1995 Accord Ex 4-banger

Greetings. I recently wanted to give my car a refresh at 551k because it was leaking oil and I wanted to replace all external rubber seals. The valve cover was also leaking from the mounting bolts because of stripped screw threads. I removed the engine and transmission as one piece. While on the engine stand I replaced all the seals and I tried my chances with heli-coil on the stripped valve cover bolt threads. I wasn't successful so I took the head off and sent to a machine shop. They cleaned it up, re-threaded, and checked the heads surface. All was well. I installed a new head gasket and new head bolts per the FSM instructions. I installed the engine back into the car and it is running like a champ until I noticed oil leaking from 3 of the 4 exhaust outlets when running, cylinders 2, 3, and 4. I removed the headers to verify the leak. While the engine was running I verified it wasn't coming from where the head and block meet with a small mirror. There is no white smoke upon startup and no issues at idle. Run's like it did before the repair minus the oil leak. I'm stumped on what to do next to remedy the leaks. I have included pictures.



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Did you have the cylinder head rebuilt, complete with either new valve guides and seals (or at least knurled guides and new seals)? Your post says they "cleaned it up", but doesn't offer any more specifics. The thing is, with the kind of mileage you're talking about, that head, and especially those guides, is/are due for some serious work. My thinking on your issue is your valve guides are well and truly done.

 

Thanks for the response. The cylinder head wasn't rebuilt with new seals or valve guides. The reason being is that I figured they were fine before I removed the engine. The leak that has surfaced wasn't present before I removed the engine.

 

If you say so, but I kind of doubt it. Show me a head with that many miles on it, and I'll show you a head which needs guides and seals.

 

I understand what you are saying. Before I removed the engine I verified the points of leaks: Cam seal, Crank seal, Vtec solenoid seal, Oil pan gasket, and Valve cover bolt seals.
To verify where this is leaking, I cleaned up the area and watched it leak. It's like a water faucet on low and very obvious.

What should be my next steps?

 

New seals did the trick. Thanks for the advice.

 

Thanks for the update.