hello, 93 del BRO ,1.6, 125 hp, top comes off, fun car,

thought it was a distrib o ring. changed it , the shaft seal inside the distrib and the vtec spool gaskets. still leaks

can it be the head gasket with no water in the oil or under the cap? no exhaust in the rad.

several questions

1 i think it has to be a head gasket, opinions please on that

2if it is, when i loosen the timing belt tensioner and remove the belt it will slide off but, when i put it back on and torque it to 33 lbs will that set the correct tension?

3 has anyone had any luck checking and re torquing head bolts to stop the leak??
4 been reading about head bolt stretch. could thhat have any thing to do with it and this is why i asked about re torque

thanks

 

some vehicles a second re torque of the head bolts after changing the head gasket is procedure. i however wouldn't recommend trying to re torque the original head bolts. head stud/bolts stretching is common on high boost applications not so much on n/a engines. only thing you really get with n/a engines everything expands with heat same as all engines so if it wasn't torqued properly at some point then yes it could cause a leak.

 

just bought the car and it has less than 10K on the rebuild. would that make a difference in re torque?

 

only 10k i would be less worried than a engine with alot of miles. i would start 10 or 20 under whatever the recommended torque is and start from there. if it has more to go at 10 go to the recommended. if its loose at 20 under do 20 then go to the recommended. my only concern would be if its the old head hardware or cheap hardware. really dont want to make a problem worse with a broken head stud/bolt.

 

thanks drakon543. i wont be getting to it til next week but ill keep you posted. looks easy enough to change the gasket but ill check them first.
the guy i bought it from was a retired airplane mechanic and in his notes in the manual i can see rising torque sequence that he probably used.
he was pretty old though and i can see how he missed a few things. only reason he sold it was " i'm 83 and get out of the damn thing"
maybe its a bad gasket or a warp in the head ????/ doesnt have any effect on the way it runs but i HATE oil leaks and im sure its only going to get worse.

 

hey drakon543 can i ask you another question
if i loosen the belt tensioner to slip the t belt off when i re torque to 33lb does that automatically set the tension correctly
thanks in adavance

 

head gaskets are generally pretty hard to mess up if its put on and torqued properly. yes a torque sequence should be followed so it was probably done correctly. your best bet to locate a leak is a heavy degreaser then rinse off the degreaser. after that check for oil on the block every time you drive it.

 

yea i have, replaced Vtec spool gaskets, distr o ring, and the distri shaft seal . what else is there ??

 

yea i have, replaced Vtec spool gaskets, distr o ring, and the distri shaft seal . what else is there ??

 

didn't notice your timing belt question but i dont mess with timing belts generally. since the head only needs to be rechecked i wouldn't worry about removing it. different if it was a fresh install