I got
the head from my '87 CRX Si torn down this weekend and it doesn't look bad, no
cracks, just lots of carbon build up in the head. Pistons look great and
tight. I pulled the valves and I'm in the process of cleaning everything
up. I'm assuming that the head gasket was just old and
bad.
For
$70 AutoZone has the head gasket set I need to replace the head gasket, valve
seals, intake gasket, exhaust gasket, and valve cover gasket. Seems cheap
like a good price to me. I'm going to fix up the head (clean and replace
seals), then bolt it all back together and see how the compression is. If
I need to do the bottom end I can do that later and just get a new head gasket
(Felpro) from AZ for $20. Man I love AZ, they even rented me the valve
spring compressor tool, which worked like a charm.
Now
I've got to call around to check prices on getting the head resurfaced, a hotter
cam, and an adjustable cam gear. I'd love to do this stuff now, but
probably can't afford it. Still worth a look. I'll be doing some
"free" mods though, like porting the throttle body, painting the intake
manifold, and port matching the exhaust ports to my aftermarket exhaust
header. With all that it should be a couple weeks before I can button her
back up again - enough time to do my taxes and see if there's any extra money
coming in to do the fun stuff. :-)
I'm
taking your advice Robert and replacing those coolant hoses. They would be
a bear to get to normally! Time for some nice colored hoses.
:-) I'll probably replace the belt like you recommend. I think the
thermostat has been recently replaced though.
One
option I have is switching to an Integra DOHC head (D16A1) on a D15A3
block. This has been done and may be a better investment of my
money. Anyone else heard of doing this? I'm specifically looking at
the brown top D16A1 head, shaved, and then just mounted up to my stock bottom
end........
Kirk
B.
