Wooo just noticed I had never posted these photos of what I found when I pulled the head. I posted them in my other thread but not this one…oops. Anyway here they are
Keeping everything organized
All nuts and bolts put into labeled bags so I don’t misplace or lose anything
First things first. This is what I immediately saw after removing the head
I found coolant down in cylinder #2 & #3 =[
I looked as closely as I could at the cylinder walls/sleeves and didn’t see any cracks, scoring, or any signs of leaks which made me feel a lot better
Onto the head gasket. At first sight I didn’t see an immediate tell tail failure spot. After talking to a friend I sent the photos to, he pointed it out. Apparently the black stuff on the gasket is a sealant type material and if you look in between cylinders 2 & 3 you can see there is none of that black material left.
Apparently that was the failure point, which makes sense why I only have coolant in cylinders 2 & 3. Cylinders 1 & 4 are completely dry
Now this is the part where I got nervous again. When looking at the bottom of my head I noticed the exhaust valves looked pretty bad and on the cylinders that were leaking I see what appears to be pitting on them.
Went ahead and cleaned all the carbon build up off the pistons.
Cylinder #1 cleaned up
Doing work like a surgeon operates lol
Got them all cleaned off and looking fresh again. No signs of damage to the pistons =]
So things that have been ordered. Cometic head gasket, arp head studs, oem honda valve seals, euroexport valve spring compressor for hondas, oem iacv gasket, oem valve cover gasket, tps gasket, throttle body gasket, rear block plug (to delete the rest of the pcv system). I think that’s about it…oh and a tube of hondadond =]. Anyway I ordered the spring compressor cause I decided to rip apart the head myself. Not only cause it’ll save a bunch of money at the machine shop, but I’ll learn how to do it and that’s what I want. I’ll rip it apart, clean it as best as I can and then take it up to have it milled. I’m going to install my oil feed line tomorrow, and when all this is done I can make the oil return and at least get the motor running again. I’ll still be on stock injectors, but that will be alright just to idle it and make sure the head gasket and everything is good.
Not really photos worth sharing, but here is the small stuff I’ve been working on. Changed the color scheme from black and yellow to black and bronze. Also painted the tb, iacv, and fpr silver to make them look new. I need to respray the front of my block silver as well. It’s not really dirty, but I like my stuff to look a clean as possible
One step closer =] Oil feed is on. That other line is for my oil pressure gauge, and yes I know those nylon lines suck. The reason it’s over that coolant hose is to keep it straight coming out of the sandwich plate. It got pinched before and there was a small crack so this just holds it straight. And the electrical tape over that hose is just there so the nylon line doesn’t rub on the metal clamp on the hose. Looks ghetto, but it’s not there cause the hose is broken or anything. Cheap oil pressure gauge so I make do with what I’ve got
And this is how it sits as of now =[ Looks way worse than it really is
I went ahead and cleaned the tops of the cylinder walls/sleeves off. I think they’re clean enough, but not sure.
There is still some black stuff on the very edge in some spots that will not come off no matter what I do. It’s a really tiny amount, but idk if that is going to be a problem
Looks fine to me, I don’t get the block near that clean at the dealership and never had a come back from a head gasket not sealing.
Cool. Yeah everyone has said I didn’t need to make it that clean, but better safe than sorry.
Thanks to my family I finally got everything needed to fix this issue and get back to the turbo side of things =]
Hondabond, ARP head studs, Euroexport valve spring compressor tool, Felpro throttle body gasket, Blackworks pvc block plug, OEM TPS gasket, Cometic MLS 81mm .30 head gasket, OEM valve seals, OEM cam gear seals, OEM oil stainer pickup gasket, OEM valve cover gasket
Next step now is to take the head apart, clean it all up, and then take it up to the machine shop to be milled
Head is ready to be ripped apart and cleaned this week. It’s hard to get out there and work when it’s bowl season. Just watched my Longhorns lose to Oregon =[ Sad night lol
This little valve spring compressor toll is badass! Makes removing the springs super quick and easy
Reference shot for the before of how dirty everything is. Will take an after shot once it’s all cleaned up and milled.
All the valves, springs, and retainers laid out
I did not know that these motors came with dual valve springs on the intake side and single spring on the exhaust side. Learn something new every day
I’m still trying to remove the valve seals and seats. Those valve seals and really hard to get off. My guess is a pair of pliers isn’t the right tool cause I haven’t even managed to get one off yet lol.
Making progress though =]
FINALLY! After hours of trying I finally got all the damn valve seals off. What a pain in the ass that is if you don’t have the proper tool.
All the stuff I had to use to get the seals off. It was easier once I heated them up with a lighter, but still not easy
Started to clean out the combustion chambers today. They weren’t as hard to clean as I thought they’d be. Some wd-40 and some light scrubbing did the trick
Got them all cleaned up. I wish I could of gotten them a bit cleaner, but my hands started cramping
Tried to clean the intake runners or whatever their called out as best as I could
I’ll try and get the rest of the head cleaned up later this week along with the valves and get it ready for the machine shop
Wow, came out clean! It’ll be a new head when it comes back from the machine shop! Good stuff!
good job man.
Thanks. Things are coming along, but getting all the carbon off the exhaust valves is being a bigger pain than I thought it would be. I soaked all the valves in purple power overnight and then hit them with a white wheel, but still the carbon build up wouldn’t come off. The intake valves were easier though.
Here is a picture of two intake valves. On the left is before cleaning, on the right is after
I then went out and bought a few cans of B12 Chemtool to soak all the valves in and I learned a valuable lesson. DO NOT put that b12 stuff into plastic cups…It melted through the cups within seconds and major a huge mess. I had plastic cup stuck all over the valves, it soaked into the cardboard I had my springs laid out on, and got all over my hands (which burns). I wish I had taken pictures of all of that, but I was more concerned with getting it off my hands and the valves. After that mistake I then cut some soda cans in half and then put the b12 and valves into that.
^You can see all the sharpee I had marked on the cardboard got erased when the b12 spilled. I also erased some of the markings I had made on the tape on each valve. It probably doesn’t matter, but I had them all labeled so I could put them back in the exact cylinder they came out of. I think I’ve still got it all labeled correctly though.
I let it soak like that over night and all today…there is still carbon on the exhaust valves. I haven’t hit it with a wire wheel again though (btw I used a brass wheel not stainless steel). I’m gonna do that tomorrow and hopefully it will all come off, if not then I don’t know what I’m gonna do. Anyway I’ll take some more photos of the valves tomorrow and show the details I’m talking about
Nice Work keep us posted!
Thanks
So the valves were sitting in the cups of B12 for 36 hours or so which I figured was enough so today I took them out and hit them with the wire wheel again. I’m confused as to what this stuff is on the exhaust valves that refuses to come off. I took some photos of the valves from each cylinder so you guys could talk a look and tell me what you think it is.
Cleanest and dirtiest Exhaust Valve Faces
Cleanest and dirtiest Intake Valve Faces
All of the exhaust valves pretty much look the same after cleaning. They all have that weird pitted look to them. I can’t tell what that is, but it doesn’t look or feel like carbon build up unless it hardened into metal on the valves cause that stuff isn’t coming off.
The intake valves look different from each other. Some of them came out really shiny and clean, others still have some carbon or whatever kind of oily build up on them that still wont come off. I had all the valves soaking in the b12 for well over 24 hours and hit them all with the wire wheel so I don’t understand what it’s going to take to get all that build up off of them.
I need the valve faces to be clean and smooth or else the lapping tool wont work on them, but they don’t look good. I’m hoping that those exhaust valves aren’t shot or burned or whatever it’s called. I put them all in my drill press and watched them spin and none of them wobbled at all so I know none are bent which is good.
As for right now I’m just trying to figure out what is up with these valves, but I’m at a lost to what it could be
So I got all the intake valves looking spotless and brand new. The exhaust valves…not quite so. Here is a video of the valves, maybe you guys can see them more clearly in this
Valves - YouTube
So after many, many, many failed attempts to clean the carbon off my exhaust valves my friend and I finally found a way that works =]
My friend Jose and I went up to Lowes and bought two big brass wire wheels that are meant to be put into a hand drill. Well my hand drill sucks, so we used my drill press instead
Jose grinding away at 20 years worth of carbon build up
All the essentials lol. I was using the Dremel at first and that didn’t work, then we tried the old blowtorch and water method but that didn’t work either. The chips are just awesome. Gotta have those on hand at all times =]
How she sits =\
Before and after hitting the exhaust valves with the giant wire wheels
Intake and exhaust valve all cleaned up. They came out really nice and they look brand new =] Thanks to Jose and those wire wheels it’s finally done. So happy this step is finally behind me.
Little video of us cleaning the valves
[video=youtube_share;h5B9SaakzZA]http://youtu.be/h5B9SaakzZA[/video]
