2002 Honda Civic LX auto - repair & modding

[California98Civic]

Originally Posted by darcane

Yeah, I thought about mentioning that one too. You can get about 2-3 years with that method. If you do that, don't polish as he states on the first page, instead, wet sand to 3000 grit, wipe with mineral spirits, and after it is fully dry, apply the urethane/mineral spirits mix.

Great tip. I did the same thing Daox did, and it's fading again after maybe a year, I think.

[darcane]

Originally Posted by Daox

I got a good chunk of reassembly done last night.


Here we have my solution to not wanting to pay $38(!!!) for a intake manifold gasket.

Two things:

1. OEM gasket from Honda was only $11 for me.
2. You aren't a circus contortionist for your day job, are you? Man, I had a hard time getting that intake manifold off and am not looking forward to putting it back on. Getting my big hands up there to put that nut on the middle stud is going to be a challenge!

[Daox]

I have small hands which really helps at times like that. That manifold is a pain to get on and off though!

[darcane]

Well, I got it all apart:



Details in the thread in my signature, but the head needs a full rebuild.

On the exhaust manifold... I strongly suspect that it is not stainless. My manifold will strongly attract a magnet. Most common stainless steels are either not magnetic or weakly magnetic. Because of this, I plan to weld mine with conventional steel MIG wire. My crack is also much smaller, only on the front side of the manifold.

[Daox]

I got some time to work on the Civic this weekend. I pulled the head back off. I started playing around with it and noticed those two valves were not the ones that were replaced. I continued playing around and noticed they were sticking. I was able to free one up with a bit of tapping on it to make it go back and forth. The other one was stuck and I could move it (with a hammer tapping lightly), but it would not free up to the point where the spring would return it to being properly seated. So, I ended up pulling it out. The shaft had some rust on it. So, I took some scotchbrite to it and cleaned it up. I threw just a little lube on it and put it back in and it now glides nicely through the guide.



I got the head back on, but its not torqued down yet. Another good night or two and this thing should be all back together and running. Hopefully that can happen this week.

[California98Civic]

Nice diagnosis and attention to detail. Fortunate car, frankly.

[Xist]

It is embarrassing to ask this, but you are supposed to grease the manifold gasket? Someone told me that I should have replaced mine when I took off the manifold. I thought that you always need to replace synthetic, but not metal gaskets, unless there is a problem. The same mechanic told me that he also always had them ground flat as a precaution.

[Daox]

I've reused rubber coated metal gaskets before as long as the rubber isn't torn. In fact, I'm doing that on the coolant block on the side of this head. The intake manifold gasket on this engine is a little beat up. So, instead of buying a new (cheapest I found was ridiculously priced) gasket, I just smear some gasket maker on it and it seals up very well.

The exhaust manifold gasket, with no rubber, I just reuse. I haven't had issues with doing that.

[Daox]

Aaand, its back together. I wasn't able to get it started up yet. I had to go buy fluids last night and didn't get to put them in quite yet. Tonight is the night for that.

[jcp123]

Hope it starts up smoothly for you! This won't be a bad little car when you're through with it.