Head gasket questions

[kevinthenerd]

I agreed to help someone replace a head gasket. If the engine is SOHC, do you think I'd get away with not having to remove the rocker arm assembly or the camshaft?

[CivicSpoon]

Yup, you don't need to remove any of that stuff.

[kevinthenerd]

What should I do about the timing belt? Do you think I can just take the top half of the cover off, mark the belt and sproket (for alignment), loosen the tensioner, fold the belt aside, and use the mark to put them back together later? Is this an interference motor if I screw that up? Do you think it'll fall off the crankshaft sproket in the process?

Will I actually save any time if I leave the manifolds in place, or will they be more work to maneuver around?

I have a Chilton's or a Hayne's for it (can't remember which), and they make you go through a lot more work than necessary in my opinion.

[inafogg]

before you start you should put engine on tdc!! does'nt take long to
have a peace of mind.if memory is correct your honda is a free spinner

[CivicSpoon]

I agree with inafogg, except it is in fact an interference engine. You could also use those big paper/binder clips things (the black plastic, with thin metal tabs that you squeeze), and secure the belt to the lower cover. That way it should keep enough tension on the belt to keep it from slipping off the crank pulley. But as long as you disconnect everything from the intake manifold, there's no reason to remove it from the head. There's no reason to have to remove the exhaust manifold either, as long as you disconnect it from the rest of the pipe. I have a Chilton's manual (Haynes and Chilton's are made by the same company so they're basically the same), and it has a pretty big list of stuff the take off, but most of it is just plugs that need to be disconnected. It also doesn't say you have to remove the manifolds, it does say to remove their brackets though; since they are connected to the manifolds as well as the short block.

[kevinthenerd]

Runs and drives great. Whoever sold it to us recently put a new timing belt on it, so during the teardown and rebuild we just marked the old one.

[vanilla gorilla]

I actually just took the head off of my 1.5 civic yesterday for this same reason...headgasket. What I did was unbolt the exhaust manifold and intake manifold from the head, unbolt the head from the block , then remove the head alone. So when I got the head off, the intake manifold was still attached to the block (via the bracket underneath), this way I wouldnt have to fuck with the vacuum lines and all that. The exhaust manifold is still attached to the downpipe still in the car....this way I dont have to go through all the trouble of unbolting it from the downpipe...which all those old as bolts probably would have broke...and I also dont have to buy a new gasket for that.

Why would you take the head off with the manifolds still attached anyway? You would just have to remove the manifolds when you get the head off so you can resurface it....

Also I have no manuals. Can someone point me to a site or something so I can get the tourqe specs for the head bolts and the cam/rocker bolts.