Hello to all!!!!!!!

I am a newbie to the automotive mechanic world and I am trying my hardest to learn about various parts of the Honda. I have an older 1989 Civic that I am using to help teach me things (I'm trying to do all the maintenance myself on it). Anyways here are my question....





With a blown head gasket do all you have to do is remove the valve cover, remove the cylinder head and that's it? Remove the old gasket and replace? That seems too easy. I had an older 1989 Buick Skylark that had a head gasket blow 5 years ago (i was 16 then) and we sent it to an automotive shop that charged us an arm and a leg to do this.

It was the head gasket because oil mixed with coolant; is that a common symptom?

Also,

when you replace the head gasket is there any special things you have to do?
things I have heard so far...
-Remove old gasket and polish heads??? not sure what this is.
-flush oil out to rid of coolant and other contaminants? what is the process; just an oil change?
-change o-rings, ? isn't this considered doing somewhat of a engine rebuild?


rebuilt engine questions...

I downloaded a service manual and saw this stuff in there regarding removing the engine. It does not seem that hard to rebuild the engine if you choose to do it yourself other than time and properly torqueing everything. Why is this seem to easy? Can someone knock reality into me!!

 

It definatly isn't as easy as you made it seem. While you are correct, you do take the valve cover off and unbolt the cylinder head there is more. To take off the cylinder head you have to take off the timing belt. Also, if there is anything that is attached to teh cylinder head it must also be removed. If you've never worked on an engine before and have never actually seen one apart, you will think that all of this stuff is easy. If the engine was out of the car, it would be super simple to rebuild it. I could dissassemble and reassemble and engine that was outside the car in 5-8 hours without too much of a problem. Half the battle is getting the engine out of the car. And taking the engine apart isn't just replacing the o-rings. Infact there are no o-rings inside the engine, they would get melted within seconds. There are piston rings, which go around the pistons. You have to remove the pistons to change them.

 

Well thanks for knocking some reality into me.

But as far as what I am talking about with the head gasket, is that the process? How heavy is the engine? Engine's cylinder head? I take itI would need some sort of garage with a puller thingy in there to pull out the engine.

Okay, I am confortable working with taking a timing belt off so that would not be a problem. I guess I just don't know what is involved.

When you say 5-8 hours when the engine is outside of the car, is that just a head gasket? Or is that a complete engine rebuild with upper and lower part of the engine. That is pretty impressive if that is an engine rebuild.

Thanks for the reply

 

5-8 hrs is to completly tear down the engine and rebuild it. That means take the pistons, rods, and crankshaft out. If you want to remove the engine you will need an engine hoist (cherry picker) and an engine stand to put the engine on while you work on it. To take the engine out, you have to first disconnect everything that connects the engine to the car (fuel lines, PS lines, A/C lines, Vacuum lines, EVAP lines, EGR, harness, etc). After this has been done, you are ready to remove the engine from the car. I think that when you pull the engine out from the top you have to take the engine and trans out at the same time. This is where my knowledge gets a little shady since i've never pulled an engine before. After everything has been disconnected, you hook up the hoist to the engine and lift up the engine enough to take the weight off of the motor mounts. After the this, unbolt the motor mounts and remove them. After the motor mounts have been removed, you should be able to take the engine and trans out of the car. Somebody will prolly come along and fix my errors since im pretty sure something is missing or wrong in my explanation. Taking apart an engine really isn't that hard. I've taken apart an old Ford V6. I could dissassemble and reassemble that engine on an enginestand in 5-8 hours. The engine i did was a learner and didn't start. After i did it once, i felt like i could do the job again alot faster and easier. I'm wondering what engine you are planning on rebuilding/changing the head gasket. The head gasket should be able to be changed without removing the engine.

 

Actually,

I don't plan on doing the head gasket or removing an engine... yet. I have an older 89 civic that is a beater car for me at the moment. I am trying to learn honda's with this one by doing all the work on it myself then buy a 5-6 gen civic to use as a project car with possibly a motor swap. I am a computer tech and, untill recently, cars never appealed to me (mechanic wise). I have gone mad since purchasing this Honda wanting to learn as much as I can so I can hopefully apply it in my newer civic. I used to have a 2nd gen Acura Legend which I loved to death until It was a total loss due to a hail storm.

Thanks for all the info though; I just want to learn about some of this stuff so when/if the day comes I will be better prepared.

Thanks

 

Good idea learning on the beater, i wish i had a beater to work on.