Rep Power: 425

I picked up a spare to fool around with... so here goes.
This is not intended to be complete. I highly suggest you pay the 72 bucks for the Honda manual, its well worth the money.

First things first, if you buy a full head, the cam will hold some of the valves open. To prevent bending them, put the head on blocks or something to keep it elevated.
Start by checking the straightness. Remove the dowel pins and the HG, clean off the surface with some dry towels


Then using a straight edge and feeler gauge, check across both sides, and in an X pattern from corner to corner. You're good to go if its less than .002" variation
I tried a .0015 gauge to see if I'd get lucky, nope


There's a low spot in the center of the intake side of the head, about .005", its well within resurfacing spec (up to .008), so I'll just have the machine shop take care of it. If you've got more than .008" variation, start worrying.

Then flip the head over. Take off the cam gear and side cover, remove the cam position sensor.


You can then deal with the rocker arm assembly. The fact that its an assembly is a good thing. Get yourself a bunch of baggies, and some rubber bands handy. I haven't decided if I need or want to take the rocker set apart. but if you do, EVERYTHING needs to go back exactly where it came from. So rubber band the rocker pairs together, tag and bag everything. Better yet, get some egg crates and put the rockers in those in order.
You need to start by loosening the 16 locknuts on the adjuster screws to relieve some of the pressure from the valve springs.

That would be these little guys right here. Just crack them loose.


Now, pay attention, because if you don't you can screw up the cam cradle, and you don't want to do that. You need to loosen the cam girdle. Loosen the bolts TWO TURNS AT A TIME, IN A CRISS CROSS ORDER. There are 14 bolts, 4 on each outer holder, and 2 on each of the three inner holders. Start at the outer corner, go across to the opposite end and repeat, working your way inwards. You will loosen both bolts on the #3 holder last in the sequence.
Once you've got all the bolts loose, you'll see little pry indents on the two outer holders. Stick a SMALL screwdriver in and gently pop it loose You'll find yourself fighting oil film tension and a little honda bond on the cam gear seal. Once its loose, carefully lift the entire girdle and rocker assembly off intact. DO NOT remove the bolts, leave them in once they're loose, and just lift the whole thing off.


Now you can see the cam itself.

The oil film will be holding it into the journals, you'll need to apply a little force to break the surface tension loose. Pull straight up while holding it at both ends.

Suspicions about the VTEC system in this POS are correct, its a 12/16 valve setup. The 2 outer lobes are the exhaust, the inners are intake. As you can see, one of the intake lobes is just round, making the valve along for the ride. Once VTEC locks the rockers together, both valves open together off the one lobe.


I was gonna do the valve springs tonight too, but the valve springs are pint sized and the craftsman spring compressor I bought is for something with bigger windings. I need to hit it with a grinder so it fits between the coils... I'll deal with that another time.

More on this one later....

 
Rep Power: 261

geeeeez

 
Rep Power: 315

Nice man!

 
Rep Power: 413

When will it be done for my car?