BlueBallz94

Ok im pretty sure i have a blown head gasket. I have a 94 Civic LX. The car warms up like normal but the seems to be big clouds of white smoke that come out of the exhaust.

Ive tried searching but came up with no results. My questions are,

1. How hard is it to do a head gasket yourself?
2. Do you have to pull the engine to get the timing belt off?
3. Is there a helpful DIY on this by chance?

TRIZ

iTrader: (14)

1) If you can pull the head by yourself, then you'll be fine. Search: Headgasket
2) No, search: timing belt DIY
3) Yes.

EFRue57

here's a to do list for you. if I leave anything out please someone chime in.

First and most important, set your motor to TDC.

Remove intake tube from throttle body.

Remove throttle cable

Disconnect coolant hoses from head (I believe there are 3)

Disconnect all wiring connectors to head (TPS sensor, distributor, coolant temp sensor, injector plugs, ect...)

Disconnect bottom radiator hose from radiator, disconnect wiring to fans, and remove radiator. This is not 100% necessary but i find it easier to remove the exhaust manifold away from the head this way.

Unbolt exhaust manifold from head and pull back away from head.

Remove valve cover and timing belt cover.

Loosen timing belt tensioner and remove timing belt from cam gear. After this step it is very important you do not turn the cam gear or the crank while the head is still attached to the block.

start to loosen the head bolts in sequence. some people say to make sure you document which holes the bolts go in and make sure they go back in the same holes, some people think it makes no difference. just to be safer than sorry i do it. easy way to do it is to draw on a piece of paper a rectangle with 10 holes and put a number next to each hole. then with a piece of masking tape, put a small piece around each bolt as you take them out and write the number on the corresponding hole as your diagram.

now disconnect all vacuum hoses and make sure you label them the same way. easy way to do it is to put a piece of tape on each hose and then a piece of tape on the port they came off of and write the same number or letter of your choosing on each piece of tape.

I believe there is also a bracket that goes from the intake manifold to the block and you will need to remove the bolts that hold the bracket to the intake manifold.

open gas door and remove gas cap to relieve pressure in the fuel system. then unbolt the fuel line from the fuel rail.

now how i remove the head after this is by grabbing hold of the distributor and cam gear and gently rocking the head left and right to "shimmy it" off the dowel pins. just be careful when doing this and don't yank too hard on one side or the other.

considering the head gasket is blown you need to have the head resurfaced. any machine shop can do this for a small fee.

to remove the gasket material from the block i usually use a dremel with a fine abrasive head. if you don't have a dremel then you can use an gasket adhesive removal gel or something of the sorts that you can get from you local auto parts store and use a razor blade to scrape it from the block. just make sure you don't nick or gouge the deck surface.

you will need a new head gasket of course, coolant, and a valve cover gasket set and then put everything back in reverse order making sure you torque everything to spec.