head problem

[joshjones84]

I have a 93 accord with a f22a1 engine. lately i've been having problems with the head rattling. you can hear it coming from the valve cover. i've checked all the spark plugs and #2 spark plug had a lot of oil on it. i figuerd insted of fixing it i would just put on a new head but my friends told me that my car has to many miles on it so i would have to rebuild the bottomend. it has 184,000 miles. it burns more oil now then befor the rattling. so my question is should i replace the head or would that kill my bottom end?

[jeffcoslacker]

Shouldn't hurt the bottom end at all, if it just has typical wear for the mileage...

My guess is you have something happening like a valve guide that has dropped out of place and is riding up and down with the valve and allowing a load of oil to enter through the top...that would explain the noise also.

[mpumas]

Oil in the spark plug tube is a bad spark plug gasket/and or O ring. The rattling could be a lot of things. Before spending money on this you need to pull the spark plugs to see if they are fouled, check the camshaft caps for tightness and gap the valves. Pulling the valve cover may show you the problem.

[joshjones84]

I just herd that if you rebuild compresion on the top half you will damage the piston rings, berings, and so on.I've taken the valve cover off and didn't see any real damage. i've also canged the valve cover gaskets. i just figuered it's time to change the timing belt and with the cost of someone else doing it, it would be way more then i want to spend. besides I can buy the rebuilt head for 250.

[jeffcoslacker]

They used to say that, but bottom ends used to wear a lot quicker then too, and sometimes when a guy would do a top job they'd plane so much material off the head (because warpage was common) that the engine's compression would be raised signifigantly when it went back together...that additional strain on compression rings and mains could cause them to fail later...but rings and mains are much better than back in the day also.

Of course restoring original top end integrity puts a little more load on the bottom, but unless the whole motor is pretty well shagged, it shouldn't be an issue for some time...I've put new heads on old motors (especially Mitsubishis) with more miles than you've got, they still are out there running...