I have a 91 Civic I recently replaced the head on. From what I can gather from this and other forums it's a D15B/1/2/7 SOHC Non-VETC 62-102 HP. I was wondering if it's possible to pull the pistons out the bottom and replace the rings?. I would much rather do that beens I just finished the upper end. And before anyone says it, I know I should have done this when I had the head off. I also believe the rings caused the valve failure in the first place. Thanks in advance

 

Cannot go that way.
you could get them out by pulling back the trans and dropping the crank, but it would be hard to get the pistons in from the bottom. would not make sense.

 

Your right about that...I was not even thinking about getting them back in...I'll pull the head...I'm going to try and leave the intake and exhast connected to the head...break the exhaust at the 3 bolt yoke and just disconnect everything from the intake...I don't think I should have a problem doing it that way...any suggestions on where to shop for rings? Or any suggestions at all about doing the lower end?

 

you will have to disconnect the intake and the exhaust manifolds from the head.
i just use the same gaskets that is on those, and they turned out ok. the exhaust is metal, so no problem there, but the intake is not so it may not work out. did for me though as i was carefull in disconnecting and did not damage it later.
need a cylinder hone for the cylinders. honing oil is 1/2 kerosene and 1/2 20 weight oil (although i just used the motor oil (10w30) to save the money).
i followed haynes.

rings were about 50 percent less at hondazone dot com.
i added the valve guide oil seals (and they were 100 to 200 percent less there also). and adding the valve guide oil seals made the total over 50 and then you have free shipping.

i use that stuff called white-out for marking things. dont know if you can buy it in this computer age. can put a mark on the timing belt and the sprocket and just slip off the timing belt. although it is hard, it can be slipped back up and over when you put it back on. saves all the tearing apart in the front of the engine.

 

I'm going to leave the intake on. There's no reason to break the gasket. The exhaust is a different story. It would be to hard to line up the pins from the head to the block. I found .040 over Perfect Circle rings for $25 and $9.25 S/H. My buddy is going to lend me a 3 stone hone, ring compressor, and inside mic to check for oval wear. Timing the crank to the cam is easy. I don't see any reason to mark them. If you loosen the tensioner the belt comes right off. Once the crank is at TDC and cam "UP" is at 12 o'clock, you only have to rotate the crank three teeth CCW to set the tension and just relock the. Also, setting the tension can be done with the bottom timing belt cover. Thank you for your input, your right about the not doing it from the bottom.

 

thought about that later; they did put a little oval plug that one can take out on the lower timing cover.
i just work a little different than most poeple. whenever i start a job like this, i will make sure the timing is set to spec. i dont like to set it to TDC (to me that is counterproductive). i set the timing, mark it, go into the job, and put the timing belt back to the mark. no settings to do after the job is done. But, just my way of working.
And in cases where i did not have the timing set before the teardown, i set the timing to the timing mark and not to TDC. Why set it to TDC and then have to go thru moving the dist when doing the dynamic timing with the timing light. (But i guess i should check the timing anyway, but if it starts right off, then you know the timing is good - but agree, why not check it if one owns a timing light (which i do)).

i do not think that you can get the head up high enough, or i should say you cannot tilt the head back far enough if you leave the intake manifold attached. But, if you do, let me know because i got the same engine (but i am pretty sure of this). also, if you have a ridge, you may not get the pistons out without first using a ridge reamer. Was not needed in my case. My job a couple of months ago was my first, and i had trouble pushing the pistons (couple of them) out, and used a sawed off piece of a broom handle and tapped them gentlely out with that.
i just used standard rings - You are not going to "turn" the cylinders, or are you ?? (that's a good price on rings). The honing tool is to give the tiny angle cuts in the cylinder walls. One does not used oversized rings for that. Or do you have 040 over in there ??

my car was running ok, just smoking. a compression test showed one bad cylinder (rings). the valve guide oil seals solved the burning oil problem.

 

you will have to break the bolts at the next yoke on the exhaust pipe. you have to move the entire exhaust system over to the passenger side. i tied it off with a rope. you cannot get the oil pan off without doing that. also, quite surprisingly, you cannot get the exhaust manifold out of the engine compartment without taking the head out (or lifting the head up or back, in your case). i had to make a special mental note to drop the manifold into position before putting the head on. and you cannot bring the exhaust manifold up from the bottom either. there were a build up of clinkers in the opening of the exhaust manifold that i needed to drill and work out. needed the manifold out of the engine compartment.

 

is your manual or automatic.
that flywheel cover is one bi!ch to get out of there. at least on mine - it is manual.

they must have put the cover on and then bolted up the trans. i was able to get one side of it down, then had to really almost rip the pan out (which i did), then get the cover off. i was cussing up a storm at those honda engineers. i took that cover and put it into a fork of a tree and took a hack saw and cut about 1/4 to 3/8 off of the lip that fits up at the top on the side to the front of the car. still was not an easy fit, but it was a lot LOT better, where i could stick it up there and take it down, but still was a little bind in it.

 

I have step by step digital pictures of all the work I've done to date. I will post the photo's on removing the Head with the Intake system still in place. I broke the exhaust at the A-Pipe and loosened the bracket from the block to tilt the manifold away from the head. I'm simply going to lift the head straight off of the block intake and all. There's nothing in the way on a 91 D15B Civic. All the emissions come off at one central plug point except for one sensor on rear part of the intake. Other then that it's just the throttle cable, fuel line, a couple a coolant lines, EGR hose, and one bolt on the bottom of the intake that mounts to a bracket on the block. I'm not going to tilt the head out of the way, I'm going to sit the head on my work bench next to the beer. A side from all my self inflicted issues, this is an eazy car to work on. I'm buying the .040 rings only because they are cheaper then stock rings. grinding the ends to size is a snap on a bench grinder. I like the idea of rotating the cylinders. I didn't even know that was an option. I will have to look into that. I have to get this job done soon. I have to do the lower intake gasket on my wife's 1999 Tahoe 5.7. Thanking you for your input dude...every little bit helps

 

i should have said "bore" the cylinders.
if you put on oversize rings, then one would bore the cylinders.
but i see you got everything planned out.

the hone is used to rough the cylinder walls. i think that when they are bored, then honing is not done because the boring provides for that.

i think there is only 7 nuts holding the intake to the head. but, they are not real easy to get to. But, do as you wish. hope it works out.

fred