Bad head gasket

[Dr_Snooz]

Well, I've been smelling a lot of coolant lately and haven't been able to find it until today. There is a nice little green trickle down the front of my block under the exhaust manifold. To date, then, I've had the following issues with my new used engine:

1. Sticky valves, hopefully just varnish & carbon, but possibly bad valve guides too
2. Badly worn cam lobes, thoroughly covered in white grease so I wouldn't see it until the engine was in run a few times.
3. Bad head gasket, put in by the same people who covered the cam lobes in white grease.
4. Still unidentified buzzing sound from the oil delivery/pump system. Possibly a 40 oz. bottle cap lodged in the oil intake system from the same guy who installed the cam & head gasket.
5. Ongoing lack of oil pressure at startup for several seconds every morning.

Wow. I just can't say enough good things about Parviz at Engine World, LLC in Emeryville, CA who sold me this engine and shafted me on the core deposit because I didn't return it in time (because I was having so much trouble getting oil pressure from the engine he sold me).
I really wish him all the best.

[nswst8]

Man, I'm sorry for your dilemma. Are your able to fix this?

[2oodoor]

If this is not a compression related leak you still may be able to retorque the head and it may seal.

[2ndGenGuy]

Damn dude, that is some luck. But once out get it taken care of, your car will be tip top all around!!!

[Dr_Snooz]

If this is not a compression related leak you still may be able to retorque the head and it may seal.

Yeah, I was going to check those head bolts first. If they aren't loose, I might over-torque them some to see if I can get it to seal. The torque spec is 49 ft-lbs. Any recommendations as to how far over torque I can go without big problems?

[nswst8]

Re-torque to original specs first, to get a since of the situation. Then only step it up 1ft lb at a time. In my opinion, I would not exceed 1-3ft lbs at one time (3-5 is risky in my opinion). so this might take you acouple of tries.

[2oodoor]

my torque wrench doesnt even go as low as that so on one of mine I torqued to 51.. then had an occasional oil leak on the right front corner, I retorqued that a couple thousand miles later and it completley went away. Again at 51.

[MessyHonda]

yeah the headgasket went out on my new used engine....i got it replaced and now its all good

[russiankid]

yeah the headgasket went out on my new used engine....i got it replaced and now its all good

Off topic but what does that have to do with the thread?

[88Accord-DX]

The torque spec is 49 ft-lbs. Any recommendations as to how far over torque I can go without big problems?

Well, 49 ft-lbs is not a whole lot of torque for head bolts. If the block was made out of aluminum, then I would be conservative. I personally think you can torque the head bolts up to 60-65 ft-lbs with no problems, being it has a cast iron block. I re-torqued my head bolts well over 49 ft-lbs, about 1/4 turn.

I haven't seen many head bolts get torqued with such a little torque value.

[Demon1024]

I think i got mine on at 54. i'd love to here someone that def. went higher cause i done think its set right.... maybe a little more.

[rfiks]

that sux

[Demon1024]

that sux

yep.....

[Nonya]

pft, the shop i used panted the head in spray paint, bearings, and all. makes me worry. the paint came off, and turned my oil into glitter. i knew they painted it. scraped the spots for all the gasgets/seals. wish i had a shop of my own, with people to fire.

just hope it isnt a warped head. it's almost like these shops think everyone is retarted or something..

[MessyHonda]

pft, the shop i used panted the head in spray paint, bearings, and all. makes me worry. the paint came off, and turned my oil into glitter. i knew they painted it. scraped the spots for all the gasgets/seals. wish i had a shop of my own, with people to fire.

just hope it isnt a warped head. it's almost like these shops think everyone is retarted or something..

thats not good...they should of masked it off...when i had a head they did a good job

[Dr_Snooz]

Update, I re-torqued the head and found the #1 bolt (in sequence) to be undertorqued. That was exactly the place where coolant was leaking. Not sure what it was torqued to, but it was somewhere between 22 & 49 ft-lbs. It turned about 1/16th of a turn before hitting torque. I'm sticking with the factory 49 ft-lbs for now, so we'll see if that does it.

The sticky valves are also improving. I'm just using Chevron premium, Mobil 1 oil and nothing else. The idle is quite a lot better and MPG is improving. At some point, I will swap out the worn-out cam and valve train and hopefully have something worth a hoot.

Keep your fingers crossed for me!

[nswst8]

Good to hear. Keep that chin up.

[MessyHonda]

some people go up to 3-4 foot pounds over stock but i would only go like 1 footpound everytime...headgaskets sucks...last time it took us like 4 hours to get one done...stupid carb...and all the damn hoses.

[Dr_Snooz]

some people go up to 3-4 foot pounds over stock but i would only go like 1 footpound everytime...headgaskets sucks...last time it took us like 4 hours to get one done...stupid carb...and all the damn hoses.

Yeah, I went for a brief test drive yesterday. The gasket still leaks, but it's much less than before. It's easy to get to those head bolts, so I'll keep creeping up until I get it.

[nswst8]

Thats the best way, just 1-2 ftlbs at a time and you'll find that sweet spot.

[Dr_Snooz]

Well, I think I'm gonna give up on this shite engine. I've torqued the #1 head bolt twice now and each time it's come loose. The idle is greatly improved but is still quite rough. The buzzing is gone thankfully. I've replaced the cam and power is much better. The real killer is that I still have zero oil pressure at startup for 5-20 seconds every morning. The engine knocks and squeaks during this time until it gets oil. I'm getting smoke out the tailpipe on hard acceleration, so I don't suppose it's going to be long.

I'll be doing this one right. I'll build the engine myself with good parts. Pick-N-Pull is going to be half-off on New Year's Day, so I'll go see if I can dig up a good block (praying for cross-hatching on the cylinder walls) and head. I'll get a new crank, pistons and cam. I'll be looking for a manual transmission too. Yay!!!

[Rendon LX-i]

damn dude. thats sucks. You better off just rebuilding a new block, all the money your dumping and hoping for a straight block is going to give you the odds bro. Just rebuilt one yeah it take awhile but at the end youll b happy that it well run right sine you did it and no one esle. I went thew this shit 1 time and i just did it myself. Thank god i did cause she running strong till this day.

[MessyHonda]

good luck with the engine rebuild.

[Dr_Snooz]

damn dude. thats sucks. You better off just rebuilding a new block, all the money your dumping and hoping for a straight block is going to give you the odds bro. Just rebuilt one yeah it take awhile but at the end youll b happy that it well run right sine you did it and no one esle. I went thew this shit 1 time and i just did it myself. Thank god i did cause she running strong till this day.

Is it even possible to get a new A20 block anymore?

[russiankid]

Honda probably has a block or two somewhere in a warehouse.