dem0nk1d

Morning,

So recently bought an 2004 Civic Sedan with 215k on it. The buyer claimed that all it needed was a new head gasket and I should be on my way. Oh boy was that wrong. So make a long story short, I took the civic to my shop and started to pull everything apart. Got the head machined, which was very basic. A mil, hot tank, and pressure test. Bough a full upper gasket setup including a metal head gasket. Got everything timed and thrown back together. Fired it up noticed a knocking sound, and misfiring on cylinders 2 + 4. The misfire is due to two bad coil plugs and when I was pulling the engine apart these bastards were stuck… The knock sound concerned me a lot, and will now be getting the bottom end rebuilt from the local machine shop. Oh funny thing is oil is not 4.99 a quart here in San Diego, and the oil I put in the engine came out black as could be. FML….

So my question what’s the best method to pulling the engine. I’ve read two different ways of dropping the engine, with the subframe, or pulling it from the top. I do not want to discharge the A/C system at all so I need to leave the compressor intact with the closed system. Is it still possible to remove the engine from the top side without bothering the A/C system??? I don’t know what Honda had to have the a/c line coming over the top of the engine.

I must say this is the worst Honda, Mr.Honda has made ever. Engine harness “MADE IN CHINA”, Under the dash harness “MADE IN MEXICO”, cylinder head stamp “USA”, and finally the car was made in CANADA. What happened to one place making the damn thing…

ezone

Pull the compressor off the side of the engine. Use coathangers or bungee straps to hold it out of the way.

Have a spare person handy to move and hold the lines or the compressor out of the way when you go to remove the engine.

If you go out the top, the lines need to move. If you drop it out the bottom, the exhaust manifold and everything else on that side probably needs to be off of it to clear the compressor.


You should try checking out a Dodge Caliber at 60k miles. Your Civic with almost 4X the miles is still 10X the car that Mopar is.

dem0nk1d

thanks i got it out, had my brother pull the compressor off to the side and then we just moved hoses and what not out of the way when it was coming out. totally miss working on the OG d-series / b-series rides without the whole subframe deal. Whole new thing to me.. Damn i guess im old now. LOL!

sl33pyriceboi

iTrader: (3)

Looks good. Keep is updated.

Biscuit

Do 1 and 4 pistons look as good as 2 and 3?

dem0nk1d

-Biscuit
1st round when i thought the head just needed to be re-machined I cleaned the carbon deposits off the pistons. Sorry for the horrible pictures but I got them as clean as i possibly could. So yes all the pistons look about the same.


Morning update:
Last night we got the engine out, decapitated the head from the block, and trans removed. Man these auto-trans are a pain in the ***, damn torque converter was leaking oil all over the place. =) Anyhow once I get back to the house after work today I'll be dropping the block off to the local machine shop. They quoted me 200-500 bucks on the work depending on what will need to be done. Pulled the main caps / girdle off last night and bearings showed signs of scoring. Felt the rod ends for playing, which I thought this might me the area where the knock is coming from but nothing was found. So the guys at Hopsing will be inspecting this bad boy from top to bottom.

Since I have the transmission out, I may just read some more on the transmission failure posting, and split the case inspect the clutch packs, and internal filter. (Internal filter who does this?? ) I would hate for the transmission to be an epic failure after all this work. Might as well do it right, the first time around or else my Wife will kill me. =)

dem0nk1d

Maybe I should do a k20 swap next. =) I heard Jamaica has 2001-2005 civic sedans and coupes with k20's stock. I'm wondering if they use the stock mounting locations??

dem0nk1d

Morning Update:

I'm going to split the trans to check the inline filter and clutch packs. Yesterday I took it to Hopsing which is the local machine shop down here in San Diego. I already pulled the main caps/girdle to inspect the bearings. A little beat but Hopsing's said that's not that bad, then proceeded give a few tugs on the rod ends. So far he said doesn't seem to be rod knock. But anyhow the block needs to be decked, honed, new rings, mic / polish the crank, and new rod/main bearings. So pretty much I'll have a fresh block for cheap. More to come in a few days once Hopsing's gives me the final word on what's going inside the block.

So I'm thinking it's possible the knocking sound could be piston slap, bad wrist pin, or what else could it be. Hopsing did say the valve lash was way off. Funny he brought that up. I checked the valve lash, and then called my buddy afterwards to double check everything. How could it change so dramatically?

ezone

It doesn't........ at least not without something drastic happening....... or some error in measurements or procedures.

dem0nk1d

Machine Shop called and i will need slightly bigger pistons as they are going to bore the cylinder sleeves. It's possible the sound was piston slap.