If you are planning on having the head re-surfaced you're going to have to unbolt everything from it... That trick may or may not work for you... The biggest thing to remember is torque specifications and torque order on your head bolts, also try to avoid setting the head down on the block with the gasket in there and "dragging" it back and forth to try and line up the holes, if you scratch the **** out of your gasket you're not going to accomplish anything by replacing it because it will be toasted already.... STAY AWAY FROM FRICKEN SILICONE!!! Some people have thought "oh, I'll just add a thin layer of some RTV Blue to it to help out..." okay fuel breaks this stuff down, so does heat.... don't do it... you're asking for trouble if you do... as you're lining back up the head I would set a few bolts into the holes for the head and put the gasket onto the head and then slowly lower it into place using the bolts as guides. This should ensure that it sets into place properly the first time, then put in all your bolts to finger tight and start torqueing them down in the proper order...

 

Yeah, you're going to want to pull all the peripherals off the head anyway and get it resurfaced, so you might as well save yourself the extra work of unhooking the intake manifold and just unbolt it.

When you're putting the head back on, make sure you set the alignment plugs in the block first, as this will make it infinitely easier to line up. You're going to need to get all the fluid (probably coolant in your case) out of the head bolt holes, since anything in there is going to cause you to improperly torque the head bolts. A pretty easy way to do this is to get a thin cloth (NOT a paper towel/shop towel/whatever) and stick the corner of it all the way down in the head bolt hole, then rotate it back a forth several times with a screwdriver to soak up (and clean) the holes. Repeat this if a lot of fluid is absorbed, then repeat it on all the other holes.

Finally, give the surface of the block a quick low-angle scrape with a really sharp chisel to detach any excess debris, then wipe it down with brake/carb cleaner to get it nice and grease-free (be sure to keep the debris from falling into any of the oil passages/head bolt holes). Also (as mentioned) stay away from any sort of gasket compound.

 

Dang, i think this is going to help quite a bit. If anyone else has any other ways to add to this, please please do. Thanks.

 

i didnt notice, youre goibg to have the head resurfaced... good idea, i still used a hoist tio do mine, i found it alot easaier to bolt the intake manifold onto the head whikle it was outside the engine bay, those bolts underneath are a real pain in the *** to get to, and like i said, lowering it with the host, i wa able to drop in right in place real sweet, the last thing i waqnted to do was to scratch the head that i just had resurfaced.... also has anyone mentioned a hondata im gasket..... its a good idea, look into it
heres a couple of pics of my head, gasket, etc.

 

That last picture of yours is great but the others are too small....im testing mine. here they are?

[IMG]local://upfiles/9464/04B7584B329B46519871496795882BA1.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/9464/D9FCD6E8E40245E497089CAFD0AA27C4.jpg[/IMG]

The little bit of oil on my manifold is from when i was checking my oil right before i took these pictures and i spilled some and ya know..lol. But yeah, i would have uploaded a few more, but i could only do these 2 before it said that it was too large. I dont know how to do it otherwise...anyone wanna let me in? lol

 

Can any of you guys see these pictures?

 

I can see the pictures.

 

CARS FIXED!