I replaced the head on my 91 Honda Civic 1.5L. The exhaust valves were baked on the #2. 3 & 4 were cooked but not as bad as 2. #1 valves looked ok. I bought the reman head online and installed it. When I started it up it ran fine. It was surging a little but other then that it all seemed OK. Then I noticed an oil leak by the crank and was dripping (fast)out of the timming belt cover. I could not see exactly where the oil was coming from but, at best guess I figured it was a crank seal. I replaced the crank seal but I still have the leak. The car leaked a little oil before the head replacement but nothing close to this. I'm thinking some how the the oil path was blocked or I'm getting pressure some how to push the oil out the seal. I just can't imagen getting that much of an oil leak from an area that has no pressure. Or, could a oil pump failure produce a leak like that. Thanks in advance.

 

saw heads for the civic on ebay and happened to be in texas.
i almost was going to buy one but was already into rebuilding.

i would say that yours is the same as mine - but of course for different reasons.
did you check the torque of the bolts that hold down the rocker arm assembly.
it sounds like that your leak is coming from the front camshaft seal.

i had replace my front crankshaft seal so i would not have to go into that whenever i did the rebuild. doing the rebuild, i noticed oil down at the front of the pan area. i did not think that that much could come from the way up at the cam , and went back into the crack area to see if i had screwed that up. It was OK, and the leak was from the from cam seal.

 

Wow, you really think it could be the cam seal? I tried as best I could to see if was coming for the upper half the engine and didn't see it. It's hard to tell where it's coming from with all the covers on. I did run it with the upper timing cover off but, maybe the oil is running behind the plastic piece that's bolted to the head. I'll change the cam seal tonight and see what happens...thanks for the help...this is really driving me crazy.

 

i would check the torque first.
think there is a sequence of tightening also.

 

I found the source of the oil leak. I removed all the timing belt covers and put all back together. And it was coming from the top of engine. I didn't notice when I put the reman head on that is was missing the cam shaft seal. I installed the seal and it took care of the leak. However, I'm getting a lot of blue smoke out the exhaust along with a lot of condensation. Would valve seals leak and burn smoke long after the car has warmed up? I triple checked the torque. I know it's possible I didn't get a good seat on the head gasket. Im going to let the engine cool and recheck the valve settings and check the torque a 4th time. Thanks in advance.