Head Bolts & Gasket Questions
 

I've been trying to search online for this but everyone refers to these engines by the series number and I'm not sure what mine is:

I just bought a '94 Civic DX non VTEC 16 valve and when I tore it apart to put in a water pump and timing belt I found oil in the coolant...so now I have the head off and a couple of questions too.
Are these stretch head bolts? I've already used the money I had to buy the car so trying to be cheap so I'd like to reuse them if they are not stretch bolts.

I saw a posting that said some aftermarket gaskets were not right but I don't know what engine they were referring to. Will I be ok with a Felpro gasket from the local parts store?

Is it common for these heads to warp or crack? A lot of times I've just put a new gasket in and thrown the head back on but I won't have much time for a redo on this car in the next couple of weeks. It'll be a few days before I can make it to a machine shop and I was hoping to have it running by Monday.

Thanks!

Derek

RE: Head Bolts & Gasket Questions
 

felpro headgasket will be just fine, just retorque the headbolts like it says in the manual unless they look stretched bad from just alooking at them. The head shouldnt be warped unless the car came close to or did overheat so i think you will be good on that part

RE: Head Bolts & Gasket Questions
 

Thanks for the response. I screwed up when I bought this car...the local Autozone manager bought it several years ago for his daughter to drive. Then his son wrecked it so he sold it. I trust the guy so didn't look it over very close...all I'd have had to do was pop the radiator cap...it was covered in oil. As it was I had already done a tuneup, bought two new tires, and was doing the TB, WP, and belts when I found the oil. I went back to AZ and talked to one of the guys...he said he heard it got hot a couple of times when it popped a heater hose. A local machine shop only charges $13 to magnaflux so I'm going to take it in Monday and make sure the head is ok. Car was running really well with the problems though.

Derek

RE: Head Bolts & Gasket Questions
 

Thanks again for the help. The head bolts were fine but the head was warped...$53 at the local parts store to machine it and $32 for a head gasket kit off ebay shipped to my door. Plus $110 for a valve cover gasket, water pump, timing belt & tensioner, and serpentine belt kit. Now it is running great!

Derek

RE: Head Bolts & Gasket Questions
 

you have to measure headbolts to see if they have streched. i wouldnt reuse head bolts b/c when you retorque them, they are already streched from before. you'de have to retorque them considerable more than what the OEM requirements would be, and at that point you risk the chance of streching it too far or breaking it. so my advice is to either get another set of OEM head bolts or Stud it with ARP's

RE: Head Bolts & Gasket Questions
 

I've taken the head off my '87 civic twice, reusing the same bolts and torqueing to the service manual specifications. No problems here, but that car's just a daily driver.

RE: Head Bolts & Gasket Questions
 

I should add that I cleaned off my head bolts each time with some degreaser and a wire brush (and re-oiled them before reinstalling them). When I put mine side by side, none of them looked any longer than the other.