Mad Dog Tannen

So the previous owner put on a cold air intake that goes down behind the bumper in my 99 Si. The second day I had the car I drove it through a big puddle and I blew the head gasket. So sense I am doing it I thought I might try and explain a little bit about it to help out some of the newbs out there. I know I could have taken more pics but I get really into it when I do one of these projects.

Newb disclaimer: Do not try this without proper tools and know how or you could destroy your engine.

So One mistake I did make is I did not check the compression before removing the head. It turns out one of the cylinders is not up to par and has oily residue on the piston and a fouled plug. Though I was 100% sure it was a bad head gasket because of the steam coming out of the tailpipe at startup.


So I removed everything attached to the head...



Then carefully remove the cams. It is important to mark these if they are not already marked and put them back in the same way...



And this is me breaking the torque on the head bolts...



I bought all of my parts from Honda. I got a head gasket kit that has all of the seals needed, New head bolts, water pump and timing belt.

Once I got the head off...



So to fugure out what was wrong with the one piston I did what I could. I inspected the cylinder wall and then moved the piston halfway up and filled it with gasoline to see how long it would take to drain. It took over three hours so the rings seemed good. So I filled up the head. The valves seemed to have a tight seal as well. So I believe the culprit is the valve stem seal(s) in the No. 2 piston. I was going to replace them anyway so...




Here is the valves from the bad piston. I ordered 2 new ones ($90 from Honda!). I am going to use lapping compound and try to get a good seal on em without getting a valve job done...




So I replaced all of the valve seals. I am just waiting until the new valves come in tomorrow.

Mad Dog Tannen

So today I got everything on, pretty much. I was trying to figure out the firing order when I was kicked out of the garage for the day. Anybody know the firing order?

I will put up more pics later, sorry guys I wanted to make this a guide thread but I kept forgetting to take pics. Just stick to chiltons/haynes and you should be fine!

02civicsi02

The firing order is like this:



Cylinder 1 should always be on the bottom of the distributor and 2 to the right of it and 3 above 1 and 4 above 2.

Mad Dog Tannen

Ahh I was right.

Thanks bud. I appreciate it!

02civicsi02

No problem and nice work just glad you didnt hydro lock it cause that would be a big pain in the ***.

Mad Dog Tannen

Yeah I am crossing my finger that I didn't blow the rings on that one piston. That would be a major pain in the dick! and a butt load more $.

The garage I do my work at is closed until Tues., so I will fire it up then and I will know for sure!