura mechanic that did the assembly, it would have been installed correctly.

I'll know later today.

Re: Cracked Cylinder head B18C1 (Shft@9GSR)
 

Are you sure the mechanic torqued the ARP studs correctly? They aren't OEM honda head bolts ...

Re: Cracked Cylinder head B18C1 (dustin)
 

Yeah the ARP torque specs are 2 ft.lbs higher than the GSR specification... could be dangerous!

Re: Cracked Cylinder head B18C1 (dbman96)
 

You also have to use the ARP bolt lube or the specs aren't accurate.

Re: Cracked Cylinder head B18C1 (dustin)
 

I had a bad experience with ARP studs and sealant..

IT DIDN'T SEAL

I thought it was head gasket..
so after pulling the heads getting a new gasket and RESEALING the studs...
. all it needed was the threads to be sealed good (the ARP stuff didn't work)

a bottle of sealant in the radiator finally did the trick

Re: Cracked Cylinder head B18C1 (Crazydave)
 

uhm.. sealing the studs? heh

Re: Cracked Cylinder head B18C1 (dustin)
 

water was comming up the studs.. and in between the nut and the stud...
and onto the valves..

this was in a different make of car ...

Re: Cracked Cylinder head B18C1 (Crazydave)
 

The very odd thing to me was that the oil in the pan was not contaminated or if it was... very little.

Is this possible if the water was coming up the studs??

Would you think that some of the coolant would make it back to the oil pan?


[Modified by Shft@9GSR, 6:34 PM 5/30/2002]

Re: Cracked Cylinder head B18C1 (Shft@9GSR)
 

The gasket could just not be sealing between the water jacket and a cylinder... and water could get in the combustion chamber.

The studs aren't exposed to coolant.

I think the head studs need to be retorqued.

Dustin

Re: Cracked Cylinder head B18C1
 

There is others possibilities... it can be you manifold that is cracked from inside.... Invisible leak into chamber when intake valve open and is sucking is air...Did you burn many ignition coil cuz of water on spark?????? Did you removed your termormostats then unbolt the throttle body(let all coolant hose plugged) and remove spark plugs and inspect with a ligth at 15 psi where ist leaking from...do it with water and red colorant if you want and turn few turn the crank...


Then youll see where is comming the water leak into combustion chamber!!!!

You need a special tool to pressurize from the rad fill cap....


I also heard its possible iacv valve leaking water into manifold ... Almost Invisible things to see if you are not a pro mechanic...

Re: Cracked Cylinder head B18C1
 

this thread is 10 years old...

Re: Cracked Cylinder head B18C1
 

lol dang it i got beat to the punch again...