87 DX Oil Issues

I have an 87 DX that is leaking oil, it is hard to tell if it is just the valve cover or it is a head gasket, what indicates whether it is the valve cover gasket, or the head gasket, there is a lot of oil coming out and sitting on the bottom of the engine bay, it seems that wherever it is leaking, it is only leaking fromt he front of the engine, and I have burnt oil odor and smoke coming from under the engine bay and through the vent with the vent turned on. Oh and it is white smoke.

I did check search, couldn't find anything that matched this question.

well, you may as well start replacing them one at a time.
get valve cover one replaced. if that doesn't help see if you can find other leaks or spots that it may be leaking.
the other thing you may want to check cam seals. they can be leaking bad.
distributor o-ring can be bad.

A good way to find out where the oil is leaking from is to take your car to the car wash. Get some engine degreaser & spray it on the engine & under the engine around the oil pan (after you let it cool down, you don't want to spray your engine while it is hot, you could crack the head or worse.) Let the de-greaser set a little & spray it off.
Take the car for a spin or two & look around the engine bay & under it for the leak again. I personally found this a good techique.

White smoke is generally water burning.

On my 89 SE-i I replaced the valve cover gasket, the cam seal, the o-ring behind the oil filter and the oil pan gasket. This stopped all oil leaks at that point. 6 months later I could see a little oil coming from the hose that goes from the pvc valve to the oil pan. I replaced that hose and pvc valve when I did the cylinder head work a couple of weeks ago. Now I have a clean oil free engine.

Lets say it is the head gasket, what kind of time am I looking at to replace that, and is it possible for a person with general mechanical skills to replace this, and what might the cost be?

You can do it yourself if you don't need the car for a few days. If you are going to take the head off you might as well have the valves and seats ground. Replace the valve guide seals as well and the cam seal. It cost me about $400 for the machine work as well as the gasket kit. Just remember you have to take the intake manifold off with the head and if you haven't done this before it can take awhile. You may need new hoses and a new pvc hose. The old one may be brittle and break when you lift the head and intake manifold from the block. Why do you think the head gasket is bad?

well not quite sure, the amount of oil that seems to be sitting inside the engine bay seems to be alot, the reason I am not sure if it is the valve cover is because there is no oil on the manifold shield, but there is alot right at the valve cover. its hard to tell exactly, i will try to clean it off and run it, that will give me a good indication of what it is.


are there any specific indications that will tell if it is the head gasket, other than oil leakage. Or does oil not leak from the head gasket?

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Originally Posted by 87DXTypeR

well not quite sure, the amount of oil that seems to be sitting inside the engine bay seems to be alot, the reason I am not sure if it is the valve cover is because there is no oil on the manifold shield, but there is alot right at the valve cover. its hard to tell exactly, i will try to clean it off and run it, that will give me a good indication of what it is.


are there any specific indications that will tell if it is the head gasket, other than oil leakage. Or does oil not leak from the head gasket?

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It can leak fronm the head gasket because it has passage ways to the oil pump and pan going through it but it would usually go along with antifreeze leaks and poor performance. You most likely would also have thick white smoke coming from your exhaust. Normally head gaskets blow out from the cylinder due to warping of the head or running too much power. ie nitrous or blowers but they almost always come with other major problens when they go. I suspect you have an old hard valve cover gasket. A new one is about $20 bucks from Honda and easy to replace.

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Originally Posted by 87DXTypeR

well not quite sure, the amount of oil that seems to be sitting inside the engine bay seems to be alot, the reason I am not sure if it is the valve cover is because there is no oil on the manifold shield, but there is alot right at the valve cover. its hard to tell exactly, i will try to clean it off and run it, that will give me a good indication of what it is.


are there any specific indications that will tell if it is the head gasket, other than oil leakage. Or does oil not leak from the head gasket?

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You can get a UV dye and put it in your oil. Clean it up real good like ddude said and use a black light to see where the fresh oil is coming from.


Oil can leak from a head gasket but i would classifiy it as very rare. Valve cover gaskets leak quite often and are cheap and easy to replace for the diy person.


wp

Thanks for everyones input, I will give it a try this weekend. :bowrofl:

good luck

Check this first, get a can of degreaser and spray it under the distributor at L
corner of valve cover. Clean it off with a rag then take it for a spin...check out location and see if fresh oil is there. If that's it, go to honda dealer and get a new O-ring, about $4. Super easy fix. Before this, I had sprayed degreaser all over my engine looking for oil leak and failed to get it all washed off....damn thing stunk for weeks until it burned off.

Thanks, I will try that first, but I am pretty sure it is the Valve Cover.

Ok so I finally ordered the gasket and washers and grommets, what type of gasket sealer should I use?

Any suggestions?

There is a rubber gasket on the valve cover. No kind of sealer is used.

So I do not have to use any gasket sealer on the gasket itself, just install the gasket and that is it.

You can use some high temp. gasket sealer on it, or put a small bead of silicone to hold it in place around the corners. Make sure you clean the mating surfaces real good & tighten them to 7 inch pounds.

Gasket sealer is some nice assurance but not necessary. You'll spend quite a bit of time cleaning it so get some good degreaser cleaner and have at it. Get all the black crap off. It's gotta be CLEAN!

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Originally Posted by ddude2uc

You can use some high temp. gasket sealer on it, or put a small bead of silicone to hold it in place around the corners. Make sure you clean the mating surfaces real good & tighten them to 7 inch pounds.

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Yep. Use a small amount of silicone in the corners only. If the surface is clean and oil free, you will be leak free for many years.