valvetrain assembly
 

Hi! Anyone know where I can find a guide to assembling a valvetrain for a D15B7?

Here's the situation: blew out my head gasket, or perhaps cracked the head. #1 cylinder had burnt up coolant in it. I obtained a replacement head off ebay from a guy who said there was nothing wrong with it, he had just taken it off to do a head swap to go to VTEC.

Anyway, the "new" head has all the valvetrain disassembled. The cam that came with it has some pitting on a few of the lobes, but seems like all the parts look fine. My valvetrain, on the old and probably warped head which I have taken off, seems cleaner, so I was thinking perhaps to reuse those parts. The parts that came off the new head are just put into baggies but not labeled so I wouldn't know which valves went to which cylinders, for example (not sure if this is important).

According to the service manual, I need a valve spring compressor. I understand that I can borrow one from Autozone. the manual identifies a specific compressor along with a specific 7/8" attachment though. Will the one from autozone work?

If I just move the original valvetrain to the new head, should I keep track of exactly which valve went to which lobe/valve position? Any additional tools I might need, or do you have any tips for how I should go about doing this? The service manual seems to have everything I will need, but it is a bit confusing because it isn't oriented towards building it from scratch, just for replacing, say, a valve seal, or inspecting the cam.

TIA!

Ugh, well ran into my first obstacle -- the valve spring compressor from Autozone (which was suggested by someone at hondahookup) apparently isn't compatible. It covers the top of the valve preventing access to the retainer (or whatever you call that clip that holds the plate to the spring).

Has anyone found a compressor from a local parts store for rent? The service manual calls out a Snap-On tool by part number, so I might have to order it. It's supposed to be more like a C clamp, and the plate that contacts the top of the spring is a ring, giving you access to the clip holding the retainer to the spring.

Also called for is a valve seal removal tool. I haven't gotten that far, but has anyone had trouble removing the valve seals without a tool? May as well order all this stuff now..

Oh yet one more tool -- a valve guide driver? Is this necessary?

I would get a haynes manual or similiar all the info you need what i used when i rebuilt my old y7

I figured the factory service manual would be ideal.

I guess I'll go to sears tomorrow and see what I can find there for the spring compressor. I've done some forum searching and it appears that this has been a source of grief for many people (which compressor to use)

don't remove the guides unless you know what your doing. valve seals are a royal pain in the a$$ most of the time, i have found if you don't have a valve seal tool just use a pair of vise grips but be careful not to get it to tight and start digging into the guide.

thanks riceburner! that's the kind of stuff I'm looking for :)

Yeah I read in the manual that you have to heat up the head to 150ºC to deal with valve guides, and chill the new guides.. Nah I'm not trying to go all out on this car :) Right now is not the time to be spending cash on toys!

Well I'm still a little stuck on the valve spring compressor. I'm going to check out Sears today to see if they have something that might work. Or maybe Napa or Autoquest has one to rent. The kind that pulls the bottom of the spring upwards would be ok if the tool gave access to the keepers. The one at Autozone I got -- I have no idea how someone is supposed to be able to touch the keepers as there is a metal plate that completely covers it! This is the one they had:

http://www.autozone.com/R,1302782/st...ductDetail.htm

you might have to put in your zip code..

ive used one of those before they are super tricky. i really nice cheap unit that we us for our honda heads is.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Valve...motiveQ5fTools

its meant for motorcycles but i have yet to come across a head that it couldn't be used on

ah -- one other thing I thought of -- Yesterday I took one of those L shaped straight edges to check the new head. The outer edges were fine. Diagonals also fine. When did the centerline check across the 4 cylinders, I was able to get the .051mm feeler gauge a little bit under the straight edge and above the wall that is between the #1 and #2 cylinders.

For my purposes, do you think this will require resurfacing? The manual says .05 is the limit before resurfacing is needed. This is a daily driver. what negative effect could I have from ignoring this?

.04 is the limit for a aluminum head. yes it will need to be milled, if you ignore it you could have coolant leak into your cylinders at that spot

.05mm according to the service manual. But I will probably get it done anyway. I believe at that point, it isn't technically over the coolant chambers (it's the wall between #1 and #2), but .. well it's better than if I had spent 1400 having someone else do all this stuff eh! thanks

just got a quote for $65! much better than I was expecting