Head swap before honda day?

xmsleepr · Mar 27, 2012

so i just scored a free F23A1 head somewhat local on craigslist...guy said its rebuilt but when he put it on he was still getting oil in his coolant so he bought a new head from evans in NC?? and he was still getting oil in there so he just gave up and dealt with it...

my problem is I burn oil and still have even compression on all four pistons so my mechanic suspects the rings are good that maybe its my valve seals...

this head looks to have a little more than 500 miles on it like he said but it does look like it was hot tanked at one point in its life because the outside is clean its just been in his garage for god knows how long.... the valve seals look to be all green with a little spring around them are these OEM?

I want to swap my head out and if its succesful cures my oil problem ill drive down to honda day my question is can I be confident with getting a head gasket kit with headbolts from ebay? is the headgasket OEM quality? can i take the top layer off for the slight compression bump?

also how hard is it to swap the head? it looks like ill have to take off the PS pump/bracket and theres one coolant hose...can the intake manifold stay in the car?

bairdandrew77 · Mar 27, 2012

I'd recommend just buying quality gaskets straight from the dealership, to be safe and avoid any possible trouble in the future.
I've never done a head swap since there's been no need to yet. But if you're replacing your head with a different identical one, I'd imagine it shouldn't be very hard. And the intake manifold connects to the head, so it'll have to come out.

AllGOnoSHOW · Mar 27, 2012

Certain things I would never vere away from OEM Honda and this is one.

xmsleepr · Mar 27, 2012

AllGOnoSHOW said:
Certain things I would never vere away from OEM Honda and this is one.

Are you reffering to the headgasket?

jdmcg3 · Mar 27, 2012

^ yes he is referring to the head gasket. Oem head gasket is a must. Or bisimoto gaskets if you're cylinders are bored out.

And don't buy eBay head studs either. Go with ARP studs or new OEM ones.

xmsleepr · Mar 28, 2012

im going to try to find a shop that can do a leakdown test before i go thru with this first... is there way to see if the valve seals are good on the head i have off the car?

dv8801 · Mar 28, 2012

xmsleepr said:
im going to try to find a shop that can do a leakdown test before i go thru with this first... is there way to see if the valve seals are good on the head i have off the car?

me personally, i would just replace them and have head hot tanked and cleaned.

AFAccord · Mar 28, 2012

AllGOnoSHOW said:
Certain things I would never vere away from OEM Honda and this is one.

This.

jdmcg3 said:
Or bisimoto gaskets if you're cylinders are bored out.

Stock headgasket is 1mm over cylinder bore. F23 would be 87mm, so unless you're going 87.5 or larger, OEM will do fine. Just FYI.

xmsleepr said:
im going to try to find a shop that can do a leakdown test before i go thru with this first... is there way to see if the valve seals are good on the head i have off the car?

This is a perfect way to detect leaky valve seals. I just replaced mine, and I think the parts themselves were less than $10. If they're proven to be the culprit, I would replace yours before tearing the head off.

xmsleepr · Mar 30, 2012

i just got my OEM headgasket, intake manifold gasket, cam seal, headbolts in anyone have a link to the headbolt torque specs and sequence and also the valve adjustment?