Rex-O-Saurus blew its top
 

Driving home today the temp gauge moved off its normal 1/3 position. I managed to get it home without overheating, but found the radiator low and coolant still in the resevior. I started it up with the rad cap off and watched bubbles gurgling through the radiator as I blipped the throttle which is a blown head gasket.

Oh well, I did the same thing to my Integra a year and a half ago and the CRX looks alot easier and cheaper to fix then the Integra was. I should be able to replace it for about $200 including a valve job. I was going to post a thread on how to get stuck spark plugs out as the former owner must have cross threaded 2 of my plugs, but I guess I'll get the machine shop to fix that.

On the bright side I'll be driving the Integra to work for the next week or two without the guilt of wasting gas.

Bummer. Keep us updated, especially if you use this as an excuse to make any MPG improvements to the Rex!

Going to do any head work while its out? Groves or anything?

If you're able, replace the timing belt and camshaft seals too. The timing belt will be a bit of a pain since Honda decided that the motor has to be "floated" to remove the belt. No room between the crankshaft pulley and the inner fender well. Replacing the belt will give you tens of thousands of miles of worry free driving.

I went through a blown head gasket with a 1982 Buick Regal. Far easier to work on than a CRX.

Gene

I just did the timing belt a month or two ago so I'll keep the new one in there. I'm going to replace the valve seals, cam seals, and have the machine shop do a valve job and redeck the head if it needs it.

As far as any modifications, I'm just going to put it back together the way it is. Even with 194K on the engine, is was running very well before this and wasn't burning any oil. Maybe in a year or two if it starts showing its age I'll think about a D15Z1 swap. I just don't have the extra time or $ to do that now, nor do I have the energy to keep the state of CA happy and make it pass smog after such a swap.

Personally I don't think the grooves would do anything and could make it run worse. I can't see how a combustion chamber that was engineered by a company that has been building engines for ~60 years can be improved by me with a dremel tool and some guess work.

yea my thinking exactly, if it were so easy to increase mpg by adding a simple groove(s) to the head wouldnt you think all the automanufactuers would be doing it by now?:p

the biggest gains are on 2v with big squish areas. post up a pic of the head of the rex and we'll see how likely it is they'll help. I've seen a LOT of evidence that the right grooves help and the wrong ones do little to nothing. only place I'd be hesitant is on one of the engines someone mentioned on here last week where honda designed multiple carbs for a rich area near the spark and a lean area everywhere else or some voodoo like that. passed cali emissions for 5 years of production without a cat. I'm not saying it will or won't yet, just not to write it off yet https://somender-singh.com/content/category/4/24/37/

Chevy has been manufacturing cars for longer than honda and builds crap even today.

Mfrs do dumb crap all the time. like power only steering on a car. not power assist, the steering wheel changes a sensor reading and the computer moves the rack accordingly. that didn't last.

That sucks about the BHG tho. my cressida got it and my cars got a DOHC I6 ...60+ lb head and big fenders to reach over.

isnt that the "drive by wire" system around today? meaning theres no mechanical linkage between the steering wheel and the wheels?

sound sliek a VERY bad idea to me. like if the alternator goes out and then the battery starts to die...i know that wreaks havoc on other computer controled systems. i know my sisters saturn SC2 alternator died and then the battery was dying and the car wouldnt **** outa first:p

Fords been building (accualy diamer benz has been but) longer than them and yea they all build some dumb crap...(GM CANT MAKE CUPHOLDERS!!!):D

yea, drive by wire steering, I coudln't think of the term. DBW throttle is bad enough. I worked at a GM dealer filing paperwork and those throttle bodies start out around 500 and there were at least a dozen done in the 6 months I was there. keep in mind it's a fairly small town and a fairly small dealer. It's warranty...but if it breaks after a year, what about 10 years down the road when it's NOT warranty anymore?

back to the BHG thread...I'd help if I were closer. I've done a few BHG fixes on cressidas/supras and have spent a lot of time looking at singh grooves. I'm planning on doing them on the snowblower engine I have apart for class right now. flathead briggs so the squish area is pretty much the whole piston face :-p

yea i know. i have to ask why not use a $10 gaspedal connected to a cable conencted to the TB or carb butterfly? its worked since the mid 30's...(model T and A fords used a direct steel rod linkage from gas pedal to throttle butterlfy)

sure technology as advanced alot since then but somehitngs just SHOULD NOT be advanced!!! id LOVE to find out what happens when that sensor malfunctions and it guns the engine :P

The Mercedes 500 convertable has drive by wire brakes. Now that is scary.

(blinks alot then falls into sezure!!!)

why WHY WHY! ok im gladd we advanced from the model T days where you only had rear brakes and they were all mechanical linkages. then in the late 30's we got hydrolic brakes then power brakes then dual circuit brakes and then it hasnt changed much at all since 1964 till now.... well that lame ABS came about and still ( stupid garbage lol) but the same principles are there. same with steering boxes. is power steering not good enough for lazy USA? now we have to have the wheel turn just by breathing at it :lol:

So I pulled the head off today. A little over 4 hours to get it on the floor, I didn't cuss once and I don't have any bloody knuckles. (what's wrong here?) Luckily, there were no frozen or stripped bolts.

If the machine shop in town is open tomorrow, I'll take it to have the head resurfaced (if it needs it) and a valve job. I ordered an entire HF engine gasket set off Ebay for $29 plus shipping, if you can believe that. It's coming from LA so it should be here Tomorrow (UPS delivers on holidays?) or Tuesday.

I'm taking the opportunity to replace all of the cooling hoses that are under the intake manifold. Judging by their condition, they would have blown soon. The fuel return line from the intake manifold was hardened, so it's going to get replaced as well. It would suck to have that one split.

I'm not sure if I'll have it running this week with how much my job wears me out. I do have a few hours of cleaning the top surface of the block and getting a hardened intake manifold gasket off the IM, that should be fun.

My battery was some old Kirkland (Costco) battery that was leaking all over the battery tray. I think I'll check out the garden tractor ones at Wally World. Considering I can get a new radiator off Ebay for about $70 with shipping, I think the old one is going as well. The thought is to get it back together and have done most of the preventative maintenance I could have so I can just drive it for a while. (I just replaced the timing belt/water pump/oil pump in Dec).

The intake manifold scraping is usually the most time consuming part of the head gasket replacement for me.

I tried a ebay gasket kit once before as well. The head gasket quality was good enough to hold (and comparable to the OEM one) but the valve cover gasket as well as the oil pan one left some to be desired. I would recommend squeezing some extra gasket maker sealant b/t the gasket and the head just to try to get it to not leak as long as possible. After less than a year from installing the valve cover gasket, it was leaking everywhere... I used a whole lot of RTV, and no more leaks.

If you have a cutoff wheel, you can also get a heavy wire wheel which screws on in place of the wheel and lock nut. This strips all of the old gasket off in a hurry. I got my cutoff tool from Harbor Freight. It takes a 4 1/2 inch cutoff disk.

So I resurrected the Rex-O-Saurus. The machine shop cost $196 to flatten the head and do a valve job. He said the guides were in good shape. Overall, putting it back together went smoothly. I changed every hose on the IM and all the heater/cooling lines, and replaced the radiator.

I put a 435ca garden tractor battery in to replace the leaky old Costco one that was in there. The former owner had in tied in with bungee cords, so I managed to find an adjustable battery tie down that fit the little battery. The stock battery terminals had been replaced with bolt on universal terminals, so those came off and I crimped 4awg copper terminals on the battery cables.

The one mistake I made was my cheap Ebay gasket set came with a cam seal that wasn't the right one. Considering it was late at night when I got to this point, I thought I'd risk it and see if it would seal - it didn't, I can see a drip of oil coming from the timing belt cover. So I ran down to the dealer today to get a new seal and the orings that go under the cam covers and will have this stuff on there in the next day or two.

The car started on the first try, that was a good feeling.

Still no skinned knuckles?

Can't say that any more. I did cuss a few times as well.

be careful with the aftermarket terminals, esp the bolt on ones, they tend to corrode quickly. a little dielectric grease at all the exposed parts oughta keep em good for a while tho. just something to keep an eye on

yea the top mount battery posts tend to leak/corode for somereason while the side posts dont...

no not the terminals themselves, the connections that bolt onto the cables and connect to the terminals whichever style the cable corrodes where it attatches to the terminal clip because it's just clamped on, not pressed or crimped with a good connection. I've seen them both corrode on the battery itself, though top terminals tend to build it up more since it all just sits on top.

Not sure if it was mentioned...but I'd be concerned a bit about WHY the head gasket blew in the first place.

Ultimately, I don't know. A few months previously, the bypass hose failed and the car got pretty hot before I caught it. This could have caused it.

I also believe that after the thousands of thermocycles the engine goes through in its lifetime wears the sealing surfaces of the HG. The CRX has a fiber gasket and it shredded when I pulled the head off so I couldn't see exactly where it had failed. My Integra blew its HG a year ago, and being an all metal gasket with some kind of black coating, you could see where the black coating had rubbed off in several areas.

I wouldn't. On Honda's, except the Si, the head gasket is just the rubberized gasket material, except for a tin ring, basically, which is at the top of each cylinder. The block is an open cast design, so the only thing holding the head is where the cylinder bores meet the head, and the outside edge of the casting.

I've got 1-87, 1-89, 2-90's which I've owned or worked on in the last couple of years. Everyone of them seems to have the head gasket just finally whimp out at around 220,000 miles or so. I've installed the econo head gasket sets and I've done one with a hi end, Si set, so the whole head gasket is enclosed in metal. I've not had any further issues from any of them. Nah, I don't drive them all, although I have. Two of them are for a couple of my children and one of them is for one of my sisters. I do drive the 89 Wagon, though.