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I removed my head on my 98 civic ex to replace my head gasket and I have never seen a open deck block and where the arrow is in the picture that valley that runs around every cylinder is filled with coolant all the way to the top of the cylinder walls is this normal? where the X is I know from other blocks that's where the coolant passages are.

 
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Your X points to an oil return passage.

You probably didn't drain coolant from the block prior to removing the cylinder head, that will certainly allow a lot of coolant into the cylinders.
And into the oil pan. Don't forget to change the oil!


Honda has used open deck blocks for many years.
Here's a pic of a brand new 8th gen block, still covered in grease:

 
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yes I didn't drain the coolant at all ive just haven't seen a open deck wanted to make sure coolant all around the cylinders was normal... thank for the reply