dakotart Posted February 29, 2016 Report Share Posted February 29, 2016 Backstory: Car jumped the timing belt by 1 tooth. In the process to replace the timing belt, I decided to replace the valve seals to fix a disappearing oil issue. Found a bent valve (threw timing belt 40k ago.) Got a junk yard head, tore it down, cleaned the valves, installed new valve seals, all new gaskets, etc. Got it back together and cylinder #3 had zero compression (valves leaking). Pulled the head back off and fixed the leaking valves and it now has 120psi. After replacing all of the broken parts and getting it back together it started on first crank but I could see some smoke. I figured it was from the new header (old exhaust manifold was split in half). After a few minutes the amount of smoke increased. (This was back in middle of January). In the middle of Feb, I pulled the plugs and the #3 was wet. Yesterday I started it and it didn't smoke at first. It was after a few min that the smoking started. Shut it off and pulled the plugs and smoke rolled out the #3 plug hole. I was expecting it to be a valve seal failure, but usually that causes smoking when you first start and clears up. So now I'm leaning toward a bad head gasket. The car has been sitting since it jumped timing and I have it narrowed down to an issue with the #3 cylinder. So the question is head gasket or valve seals? TLDR: Replaced a bunch of top end motor parts and now I could fog for mosquitoes with the car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farkas Posted February 29, 2016 Report Share Posted February 29, 2016 So you got a junkyard head and didn't re-surface it, and you're wondering why you have coolant leaking into the cylinders... ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dakotart Posted February 29, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 29, 2016 So you got a junkyard head and didn't re-surface it, and you're wondering why you have coolant leaking into the cylinders... ? Head was from a wrecked car. If it's coolant, it's only 1 cylinder having and issue not all of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STEVE-O Posted February 29, 2016 Report Share Posted February 29, 2016 What color is the smoke? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dakotart Posted February 29, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 29, 2016 What color is the smoke? Looks grey to me. Can't say that it is white or blue to help point the direction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farkas Posted February 29, 2016 Report Share Posted February 29, 2016 Head was from a wrecked car. If it's coolant, it's only 1 cylinder having and issue not all of them. Doesn't really matter if the car was wrecked or not. ALWAYS check to see if both the block and head are flat, especially if the head came from another car. Simply taking a head off a car is enough to warp it, especially if you're clueless about the order in which you take the head bolts out. No surprise to me you're leaking coolant into a cylinder, if you ask me. Have you been re-using the same head gasket? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dakotart Posted February 29, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 29, 2016 Doesn't really matter if the car was wrecked or not. ALWAYS check to see if both the block and head are flat, especially if the head came from another car. Simply taking a head off a car is enough to warp it, especially if you're clueless about the order in which you take the head bolts out. No surprise to me you're leaking coolant into a cylinder, if you ask me. Have you been re-using the same head gasket? I laid a straight edge on the block and head. It's not economical to deck the head and block on a car this old. The head gasket is new but I did use the same new gasket when I put the head on a 2nd time. Should have still sealed since there was no hot/cold cycle. (and at $35/ea was worth the chance). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dakotart Posted March 7, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2016 Swapped the head gasket last night and the issue with cylinder #3 is resolved. Cylinder #1 now has the same problem that #3 had. Anyone want to buy a Civic Hatch? Needs head gasket. Bolts previously loosened. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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