Wish me luck...

Roadrunner

Roadrunner

Joined
Jun 9, 1999
Messages
4,729
.. on my first head gasket change tomorrow. I bought a '93 Honda Civic EX last Saturday from an 'individual', with the assurance that it had a rebuilt head and head gasket change within the last year. As it turns out, 'rebuilt' meant that everything was inspected while the same individual did the gasket change himself last June. He must have gotten a bad part or done a bad job, because the gasket blew out on me as soon as I got the coolant changed (because it was full of oil). :rolleyes: Call this my welcome to "real-world used car buying 101"; always check the fluids stupid!!! Anyway, now I have a car with a dead engine and I don't have the money to fix it... but I do have the money for parts. :) Thank God for small favors. Said parts, a bunch of tools, and a repair manual are all in my possession or en route, so the fun begins tomorrow at 1100. I can use all the help I can get, so although it's a small thing, any positive vibes sent my way will be greatly appreciated. :) I'll post a progress report and pics tomorrow for all who are interested. It's going to be an interesting couple of days.
 
Some people lie faster than you can eat a bowl of Frosted Flakes.

Good luck, and I admire you for attempting to do this!



munk
 
Remember the old Navy saying: If it doesn't work, get a bigger hammer.

Good luck.
 
Good luck, and yeah, same, not sure I'd want to try it myself, tend to avoid antyhing that requires too much work. ;)

This in itself shouldn't be too bad, just time consuming though. Have fun. ;)
 
RR - Can't you take it to the auto hobby shop on base???

If nothing else, you can call me if you need a ball-peen hammer...

.
 
I managed to pull and replace the front beam on my Baja Bug by myself and pulled the motor with only my Mom's help. Try to get the motor as clean as you can before wrenching on it. The books tend to show clean motors and it helps when your motor looks like the one in the book. Go slow, memorize the shop manual, take a good long look at the engine compartment before you start taking things off and make sure you have everything you need. Nothing will get you cursing faster than the realization that you need to run to Auto Zone when you're up to your elbows in grease. Good luck.

Frank
 
RR?

You don't want to do it, you will find all sorts of reasons NOT to do it, but label each and every damned thingie you disconnect from the head, valve covers, block, window-washers, no matter how long it takes you.

You got a way of finding out if the previous owner warped the head? Have a place to have it milled?

You have my every good wish, and my very sincere appreciation of what you are about to undertake.
 
Best of luck, RR. Make sure the head is not warped, like Kismet said. Be very careful of dropping things into the engine. Get one of those magnetic grabber sticks. They are like 99 cents at Autozone. Read everything three times before you start, and then read it again!!
 
I'd send smoke...but it seems you have enough of it.
 
Good luck. If you are going to the trouble of replacing the head gasket, you should have the head resurfaced at a machine shop. They should probably also pressure test it to make sure that you don't have a cracked head. It would suck to go through all the work of replacing your head gasket just to find out it wasn't the gasket that was causing the problem.
 
Smoke will be sent up in hopes that the car won't feel the need to do the same.

Ad Astra :D
 
Sorry, man.

I bought a '91 Civic while I was at Lewis...had the same problem. Bought an entire new engine (B16) to put in her, but didn't have the money to finish the job before I left the service and state.

Good luck.

John
 
The torque wrench is your friend!

If there was oil in the coolant that means that the head gasket was cracked or improperly sealed. There will also be coolant in the block so you probably should make sure it gets a good cleaning and the oil changed.

Do you have an engine hoist? I'm an eternal pessimist but I am afraid you may be looking at more than just a blown head gasket. :grumpy:
 
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