Civic EG

Not to sure where to post this so here it goes. My kid has a 1994 Honda civic with the 1.5l 16v. We baught it with a blowen head gasket when i took it apart we found the reason pretty quick the head bolt above the oil presure guage had been cross threaded... Now gonna fix that today. Looking through the manual that i DL it only says to tourque to 52lbs in 2 stages. Seemed like a pretty low torque to me? Also on another forum they told me to use silicon on both sides of the gasket. Now iv never herd of this and looking at the gasket its already has silicon in it around some of the cooling pasages. Does this sound right. I had asked for more info 2 weeks agon on the other forum and no replys...

Well since the head bolt had been cross threaded, chances are you're going to need to get another block. I've not dealt with a cross threaded head bolt though. Are you planning on using a helicoil insert? I'd be very wary of using one of those. The bolt is a very critical one, as you already know, so all I say is be careful.

Since that engine has a relatively low compression ratio, 52ft/lbs is plenty. If that's what Honda recommends, there's reason behind that.

Don't add any extra sealants to the headgasket. It's designed to be installed dry.

If you don't mind me asking, which other forum were you asking on?

That One Dude wrote:
Don't add any extra sealants to the headgasket. It's designed to be installed dry.

The only sealant I would consider is copper spray, but I don't think it will make much of a difference in your situation.

Plus it's an extra mess next time you go to change the head gasket.

i use the copper seal as well, dont have any trouble out of it

What I meant was using other silicone sealants. The copper spray is fine. It doesn't add any appreciable thickness to the gasket, and is typically uniform inn application. Chances of the silicone getting into your oil lines or coolant lines are pretty high...no bueno.

yeah plus I don't know about silicone handling that high of temperatures either.

Permatex Red RTV is good for nearly 700F. Loctite RTV159 (red RTV if I got my numbers right) is good up to 900F It wouldn't get into the combustion chambers, one would hope, so it wouldn't be exposed to ridiculous temperatures.

teal_dx wrote:yeah plus I don't know about silicone handling that high of temperatures either.

ive used the copper laced rtv silicome for exhaust flange gaskets.... never had a problem...