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Ok so I know I need a headgasket change....by the coolant pushing into my reservoir. Lately it has not been doing it up every couple of days. Still no overheats, and I boost her all day everyday.

So, my question to everyone is which headgasket?
I love Honda OEM, that would be my first choice.
But what handles up under boost??? Any suggestions, or experiences?
I will also throw in ARP headstuds!

 
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OEM. As long as your afr and timing is right, you shouldn't be lifting the head.

 
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AFR's are solid but I am running stock ignition map with emanage blue. My tuner did not mess with my ignition map. I need to check what stock degree our engines fire at. I hope I don't have head lift

 
Rep Power: 281

9 psi and ur not retarding timing... the fuel map might be fine but u need to retard the timing esp up top so you don't detonate....remember our ecu will advance timing a bit when fuel is added which you do not want running 9 pounds. See another tuner that can set up an ignition map for you, if not lower the boost.

 
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Yea I think that is were I blew the head gasket....on the dyno @ 9 psi. I am tuned for 8 psi on the street and I have turned down the boost to 7 psi to richin her up a bit.

 
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You may have some dentonation there causing some unusual cylinder pressures.

 
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How would you have detonation if you have enough fuel and enough timing pulled? Other than the obvious, bad gas or too much boost....

 
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He mentioned he has no timing pulled. You and I both know his car could be running differently depending on the weather alone. This is speculations but the point I was trying to make was that perhaps the fuel was fine on the dyno tune but once he's on the street the ecu may retard/advance ignition if its cold out, humid, hot, dry and screw up his tune.

 
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Meh. I am still pushing coolant into the reservoir and I'm on my 3rd damn HG. That was at 7 psi and at 9 psi. I just blow it back into the rezzie every couple of days now. Not sure why it's happening, don't really care at this point.

The ECU advances timing more than a bit at some points. I've seen upwards of 24 degrees of timing advance (OBD scanner) at different load points. Of course I have the PCS which doesn't allow for timing corrections.

 
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I was responding to Paul.

 
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Ahh sorry Andy. No harm no foul. Clint when are you getting a real dyno tune you need some true numbers? Hope the new exhaust is working out.

 
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Well I don't feel as bad if you're having the same problem Clint. WTF is it? I have checked everything! Now I really don't wanna tear my head down for nothing. I have been good for a week now with no pushing, but I bet tomorrow it will push. Just cuz I said something!

Maybe head lift is our problem? You'd think the ARP's would do the job?
Mine gets bad on the highway. I have to empty it out every hour

P.S.
Cylinders are still dry as a bone....I stick a camera down there weekly!

 
Rep Power: 238

just a guess here....

if its poppin back into the rezzie could it be a cracked head rather then a headgasket issue?

 
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Hi everyone, My niece has a 1990 Honda Civic. She was told by her mechanic that she needs a new head gasket. The price quoted was $850.00. Is this in the ballpark? What are the symptoms if that is truly the problem?

 
Rep Power: 262

Nah, I doubt the head is cracked. It takes severe overheating it achieve that. My car has never even moved a notch on temp, even on the dyno.
Plus, I'd be probably be burning oil & coolant. Probably have oil & coolant mix aswell!

P.S. $850 sounds about right for a well off shop around $70-80 an hour. Kinda steep if it's an independent shop. Those older D series are cake!

 
Rep Power: 238

not necassarily...my last car did this same thing,
i took it into a mechanic and they removed the head and
found the headgasket was old but alright, the head was cracked in between the valves i believe or soemthing, somehow it was shooting it into the resevoir and over, at some point even foaming over in the Res.

 
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yeah im kinda in the same position... my hg started leaking about 3months ago..so i put an oem gasket in with arp studs but along the way i lost one of the washers to arp studs. well my friend has a dsm and the washers from one of his old head was the same thickness but a little bigger in radius. but i used it it ran fine for about 2 months but the other day i was driving for a little while then stoped for about 15 min with the car on and it started over heating. its only done it twice....sounds like i need a tune and another hg... less any one else has an idea...

 
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I've ARP'd the block and still have this problem. I blow the coolant back into the radiator once a week and it's never all the way full. Then again I only put on like 120 miles/week. My head did not look visibly cracked the last time I took it off and I never get any overheating issues. Coolant stays between 194-205 all the time, even under boost and a full rezzy. So I'm not worried about it. I am going to run a leakdown test on it tomorrow though.

As far as the dyno goes ronaldo, I'm still not fully tuned. Having issues with the datalogs over 5000 RPMS (signal drops) and can't be arsed to get my serial PCMCIA card working on the laptop to fix it yet to get Chris some decent datalogs to finish it out. It's running on the good side of rich right now so I'm not too worried about it.

Exhaust gets done this weekend, then I'll get a lean map for the emissions test to pass it. Once that's done, the PnP head with Crower cam and springs goes on it since I don't have to mess with emissions over here again. Then full tune again and then dyno.

 
Rep Power: 279

Clint... when I blew my HG I had the ARPs put in and was boosting really really lean for like 2 months... never blew again. My reservoir is empty and has remained that way since it was replaced. I haven't driven in boost really since discovering the lean condition problem, though.

 
Rep Power: 350

A shop charges around 800 for a headgasket change. It isn't a quick process, it takes several hours, depending on your modifications.

Everyone is wondering why they keep blowing seals on headgaskets but nobody is tuned properly. You're running piggybacks. Seriously, you can't run even moderate levels of boost with an inferior tuning tool. Until you step up to parts that you don't have to trick your stock ecu into doing "this or that", expect to have problems. It isn't doing "exactly" what you tell it. Its halfway doing what you're trying to trick it to do. You can't directly control your injector pulse or ignition timing.

Now I know someone will come in here and say something like "its only as good as the person using it, blah blah blah" but finding someone willing to take the time to get it to work correctly and everything that goes along with it isn't as easy as going to your local tuner and paying for a 2 or 3 hours tuning session. You have to find someone that knows "how" to trick the ecu with your particular piggyback that's willing to do it and spend the time on it to get it to work. If you don't go through all of those steps and have the correct tools to monitor what's happening in your cylinders, such as a wideband, etc., you will never know why you're having problems. If you're going to run more than about 5 or 6 psi, you NEED to be able to adjust your timing. Can you do it and get away with it? Maybe so but it isn't optimal for your engine, your spark will not be occuring at the correct time and that will cause problems sooner or later.

As for the cracked head, the crack can be a hairline crack that you can't see with the naked eye. Dye penetrant is the only way to really know if you have damage or not. That type of stuff should be done by a machinist. But if you pull the head and see breaks in the gasket seals, odds are that is what your problem is.

 
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Exactly...Bad gas, poor tune, too aggressive tune, inconsistancies of a piggyback.....

Andy, I was more or less agreeing with you in the 1st post. Believe it or not, you where partially on track.

 
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Its better to spend alot of money on a good tune!
when i get boosted, ill be making sure to spend cash on a proper tune.

 
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It isn't just the tune, its the tool also. While the tool is only as good as the person using it, you need the right tool for the job. You can get away with a piggyback for 5-8 psi, if you're trying to make decent power on more than that and have some reliability, its time to use some real management.

 
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That's close to what I say all the time. My quotable is "Regardless of the price, the engine management you use is only as good as the tuner tuning it..."

 
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That's close to what I say all the time. My quotable is "Regardless of the price, the engine management you use is only as good as the tuner tuning it..."

Just to note, that is almost rephrasing what I posted earlier.

 
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All good points folks. I know why my HGs keep popping. It's not completely tuned, my head is probably a little warped, and yeah that whole piggyback thing. I'm not terribly worried about it. I have another head that is going to go on, the bottom end just has to last long enough until I build this new one, and the piggyback is just a way for me to get my boost fix now, rather than later.

 
Rep Power: 297

After getting my AEM tuned I never had a problem keeping HGs intact. I forgot to let the car warm up first and ever so slightly F-ed one up once but other than that it saw 3-5k of hammering and lots of higway driving and the only thing I had to do was check the oil.

PS My lazy *** still hasnt gotten the car back up and running.

 
Rep Power: 299

I belw one HG when I was first figuring out the whole boost thing before I was even tuned. I haven't blown the second one since even on 17 PSI daily. K-Pro is awesome! I agree with Andy, get a solid EMS and a good tune and you wont have problems. The headgasket thats on my car now is an ebay MLS one just like stock and its fine.

 
Rep Power: 262

I totally agree....I would love to have a hondata but I'm broke. So until I can convince someone into paying me more money I got what I got. My car runs like a f*&kin champ on emanage. Only problem I have is a downpipe rubbing,coolant push(although hasn't done it in a week),and map code. Oh and I guess my catch can sounds like popcorn if you count that!
Maybe timing and head lift is my problem but my car runs strong. I beat her up all day. I drove her in 105 degree weather w/ a/c on. It was 30 degrees yesterday. She has never once overheated! I seriously doubt my head is cracked. I guess we'll find out though huh?