I found this 2-part video on head gasket replacement to be very insightful. Wish I had seen before I attempted to do my first head gasket in late 80's. I got to do it twice to get it right!.


good luck

 

Will do, do you think it's a good idea to throw in a new HG since we are already in there?

Or if it's not broke, don't fix it?

 

Thanks so much TH, are you aware of any 2001-2005 Honda Civic ones?

If you can please share, that would be greatly appreciated.

 

The video is universally applicable to DIY head gasket jobs and was actually performed on a 4-cyl Camry engine. Your Civic engine should be very similar; cast iron engine block and aluminum cylinder head.

Only point I slightly differ with is to always use fresh head bolts. As long as bolts are not Torque-to-Yield, I feel original bolts may be a safer option. In this age it is possible to get knock-off asian bolts which would be much worse than reuse of old bolts. Torquing or operating bolts should never stretch the bolt to yield w/ anywhere close to the correct torque. As long as bolt isn't yielded, the bolt should be fine for reuse. This is minor point and open to argument.

Applying correct torque is also very difficult and he advises some significant measures to be sure torque wrench is accurate. I have employed variations of his procedure to "calibrate" or check my own torque wrench.

I clamped torque wrench drive end in vise and stood on digital scale to actuate click release noting my "weight" when click occurred. I could easily subtract my own weight to get applied load to torque wrench and w/ torque wrench working length determine torque at click. Several repeats to get close to correct values. This is probably no more accurate than +/- 10 %, but since bolt/thread friction can vary by +/- 50%, good enough. His proposed method is fine but requires a set of weights (not always available) to simulate the correct load to obtain torque.

I really think the most accurate bolt tensioning method is the combination of intial torque to relativley low base torque, followed by angular rotations to final bolt tension. This is potentially much more accurate. I don't know if all newer cars employ this or not?

good luck

 

If cylinder head is removed a new head gasket is absolutely required.

good luck

 

Thanks again TH, for my 94 accord we reused head bolts and pulled some from a pick a pull place, so far so good---No complains yet.


Now for civic, prolly going to do the same. Can anyone please advise how to pull dam injectors out? We have removed two bolts and they are proving to be a PITA and not ready to move?

 

Civic - so I'm not sure on how they come out, looks like there is still "piping" over them.

When I had to pull the head on a 3rd gen carb - I found it easier to pull the head with the intake attached Not sure if this thought applies to this car or not but I can tell you on that 3rd gen it made a few things a lot eaiser - I was sure the intake was back on and got all of the bolts/nuts to the proper setting.

 

See if this will help:

2003 Honda Civic Head Gasket and Timing Belt Replacement

 

Thanks so much PM, guess we can try pulling the head with intake attached, but still need to pull the injectors out of head, correct?

Thanks so much RB, yeah I looked at that article on Sunday, going to revisit again to see if it can help for intake.

 

Usually the injectors are in the intake - at least on the cars I have worked on.

Even if they were in the head - pull the head with them still there - just remove the wires.