Thinking of Head work for a20a1...PICS

[MessyHonda]

the engine bay, no valve cover or carb airbox.

head with castrol oil

side shot of the engine. only 10k since it was put in.

Reason i dont drive my car...for now.

well i was thinking today that i should get a colt cam grind since my car is just siting down and i cant drive it since i blew a headgasket. its drops more coolent than i put in. i could not drive like 5 miles to my house to i had to get it towed. i already ordered the headgasket kit for 43 bucks. im going to put pacesetter headers, high flow magnaflow cat, magnaflow muffler all connected with 2.25 pipe. i was thinking i should port and polish my head since i have have a place to do it.(in my autobody class but they have a parts tanks to clean parts off.) i remember seeing a Do It Yourself Port and Polish. can any one give me the link again. i already searched but i did not find it. thanks

[rjudgey]

First off buy a Felpro head gasket, it's the best available and it is teflon coated so doesn't stick to head when it comes off.
Head looks pretty clean still but then again it should for that mileage!!
I would again like the others get a spare head if you can then you can pre that and just do a straight swap or if you goof it up you can use the original one, but to be honest if you don't go at it like a Bull in a china shop there isn't much to mess up, the shape of the ports are pretty good as it is, just need to clean it up a bit, have new valve seats cut at least 3 angle or 4/5 angle with radiused edges and blend in all the machining marks in the throat. The exhuast port is where most the mods can be made and has the biggest benefit, and then also the matching and flowing of the manifolds helps too. If you really wanted to get extreme putting bigger valves will really help but you'll have to do something about the inlet manifold and carb first swapping it to Twin DCOE's or at least a DGV38/38.

[AccordEpicenter]

do you ever change your oil?

[MessyHonda]

do you ever change your oil?

yeah i just changed it to castrol syntetic blend 5w-30 @ 155,187 miles...it only has like 1.2 k on the oil

[88Accord-DX]

I'll agree on using Felpro head gasket. Just don't use Felpro oil pan gasket.

Depending on the dollar amount you want to spend, you can port & polish with 3 angle valve job, springs. I had to have exhaust valve guides pressed in.
When you take the head off, break the bolts lose in the reverse torqing senquence, then losen 1/4 turns for 3 passes. That will help from warping the head. Take the valve stem seals & auxilary stem seals to the head shop when you have the head work done, or they will charge extra.