Crapola Blew Head Gasket

[95ClipseGS-T]

well i was on my way home today from work and was trying to get home quick and was pulling in 3rd when all of a sudden car stated smoking and sputering. pulled in the median and try starting car again and with the hood poped and noticed a antizreeze and oil smell and smoke coming out from under the hood and out the exhauste. Im not sure but one of my friends had a v8 that did the same thing and it was a head gasket. Hopefully this is all thats wrong with mine. Any ideas. I havnt tore it down yet, going to wait till tomorrow after work, have no tools here and its real late and im sick. Also if it is the head gasket, how hard is it to change and any tips or links for info on it and cost.

[1stGenRocks]

its not complicated and doesnt really take any special tools. but it will take some time to do. was it overheating? search here for bad headgasket to find some other ways to tell but in general if its the headgasket it will probably do some or most of these.
overheat
white steam out the exhaust all the time
bubbles in the coolant
brown/black discolored coolant
water in the oil. this will show up as turning the oil orange or making it milky looking
bad idle and general bad performance/lack of power

[Killa]

( let it cool down for awhile ) and try to start it up, BTW I hope you not blow up your moto.

[bighauns]

I am betting head gasket for sure. If you do it yourself it is cheap. I blew mine and I went and bought a new engine :-D

[97_3clipse]

Originally Posted by bighauns

I am betting head gasket for sure. If you do it yourself it is cheap. I blew mine and I went and bought a new engine :-D

all i have to say is....WOW

couple questions for you bighauns....
1) cheap fix? , 100 dollars + studs is not cheap in my book but maybe to you it is...

2)why the hell would you replace a motor if you only blew a head gasket?!?!? seems pretty idiotic to me.....

[bighauns]

that is pretty cheap considering labor for someone else to do it is at least 1400 (CDN)

And second...
My motor had 225,000 kms on it. I wanted to do a bunch of work to it and I got a good deal on the engine and labor.

dont call something idiotic until you know the situation behind it.

[97_3clipse]

Originally Posted by bighauns

that is pretty cheap considering labor for someone else to do it is at least 1400 (CDN)

And second...
My motor had 225,000 kms on it. I wanted to do a bunch of work to it and I got a good deal on the engine and labor.

dont call something idiotic until you know the situation behind it.

i still think it would be cheaper to get the gasket changed but oh well have your way....

[95ClipseGS-T]

yea when i start it up it idles almost killing and white smoke,steam, is going out the exhaust, and it comes out from under the hood near where the head gasket is.

[95ClipseGS-T]

it didnt make any motor blowing noise just a sudden stutering and then smoking, so i pulled over and it killed and wouldnt start, sounded like a carbirator flooded trying to start.

[kjewer1]

The HG swap itself isnt a big deal. The pain in the ass for your averag DSMers is that you are basically doing a timing belt job at the same time. If it hasnt been replaced yet, do the full tbelt job. If it was just done you can reuse the parts, but still have to time it and tension it. You can do the "RRE method" (search thier site for instructions) which requires a tensioner tool either bought or made, but doesnt require you to retime or retension, if you do it right. This method however doesnt apply to 2g cars with a 6 bolt motor.

Also bear in mind that HGs dont blow for nothing, odds are you were knocking or something else went wrong. And I would definitely do ARPs while you are in there. Search www.racingknowledge.org for a thread I started titled "ARP head stud info" or similar, in the DSM section. A couple important pointers for doing the head studs properly.

[tyko909]

I would suggest a SCE Titan.http://www.scegaskets.com/ Copper head gasket. take your head down to the machine shop and make sure it isnt cracked or warped. when they do that have them oring the head and get a copper head gasket. I have a .062 annealed copper. it holds pressure better and will give you the ability to make your car more insane later. Because copper is a reusable gasket you can do it once and not have to worry about it for a while. The titan series also makes sure that your oil and water jackets are well sealed. I needed to drop my compression in the long run so I used a thick gasket. if you have to get your head milled then I would use the thicker gasket. somewhere around a .040 to .050 for a slight surfacing is good. think about it, better seal, slightly lower compression, here comes more boost.
Happy honda hunting.

[bighauns]

Originally Posted by 97_3clipse

i still think it would be cheaper to get the gasket changed but oh well have your way....

Yeah, it may be cheaper...but not by enough to be worth it.

Head gasket changed with labor=$1400CDN
Result-->Same engine as before, 225 000kms, worked to shit and in crappy condition

New JDM Engine with labor=$1900CDN
Result-->New JDM Engine, 40 000kms, bigger turbo, awesome condition.

You do the math, may cost a little more, but save a lot in the long run and it is totally worth it.

[95ClipseGS-T]

Originally Posted by 95 GSXracer

The HG swap itself isnt a big deal. The pain in the ass for your averag DSMers is that you are basically doing a timing belt job at the same time. If it hasnt been replaced yet, do the full tbelt job. If it was just done you can reuse the parts, but still have to time it and tension it. You can do the "RRE method" (search thier site for instructions) which requires a tensioner tool either bought or made, but doesnt require you to retime or retension, if you do it right. This method however doesnt apply to 2g cars with a 6 bolt motor.

Also bear in mind that HGs dont blow for nothing, odds are you were knocking or something else went wrong. And I would definitely do ARPs while you are in there. Search www.racingknowledge.org for a thread I started titled "ARP head stud info" or similar, in the DSM section. A couple important pointers for doing the head studs properly.

Yea i think i was running lean or something, i noticed one of the vacuum lines on the intake tube, not the one that runs to the head but the other one that runs somewhere to the back of the motor came off. So i might have been knocking because of that and it caused it to blow. But it wasnt overheating or anything, just all of a sudden it started stuttering a little then i look in the rearview and seen all kind of smoke coming out the exhaust.

[95ClipseGS-T]

So what is all needed for this HG fix.And if anyone feels the need to come to southern Louisiana to help me with this, please feel free lol. i wont stop you.

[kjewer1]

I woukld advise against thicker gaskets unless you know what your quench height is. I started a thread on this a couple months back with a LOT of info, I would suggest everyone take a look if you havent seen it. Thicker gaskets can cause more knock through increase quench height than reduce through lower compression. People are doing 500-600 WHP on stock composite gaskets, and they seal great even with less than ideal surface finish. With a metal HG you need a very fine finish on the head and block, not all machine shops provide this, and even if they do you are changing your valve train geometry every time you mill something. Hardly worth it except at high power levels. I went back to stock gaskets for the 04 season. I will probably run them again this year. I did have good luck with Mitsu MLS gaskets too though, but again the block and head had to be set up for it.

If all you are doing is strictly changing the HG, you just need the HG itself, and APR studs are recomended while you are in there (again, read that RKO thread). If you need tbelt stuff I can list that too but I'm not going to take the time unless I know you need it.