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Car Forum / Honda Cars / September 200889 Accord head gasket update
Well, finally got the thing back together. So far so good. No bubbles in the radiator overflow tank and idling pretty good. I need to get it up on the freeway and give it a good run, before I'm willing to claim victory. Thanks for all of the help and advice. > Well, finally got the thing back together. So far so good. No bubbles > in the radiator overflow tank and idling pretty good. I need to get it > up on the freeway and give it a good run, before I'm willing to claim > victory. Thanks for all of the help and advice. You need to wait /a few years/ before claiming victory. A well-done head gasket will go 200K miles or more, and that without the engine eventually consuming large amounts of oil. An ineptly-done head gasket will fail somewhat sooner.  SignatureTegger The Unofficial Honda/Acura FAQ www.tegger.com/hondafaq/ > Well, finally got the thing back together. So far so good. No bubbles in the > radiator overflow tank and idling pretty good. I need to get it up on the > freeway and give it a good run, before I'm willing to claim victory. Thanks > for all of the help and advice. glad it's working for you. you will need to "stress test" the motor to be sure, but based on what you've described so far, it sounds like you took the trouble to do it right. thanks for getting back and posting your results - very important for the archive. >> Well, finally got the thing back together. So far so good. No bubbles >> in the radiator overflow tank and idling pretty good. I need to get it [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > thanks for getting back and posting your results - very important for > the archive. and one more thing - you need to figure out why the gasket blew in the first place. if the radiator leaks, that's a classic cause. the other, and one i have personal experience of, is if the ducting and shrouds around the engine bay have been removed. air circulation is not what it should be, and in hot weather at high speed, the engine can get hot - maybe not into the red, but real close. some months later, you'll notice the gasket is leaking... >>> Well, finally got the thing back together. So far so good. No bubbles in >>> the radiator overflow tank and idling pretty good. I need to get it up [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > maybe not into the red, but real close. some months later, you'll notice > the gasket is leaking... The cause was a leaky cooling system and a young driver that didn't understand that, "pull it over immediately and shut it off, if the gauge goes to hot", means just that. Not, "my exit is only another mile down the road. Oh well, he saw how much work went into fixing it, and he had to be without wheels for three weeks. All's well that ends well. He drove it 85 miles to school and back yesterday. I checked it over this morning and it looks fine. What kind of "stress test" did you have in mind? >>>> Well, finally got the thing back together. So far so good. No bubbles in >>>> the radiator overflow tank and idling pretty good. I need to get it up [quoted text clipped - 23 lines] > miles to school and back yesterday. I checked it over this morning and it > looks fine. What kind of "stress test" did you have in mind? nice hot day, big hill, weight in the car, full throttle for a while. pull over at the top and see if the expansion bottle is bubbling. if not, you fixed it! > Well, finally got the thing back together. So far so good. No bubbles > in the radiator overflow tank and idling pretty good. I need to get it > up on the freeway and give it a good run, before I'm willing to claim > victory. Thanks for all of the help and advice. Excerpt from a post from rec.autos.tech, from a very knowledgeable tech who posts there regularly: ---- "As for how to de-carbon the pistons. Here is the easy way. Turn the crank some so the piston drops down a bit. Now coat the bore with some grease (any kind as long as it's thick and gooey), now rotate the crank the opposite way so the pistons pass up through the grease to TDC. Then use a scraper to remove the carbon (NOT real hard, you don't want to score the pistons). Now clean off all the loose crud. Once your done rotate the crank to drop the piston down. Then clean off the grease. It was there to stop any carbon from going down the gap and will grab any that is on the sides of the piston. I would check the head surface and block with a straightedge. What you want to watch for is damage in the area where the gasket failed. Only 3 days shouldn't have done any BUT it's best to check. Also might want to pull the valves and clean the ports and lap the valves to make sure they seal good. Replace the valve stem seals and throw in a new thermostat as well. Follow the torque specs EXACTLY." ---- And this was for a cheap-a.s AMC 258 straight-six. Now port that to our high-tech Honda engines. What you /actually/ did will probably work for a couple of years. Plus the car will burn oil far sooner than it otherwise might. SignatureTegger The Unofficial Honda/Acura FAQ www.tegger.com/hondafaq/ >> Well, finally got the thing back together. So far so good. No bubbles >> in the radiator overflow tank and idling pretty good. I need to get it [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > was there to stop any carbon from going down the gap and will grab any > that is on the sides of the piston. better yet, since the best practice is to use solvent gasket remover, that stuff works great on cleaning piston crowns too. no crusty debris. > I would check the head surface and block with a straightedge. What you > want to watch for is damage in the area where the gasket failed. Only 3 > days shouldn't have done any BUT it's best to check. that's obvious. > Also might want to pull the valves and clean the ports and lap the > valves to make sure they seal good. unless there's a valve leaking, that's actually not a good idea for the same reason you shouldn't use abrasives cleaning the head or block. > Replace the valve stem seals and > throw in a new thermostat as well. a new thermostat is a must. genuine oem. > Follow the torque specs EXACTLY." indeed. bending beam torque wrench. motor oil lube on the threads. if the threads are rusted or sticky, torque spec can go out the window, so make sure everything's cleaned up and that the bolts turn freely under load. chase the threads or even replace the bolts if necessary. > ---- > [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > What you /actually/ did will probably work for a couple of years. Plus the > car will burn oil far sooner than it otherwise might. that doesn't have to be true. if you meticulously don't use abrasives [no carborundum or scotchbrite], and practice general good engine hygiene, it won't happen. at university i got to use electron microscopy to see the way abrasives get stuck and embedded in otherwise "clean" surfaces. [scotchbrite is particularly dreadful - its abrasive is long alumina spikes that embed in everything.] anyway, to effectively remove these embedded abrasives is very difficult, much harder than can be done under a shade tree. if they're not used in the first place, they don't embed/remain resident and get to rip up sliding surfaces. there is a reason rebuilt engines only last a fraction of the time of an original - it's all down to abrasives and hygiene. |
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