Wow good luck doing it in one day! I have been working on mine for a week now. I am in the home stretch. Finally got all the hoses out of the way and there are a lot on my wagon! I have never seen so many vac lines!
I'm cracking open the timing belt cover and all that entails in a minute.
Yeah there are a few vacuum lines, but I have seen way worse...like a old 1985 carb Honda Accord.. holy shit that had at least 1200 lines no joke. I work a lot, and dont have the luxury of PTO or sick days so I only have one day to do it, and its my DD..so yep it is a lot of work but I have some buddies coming over to help out (and drink all my beer) so i am confident it is possible. Worse case scenario, I drive my drift-spec bumpy as hell, no AC havin, manual steering AE86 to work for a couple days. Wish me luck- and good luck to you too mang!
yeah, well mine is a 1986 carbed EW1. I nicknamed the back of the carb the pipe organ. There are two ranks of tubes with numbered hoses coming off. At least 40! this doesnt include all the vac line stuff.
yeah, I noticed you're running the old wagon. Well, except for those vacuum lines, a HG isnt really too hard a job, just time consuming and just mind the details, and mark everything!
Woohoo! Finally got the bleeping head off. It was surely a case of "if only I had someone else here to give me a hand with shit". Working by myself I take forever. I overthink everything and get stymied way too easily. It doesnt help that all the books that I have leave out steps, info, diagrams. Nothing I am not used to!
None of the books said anything about how to get the exhaust manifold off. They just say, take these nuts off and pull it. Nothing about pulling the CAT or the downpipe from the cat. So that was 3 days wasted. Then getting the intake mani off was a bitch. NONE of my books or any of the diagrams I could find on the web would show how many nuts secure it to the head?! So I ended up just feeling around until I hit all of them. couple days wasted there.
Ended up taking me almost two weeks to get to this point!
Well now I am off to Autozone for a the gasket kit (I checked and cant find anything except for the same felpro kit for my motor autotzone is cheapest. also some shop rags and plastic scrapers. The gasket diditn look bad, but there was white funk all over the bolts valves and cylinders on 3 and 4. I am pretty sure thats where the gasket failed and leaked coolant. Some of the bolts smelled like exhaust!
I may as well post up the pics when I have time. I took detailed pics of every step.
You may not have the cash or the inclination, but if you can, take your head to a shop that specializes in rebuilds and have them check it out. With the overheating, you could have some wrapage that you'll never see, but you'll be back pulling the head off in a couple of weeks. Usually a rebuilt cylinder head is a ocuple of hundred bucks so call around and get some prices. I know you'ld rather just be slapping the head back on and be done with it, but now's the time to take care of any future problems. Also don't forget to replace your water pump AND timming belt. As for vacum hoses, I feel your pain. I've recently installed a JDM 1.5 into my 81 wagon. What fun!
At least find a shop to inspect your head and let you know if it's still good. If your head is warped or cracked, no amount of gaskets are going to help! Also, when you reinstall the head, don't forget to really clean off the head bolts and install them in the proper order listed in the manual. And before you drop them in, make sure to put some thread compound on the threads to keep the bolts in place. That, along with proper torqueing, should keep everything where it should be.
ack, forgot how much I hate cleaning gasket off! So how much of a bad idea is using a Dremel or some wire brushes? Worked on a ford v8? Will hondas not seal well if there are miniscule scratches?
Try soaking the gasket with goof off or someother citrus based remover, then use a green scotch pad to go over the surfaces for a final once over before installing the new gasket. Use plastic paint scrappers to work off stuck on gasket material.
yeah, did some reading up. Gonna try carb cleaner and a scotch pad. I got those already. If that dont get it all off I may use a flexible disc on a dremel.
Oh I just started getting it back together. I started working alot so I havent had time to put it all together. And it took a long time to get the old gasket off!
I cut corners and save money where ever I can. Sometimes I shell out the big bucks. OEM Honda thermostats is one place. I have tested Stant thermostats against OEM Honda thermostats in boiling water. They both open at the same time. But Honda's open wider.
Another place I shell-out the bucks is gasket remover spray. I never forget how much I hate removing old gaskets.
The 1984 to 1987 Hondas seem to have more problems with head gaskets than newer Hondas. But I don't think this is because of the head or the block or the engine design.
Non-OEM thermostats is one cause for problems.
A bad radiator cap is another. The overflow reservoir depends on the top of the cap making a watertight seal so that when the engine cools and contracts, coolant will be drawn by siphon back into the radiator. If the top of the cap doesn't seal against the radiator the siphon won't happen and sooner than we want, the radiator won't have enough coolant even thought the reservoir is full.
I've repositioned the overflow reservoir on the firewall to make the system fool-proof. It is less likely to lose its siphon when the reservoir is mounted higher than the radiator.
I think that may have been happening with mine. I still havent finished up my wagon. I will have some time now though (as long as it doesnt rain!). I just have a couple hoses under the intake that need to be done, then get all the fluids back in.
Comments
I'm cracking open the timing belt cover and all that entails in a minute.
None of the books said anything about how to get the exhaust manifold off. They just say, take these nuts off and pull it. Nothing about pulling the CAT or the downpipe from the cat. So that was 3 days wasted. Then getting the intake mani off was a bitch. NONE of my books or any of the diagrams I could find on the web would show how many nuts secure it to the head?! So I ended up just feeling around until I hit all of them. couple days wasted there.
Ended up taking me almost two weeks to get to this point!
Well now I am off to Autozone for a the gasket kit (I checked and cant find anything except for the same felpro kit for my motor autotzone is cheapest. also some shop rags and plastic scrapers. The gasket diditn look bad, but there was white funk all over the bolts valves and cylinders on 3 and 4. I am pretty sure thats where the gasket failed and leaked coolant. Some of the bolts smelled like exhaust!
I may as well post up the pics when I have time. I took detailed pics of every step.
Another place I shell-out the bucks is gasket remover spray. I never forget how much I hate removing old gaskets.
The 1984 to 1987 Hondas seem to have more problems with head gaskets than newer Hondas. But I don't think this is because of the head or the block or the engine design.
Non-OEM thermostats is one cause for problems.
A bad radiator cap is another. The overflow reservoir depends on the top of the cap making a watertight seal so that when the engine cools and contracts, coolant will be drawn by siphon back into the radiator. If the top of the cap doesn't seal against the radiator the siphon won't happen and sooner than we want, the radiator won't have enough coolant even thought the reservoir is full.
I've repositioned the overflow reservoir on the firewall to make the system fool-proof. It is less likely to lose its siphon when the reservoir is mounted higher than the radiator.