Rep Power: 0

Honda Civic 2001 lx. 1.7L
I broke my timing belt. So I'm doing a valve job.

I'm on a budget.
I didn't blown my head prior to the timing belt taring.

I checkef the plane of the cylinder head.
I'm at 0.003 warpage in the middle.
Book says 0.002 is the max tolerance.
Guy at the auto parts store who used to work for Honda said 0.001 per cylinder is tolerance... So in that thought process I have 0.004 for tolerance. That seems like allot....


I'm wondering if I can get away with just using a good gasket and not machining it. I have on hand a Mahle brand gasket.

Also... Head bolts.... Do I need to replace them?

Any thoughts?

 
Rep Power: 511

I'd get the head decked. Had my head decked when it was .002 warped. make sure you check levelness of the block, as well. As for which gasket, I'd seriously go OEM.

Head bolts, you can reuse them. They're not stretch bolts

 
Rep Power: 210

Agree..get head milled and reuse bolts ( they are not stretch bolts). If you really want to cheap out you can sand the head flat yourself (personally, I wouldn't):

 
Rep Power: 243

Deck it and get an OEM gasket.