When I did mine, I did fine with just a Haynes manual. Sure, the picture quality is utter crap, but the written instructions were detailed enough.

Be sure to check out the "headgasket parts list" that's linked in the first post (as well as my signature -- the "changing your 7thgen's headgasket" link). At it's core, it's a parts list, but many have found it incredibly helpful

Thank you for putting that list together! I used it to buy all of the gasket kit parts separately from the Honda estore and saved a bunch of money compared to buying the bundled gasket kit. Not to mention that as someone who's often guilty of cheaping out and buying aftermarket parts, the discussions in that thread lead me to seriously consider and eventually decide on OEM parts for this job.

Also, I just pulled the air cleaner and found my first impending issue not directly related to the repair. Looks like one of the coolant lines to the IAC (although honda seems to call it a rotary air control) is cracked and will need replacing...


IAC hose

I'm not Josh, but if you're talking about the magic tool for removing the crank pulley, I believe you mean the Lisle 19mm Harmonic Balancer removal socket. It's a SUPER HEAVY WALLED 19mm socket (the damn thing weighs like a pound and a half). It TRULY IS frigg'n MAGIC! It's an ABSOLUTE must have for doing Honda work. (Well, that and a 1/2 drive impact driver of some sort, and a torque wrench )

Howdy, I'm Josh. The specific Josh BlueEM2 was talking about. lol
At the time, BlueEM2 was talking about the engine mount bolts that are under the ABS pump. One of the bolts is just about impossible to access with a regular socket, and in post 22, I showed how I used a crowsfoot and an extension to get that thing out


What you're referring to is breaking loose the crank pulley itself, and you're right. That hefty *** holding tool that weighs like a solid pound/pound and a half is an absolute life saver. I'd say it's more like a 50mm allen key sorta deal, that has an ear to attach a 1/2" drive breaker bar, but also a hole in the center to accommodate a 19mm impact socket for the crank pulley bolt itself. Some people did say some reverse ugga-duggas with an impact gun breaks it loose no problem though, but for us plebs with only hand tools, a life saver nonetheless.

Actually he's talking about a weighted 19mm socket that you put on an impact for removing the crank pulley. It makes removing the bolt effortless.

I can vouch for that. When I pulled the head a second time last month, it was the first time I was able to use that socket. I have the big Milwaukee 1/2" impact, and took maybe half a second to knock that crank pulley bolt loose. All that mass of the socket provides more inertia than standard 19mm sockets. I have the large hex tool as a backup, but I doubt I'll ever need to use it again. I will say that you do need to have a powerful impact to use with it, though.

The real test will be on a CR-V that I haven't worked on since 2009.

I forgot those were a thing. My bad

I never updated this thread.

I did have severe oil burning--I'm guessing just before I pulled the head off a second time, it was using about 1 quart per 300-400 miles.

Removing and replacing the head a second time went a lot faster, and I took shortcuts--I just moved the intake, some of the cooling components, and the exhaust manifold off to the side and held them with bungee cords rather than take them all completely off (per the Honda service manual).

I found a set of aftermarket rings, standard size. When I removed the pistons and went to pull the rings, the oil rings were impacted in the pistons, and I would guess they were barely touching the cylinder walls if at all. Installing the new oil rings made it evident that the old ones were not doing much of anything. The top two rings were still good, but I replaced everything after cleaning the pistons thoroughly.

Honing was simple also. I looked closer and the #2 cylinder (where the crap Bosch spark plug shattered) was only very slightly scored and to be honest, after honing, I couldn't see or feel the scoring. There was still some slight cross-hatching on the cylinder walls, but after honing them, I could see the difference in how they should look. To keep anything from getting out of the cylinder, I made stacked cardboard "pucks" that rested on the crankshaft, coated in oil to keep any grit from spreading. Popping them back out the top kept the crank clean, although I still wiped everything down (including the crank) a few times until the rag was completely clean. The only caution I would advise is making sure the connecting rod bearings are clean and perfectly in place before beginning to tighten the bolts.

I only had one scare, which prevented me from taking it on a road trip. I was starting to torque down the head bolts when I felt resistance on the top right bolt. It had that familiar feeling of a thread stripping out. (Which made no sense, as it was never over-torqued.) I didn't get back to it until after the road trip. I started chasing the thread with a tap. Went to flush it out, and a big glob of "something" came up out of the hole (could have been cloth or paper, but it was solid black). 😠 Most likely it fell in there at some point when I was moving things around. Anyhow, I cleaned it out, checked all the others, and the head went back on perfectly. The only issue I had this time was an error code for the idle air control valve--cleaning it with carb cleaner cured it, as it was quite dirty inside.

Just a few hundred miles after getting it running again, I took it from Michigan down to New Orleans and up the Mississippi River to St. Paul, and back home. I'd topped the oil off to the top mark on the dipstick before I left, and at the most it was down 1/8" from that point. I'd say the oil burning was cured.

And I would recommend to everyone thinking of doing a head gasket or cylinder head replacement to take a few extra hours to pull off the oil pan and unbolt each cylinder, one by one, and replace the rings and hone the cylinders. These D17s can burn oil as they get older, and it will save having to pull off the head again to do the work.

what type of torque wrench are you using?
I twisted my water pump bolts because I was using a higher end torque wrench, click type. The ones that uses the click, they need to be chosen by torque range. The regular bigger ones does not have enough sensitivity for low torque.
I had to use a needle beam type for lower torque bolts.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/GEARWREN...957N/313870121

Don't use a gun to shoot down a mosquito

I use a 1/4-inch drive click-type torque wrench that measures in inch-pounds for the small bolts. It feels like there's barely any torque on the bolts but that's all they need. Same with the valve cover and oil pan bolts. The 3/8-inch is not sensitive enough at that low range.

Having said that, I stripped yet another valve cover thread over the weekend. I have a small leak and wanted to loosen and retorque the valve cover bolts. Sure enough, one of the two remaining threads without a Helicoil has stripped out. This was the rebuilt cylinder head I bought. Which works fine, other than the valve cover threads.

I've never used a torque wrench on any of that stuff, just the head bolts

for low torque, you need a needle type wrench
click is not sensitive enough.

I was wrongly calling beam wrench back then :P
click in attachment below to see how much bolts liked them...

as long as the target torque value falls between 20-90% of the indicated range, it'll be accurate enough. Nevertheless, I never liked deflecting beam torque wrenches. At least, that's what the navy drilled into my head with regards to quality assurance training in a nuclear power plant. For low torque, I'd recommend converting to inch pounds (literally just multiply the ft-lb value by 12) and grabbing a in-lb torque wrench

For damn near anything you'll need to do on a civic, a 0-150ft-lb and a 0-250in-lb micrometer torque wrench (clicky type) has served me quite well

You're not the only one

Engine internals get the torque wrench, otherwise it's all by feel/experience.

we use them in my plant sometimes, but only for inch pound stuff