ok this is my first motor build on my own, and i have dicovered head gaskets hate me! i am on my second one and i am doing every thing by the book, and i had the block and the head worked and checked. every thing is clean and its all the right parts, and i am 99.9% sure i did eveything right and that .01% is were i am off. i got some help comein sat. but is there anything i could be missing or any tricks that i could do to help? Its a 96 Acura integra Ls motor.

 

is leaking internal or external, are you using a good torque wrench& tightining it down in the right sequence ?
cant think of any thing else that might do it

 

its all internal the first time was bad, but now its not so bad but still internal, and i use a good torque wrench in the right senquence, I was told mybe sand it just to rough it up more even tho it was machined

 

Are you attemping to re-use old headstuds? If so, that right there could your issue, as you're really not supposed to re-use OEM headstuds

 

yeah i thought about that so i got new arp head bolts and its still not sealing.

 

well i tried agin and another one bits the dust i give up !!! see the thing is i was suppost to have qualified help from a friend. he helped me buy all the stuff and talked me into going faster and then time comes to do it and hes no were to befound now he is suppost to come over sat. but well see. So far i have done everything my self with some help but no one with real mechanical skill. This will proble be my first and last motor build.....if want something bagged or painted i gota but motors i wount touch anymore.

 

alright i talked to the head shop and they said i asked specificaly not to have it shaved any meanin that they didnt touch other than checkin it. witch is not true, but they said that they always check to see if its straight so it should be straight. could it be that i need to do anything to the head to ruff up the surface to make it seat right?

 

i'm thinkig you got a crack in the coolant passage - but cant be seen
maybe go back to the machine shop & have them look it over agian

DONT RUFF UP THE SURFACE - it needs to be as smooth& clean as possible

 

did you retap the threads were the studs go into? arp recommends you do this to get proper torque. I didnt do it with my d15b7 and the timing belt side slightly leaks from the headgasket

also if you pull of the head again spray the headgasket with some copper coat by permatex, helps a little bit with sealing

 

i did notice the last time that there was some water on the side of the block and i hear about the copper coat but everyone was unsure about on that type of motor. I just wana say thanks agin for the help cause this has been a big pain for me, i just seems like one problem after another.