cleaning cylinder heads
 

wasup guys,
gota question...i have a 95 accord f22b2 and i got a real bad valve cover gasket leak so im gonna be changin that this week...i have never even takin the valve cover off so i thought i would clean it off w/ soap and water put a new gasket on and all...mainly as a learning experience i wanted totake the entire cylinder head off and clean it with soap and water cause i got just under 200k miles and figured its a good time to do so. im also plannin on buildin the engine up inside out sometime soon so i was hopin for some pointers and whether its a good idea or not to remove the cylinder head to clean it and anything special i should bemindfull of...i have never done it before but i do have a haynes manual soo im hopin ill be ok...any help would be appreciated it. thanks

RE: cleaning cylinder heads
 

I would'nt mess with the head until you are ready to pull the motor. When you have the cover off remove any sludge you find with a rag. I would stay away from soap and water; get some seafoam for cleaning internal parts. Put it all back together and make sure it starts, then run some seafoam in through the PCV vacuum hose (do a search and follow instructions), after the smoke has cleared and the car runs ok then remove the throttle body and clean it with throttle body cleaner. Replace the throttle body and make sure it still runs ok. After all this, put in a new set of OEM NGK spark plugs (nothing else!) and you should have a pretty good running car.

RE: cleaning cylinder heads
 

Don't remove and definately dont clean it with soap and water.

RE: cleaning cylinder heads
 

thanks a bunch for the help. i was told a long time ago that soap and water are the best things to use to clean internal parts...i was talkin to my mechanic and he was tellin me that that could cause rust so i definetly wont be using soap and water. ive run sea foam through the pcv hose before and the engine seemed to be a bit louder and smoother..ill do that again...white95, u said to remove the throttle body and clean it..how hard is that? (remember im a novice). *stupid question alert* do i have to take off the intake manifold to clean the throttle body? would it be a good idea to take off the intake manifold and clean that with sea foam too? im seriously considerin doin a h22 swap sometime in feb or march pending my tax return money so im tryna get comfortable with takin off and reinstallin engine parts little by little so please excuse my inexperience. thanks again for the help.

RE: cleaning cylinder heads
 

No, you don't have to remove the intake. The throttle body bolts right on the end. Shouldn't be that tough for you. Buy a Haynes manual; I got a used one from Amazon pretty cheap.

RE: cleaning cylinder heads
 

i got a haynes manual. im probaly gonna be takin off the intake manifold to clean it too..just for kicks