Hello, I am super new to honda, Ive previously owned many many Air cooled VW's, and bought this car with hopes of using it as a little commuter/work car.
PO claims that they had the head rebuilt, new timing belt, new balance shaft belt, new water pump, new master/slave, and of course all new gaskets, hey sounded good to me too, well the car drove fine for my 10 min test drive, no problems. well when I paid for it and took it home, I hopped on the hwy and the thing started smoking, so I pulled it over and popped the hood to discover the oil leaking massively from what I thought was a rear main. so I had it towed home and lifted it in the drive way, soaked it with mean green and degreaser. fired it up and located the oil leaking from a very hard to see spot under the intake on the left(looking at the firewall) side between the 1st and 2nd intake, so I removed the intake and it looks to be the head gasket,

NOW ONTO MY QUESTION..

Is is possible that they did not replace the headbolts and thus caused improper torquing of the head which in turn is causing the oil to leak, OR could it be that the torqued it out of order and jacked the gasket up, I have a sneaking suspicion that it is the gasket. I have ordered a new gasket set as I know that I am going to have to remove the head in order to see for sure, but never having done a head gasket, do you feel that I will know exactly where the oil is leaking once I lift the head.
THANKS IN ADVANCE! ALSO I CAN TAKE PICTURES IF THAT WILL HELP!

 

You really need to find the oil leak. It could be from the oil pressure switch, the oil filter, or the o-ring behind the oil cooler.

On Hondas, you can reuse the head bolts.

 

I was told they are a torque to yield.. I ordered them just in case.

 

Before going to replace the cylinder head bolt, find the leak.

Search v=5WHBskK_F3o on YouTube for a video talking about this. He is an acura tech and explains this better than me.

 

Ive got at least a week before my parts arrive, so I better just start by completely removing the intake so i can see the back of the Head.. Its hard to tell where the oil is with the intake only unbolted and slightly pulled out of the way..

 

You should be able to put the front of the car on jackstands and look at the back of the engine from under the car. Look at the highest point where the block has an oil stain. Feel around the oil filter and around the oil pressure switch.

 

I should have posted that I already did that. I checked the oil filter and the sender unit and it is coming from higher than that, I have it pretty well narrowed to the head gasket, I have the intake off. Let me take pics and post them this afternoon.

 

Most likely reason for failed head gasket installation is failure to clean/shave the cylinder head. I found this out the hard way the first time I had a head gasket replacement, and got to redo the job. I'm batting 1.000 w/ shaved heads since that first time.

Another good thing to do is clean/chase the head bolt threads in the block. You can make a chaser w/ one of your old bolts (see youtube videos for how to make chaser). Cleaning the threads and good lube of bolts allows accurate bolt torquing.

All honda head bolts I've seen are re-usable, but new bolts won't hurt.

good luck

 

So I Need to put the top end back together(intake) and clean the engine bay really really good again. Then fire it back up and see if I can figure out to the mm where the leak is coming from before I pop the head off, I am 90% sure its the gasket, but I want to be 100% before committing to this job..

 

Well, it ended up being poor installation.. I checked the torque on the bolts and the middle bolts were around 40-45lbs and the outer were 50-55.. I believe they are supposed to be close to 70-72lbs? At any rate, took the head to the machine shop, Valve guides and seal were gone! So I replaced those, head will be all rebuilt 100% valve job, now need to put it all back together.. I need to remember to make a chaser!